A Soldier's Christmas

Emma cuddled between his spread thighs on the bed while she finished reading one of the letters he’d written to her. By her sniffles into a Kleenex, he knew that she was crying and, reading over her shoulder, he also had tears on his face. The letter had been the most heartbreaking that he’d written because he’d just lost one of his best friends. He’d written down every emotion that he’d felt at that time, and the memory of writing those words made his chest ache. It had been the writing of those words on the paper that Emma read that had finally made him break down and give in to the tears. Matthew had been his best friend since they’d met on their first day at boot camp. They’d even shared an apartment when they hadn’t been deployed before Matthew had married his high school sweetheart. But they’d stayed close and Logan was the godfather to Matthew’s daughter, Alice. Matthew and family had lived in base housing, but his wife, Claire, had moved back home to be close to her family after his death. He didn’t blame her, and planned on visiting as soon as everything with Emma and her family was sorted.

But reading his words left a rock in his gut the size of a mountain. He missed his friend and, although he wanted to visit Claire to make sure that she was doing okay, he was terrified of what he might find. The love that his buddy had shared with his wife was what everyone wished to have one day. He felt he could have that with the woman who currently cried softly in his arms.

She’d finished reading his letter and turned into him. He tilted her face up to his, and placed a tender kiss to her lips.

Emma whispered, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.” She cried and held on to him for wh

at felt like hours but was probably five minutes. “You didn’t have anyone to talk to. She stopped me from being there—to give you comfort or to, at least, let you know how much I loved you and prayed for your safe return.” She turned back into his shirt and cried, but all he remembered from all that was the word ‘love’.

He held her until she’d cried herself out before he slid her down on the bed and mopped her up with more Kleenex. “Emma, do you remember what you just said?”

Smiling through her remaining tears, Emma nodded her head. “I love you, Logan. I fell in love with you over eighteen months ago, and now that you’re here with me, my love for you has grown stronger.” She offered him a watery smile. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me the most.”

Logan held her close, his words refused to form in his head with how overwhelmed he was. Outside of his parents, he’d only said the words once in his life—when Matthew was taking his last breath, Logan had whispered to his friend how much he loved him. And he had, as a brother, he’d never said it to a woman, but he wanted to say the words to Emma.

He cupped her face in his hands and rested his forehead against hers. “I love you.” He sighed on a chuckle of happiness. “I’ve loved you for just as long, which is why not receiving a letter from you hurt more than it should have. The words you wrote to me meant so much, and I fell in love with you.” He placed a feather light kiss across her lips. “I love you.”

He held tight as Emma snuggled against him. The feel of her body against him warmed him through and he hoped that he’d never have to let her go. Her hand pressed into his back as though she wanted him closer. There was only one way he’d be closer and then he’d be inside her.

With a silent groan, he realized that Emma had fallen asleep in his arms while he suffered through one hell of a boner. He placed a kiss to her forehead before he slithered out from under her and caught his breath when her knee came into contact with his groin.

He stood at the side of the bed and glanced down at himself and winced. His hard dick would be obscene if he was in public with it bulging against his thigh. He smiled and reached inside to move it into a more comfortable position—reaching up to his navel.

He glanced at Emma and smiled with pleasure at her curled up asleep. Her glorious auburn waves curled down her back in a loose tie, her hands were partially hidden by the pillow that he’d shoved beneath her when he’d moved. Her lips were slightly parted, and as he caressed her with his eyes, his heart flooded with even more love for her as he exhaled in a long sigh of contentment.

He stepped away from the bed and realized the letters were still all over the bed and floor, so he gathered them together and made two piles—his and hers.

Emma’s letters to him had only been half read because she had become too emotional reading his, and he’d wanted to comfort her.

Glancing back to the bed, Emma still slept soundly so he made himself comfortable in the chair by the window and opened one of her last letters…

Dearest Logan,

I wish with all my heart that I had another way to contact you. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about you. I wake up for a new day and you’re there in my head, echoing in my heart. I go to sleep every night after re-reading all your letters because I feel with everyday that passes I’m not going to hear from you again.

I pray every Sunday at church that you are still in good health and that nothing has happened to you.

Your lack of response tells me that you’ve started writing to someone else, and that I don’t matter anymore. Is that true? Please write and tell me. It hurts to imagine that you have, but I feel that if it was, you’d have told me.

We connected. I know we did and your silence is terrifying if I have to be honest.

I need to know that you’re still with me.

Please, Logan. Please write back to me.

All my love,

Emma

Logan finished reading and let his hand drop to his lap. As he gazed outside, it didn’t really register that fresh snow fell because all he could focus on was Emma’s desperation to know that he was safe.

How could her mother do that to them? To her own daughter? Her mom should be made to read their letters, and perhaps, she’d have more of an understanding about what she’d done to them.

He was a total stranger to her family, but Emma was their daughter...sister. Emma must feel such a betrayal over what her mom had decided to do, all in the name of keeping her daughter tied to an ass who really didn’t appreciate Emma.

She was unhappy with Seth, and her words said so much more than what she’d have ever said out loud to her family, but hell! He was annoyed that the letters they’d written to each other hadn’t been received.

He knew himself well enough to know that something would be said the next time he saw her mom. Emma was his to protect and defend. Although he didn’t want to have a bad relationship with Emma’s mom, he wasn’t going to keep his feelings to himself. She needed to hear what he had to say.