Secrets in Battle: Secrets of Savannah Series Book 3 Read online

  I shake my head. “You know she sent me homemade wine while I was overseas at Christmas?”

  He rolls his eyes. “Who do you think helped her package it so it didn’t look like wine?”

  For the next few hours, it feels good to laugh and carry on with my best friend. Not worrying about physical therapy, nightmares, anxiety or my future, just laughing. This is the exact reason I needed Ryder to be the one to pick me up.

  Chapter 2

  What is that fucking ringing sound? Would someone please shut it off?

  Finally realizing that it is my phone, I fumble with it to answer it, seeing Scarlet’s face on the screen.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, what time are you gonna be over today?”

  “Huh?”

  “Today. You know, our little cookout for Judd? Ringing any bells?”

  “Shit, I forgot.”

  “You forgot?”

  “Yes, I had a damn twelve hour shift last night with my ER Clinical rotation for school. I had a freakin’ meth head go nuts trying to tear in to a locked cabinet, and we had a big car wreck. So I’m still a little out of it.”

  “Shit. I’m sorry. It’s just I was hoping you being here would bring Judd out of his shell a little. He’s been kinda withdrawn since he’s been home.”

  “Scar, don’t get caught up on that. He’s been through a lot. He’s not going to be himself right off the bat.”

  “Yeah, I know. We sat through the reunion briefings with his parents, but he’s really withdrawn.”

  “I’ll be there around noon. Is that okay?”

  “Yeah, that’s great. I’ll see you then.”

  Hanging up the phone, I glance over at the clock and see that it’s already after ten. I groan, get up out of bed and make my way to the bathroom to jump in the shower.

  Is it weird that I’m nervous to go see him? I mean I haven’t went out of my way in the past week that he’s been home to go see him, but he hasn’t really invited me over, either.

  He promised me that he’d come back home to me and he almost didn’t. My mind drifts back to the hotel room in Richmond Hill.

  We barely make it in the hotel room door before I’m reaching down to unbuckle his belt and jeans. He’s shoving the straps of my dress down. Realizing that I don’t have a bra on with this dress, his mouth goes directly to my nipple. Lifting me under the ass, I wrap my legs around his waist. I feel his erection against my panties.

  As he’s kissing across my breasts, I groan. “Judd, I need...I need you.”

  He spins around, throwing me on the bed and snatching my panties down. He whips his shirt off, shoving his pants and boxers down.

  He drops to his knees, planting his face in my pussy. This boy must have taken extra credit classes in Oral Communications because Holy Shit. I know he’s saying something to me but I’m not sure what the hell he’s saying. I’m screaming something incoherent, I’m sure, as I come on his face.

  Climbing up my body, I see him roll a condom on and he bites my nipple as he thrusts inside of me. Fuck, that is awesome.

  As the water starts to turn cold, I’m brought out of my sex daydream to the present. I rush through my shower to finish before the water is ice cold.

  I slip on a cute sundress and flip flops, throwing my hair up haphazardly in a bun on top of my head.

  I’ve gotten to the point that I’m actually more comfortable with everyone that will be there than my own family. I’m not so worried about how I dress around them. Funny thing is, until I started my clinicals I would have still worried, now I’m too tired to care.

  My parents would prefer that I find some nice, wealthy young man to take care of me for the rest of my life. I refuse to be like my mother, though. I’ll never know what my father saw in her, much less saw in her enough to have five kids with her. I guess he saw her as weak, and he likes to dominate his world and everyone in it. My goal is to pretty much avoid him. He’s always been a little abusive to all of us, even the boys. A slap here and there, telling us we’d amount to nothing without him.

  No one really knows about our life, not even Scarlet. Who would believe it anyway?

  That’s the reason it’s so important that I get through nursing school. I need something to support myself. I need to get out of this house and put distance between us.

  I look in the mirror again. The secret life of rich people, what a fucking joke.

  I throw a swimsuit and a change of clothes in a bag. Then I make my way downstairs to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.

  Great, my mother is in here, another person I try to avoid.

  “Annabelle, please tell me you aren’t leaving the house dressed like that?”

  “Yes, I’m going to a cookout. Most people dress very casual for a cookout.”

  She looks like she just drank sour grapefruit juice or something. “What people? Hobos and white trash?”

  “I’m going to the Abbott’s house.”

  She shakes her head. “Oh, too bad you let Scarlet snatch up Ryder, he’d be a heck of a catch.”

  “Mom, a year ago you said he was nothing but an embarrassing male whore.”

  “Well, he’s grown up.”

  “Yes, because of Scarlet. He loves her. Besides, I could never be with Ryder.” I laugh.

  “You have dark circles under your eyes.”

  “Yes, it comes with lack of sleep. I worked a twelve hour shift last night.” My God, is this coffee ever going to brew?

  “Like I’ve said before, if you’d find a nice young man to take care of you, working wouldn’t be something you’d have to worry about.”

  “Mom, as I’ve said to you before, I don’t want a man to take care of me. That’s not the kind of relationship I want. I want to be an equal partner, not a dependent.”

