Page 30 of Embattled Ever After

He nodded, sitting up and preparing to swing his legs out. “Of course. You will have my office at your disposal.”

Then, biting the proverbial bullet, he hoisted his legs to the side of the bed. Yup. Blazing agony down the right side of his hips. He settled his feet to the floor and waited for it to settle to a dull throb.

Light fingers brushed over the burn scars on his back and he paused, letting her explore. That’s right, she probably hadn’t seen these yet. “When the helicopter went down behind me,” he told her softly, “it blew me to the ground. I remember scorching pain, but not much after that. When I woke up several days later about fifty percent of my back had been burned, mostly around the edges of my flack jacket. That’s why it’s kind of smooth in the middle and rough at the outside. The metal plates in the jacket did their job but the fabric embedded itself in my skin.”

He felt her fingers brush over the very center of his back, the clearest part of his skin, and wished he could give her that all over. Then her fingers drifted down over his hip scars. “They put pins into my pelvis to hold it together. But the last doctor’s visit he told me that the ball of my hip was degenerating from rubbing on the head of one of the screws.”

She sighed behind him. “Which means going in and redoing the pins and probably a hip replacement.”

He glanced at her again, impressed with her estimation. “That is completely correct. Full hip replacement suggested.”

Duncan pushed to his feet, leaving her tender touch. He couldn’t resist turning to look at her though. Damn, she was a stunning woman. Her skin was so creamy white, just perfect, but her chest was still a little flushed from pleasure. “You’re welcome to join me in the shower.”

She grinned and bounced across the mattress to him. “Thank you. I would love to.”

Duncan regretted the invitation almost immediately. He usually sat down in the shower, on his custom built bench. If she was in there he wouldn’t feel comfortable while she stood over him. He’d just have to keep his feet today.

Watching her hips sway into the bathroom, he wondered at the sense of contentment he felt. It seemed like she didn’t mind being here or anything she’d seen yet.

The quick shower he’d planned on ending up taking a little longer than expected, but once again he found himself basking in her attention. She lathered him from head to foot, scratching itches he didn’t even realize he had. Then he did the same for her, exploring every peak and valley of her delectable body. They dried each other off and for the first time in a long time Duncan realized he wasn’t in a rush to get to work. He needed to go in, but it was the day after Christmas, after all. There was nothing urgent he needed to do. All of his people knew where they needed to be when and could call him any time.

Actually…

He glanced at the bedside table. No phone. “Back in a sec.”

Though the house was cold he padded down the hallway looking for his phone. He found it in his pants pocket in the laundry room, and the battery was almost dead. There was a message from Julie.Please call me when you get a chance.

Sent last night. Damn. He plugged his phone into a quick charger and headed back to get dressed. Alex had disappeared and he heard her rummaging in the closet of the room next door.

Duncan pulled on a pair of boxer briefs and jeans, then grabbed a button-down shirt and a blue quarter zip from his closet. He found he was taking a little more care with his appearance than he normally did, and cursed. Since when had he ever primped for a woman?

Once he was dressed he headed back out to the kitchen, and the phone on the charger. At least the battery wasn’t in the red anymore.

He sent Julie a text to be sure she would be up, and she called him right back.

“Hey, Mr. Wilde, sorry to bother you, but I wanted to talk about Gabriel for a minute.”

“You’re not bothering me at all, Julie. Sorry I didn’t see your message sooner.”

“It’s okay.” She took a heavy breath, like she was getting ready to run. “I think Gabe is having issues with civilian life.”

Duncan had heard that sentiment before, many times actually, so he wasn’t really surprised. Gabriel Carter, his most recent hire, had just taken a medical discharge from the Navy a few months ago and they’d moved out here from Little Creek, Virginia. Gabe’s swim buddy Butter had committed suicide not long before that, and Duncan knew he’d been struggling, so the change of scenery had been good. He and Julie had both been struggling, because their friendship had gone three ways. They’d always been a trio, and there was a lot of guilt floating between them that they hadn’t seen Butter’s issues sooner. And, he thought there was probably a lot of guilt in the fact that they were first together some time ago, Julie and Gabe had broken up when Butter had thought he had feelings for Julie. The two of them had reunited in the aftermath of Butter’s suicide and were very much in love.

Duncan wished he could just tell them to chill out and let things happen. Guilt didn’t do anyone any good. But he struggled with similar issues, so it was hard to preach to anybody else about the subject.

“Okay, Julie. Is there anything in particular bothering him? Or just in general?”

She sighed over the line. “Kind of just in general. Graveyard shift is good for him I think, but when he’s not on duty he paces and stews. He’ll sit in the chair with his hands on his knees and just not say anything until I say his name. Or if he can’t sleep, he’ll sit in the garage at his gun bench and just polish and oil everything in the safe over and over again.”

Duncan frowned. He’d definitely heard worse. “I’ll talk to him today sometime. Maybe I’ll see him when I go in to the office this morning.”

“Okay. Thank you so much. We have our Christmas planned for next weekend because of our schedules, but I can tell he doesn’t want to participate in any kind of celebration, even if it’s just the two of us.”

“Okay, Julie. Let me see what I can dig out of him.”

“Thank you, Mr. Wilde. I really do appreciate it.”

“No problem.”

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