Sacrifice For Love Read online

  “Dramatic much?” I smile and see the corner of her mouth lift. I can tell she’s trying not to smile. I can understand what she’s saying. Of course, if something happened to Brock and me, I’d die a lonely life. There’s no one that could ever come close to him, there’s no way I’d have even half the feelings that I have for him with someone else. No way.

  She startles me when she sits up straight and squares her shoulders back. “Besides. I’m trying to keep on my game with trying to protect you right now. Can’t let my guard down.” Wow, so that’s gonna be her excuse? She’s gonna use me to get outta trying again. “And. I applied for this tech job at Millerbeck Technology. I have an interview next week.” Wait! What?

  “Oh, my God! Irish, that’s amazing! Wait! When did you decide to leave Pops Bar and go into technology? You’ve worked at the bar since you were old enough to work there.” Suddenly, I feel things shifting, changing, and I’m not sure I like it. What happened to the old times, the fun times? Okay, some of that already changed with this whole running for my life-Jeffrey thing, but still.

  Now her smile is huge and genuine. “I know, right? I just decided that I’m tired of just working all the time at the bar, constantly being hit on by all the guys. You know me. That’s not my thing.” She’s right. It never has been. Can’t blame all the guys for trying though. She’s a knockout. She can also knock out a guy who messes with her. “Anyway. It sounds like a great job. I can put my degree to use, finally. I’ll still work at the bar on weekends. I can’t ever leave that place completely. It’s part of me, of who I am.”

  I reach across and cover her hand with mine. “That’s great, Irish. I’m proud of you. How about I text Brock and we can all go to the bar tonight for a few drinks. Kind of an early celebration?” She nods, excitedly.

  The rest of the day we watched soap operas and laughed at them. When we were younger, we used to do this and loved seeing the hunky guys and laughing at the poor stories and lines that they made those actors say. It was a great time, and I was glad to take things down a notch after all the pent up frustration earlier. Then by late afternoon, Brock came home – the changing of the guard I like to call it now – and Irish left to go home and get cleaned up for tonight. Brock and I cleaned up too. Slowly. In the shower. Together.

  With no more things happening with Jeffrey, and no more hearing of anything new about finding him, we left for the bar to hang out with our friends. It was crowed for a Thursday night but with the weekend approaching, it was less crowded then it will be. We sit in our normal booth. Beers spread out amongst us, pitchers half empty in the middle, and it was one of the best times I’ve had in a long time. Until….

  “Oh, my freaking, God! Look who just walked in and is headed our way,” she whispers loudly in my ear. We’re all a little tipsy now and I guess have lost our sense of hearing. I start to turn my head to see when she grabs my chin and pulls me back to her. “Don’t look!” I scrunch up my face and pout. How am I supposed to know who it is if I can’t look?

  “Hey! Caylan!” Kane shouts across the table from us. Oh!

  My eyes shift to my left, and they fall on a mammoth body standing there. They scan up and find a large man with a tight t-shirt, showing the flatness of his stomach, his sculpted abs, and broad chest until they reach his face. His hazel green eyes are staring right at…. I shift my eyes to my right, following his gaze to Irish, who’s looking over at Kane. Well. This is awkward.

  “Come have a sit and a beer,” Kane says, sliding over in the booth, which makes everyone move over. Being brothers, Kane and Brock leave a bigger gap so Irish and I are squished together at the end. Caylan smiles and I swear he has the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen. He’s now sitting directly across from Irish and me, who is squirming up against me in nervousness.

  Caylan covers the glass in front of him as Kane tries to pour him a beer. “Thanks but no. Gotta keep my wits about me.” Kane shrugs and fills his own glass then tops off everyone else’s too.

  “Can’t even hang with people and have a beer,” Irish leans into me and whispers, not that she has to lean much.