  “Oh, so you think I’m dependent on your father?”

  “Yes. What would you do if you didn’t have dad? What kind of job would you do?”

  As I’m finally pouring coffee in my cup, she throws her hands up and storms out of the kitchen.

  I make my way out to my car and leave for Scarlet’s. Ten minutes later, I’m pulling up in front of the house. I hear the noise from out back so I know everyone is already here. I let myself in the front door.

  I hear what sounds like weights moving in the den area. I walk through the doors to see Judd on a rowing machine.

  I give a small wave. “Hey.”

  He nods and exhales. “Hey.”

  “It sounds like everyone is out back. What are you doing in here?”

  Wiping his chest with a towel, he looks up. “Just getting a little exercise in before I go out there.”

  I nod, feeling uncomfortable. “Oh, okay. Well I’ll just leave you to it then. I’ll go on out back.” I point as I’m walking toward the door.

  “Hey, Princess?”

  I turn around. “Yeah?”

  “It’s great seeing you.”

  I give him a half smile. “Yeah, you, too.” I say as I walk through the house to go out back.

  Chapter 3

  Damn, seeing my Princess for the first time since coming home makes me a little nervous. I promised that girl I’d come back to her and I almost didn’t. She hasn’t been over here since I’ve been home. Then again, I didn’t call her or let her visit while I was still at the VA Hospital recovering, either.

  I take a quick shower, get dressed, and make my way outside for the cookout. I know my Mom and Nana have been fussing over it for the past few days. Ryder has been great this past week. He’s tried to give me my space, but also make sure I’m never alone.

  “There he is!” Greer shouts from the other side of the pool.

  I throw my hand up to wave and carefully make my way down the back steps. I’m doing pretty well with my walking, the doc cleared me to ditch the crutches. I just tire out pretty quickly. My mom comes up and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

  “You okay, honey? Do you need to sit down?”

  I shake my head.
“No Momma, I’m fine.”

  I walk over where my Dad and Ryder are standing by the grill. Ryder reaches in the cooler and hands me a beer. I nod, taking it from him. “Thanks, man.”

  “No problem.” He nods his head toward my Princess in a very tiny bikini lounging on a chair next to Nana.

  I have to keep my dick under control, this is a family event. No one wants to see the huge ass boner I have for this girl.

  I walk over to the chairs and sit down next to Nana. “So, how are two of my favorite ladies doing today?”

  Nana laughs. “Well, I’d be doing better if I looked like Annabelle here in a swimsuit and if you’d refill this fruity drink that Ryder fixed for me.”

  I laugh, taking her glass and motioning to Annabelle. “What about you, Princess?”

  She smiles. “I’m good, thanks.”

  Damn, that smile. I’m tempted to snatch her up and take her inside and fuck the hell out of her. I keep reminding myself everyone is here to see me. This is a family event.

  I go over and refill Nana’s glass from the pitcher on the table. As I hand it back to her, she laughs. “You’re a mighty cute cabana boy, Judd.”

  “Thanks, Nana, maybe that’ll be my new profession. I’ll try to go get a job down at the country club.”

  She laughs. “Nope, can’t let those damn jaguars get ahold of you.”

  Annabelle and I both look at her confused. Scarlet walks over confused, too, but then starts to laugh. “Nana, do you mean cougars?”

  “What the hell ever. I don’t want them rich ass old house wives making googly eyes at my boy.”

  That gets a laugh out of everyone.

  Greer sits down in the chair beside me. “So, have you thought any about what you wanna do now?”

  Ugh, the questions, this is the part I don’t like. I know people are just trying to make conversation but I’m just wrapping my head around everything.

  “Greer, hush. The boy just got home, give him time to breathe.” Nana says over her drink.

  I chuckle, thanking God for Nana. She’s the one person, besides Ryder, that I trust with my every thought. Well, I feel like Princess knows me too, without me even having to tell her anything. It’s like she can read me.

  Greer looks at her. “Momma, I’m sorry, I was just trying to talk to the boy.”

  “Well, mind your own business.”

  I put my hands up to stop them. “Whoa. It’s okay. Greer, I think I’m going to take a few classes in the fall. Not sure of much else yet.”

  “Well, you are welcome to stay here as long as you want.”

  “Thanks, Greer. I appreciate it.”

  A little later, it’s just Nana and I left sitting here talking, making general chit chat.

  She looks over at me. “So, I’ve gotten to know little Miss Annabelle and she seems quite nice. She works hard with school and her intern stuff.”

  “Yeah, she’s a sweet girl. I don’t know about us, though.”

  She pats me on the hand. “Just give it time. You don’t need to be rushing into anything. When my sweetie came back from Korea, he had some rough times. Grayton was a tough man, but he still had his moments of weakness.”

  “Thanks, Nana.”

  “I’m glad that I’ve gotten to know Annabelle a little bit, she’s quite different from her damn momma. Her momma, Kelsie Grace, is one of those little debutantes, never gotten her hands dirty a day in her life.”

