Protecting Cheyenne (SEAL of Protection Book 5) Read online

  Looking around, Cheyenne figured she probably should dust, but that was going just a bit too far. She never understood dusting. What was the point? It wasn’t as if dusting a piece of furniture would make the dust in the air disappear. As soon as she finished wiping down the bookshelf, or table or whatever, the dust in the air would settle right back down…so it was really just a waste of time. Cheyenne also didn’t figure Faulkner would even see or care about some dust.

  Finally in the early afternoon, Cheyenne knew it was time to see about figuring out what she was going to wear. Cheyenne left on the thong undies with a secret smile. Over the course of the day she’d gotten used to them, and if she was honest with herself, she wanted to please Faulkner by keeping them on.

  After trying on, and dismissing, what seemed to be half her wardrobe, Cheyenne settled on a pair of low rider jeans, which weren’t too low, she wasn’t eighteen years old anymore, a black knit sweater that had a scoop neck in front that showed a hint of cleavage, but not enough to be slutty. Cheyenne did consider for about four point two seconds wearing the push-up bra she’d had on before, but decided against it. Yes, Faulkner had picked it out for her to wear earlier, but it seemed too weird to wear it when she was going to meet his friends.

  There was nothing she could do about the bruise Faulkner had left on the side of her neck, but if she was being honest with herself, it made her smile every time she looked at it. She’d only had a hickey once before in her life, back in junior high school. The boy who’d given it to her had sucked way too hard on her and the bruise that had resulted was horrific. She’d worn a turtle neck for at least a week until it had healed enough not to be gruesome looking. But Faulkner’s mark, was subtle. He’d applied just the right of pressure to mark her, but not to make her look like she was thirteen and experimenting with sex.

  Her shirt had long sleeves to cover her still-healing arms, which was one of the most important check boxes for Cheyenne for the night. She didn’t want to stand out too much when she met Faulkner’s friends, and if she wore a short sleeve shirt, she certainly would. She put on a pair of black flip flops with sparkly rhinestones along the material on the top, and finished off the outfit with a pair of dangly fake diamond earrings.

  Cheyenne couldn’t really do anything about her black eye though. She’d never really learned how to put on make-up and figured if she tried now she’d look like a teenage girl playing with her mom’s make-up kit for the first time. She swiped some mascara over her lashes and put on some peppermint flavored lip balm. She stuck the tube in her pocket for reapplication later. She never wore lipstick, but was addicted to flavored lip balm.

  Cheyenne figured she looked passable. She’d never win any beauty pageants, but she thought she looked pretty good. The shirt was one of her favorites and the jeans looked good on her. The thirty minutes before Faulkner arrived at her apartment Cheyenne spent pacing the small living room and biting her thumbnail. It was a nasty habit that she’d mostly broken, in part because her sister had teased her unmercifully about it, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop doing it when she was stressed out.

  She’d also packed a small overnight bag. Faulkner had informed, not asked, her that she’d be spending the night at his place that night. She wasn’t sure if he really meant it, but if he did, she wanted to be ready. Cheyenne knew it was a little weird, and way fast, but what the hell. She decided to live in the moment. Faulkner said, and had made her agree, that whatever was going on with them wasn’t a one night stand, but she wasn’t sure she truly believed him. She’d go with it though. If all this turned out to be was a one night stand, she wasn’t going to complain about it. Cheyenne had obsessed about the military guy in the grocery store long enough that there was no way she could, or would, turn him down now. Hell, people had one night stands all the time. She decided to live a little and worry about it all later.

  Cheyenne packed a T-shirt and pair of stretchy boy-shorts to sleep in, as well as a casual outfit to change into the next day, another pair of jeans and a V-neck T-shirt this time. Faulkner said he’d bring her home before her shift tomorrow, so she could change into her work clothes then. Cheyenne threw in the things she needed for the morning–shampoo, toothpaste, things like that, and she was done.

  Finally when Cheyenne thought she was going to have a heart attack, Faulkner was there. She opened the door and watched as his eyes did a full body sweep. When his eyes finally met hers, it was obvious he liked what he saw.

