She laughed, shaking her head. “That’s all you, mommy.”
I flipped her off, smiling, and took Mason upstairs to his changing spot just as he began to cry.
I quickly carried him into the nursery. I laid him down on his back, humming slightly to him, and changed his diaper.
This was my life now: diaper changes and breastfeeding and walks through the nearby park.
And as I changed his diaper, I realized that I was happy. Having Mason seemed so daunting and terrifying at first, but my parents and Lindy had been so supportive, so helpful.
I wouldn’t give up Mason for anything. I loved him more than I could say, and he’d changed my life for the better.
The only thing missing was his father. Even though I had given up on finding that ghost, I still sometimes thought back to that night fondly. I wished I could find Emory and at least tell him that he had a son.
But that was never going to happen. Mason might never know his father, and I was going to have to be okay with that.
It just meant I was going to love Mason enough for two people.
2
Emory
Sunlight streamed in from the big windows overlooking my sparse bedroom. I woke up with it shining right in my face, making the hangover headache tingling in my skull that much worse.
I grunted, sitting up and putting a hand on my head. To my right, the girl from the night before stirred but didn’t wake.
I glanced at her. Thin, blond, and tan; pretty fucking standard for California. I remembered she’d been a pretty good fuck, even though she was vapid as fucking shit.
I slipped out of bed, trying not to wake her up. I didn’t feel like listening to her voice so fucking early in the morning. I went into the bathroom, shut the door behind me, and took a nice long piss.
Being a Navy SEAL meant I didn’t get to spend much time at home. Most of my life was spent abroad doing my country’s work. My ass was Uncle Sam’s, and I wouldn’t have had it any other fucking way.
But that meant my apartment wasn’t exactly decorated. I had the necessities, like a bed, a couch, and a TV, but there wasn’t much else. I didn’t need much, since I barely even stayed there for more than a few days at a time.
But now that I was getting some R&R, I almost didn’t know what the fuck to do with myself. I had a whole month off from work, a little gift from the upper brass for my quality work out in Pakistan over the last sixteen months.
I looked in the mirror and splashed some water on my face. Emory Rush, cold-blooded killer, terrorist hunter, and captain of SEAL Team Eight. I specialized in hunting down and eliminating terrorists in the Pakistani tribal regions, and for the last fourteen months me and my team had been embedded in the northern part of Pakistan, right outside of Waziristan, hunting a particularly deadly group called The Network.
The mission had been a rousing fucking success. The Network had been one step ahead of my team and me for years, always escaping us just before we could take all those terrorist fucks out. But in Pakistan, we finally got the drop on them, killing a few important, key members and dealing a huge blow to their organization.
But it had cost us a lot. I could still hear the death and the bullets screaming around me as we stormed their compound. I lost two comrades and squad mates that day, and those men would never be forgotten.
Now I had some time off, and all I wanted to do was get back out there. The Network was hurt, but they weren’t destroyed. I wanted nothing more than to avenge my brothers, to tear apart the bastards that had killed them. I wanted to get back into battle.
I heard the girl in the other room stirring, and I smirked to myself. I figured so long as I was stuck back in the States, I might as well try to enjoy myself.
And there was no better way to have a good time than drinking too much whisky and fucking every willing slut I could find.
I pushed open the bathroom door and leaned up against the frame. The girl stirred and sat up, her hair spilling down around her shoulders, her nice tits bare above the sheets.
“Morning,” she said.
“Morning,” I grunted in return.
She half smiled at me. “Looks like a very good morning.”
I glanced down at myself and realized my cock was half hard. “Guess so.”
She crawled forward slightly, smiling at me. “Interested in another round?” she asked. “This time I can swallow your dick. You can do whatever you want to me.”
I looked at the girl, and for a second I was almost tempted.
But that wasn’t my fucking style. One night was all these girls ever got. I didn’t want to encourage them to try to stick around any longer, because I wasn’t interested in a relationship.
“No, thanks,” I said.
She did that fake pouty face. “Are you sure?”
“Fucking sure,” I said. “Get dressed. I’m calling you a cab.”
She gave me a shocked look. “Are you kidding me?”
I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and slipped them over my body. “Not at all. You have ten minutes.” I grabbed a white T-shirt and left her in my room.
“Asshole!” she called after me.
I grinned to myself. The girl had no clue what she was messing with. I couldn’t risk getting some idiot girl attached to me, not when the work I did was so important.
I put some coffee on and called the local taxi. I used them so much that I didn’t even have to give them my address anymore. They were used to my normal morning pickup routine, or at least when I was in town anyway.
I rarely remembered the girls I slept with. I couldn’t even remember this one’s name. Cindy maybe? It didn’t matter, though.
But one stuck in my mind and kept coming back to me all during those hard nights in Pakistan. Just before we went for our final deployment, the upper brass gave my team a week’s vacation in this fancy-ass hotel, which we spent basically drinking our faces off and fucking whatever we could find.
And on my last night there, I saw her. Long brunette hair, bright green eyes, and a body that made my cock hard the second I caught sight of her. She seemed shy and innocent, or at least until I got her in bed.
That pussy was incredible. The way she moved, the way she said my name, everything about her drove me fucking wild. We fucked until I was drenched in sweat and came deep inside that beautiful cunt. And then later on, I couldn’t help but get another taste.
I never got her last name. It wasn’t like I was going to look her up or anything like that, but for some reason I couldn’t shake her at all. Tara was one of those girls who came around once in a lifetime, and at least I’d gotten a taste of her before I was shipped out to hell.
I sipped my coffee and the time slipped by. Soon enough, I heard the taxi pull up outside and honk once. I went over to the bedroom door and pushed it open.
“Your ride is here,” I said. The girl was sitting at the end of my bed, looking at her phone, fully dressed.
“Okay, dickhead.” She stood up and walked straight out my door, not sparing me a second glance.
“Have a good one, sweetheart,” I called out my window as she climbed into the cab. She flipped me off and then slammed the door shut.
I grinned to myself and watched her pull away. I was about to head back inside and make some fucking food when I caught sight of a strange envelope tucked under the welcome mat.