Safe With Me

Chapter Six

It’s early when I wake the next morning and expect to be alone in my bed, but to my surprise, Caleb is sleeping peacefully next to me, on his back, one leg bent to the outside.

Even in sleep he’s a force to be reckoned with. He is all defined muscle. I wonder what kind of exercise regimen he goes through to stay so fit?

I prop my head on my hand and let my eyes take a leisurely stroll down his hard body. The covers are bunched at his waist, giving me an excellent view of his abs. He doesn’t have a six-pack.

If I’m counting correctly, he has a ten-pack.

The tattoo high on his bicep is an eagle, wings spread, holding something in its talon. The wings are colored like the American flag.

It must be a SEAL tattoo of some kind.

I lean over and gently kiss the ink.

Remembering how I wanted to taste him last night, and he never gave me the chance, I decide to take advantage of Caleb being knocked out and slowly ease my body down the bed, move under the covers to rest between his legs, and plant wet kisses over his hips, those amazing V lines that are sexy as all get-out, and over his lower abdomen.

His cock stirs, slowly lengthening in the early morning light. I run my tongue from his scrotum, up the underside of his gorgeous dick to the head, where I lap at it like an ice cream cone.

Glancing up to his face, I’m not surprised to find his eyes wide open and watching me intently, a half smile on his full lips.

Without saying anything, I sink down around him, pulling him fully into my mouth, sucking gently.

“Ah, hell,” he whispers and lifts his arms to grip the pillow at either side of his head. His biceps and forearms flex, and my stomach clenches at the sight, knowing what it feels like to have those strong arms wrapped around me.

As I pull up his shaft, I use my hand to pump him slowly, firmly, and then sink down again, cupping his balls in my hand and rubbing that tender flesh just under his scrotum.

“Brynna!” he exclaims, surprised and turned on, and his cock hardens even more in my mouth.

With the next pass up his shaft, I barely graze him with the very edge of my teeth, just to tickle the sensitive skin, and suddenly I’m on my back beneath him and he’s kissing me deeply, passionately, his hands roam up and down my skin, as though he’s never touched me before.

“I wanted to make you come,” I pout when he skims down to kiss my jawline and earlobe.

“You almost did.” He bites the top of my shoulder and then glides his nose back up to my chin. “But you always come first, Legs. F*ck you smell good.”

“I smell like sex,” I laugh.

“Mmm,” he agrees and gazes down at me, his ice blue eyes shining with lust and happiness. He positions himself and slowly pushes into me, all the way to the hilt. As he stills, he brushes his knuckles down my cheek and kisses me sweetly.

“How do you feel?” he whispers.

“Good,” I reply and try to circle my hips, but he’s pinning me, holding me still.

“Are we okay?” he asks, his eyes serious.

“We will be, as soon as you start moving your sexy ass.”

He smiles, showing me his dimples, and glides in and out in one long, fluid motion.

“Better?”

“Oh yeah.” I swallow hard. “Did you sleep?”

“Better than I have in years,” he confirms with a slight frown and then moves his hips again. “God, you feel so good, baby.”

He gathers both of my hands in his, laces our fingers and pulls them over my head, pinning them to the mattress as he begins to move faster and harder, watching me intently as he makes love to me.

I slide my legs up his thighs, and hitch them around his hips, opening myself up to him even more.

“F*ck, yes,” he growls and loses himself in me, pushing and pulling, his breathing erratic, his hands gripping mine firmly, until he sinks in, hard, and comes violently, shuddering and growling, sending me over the edge with him.

As he recovers, he releases my hands and kisses my nose. “Well, good morning,
Legs.”

“Legs?” I ask with a giggle. “What is it with the legs?”

“Ah, baby, when you laugh when I’m inside you…” He shakes his head before resting his forehead against my own. “Have I mentioned that I love your legs?”

“Once or twice,” I reply dryly. “But I don’t mind being reminded.”

***

“I want jellybeans!” Josie announces as we settle in the living room to watch a movie together.

“How often do you do movie night?” Caleb asks, sitting on the couch and passing Josie her package of jellybeans.

“I try to do it once a week.”

“I want peanut butter cups!” Maddie grins up at Caleb and bats her eyelashes, making me giggle.

She is such a flirt.

“Coming right up,” Caleb passes her the candy and grins as they lay on their bellies amid a plethora of blankets and pillows.

“What are we watching?” he asks.

“Ivan The Incredible.”