  “Actually, I can.” His voice rings over the chatter and clatter. We both snap our eyes to him. He’s smiling with a raised brow. “I just choose to stay alert. Someone needs to.” I grab her hand, which is fisted, when she sits up, ready to pounce. “But you all need a night off. I don’t blame you.” He suddenly becomes serious, and I feel her hand unclench underneath mine. No one else notices him staring into her eyes or how she stares back. Everyone else is talking, drinking, and laughing. But I notice.

  I look up as Mimi walks over, carrying a large tray of food, and I can’t help but smile. I haven’t seen her or Mom in a couple of days and of course her food is to die for. So to speak.

  “Do you eat?” My head swings back around and I look at Irish. Oh, she’s so toying with him. One of them is gonna get hurt. I’m just not sure which one.

  He laughs and sits up, grabbing one of the small plates Mimi sets on the table, and raises an eyebrow at Irish. “Oh, I eat. I just watch my calories.” He winks at her and she sits back in a huff, making me bounce forward from the force. These two may be the death of me before anyone else gets to me.

  Brock

  We had a great time tonight being with our friends. Plenty of laughs, great food, and beer. I think something weird is going on with Caylan and Irish. They jabbed at each other all night. Then again, she’s been acting weird for a long time. At least she and Kane are talking again. Never did know what was going on there for sure. Kane didn’t either. Weird.

  I take my girl home, getting excited for the upcoming weekend. We plan to go to our special place and hang out Friday night and come back Sunday morning. Kane thinks it’s a bad idea, saying he’s the only one that knows about the shack, besides us and then reminds me about the so called person that was out in the woods by the pond. I know, he’s right. I know we’ll have to be careful, so I’m am a little nervous. She is too, but we agreed on one thing. We can’t stop living because of asshole, we just need to stick close together and be aware. That night we laid in bed on our sides, playing with each other’s fingers while we made our plans. Once she’s fallen asleep, cuddled up as close as she can to me, I think about what a lucky guy I am. My dream has finally come true. The love of my life, that I’ve had since I was young, is living with me, sharing my home, my bed, and will someday become my wife. I wonder what our kids will look like. Will they have her blue eyes or brown like mine? Maybe they’ll have a combination, a unique color all to their own. I keep thinking of all the possibilities as I drift off to sleep.

  The next day is more of the same. Construction all day but the building is almost done on the outside then we can start working inside without the heat of the sun beating down on us all day. After work, I run home, take a quick shower, only because Taren didn’t get in with me, and we take off for our place. We stopped by the grocery store on the way out of town, loaded up my truck with bags of food, more matches, drinks, ice, candles, flowers, oil for the lamps, batteries for the radio, and a couple of new flashlights. The news said there’s a chance of rain tomorrow late afternoon. You never know around here if it could turn out to be another bad storm. Since we only packed one bag together, we should be able to take everything in one trip to the shack. I hope. When I get to the place where I always park my truck, I jump in the back and try to fit all the food into the big cooler I brought. Most of it fits except for a few things, so we only have two sacks to carry. Being the sensible woman she is, Taren decides to carry the bag and sacks so I can haul the full cooler. Smart woman. She grabs the cooler handle as we walk across the slippery rocks, so she doesn’t fall, and then we make it to the shack, taking much longer than normal.

  She walks in before me, opening the window and lighting the lamps. I set the cooler on the floor by the small make shift fridge, fill it with ice, and fit as much stuff in there as possible. I leave out a couple of steaks and the veggies we’re gonna
make tonight on the small grill outside. I pour the rest of the ice into the cooler and arrange the bottled waters, soft drinks, and beers in there then when I stand I watch her put clean sheets on the cot. The aroma fills the air with freshness, the flowers and burning candles she’s lit around the small room, makes it feel homey. We’ve spent so much time here in our young lives, and she’s always given it that woman’s touch. I look around the room, feeling all kinds of pride that we actually had built this together. It’s not much but it’s always been ours, something we’ve shared, laughter, sadness, love, and the first time we made love. Special.