  “Maybe we can stay in instead.”

  Huh?

  “What?”

  Dude shook his head as if to clear it. “Fuck. No, we have to go, everyone is waiting for us.”

  “You don’t want to go anymore?” Cheyenne’s thumb came up to her mouth unconsciously. If Faulkner had taken one look at her and decided he didn’t want to take her to meet his friends anymore, she was going to die.

  Dude saw the look of uncertainty in Cheyenne’s eyes and mentally kicked himself. He took a step forward until he was in her space. Satisfaction ran through him when she didn’t step out of his way.

  He put his right hand on her arm and brought his scarred left hand up to her face. In the past he never would’ve even thought about touching a woman with his mangled hand, but Cheyenne didn’t seem to mind it in the least. In fact, if her words and actions in the car the night before were any indication, she enjoyed it.

  “Shy, I want you to meet my friends more than anything. They’re going to love you, you’re going to love them. But the second I saw you, the only thing I could think about was how you’d look lying on your bed, looking up at me the same way you did when I opened the door. I’m trying to go slowly here, to prove to you, and me, that this isn’t a one-time thing. I’ve never had to hold myself back before, so I’m learning as I go. The words popped out of my mouth before I could stop them.”

  Cheyenne was looking up at him with wide eyes. Faulkner could see her nipples peak through the knit shirt she was wearing. He shut his eyes for a moment then opened them again and willed her to understand.

  “I say what I mean, Shy. If I didn’t want you to meet my friends, you wouldn’t. If I wanted to be your friend, and only your friend, you’d know. I’m a simple man. If I’m tired, I sleep, if I’m hungry, I eat. But know this…I want you. I want nothing more than to take you into your bedroom and watch as you take your clothes off for me. I want you to watch me, just as you are right now, as I strip for you. I want to take you hard and fast, then I want it slow and sweet. I want you in your shower and on every piece of furniture in my house. I want to take you from behind as your hands are tied together behind your back, and I want to watch as you take me down your throat until I explode. All these thoughts ran through my mind in the split second after you opened the door and I saw you. That’s why I said what I did, not because I don’t want you to meet my friends. Got it? Don’t doubt me, Shy.”

  Cheyenne could only look up at Faulkner. Her brain was officially fried. She could feel how slick she’d gotten with his words and she knew if she looked down she’d be embarrassed at how tight her nipples had gotten with his words.

  “I got it. You certainly put any fears I had to rest about whether or not you wanted me to meet your friends.”

  “Good. One more thing.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re not wearing the bra I pulled out earlier. Why?”

  Cheyenne blushed, she wasn’t sure Faulkner would’ve noticed. “You can tell?”

  Dude loved the rosy hue that bloomed over Cheyenne’s face and neck. He’d wanted to pull her into his arms and cart her off to her bedroom more than he wanted to breathe, but he controlled himself…barely. “Yeah, I can tell. You’ve got beautiful tits, Shy. They don’t sag and sit high on your chest. But when you were wearing that bra earlier, they were pushed up even higher, and the cleavage it created made me want to bury my face between your flesh and spend hours worshiping you there. So yeah, I can tell.”

  Dude brought his right
hand up to her chest and caressed the top of her breasts that were showing above the scoop neck of her shirt.

  “I…uh…Do I look okay in this sweater without it?”

  Dude didn’t like the uncertainty in Cheyenne’s words. Damn. He mentally kicked himself again. He was saying all the wrong things tonight. He knew Cheyenne wasn’t confident in herself and how she looked. He’d have to work on that.

  “I think I already covered how ‘okay’ you look in that shirt, Shy. And on second thought, my teammates might be married, but I don’t want them ogling you all night, and ogle they would do if you were wearing that bra. I think I’ll have to make sure you only wear your sexy lingerie when we’re alone.” Dude watched as Cheyenne gave him a small shy smile.

  Dude pulled Cheyenne forward, put his right hand under her chin and lifted her head so he could get at her with the perfect angle, and kissed her long and deep. The kiss was over way too quickly, but Dude knew he had to get them out of there. Every word he’d spoken was the God’s honest truth, and if he didn’t get them gone, they wouldn’t go.

