American Bad Boy: A Military Romance by Sadie Black, Eddie Cleveland Page A

sobs shatter the quiet. The empty stairwell reverberates her pain from the walls. I come up around the last flight of stairs and my heart clenches in my chest.
    It’s Lauren.
    I stop dead in my tracks and my chest feels like it’s been hollowed out as I watch her. She’s sitting, slumped against the door with her knees pulled up to her chest and her head lying against them like a pillow. She’s got her arms wrapped around her legs in a hug she so clearly needs from someone.
    From me.
    She looks like someone who has lived two full lifetimes of pain and suffering. I’m not saying she looks old or haggard. Cause, damn it, I don’t know a woman on this earth that is more radiant or sexy than she is. It’s not at all that she’s aged, it’s that she’s defeated. She’s broken down. Stomped to the earth.
    And it’s all my fault.
    “Lauren, I’m sorry.”
    As I close the final stairs between us, she looks up, startled. She wipes fat tears from her perfect face with her knuckles. I reach the landing and hold my hand open to her, to help her off the floor. Plan B is to sit next to her, if that’s what she needs. Instead, she grabs my hand and springs from the floor like a jack-in-the-box as I give her a tug.
    “You’re sorry?” Her eyes travel over my face, searching for something. Maybe it’s for a shred of sincerity. It’s not like I’ve been very open with her since I showed up here. Maybe she’s searching for more.
    “I’m sorry. I never meant to make you cry.” I brush the last of her tears away and cup her chin in my hand. She looks at my lips and it’s all the invitation I need. I wrap one arm around her, pulling her tight to my body.
    “Oh! Um …”
    She doesn’t get a chance to make actual words because I smother her sentence with my kiss. Tenderly, my lips find hers. I let my lips tell her everything. How much I’ve missed her. How much I need her. How sorry I am for breaking her heart. My lips spill all of my secrets, without ever speaking a word.
    I feel the tension melt from her body as she sighs happily into my mouth. Our tongues gently collide and I run my hand up her back until I reach her hair. The rest of my body is coming alive from her kiss. Like she’s breathing life back into the void she left in my soul. Of course, with the rest of my senses waking, the urge to make her cry out in a different way builds up in me.
    I walk her back until she’s pressed against the cold wall, without breaking our kiss. My hand slides down from her chin and I quickly reach up, under her uniform and unsnap her bra with one hand.
    Haven’t lost my touch.
    Her breasts drop slightly under the weight of her heavy tits. I can’t wait to run my tongue over her dark nipples and fuck her until the only thing she’s crying out is my name.
    “Wait, what are you doing?” Lauren squirms sideways from beneath me, putting inches of space between us that feel like cold miles.
    “I’m just trying to make you feel better. I want to say sorry for making you cry.” I give her a smile and she pauses, like she’s thinking about it.
    Instead, she snakes her hands up under the back of her shirt and hooks her bra back up.
    “What? Jesus, Mack, you can’t fix everything with your dick you know.” She smoothes her hands down over her shirt.
    Ms. Professionalism is back. That cock-block.
    “Are you sure? How about I give it my best shot? I bet I can make you happy for a while,” I murmur and step toward her, trying to shake of Lauren’s prim and proper act.
    Just because it’s been a decade since I’ve had her, doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten her wild streak. I know it’s not buried that deep beneath the surface. Besides, from what I saw in her tight, little spandex gear the other day at the track, her body has blossomed in ways that would really do that wild side some justice now. The memory of her curves makes me hungry for her.
    “No. Mack, I’m being serious.” She looks at me with her large brown eyes. I