Page 14 of Ex-SEAL Bad Boy

I lay there afterward, the two of us, listening to the pounding of the surf as we drift in and out of awareness on the edge of sleep.

“I think we may have ruined your blanket,” I murmur playfully, feeling a patch of wetness under my ass.

I pull Ethan’s arm around me in a safe embrace.

I’m restless and can’t sleep.

After leaving Ethan’s house, the reality of what we had done hits me—hard.

What had I been thinking?

When I arrived at my brother’s house, sitting there was the man I despised, and yet, by the end of the night we ended up fucking.

Oh, I enjoyed it. A lot. And that was part of the problem.

What do I know about Ethan really?

Was he even being honest when we were talking earlier, or was that just a ploy to fuck me?

I wanted to believe he really cared, but what we had done didn’t jibe with what people said about him.

I really opened up to him in more than one way, and now I’m kicking myself for not being more cautious.

Getting up, I grab my phone and head downstairs, scrolling through my contacts.

“Hello,” a groggy voice on the other end responds as I hold the phone up to my ear.

“Mel, it’s me.”

“Fuck, Soph, it’s ...” a pause, “it’s 2:30, what the fuck?”

"Sorry, I can’t sleep, I had to talk to somebody.”

“No, it’s alright,” she replies, sounding suddenly alert. “What’s up?”

Melanie and I had been friends since middle school. Anytime I needed her, she was there. We always had each other’s backs. Forever.

“Um, I did something tonight I probably shouldn’t have.”

“Uh-oh, sounds serious,” she responds. “Let’s have it.”

“I uh ... I slept with Ethan Blackwood,” I say sheepishly.

“Fuck!” she replies, obviously shocked! “He didn’t rape you, did he?”

“No,” I reply emphatically. “In fact ... I kinda enjoyed it.”

“OK, backup,” she says. I can almost picture her shaking her head, her wild mane of black curls flying. “Don’t you hate him?”

“I thought I did. I thought we all did. I dunno, we just kind of …” I trail off at a loss for exactly what happened.

“You know what he did to my sister, right?” she says, the anger in her voice clear.

I do know the story. Maybe not all of it, but Melanie’s older sister had a fling with Ethan back in high school. I was still too young at the time to understand exactly what had happened, but it didn’t end well.

Something about him being controlling and wanting her to do a bunch of kinky stuff that she didn’t go into detail about. Probably why I had that dream I had about him.

“Well, look, who knows, maybe being in the military changed him. Maybe he’s a better person now.”

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