  The night has been great. Dinner was delicious. She brought things to make a small salad, and we ate until we were so full we could bust. We laid on the cot and watched a movie, eating strawberries with whipped cream. Needless to say, we didn’t finish watching the movie as we started having a whipped cream fight. Luckily, she’d brought another pair of clean sheets. There’s nothing like laying in our shack, on this old cot, with Taren in my arms after making love. I listen to her light breathing and the nighttime sounds surrounding us. I’m keen to hearing any noise that isn’t a normal sound for outside but the rustling of leaves due to the wind is making it hard to decipher. I may not get any sleep tonight.

  “Mmmmm,” I moan. I must be dreaming of her mouth on me, but it feels so real that I’m about to jump outta my skin or on her. One eye opens a slit, just in time to see her head move down, her lips covering my more than eager cock. “Ugh, Taren!” Another moan moves up through my chest, my throat, and out of my mouth when her teeth lightly scrape my tender skin then she sucks, hard. My eyes open wide as she takes me until I feel the back of her throat. My fingers tighten in her hair, not even realizing they were on her head. When my balls begin to tense, I raise up enough to grab ahold of her arms and pull her up to me. She straddles my hips quickly, the look of surprise on her face as I set her down right over my cock that’s dying to be inside her.

  “Brock,” she moans as her eyes close, taking me all in. She begins to move as she leans down and presses her mouth against mine. My hand finds its way under her thick hair and around the back of her neck, the other holds onto her hip as we find our rhythm.

  My lips move to her jaw over her silky skin. “God, what you do to me,” I whisper.

  She starts moving fast. My thrusts meeting every move. I feel her clamp around me, and my hips buck even more. “BROCK!” she yells, her eyes closed and her brows lower. The look on her face is pure gratification. Love. I shout out her name as I release into her. She lays on me, her head on my chest as we pant together in a total state of satisfaction.

  “Best way to wake up in the morning,” I tell her as I rub her back. She giggles. Her head rises and she looks at me, her chin resting on my chest. Her smile is beautiful, happy. I smile back, not being able to help it. Her happiness contagious. “What do you want to do today, beautiful?”

  Her brows lower, like she’s thinking about it then they lift. “A storm might be coming later. Why don’t we eat breakfast, make love again, pack a picnic lunch, and make love again, then go play in the water at the pond, make love, then lay out on the beach, and make love.”

  My heart speeds up, and my smile widens. “I love the way you think.” I wink, and she giggles again. I’ll never tire of that sound, of her. “How about you make breakfast and I’ll get the water boiling for a bath. We can take it together. You know, save on water.” I waggle my brows and she giggles again. I grab her sides and roll her over, tickling her. She starts squirming and laughing, but her movements cause my cock to pull out of her. I feel that loss but am having too much fun making her laugh to care too much. Not like I won’t be right back in there in a little bit anyway.

  We play around a little more. I finally concede when she couldn’t catch her breath from laughing so hard. Finally, I swat her cute, tight bottom and she gets up and starts making breakfast. I get the water boiling and then we eat. It takes us three trips out back to fill the tub, boiling more water, and another three trips after, before the tub is full enough. Okay, so maybe this wasn’t the best setup but when you’re young and building something of your own, this seemed like a good idea at the time. Someday, I’d like to buy this piece of land and actually build a house. But I’d leave our shack. Some of our best memories are here.

  As she had said, we made love again, then we washed each other. It didn’t take long for the water to grow cool so we had to hurry to get clean. Worth it. I helped her pack up a picnic lunch, the sun still shining overhead, but I heard from the radio it’s gonna turn stormy later, just like Taren thought. We head out hand in hand to the small beach area. She spreads out our beat up blanket and then runs into the water. I set the basket down and watch her for a minute.

  She ducks under the water then bobs back up, pushing back her long hair from her face. Her eyes open and those blue wonders stare at me, filled with desire. My heart flutters as I wonder how she can be horny after this morning but hey, I’m a man. I’m always horny. I smile as I pull off my jeans and practically skip as I walk towards her. She shrieks when I jump in beside her. I grab her slim waist and pull her to me, her legs immediately wrapping around me. Since I have plans to do a lot later, and being afraid she won’t be able to walk later or do anything else if we continue to make love like rabbits, we just kiss like horny teenagers and do other teenager things then end up splashing each other and swim around.