  Dude pulled back. “Peppermint. Every time I kiss you, you taste different.”

  “It’s my lip balm,” Cheyenne told him softly.

  “I love it.” Dude left his right hand under her chin, forcing her to look at him, and took his left hand and curled his remaining fingers down and ran the stubs of his fingers over the mark on the side of her neck, her collarbone, then down over the swells of her breasts. Without looking away from her eyes, Dude moved his hand lower and ran his hand over the nipple on her right breast. Feeling it peak even more than it was before, he finally looked down.

  “Damn, Shy, You’re so fucking responsive.”

  “I haven’t been before,” Cheyenne said the words without thought, then cringed. Shit.

  Not freaking out over her mention of being with other men, Dude commented, “Oh man, we’re going to have fun aren’t we?” Taking a deep breath, Dude moved his hand so it gently grasped her arm. “Did you pack a bag? You’re coming to my place tonight.”

  Cheyenne nodded shyly at him, and pointed to her bag sitting next to the door.

  Dude took a deep breath, the sight of her pre-packed bag, knowing she’d done what he’d asked of her without balking, did something to him. Yes, he’d told her to, but ultimately she made the decision to do it. It was what he loved best about being with submissive women. They held all the power. He could order Cheyenne around all he wanted, but in the end, she was the one who allowed it or not. Dude leaned down and grabbed the small bag, suddenly wishing it had a lot more in it, and said, “Come on, we have to go. Now.”

  Cheyenne smiled at him. Faulkner liked to boss her around, it was obvious he liked to be in control in the bedroom, but she could still get to him. She liked that.

  Now they were sitting in his truck on the way to Ice and Wolf’s house.

  “Tell me about your friends again?” Cheyenne asked as they headed down the road.

  “Wolf is the team leader. Ice is his woman and she’s a chemist. She saved his life when they were on a plane that was hijacked.”

  “I remember that! Holy shit! That was your SEAL team?” Fascinated by the blush that stole over Faulkner’s face, Cheyenne waited for him to continue.

  “Yeah, that was us. They went through a whole bunch of shit, but eventually Caroline moved out here to be with him. They recently got married. Then there’s Abe and Alabama. Things were great with them until Abe said some shit after Alabama got arrested and he fought like hell to get her back. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple more in love and connected at the hip than those two. As SEALs, we’re born and bred to protect others, but Abe certainly fucked up by not protecting Alabama’s emotions. Thank God she forgave him.

  “Cookie and Fiona were the next to get together. Fiona was kidnapped by a sex slave ring and taken over the border. Cookie was the one to go in and find her and bring her out. Mozart and Summer are the most recent of us to get together. Mozart had been hunting the man who killed his little sister when he was a teenager and somehow the man found out about Summer and wanted to torture Mozart by taking his woman. Benny and I are the last ones of our team without women.”

  Silence filled the cab of the truck when Dude had finished speaking. He turned to look at Cheyenne. She was staring at him incredulously.

  Dude chuckled. “Yeah, it sounds crazy, but I swear they’re all normal people and they’re gonna love you.”

  “Maybe we should go back.” Cheyenne was freaking out. A chemist? Sex slave ring? Arrested? Kidnapping? She was in way over her head.

  “Nope. You don’t see it do you?”

  “See what?”

  “Think about how we met, Shy.”

  “Oh hell.”

  “Exactly. Now when people talk about us they’ll talk about how I saved your life when you had a bomb strapped to your chest. That’s just as dramatic as the way my friends met their women. Relax, Cheyenne.” Dude turned to her as they stopped at a red light and put his hand on her knee. “I would never put you in a position where you’d feel unwelcome. You might be a little uncomfortable at first, it’s hard to meet new people, but I know by the end of the night you’ll have four new girlfriends and you’ll have the respect of the guys on my team. Just relax.”

  Chewing on her nail, Cheyenne said, “Okay, I’ll try.”