“Great,” he grins and presses play on the remote, hands me the bowl of popcorn as he whispers, “I have no idea what that movie is.”

“It’s okay,” I whisper back, “they’ll fall asleep in an hour and finish it tomorrow.”

“Do you want one of my peanut butter cups?” Maddie offers Caleb.

“No thanks, honey,” Caleb smiles down at her.

“You don’t like them?” she asks with a frown.

“Not really.” He shrugs. “I’m not much of a peanut butter guy.”

“You have to like them!” Josie jumps up and Maddie follows, mutiny in their eyes.

“I do?” he asks with a raised eyebrow, and I know what is about to happen.

“Yep! Here, eat it!” Maddie jumps up and throws herself in his lap, trusting that he’ll catch her.

“You can’t make me!” he shouts playfully, making a show of trying to fend them off as Josie joins in the fun.

“You must eat it!” Josie cries and begins to tickle his side.

“I’m not ticklish!”

“Yes you are!”

All I can do is sit back and giggle.

“Help! Brynna, get these little pests off me! I’m not strong enough!”

“You’re a wimp!” Josie informs him with a loud giggle and continues to tickle him.

“Eat it, wimp!” Maddie laughs and continues to try to feed him the candy.

Finally, he opens his arms wide and gathers them against him, stands and proceeds to run about the room, yelling like a Spartan on that show on Starz, “Victory!”

He drops them, gently, onto their pile of pillows and blankets, not even panting. The girls are laughing with tears rolling down their faces.

“And you,” Caleb points at me, a mock glare on his handsome face.

“What did I do?” I ask, eyes wide, feigning innocence.

“You were supposed to be my back-up.”

“You handled things just fine,” I grin and then am suddenly on my feet and over Caleb’s shoulder, much to the delight of the girls who scream with laughter.

“I think I’ll throw her in the garbage!” Caleb announces and heads for the kitchen.

“No, put her in the recycle bin,” Josie giggles.

“You can’t recycle mommies!” I call out and gently hit Caleb’s back with my fists. “Let me go!”

“Traitor!” Caleb yells and circles back around to the living room and dumps me back onto the couch. “That was a warning, woman.”

“So noted,” I laugh, holding my sides. The girls continue to giggle and Maddie wraps her arms around Caleb’s waist and hugs him tight.

“I love you, Caleb. Can we watch the movie now?”

His hand pauses on it’s way to settle on her back and he blinks twice before answering gruffly, “Yeah, buttercup, let’s watch it.”

She grins up at him lovingly and then joins her sister, ready to watch the movie.

He sits beside me and pulls me to his side, tucking me against him as he kisses my head and grabs a handful of my popcorn out of the bowl and shoves it in his mouth, giving the movie his undivided attention.

Damn, this feels good. Having him here with us, playing with us, just feels right.

In less than an hour, the girls are passed out on the floor.

“Well, that didn’t take as long as I thought it would,” I whisper with a smile.

“Thank God,” he mutters and tilts my head back to kiss me, sweeping his lips over mine gently before sinking in and pushing his tongue past my lips, holding my face in his palm. Finally, he pulls back and kisses my forehead. “Let’s get them to bed, so I can get you to bed.”

“Good plan.”

***

“Mommy! Mommy!”

“Bryn.” Caleb touches my arm.

“It’s Josie,” I cry out, immediately awake and springing from the bed to run down the hall to the girls’ room. Caleb is right behind me.

“Mommy!”

“I’m here, baby girl. What’s wrong?”

“She throwed up,” Maddie informs us and points to the side of Josie’s bed.

“I’m sorry,” Josie cries.

“Oh, baby, it’s okay.” I pull her into my arms, unaware that Caleb has left the room. I press my cheek against her forehead and gasp.

She’s burning up.

“You have a fever, my friend. I’m going to take your temperature, okay?”

“Okay,” she croaks and lays back just as Caleb returns with a large bowl and cleaning supplies.

“You take care of her, I’ve got the mess.”

“You don’t have to…”

“It’s fine, Bryn. I’ve got it.”

“Thank you.” I kiss his cheek and bustle to the medicine cabinet for fever medicine and a thermometer and return to the bed just as Caleb is finishing with the mess on the floor.

“Mommy?” Maddie calls from her bed.

“Yes, baby,” I respond and take Josie’s temp in her ear.

One-oh-one. Damn.

“I don’t feel good.” Maddie sits up and wraps her arms around her waist.

