I roll back over toward him. “You were a prisoner of war?” How could I have not known that? Nobody has ever said a thing to me about him.
“Yeah. It was years ago, but I still have nightmares about it sometimes.”
I reach for him in the darkness as he continues talking. “My ex-wife cheated on me while I was a POW. Needless to say, that’s why she’s my ex. I haven't trusted or dated anyone since.”
“What a bitch,” I say. I mean what kind of woman could do that? It’s horrible. I feel physically ill just imagining what all Bear has gone through.
He laughs, and the sound surprises me. “Tell me about you.” Obviously he's done talking about himself, and even though I have a thousand questions I want to ask, I don’t. I tell him about serving with Walker on a mission in Belize. I talk to him about how I've always had to fight for my position, which is why I'm always trying to prove myself.
His voice is normally deep and thick, but it seems even more so in the dark room. “I think you've already proven yourself to all of us. There's no doubt that you can do your job and do it well. I think all the guys have learned to trust and have faith in you.”
His words send a thrill through my body, not only because he's telling me exactly what I'm striving for, but also just the fact that he feels that way too.
It isn't long before I'm yawning in the bed next to him, and he turns away, rolling toward the opposite direction. “Get some sleep. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a big day.”
For once, I do as he asks without arguing with him. But I have no doubt that I’m going to be dreaming of a certain husky man that has somehow come to take over every thought I have.
7
BEAR
I'm drinking coffee on the balcony when Sam comes to stand at the door. She looks beautiful, all soft and rumpled. I have an internal fight with myself not to get up, throw her over my shoulder, and take her back to bed. When I woke up this morning, she was on top of me, her hips pushing against my hard cock. Getting out of that bed was the hardest thing that I've ever had to do. There's a part of me that wishes I was the type of man that could have just pushed her to her back, woken her up with a fiery kiss, and seen where it would lead.
But there's no part of me that wants to take advantage of her. When and if she ever comes to me, I want her to do it of her own volition.
She stretches, and her hard nipples press against the T-shirt she has on. “What do you want to do today?”
“Whatever you want,” I tell her. Heck, she could say she wants to go swim with sharks right now, and I’d follow her into the water.
She leans against the door frame. “How about swimming and lounging around the pool? It would be good to be seen around the resort... out and about.”
I have to agree with her on that. We can't stay holed up in this room. Not with that big bed and all the dirty thoughts stirring in my head. “Sounds good. Let's do that.”
She smiles widely, and it’s nice that something as easy as that makes her happy. She gets ready, and then so do I. We stop at the coffee shop in the lobby for her to get a latte and a pastry, then head out to the pool. It's already starting to fill up even this early in the day. There's a swim-up bar, and I see people that were at the poker tournament last night already sitting at the bar drinking.
The resort is beautiful, making me wish we were here for different reasons than the one we have. It’s hard to be happy knowing what’s happening in this very hotel.
I take my shirt off and toss it onto one of the chairs. Samantha gasps behind me. “Bear,” she says.
I turn, quickly ready to fight off anything but then realize that she was surprised by the scars that she saw on my back. I’d completely forgotten all about them. She walks up to me and puts her hand on my chest. She’s real quiet. “Is that from...?”
She doesn’t have to continue. I know what she’s asking and that she’s referring to my time as a POW. I nod, and her hand slides from my chest to my back, and she rests her head on my chest. She kisses me there on my bare skin because that's all she can reach. “I'm so sorry. Bear, I'm so sorry.” She says it over and over, and I know that she is sincere.