  Dude pulled her thumb out of her mouth and pulled it to his own lips and sucked on it for a moment before letting go. He laughed at the wide eyed look Cheyenne was giving him.

  “Don’t chew on your nail. Anytime I see you doing it, I’m going to do that same thing. I don’t care where we are. Keep that in mind.”

  “Uh…”

  Dude just laughed and patted her on her knee as he turned his attention back to the traffic.

  Deciding to be amused, rather than pissed, Cheyenne finally laughed at him. “I’m not sure that’s really a deterrent, Faulkner.”

  He just grinned at her. “Oh, I think you’ll find it is if you don’t want to find your nipples hard as rocks and squirming in your seat in front of others. I bet I could have you doing both just by sucking on that thumb.” Dude laughed as he watched Cheyenne shift in her seat.

  He didn’t filter the words that came to his mind, just shot them out there. “Jesus, Shy, if my words can do that to you, you’re going to love what my mouth can do.”

  “Stop, Faulkner. Seriously. I don’t…I can’t…”

  Dude sobered quickly at seeing her unease. “I’m sorry, Shy. I’ll tone it down. I keep forgetting how new this is to you and that you aren’t used to it.”

  “I just…Fuck. Why can’t I talk around you?”

  “You could talk last night,” Dude reminded her.

  “Yeah, that’s because the evil doctors drugged me up. I didn’t know taking hard core prescription drugs loosened my tongue like that.”

  The car stopped in front of a small house in a cute neighborhood. There was a small porch and there were various cars and trucks parked in the driveway and along the street. Cheyenne didn’t think she was ready for this after all.

  “Hey, look at me for a second, Cheyenne.”

  She turned her head and wiped her hands down her thighs. Cheyenne was feeling more nervous about meeting Faulkner’s friends than when she’d been waiting to answer her first emergency call at work.

  “If you want to go, we’ll go. We don’t have to do this now.”

  That wasn’t what Cheyenne thought Faulkner would say. “But you wanted me to meet your friends.”

  “And I still do, but I don’t want you to make yourself sick over it. I rushed this, I know it, I’m sorry. But I like you. And I wanted you to meet the most important people in my life. We’ll have plenty of time to do this later. It was a stupid idea.”

  Cheyenne watched as Faulkner reached for the keys still hanging in the ignition. She put her hand out and placed it on his forearm, stopping him from starting the truck again.

  “I’m nervo
us, I won’t deny that, but I want to meet them. I do. I don’t get out much, Faulkner. It wouldn’t matter if I met them today or three months from now, I’d still be nervous, partly because I’m meeting new people, but also because they’re so important to you. I like you.” Cheyenne dropped her eyes and fiddled with a string hanging off of the seat in front of her. “What if they don’t like me? What if we have nothing in common? I…I want to get to know you better and knowing how important they are to you, I know we could never last if they didn’t like me.”

  Dude knew this was an important moment and he struggled to find the right words so Cheyenne would understand. “Trust me when I tell you they’ll like you, Shy. Alabama was a janitor when she met Abe. She spent her evenings cleaning offices in buildings. Caroline is a chemist, but she’d just lost her parents when she met Wolf. She was on her way across the country to a new job because she had no ties to California. No one reported Fiona missing when she was taken. She didn’t have any close friends or family that worried about her. Summer was divorced and was flat broke when she met Mozart and was working as a maid for a dump of a motel. These are not women who’ll judge you. I promise. And in case it wasn’t already obvious, I like you too. And in the extremely low chance you don’t get along with the other women, I’ll still want to get to know you better.” Dude paused for a moment then said, “It’s your choice, Shy. I’d never force you to do anything you didn’t want to do. Anything.”

  Cheyenne knew there was more to what he’d said than simply meeting his friends, but she put it aside for the moment.

  “Okay, let’s go. Shit. I had a damn bomb strapped to my chest, how hard can this be?”

  Dude laughed and reached out for Cheyenne. He pulled her to him for a quick hard kiss then let her go. “Wait there, I’ll come around.”

  Cheyenne rolled her eyes, but waited for Faulkner to come around the truck and open her door for her.