“Come on, buttercup,” Caleb scoops her up and carries her into the bathroom, where I hear her retching.

Josie hears it too, and it makes her throw up again. Thank God Caleb brought the bowl.

And so it goes for the next few hours, holding the girls while they throw up, cooling them down with wet cloths and finally, giving them fever medicine and praying it will stay down.

Caleb never falters. He never leaves us to go back to bed. He doesn’t scowl and get grossed out by the amount of vomit coming out of these two little people.

He just quietly helps me, as we alternate between the girls, changing their clothes, helping them to the bathroom and comforting them.

I’m rocking Josie in the plush rocking chair in the corner, and Caleb is holding Maddie, sitting on her bed with his back against the wall.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I whisper to him.

“You don’t need to thank me, Brynna.” He looks down into Mad’s face and frowns. “Poor things are so sick.”

“The flu is going around.” I lean my head back on the cushion and close my eyes. “Samantha had it last week.”

“What do we do now?” He asks.

“This is pretty much it,” I respond with a grin. “Stay up and give them medicine, pray the hurling is over, and hold them.”

“It’s hard work,” he remarks casually and watches me over Maddie’s head.

“This is nothing,” I laugh humorlessly. “When they were little, I never slept. They never wanted to sleep at the same time, no matter how hard I tried to get them on a schedule. They had to eat every two hours, both of them, so I felt like I was always feeding them.”

I shake my head and smile over at him. “I think I went two weeks at one point without a shower.”

“Why didn’t you have help?” He asks.

“My mom came out for a few weeks when they were first born, but they were in the NICU because they were born early, and when it was time to bring them home, my mom had to go home, too.”

“How early were they?”

“About three weeks,” I reply.

“Where was Jeff?” He growls.

I laugh again and trace Josie’s soft cheek with my fingertip.

“Working. Always working.” I bite my lip, hating that I feel tears coming on. “He wasn’t even there when they were born.”

Caleb curses under his breath.

“He wasn’t a bad man, Caleb.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Honestly, he just shouldn’t have ever started a family with anyone. I knew when I married him that the job was his priority. He never made that a secret.”

Josie stirs, changing positions in my arms.

“I guess I thought he might change once the girls were born.” I smile over at Caleb sadly. “But he didn’t. And we realized early on that he shouldn’t be with us.”

“So you’ve been a single mom from day one.” It’s not a question.

“I have,” I nod. “I love them so much. They are worth every hour of sleep lost, Caleb. But damn, it’s exhausting and scary when they’re sick. There are times that I’ve had one throwing up in the bathroom and one throwing up in her bed and I can only be with one of them. What am I supposed to do then?”

I look up at him and let the tears fall silently down my cheeks in frustration.

“Or when they’re both crying for me, and I can only hold one of them at a time, especially now that they’re so much bigger.” I shake my head and wipe my cheeks. “I worry that I’m not enough for them.”

“Stop, baby. You’re such a great mom. They couldn’t love you more.”

I just nod and gaze over at Maddie resting peacefully in Caleb’s strong arms, her cheeks still pink with fever.

“When I told them that their dad died,” I whisper and swallow, rocking slowly, “I thought they’d be hysterical, but they just frowned and Maddy said, ‘does that mean we won’t see him again?’”

I turn my eyes back down to Josie and kiss the top of her head.

“What did you say?” he asks quietly.

“I just said yes, that was right. Neither of them cried, Caleb. They just frowned and hugged me, because they said I looked sad. They didn’t mourn him because they didn’t know him.”

“It was his loss, Bryn, and his own doing.”

“I know,” I nod. “It just makes me so sad because they are so wonderful, and he missed out on knowing them.”

Suddenly, Josie stirs again and cries before throwing up all over me.

“Here we go again.”

***

Twenty hours later, we are all exhausted. At one point during the day, Meg brought us all soup and sandwiches, broth for the girls, and looked over them to make sure that it was indeed just the flu.

The past two hours have been relatively calm. The fevers are coming down, and they’ve managed to sleep relatively peacefully.

“I think we’re about through the worst of it,” I murmur and comb my fingers through Maddie’s hair. I’m lying beside her, dozing in and out with her. Caleb is rocking Josie in the chair.

“She loves to rock,” he murmurs with a soft smile.

“She’s always been my rocker,” I agree. “Maddie can sleep anywhere, anytime. Josie, not so much. But sit in a rocking chair with her, and she’s a goner.”

