Page 49 of No Second Chances

By forcing Royal to face the truth, I also force myself to face the ugly truth of my part in her pain as well. I was the one who sent her into Royal’s arms. If I’d just told her from the beginning. If I’d let her in, he wouldn’t have been able to touch her. To hurt her.

I turn around, somehow not surprised in the least when I see Kennedy standing there.

“I love you, Kennedy,” I tell her honestly. “I always have. But you know that. You’ve always known that. I’m sorry I fucked it up so badly.”

When she throws herself into my arms, I do the smart thing. I catch her and swear to myself that I’ll never let her go again.

22

KENNEDY

I’ve never liked watching porn. I can’t quite place my finger on the reason why, but I always think it has something to do with feeling like a voyeur. But watching Linc take a shower, while I sit on the toilet wrapped in a towel, drying my hair, I find myself wanting to record it and watch the tape over and over again. I don’t even think he knows that his shower curtain is transparent when it gets wet. He hasn’t been in the bathroom while I’ve showered, and I’m not about to ask him and ruin my show.

Water sluices off his muscles and hits the clear shower curtain, only to slide slowly down the plastic and back into the tub, while he washes his hair, his beard, everything. When he tilts his head back, I get to see every muscle in his neck dance and move to a beat of its own. I’m left shifting back and forth, trying not to implode with need as he finishes his shower. While the steam definitely fogs up the glass, there is enough sexual desire pouring out of my body to power a small city.

Just as I’m about to leave him to his own devices and go take care of my problem, maybe wrapped in his blankets and holding his pillow, Linc sighs deeply.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” He sounds like he is talking more to himself than to me. “With what I did to Royal. Sometimes, I don’t have control of how I react to things.” The admission hurts him, I know it, but I don’t want to pressure him into saying anything else.

“You didn’t.” I lick my lips. “Scare me, that is. He deserved everything you said and more.”

The water hits his skin in a cadence that catches my attention and fills my veins with a need so powerful I almost can’t stand it.

Linc leans against the wall, resting his head on his arms, letting the water hit his back, almost despondent. “I don’t understand how you could end up with him.”

My heart races almost painfully as his words hit their mark. “You mean,” I say bitterly, “you don’t know why I wouldn’t wait for you, after you shut me out and refused to talk to me for years?” I unwrap the towel from my hair and hang it up while I rant. “Or did you think that I would wait for you forever, Linc? When you were telling me to move on, when you refused to even talk to me. Did you want me to waste away from lack of your love?”

I would have said more, but he shuts off the water and steps out of the shower so fast that I think he might slip on the porcelain and break his head open.

“No,” he says slowly, carefully. “I don’t know how you ended up with someone so clearly not your type. And I never wanted you to wait for me, Kennedy. I wanted you to be happy.”

My eyes don’t meet his. They are too busy staring at his body. His dripping wet body that is hard everywhere it should be.

The dog tag on his neck stands out, and I reach up before I can help myself, pushing it out of the way to get to the ring I saw sitting behind it.

“You kept it… the ring I sent you.”

His hand wraps around mine gently, and with the other, he lifts my face to meet his. “Of course I did. It’s only ever been you, Kennedy.”

“No,” I say while shaking my head. “I know you haven’t only been with me. I’m not stupid. I’m just glad that you’re here with me now.”

“No,” Linc mocks me, fire burning in his eyes.

Where I would have been afraid with anyone else, I trust Linc with everything. With every piece of my soul, my body, all of it.

“No?”

“It’s only been you, Kennedy. I had you. I’ve loved you since before I made you mine. And I’ve been yours since that night, whether you knew it or not. That’s why I left you my dog tag. So you’d know that when I came home, I’d claim you like you did me. But then my life fell apart and Danny died. You were the only thing that kept me sane, even if I couldn’t have you after that. I won’t say that you saved my life, but you were there with me, on my mind, every single day. When I was separated from my fire team and thought I was going to die, I held on to your ring.” He groans. “Fuck. I hate talking. You know that.”

I snort. “For someone who hates it, you’ve done a hell of a lot of it today.”

He rests his forehead against mine, breathing deeply. “I love you. I haven’t fucked anyone else since our first time. I never expected you to wait for me. I wanted you to find happiness. Then, during my last deployment, when I was already planning on coming home, they said you were thinking about marrying someone. I didn’t believe it. I came home, and you were engaged. I couldn’t very well step up and tell you not to do it. So I tried. I tried to fuck someone else, and I couldn’t. You’re it for me, and my dick didn’t want anyone if I couldn’t have you.”

I climb that man like a fucking tree.

The towel wrapped around my body slips down in a puddle on the ground, and luckily, he catches on to what I’m doing in time to help because I do not have the upper body strength to get there all on my own.

“What are you doing?” His voice drops an octave as I settle my legs around his waist and feel his already erect cock pressing against my body.

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