  After about an hour, I watch her walk out of the water and lay down on her side on the beach. She looks over at me, one leg over the other. One hand rests on her thigh while the other on the sand. Her long dark wet hair lays over her shoulder, the long layers almost touching her arm. She looks like a model. Beautiful. Sexy. My heart rate speeds up, and my cock pushes against my swim trunks. I start to wade through the water, my eyes boring into hers. Eh, she doesn’t need to be able to walk. I’ll carry her wherever she needs to go.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Taren

  Laying on the beach, I watch him walk to me with hunger in his eyes. Sexy. His hips sway, and I lick my lips. I’m already feeling a bit sore but who the hell cares. I can’t get enough of him. He made love to me slowly, passionately on our blanket. I’m not even sure the last time the blanket was washed because it smells of us. After we both climaxed, he held me in his strong arms, covering us with our towels.

  It’s been the most perfect day until the clouds hide the sun and darken the sky. We both knew a storm was going to end up coming, but I thought it wouldn’t be until tonight. We hurry and pick up everything and head back to our shack, eating our forgotten picnic lunch at the table. I cut up some fruit with the large butcher knife, setting it on the counter. I lean my hand beside it and a loose board springs up. “I’ll fix that tomorrow before we leave,” Brock says, smiling at me. After we eat and then clean up, we put in a movie and lay on the futon, our hands clasped together, his arm hanging over my shoulder. The rain begins to beat on the window and the roof as we start watching the second movie, lulling me. Pretty quickly my eyes start to grow heavy, and I finally let them shut, so comfortable in his arms.

  BANG!

  “Ugh! Omph!”

  I sit up with a startle. My eyes heavy and trying to adjust to the darkness. I hear struggles and sounds of fighting and grope my way over to the table, feeling around for the matches. The sounds of a storm is raging outside, and I fumble around trying to find them. “Omph.” Damnit! Where are those matches? My hand finally hits them, pushing them over, but I grab onto them shakily as I remove one from the box and try to strike it against the outside of the small box. The sounds of a fight echo through the small confines as the match finally catches, lighting up the area in front of me. I open the small door to the lamp, placing the flame against the wick. Soon the area brightens, and I turn up the flame. I pick up the lamp and turn, a gasp leaving me loudly. I almost drop the lamp.

  Jeffrey has Brock pinned against the wall. I can only see Brock’s bruised face and only hope
Jeffrey’s is the same. Quickly, I set the lamp down on the table, and run over to them. Grabbing Jeffrey’s upper arms and digging my feet into the floor, I start pulling and trying to get him off Brock. I’m knocked off balance and onto the floor with a “thud” when his arm pushes back, his hand smacking across my face with the movement. The wind is knocked out of me, briefly, my face heated and stinging, but I get right back up. I know my strength, or lack thereof, is no match for his, so I grab one of his arms with both hands and start tugging as hard as I can. “Let him go, Jeffrey!” I yell.

  “Fuck you, Tare!” His mouth turns into a snarl. I keep pulling and look at Brock. His eyes are half closed, his face turning a light blue as Jeffrey’s hand presses against his throat. “This ends now. Tonight. You’ll come home with me and we’ll marry tomorrow. I’m done playing this fucking game.”

  My heart starts beating even faster than it was at his words. He wants to end this. Tonight. Deep in my heart, I know what that means, what he intends to do. The hold on his arm tightens as I lean back, trying desperately to get him off Brock. Fear envelopes me. My stomach ties up in knots and queasiness overtakes it as I struggle with him. Suddenly, arms wrap around my waist, lifting me into the air and I land on the floor hard. My head hits against the cabinet with a force and spots fill my eyes along with tears. I cover the spot on my head with my hand and hear the sounds of scuffling, looking up and blink rapidly so I can see, trying to clear the haziness.