“I’m going to try to lay her down,” he mutters and kisses her forehead. “Fevers are down, thank God. They scared me.”

How can I resist a man who is so good to my girls?

I let my eyes drift closed, listening to him tuck Josie in her bed. I must doze for just a minute because the next thing I know, Caleb is lifting me off the bed.

“I can walk,” I protest but wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m not a small woman like Jules.”

“You’re fine.”

“I’m not feeling terribly sexy tonight,” I murmur apologetically.

“I think I can control myself tonight,” he replies with a laugh.

“I should stay with the girls. You go to bed.”

“I grabbed the monitor,” he holds it up for me to see. “So we’ll hear them if they need us. For right now, I’m going to put you in a hot bath. You deserve it, sweetheart.”

I’m shocked when he carries me into the bathroom to see that he’s already filled the tub with steaming hot water and my lavender bath oil.

“How long was I out?” I ask.

“About fifteen minutes.” He sets me down on the toilet seat, props the monitor by the sink and helps me out of my clothes and into the hot bath.

“Oh my, that feels good.” I pull in a deep breath and let it out slow, then open my eyes and gaze up at the man standing next to the tub, his hands in his pockets. His eyes are tired. “This tub is big enough for two, you know.”

“Nope, this is just for you, Legs. But do you mind if I jump in the shower while you soak?”

“Hmm…” I scrunch up my face like I thinking really hard. “Watch a sexy man get naked and take a shower while I lay here and be lazy? Sure, why not.”

“Smart ass,” he laughs and strips naked, completely comfortable in his own skin, and turns on the water in the shower.

I may be exhausted, but I’m not dead. Dear Jesus, the man is just hot.

“What is the tat on your back?” I ask. I can’t read it from here, but it looks like four lines of script on his shoulder blade.

He drapes a green towel on the bar beside the shower and then backs up so I can get a closer look.

MONTGOMERY, CALEB J

990001212USN O NEG

CHRISTIAN

US CITIZEN

“What is it?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“It’s exactly what’s on my dog tags, in case I was ever…”

“I get it,” I interrupt him, not wanting to even contemplate the what-ifs. He looks over his shoulder at me and then frowns when he sees the look on my face.

“What’s wrong?” He asks.

I shake my head and sink farther down into the water. “Thank God you’re safe.”

He bends down to kiss my head and whispers, “I’m fine, baby.” Then he walks into the shower.

Dear God, what if he’d ever been captured? Tortured?

Killed?

A shudder wracks through my body, despite the hot water. I reach over to grab the soap, but it slips out of my hand, falling to the floor with a loud thunk.

“Are you okay?” Caleb shouts and throws the shower door open, his eyes wild and chest heaving as he pants.

“I’m fine. I just dropped the soap.” He closes his eyes and shakes his head, and without a word, closes the shower door and finishes cleaning himself.

When he leaves the shower, he won’t meet my eyes. He dries himself off, tying the towel around his hips and helps me out of the bath. When I reach for a towel, he takes it from me and dries me himself.

“Are you okay?” I whisper.

“Fine.”

He continues to dry me off, then takes my hand in his and pulls me into the bedroom where he helps me into my pajamas and pulls on his own underwear and black basketball shorts.

“I’ll sleep on the couch.”

He starts to leave the room, but I stop him.

“Bullshit. You’ll sleep in this bed with me, Caleb Montgomery.”

He stops in the doorway and drops his head, as if in defeat and then turns to me, his eyes sad. “I shouldn’t, Bryn. The girls are here.”

“We’re not naked. The girls will be fine. We’ll probably be up before them anyway.”

He props his hands on his hips and lowers his gaze.

“I’m afraid of hurting you in my sleep,” he admits, his voice a hoarse whisper.

“What?” I ask and instinctively move to him, wrap my arms around his waist and pull him against me. “You’d never hurt me.”

“Not intentionally, not ever.” He cradles my face in his palms and gazes down at me intently. “But when the nightmares come, I get pretty violent, Bryn.”

“I’ll be fine.”

He shakes his head but I hold on tight.

“If you abandon me now, after the battle we just went through together? I’ll kick your ass.”

His lips twitch before he rests them on my forehead and takes a deep breath.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

He laces his fingers with mine and leads me over to the bed, tucks us both in, and pulls me against him, my back to his front.

“Thank you, Caleb. For everything.”

I hear him sigh before he leans over and kisses the sensitive skin beneath my ear.

“Goodnight, Legs.”