  I have to laugh at Nana, she’s always spoke straight from her heart. “Thanks. I don’t really know what’s going on with us.”

  “Like I said, you have time.”

  Ryder steps out the back door. “Hey, you two old ladies quit gossiping about everyone and get your asses in here and eat.”

  Nana stands up and points her finger. “Who in the hell are you calling old, Ryder Grayton Abbott? I’ll take a switch to your ass so fast you won’t know what hit ya!”

  Ryder quickly moves back inside. She smiles over at me. “Come on, let’s go eat.”

  ~*~*~

  Walking through the living room later, after I think everyone’s left, I head to the den where I’ve been staying. When I walk through the door, she’s sitting on the sofa and staring off into space.

  “Hey.”

  She’s a little startled. “Oh, hey. Sorry, I hope you don’t mind. I just came in here for a little bit. I’m kinda tired. I worked a long shift last night.”

  I shake my head. “No. It’s no big deal. So you’re doing you’re rotations now with the nursing stuff?”

  “Yeah, last night was rough. I worked twelve hours in the ER. We had a meth head go crazy and try to break into a locked cabinet thinking it had drugs in it, and then a really bad accident came in. It was intense.”

  “How is everyone at your house dealing with the Princess working?”

  “My dad is actually okay with it, I guess. I don’t really talk to him about it. He says that he worries about me being out so late, coming in and out of the hospitals. My brothers are like whatever. The only person who takes real issue with it vocally is my mother.”

  “What’s her problem?”

  “She thinks I should find some nice young man with a fat bank account and get married. Let him keep me and care for me. Well, they all think that, she’s just more forth coming.”

  I laugh. “So basically she wants you to be her?”

  “Yes. I told her I’m not interested in being a dependent to someone, I want to be an equal partner. Then she got all pissy and stormed out of the kitchen.”

  I shake my head. “Well, you know most princesses aren’t supposed to work.”

  “I know, I’m a big failure to my kingdom.” She rolls her eyes.

  It feels good to laugh with her. “Look, I’m sorry I never asked you to come up to the-.”

  She stops me. “No, Judd, it’s okay. You needed time. Everything was kind of thrust at you all at once.” She puts her hand on mine. “It’s okay.”

  “Thanks.”

  Chapter 4

  Sitting on the couch just chatting with Judd is great. I feel more relaxed than I have in a long time. It’s like he sees right through me, he gets me.

  “So at the risk of sounding like every other nosy asshole around the world, have you thought about what you want to do now?”

  He laughs. “It does get old with people asking, but I don’t mind you asking. I am planning to take some classes, but I really don’t know. I didn’t think I’d be planning for a new career until I retired, and certainly not at twenty-two years old. Does that make any sense?”

  I smile. “Yeah. You’ve always been very dedicated to your job, now you have to figure out life. It’s not fun, trust me.”

  He brushes his hand down the side of my face. “I’d like to figure a little more out about you.”

  “Maybe that’s possible.” Our faces are only inches from each other now.

  He grabs the back of my head and kisses me. Our kiss becomes needy and fevered for each other.

  It’s powerful. Here is a man that for a few days I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see again, much less kiss again. I need him, I want him. Oh God, I want him to touch me! The emotions become too much and I start crying.

  He stops and pulls me into his chest. “Princess, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

  I shake my head and start wiping my face. “No, it’s just.” I clear my throat. “It’s just I was scared I’d never see you again. The day your parents came to tell us, I fell apart. If it hadn’t been for Nana I would’ve really lost my mind.”

  He smiles a little. “Nana. She’s always saving people.” He tilts my chin up to his face. “I promised you I’d come back, didn’t I?”

  I nod. “Yeah, but there was a couple of days that it wasn’t looking too promising.”

  He pulls me back down to his chest and brushes my hair with his hands. “I know, baby. I know. You were one of the things flashing through my mind.”

  “Judd, we left things so up in the air when
you left. I know that we both saw other people-.”

  He puts his finger to my lips. “Princess. That girl I was seeing over there, she was just someone to fill the void.”

  “I know. I tried to go out with a couple of guys, I just didn’t find them appealing. I had sex with one of them and it was nothing to write about. In fact, I faked it.”

  He laughs. “Oh, so are you saying that I’ve spoiled you?”

  “Yes. You’ve ruined it for all other men, I think.”

  “Well, I’ll say I slept with that girl twice, but she’s nothing compared to you, and like I said, I was trying to fill a void. The void left by you.”

  I laugh. “So let me get this straight. You only had sex with her twice and I’ve only had sex once in the past year almost. We are pathetic.”

  “No, we just didn’t feel like we needed to have sex with other people. We found perfection and nothing compared, so why even try?”

  I laugh and look at my watch. “Shit. It’s getting late, I should really go.”

  “Why don’t you stay with me?”

  “Do you think it’s a good idea?” Please say yes. I want to be wrapped up in your arms all night.

  “Yeah. This is the most relaxed I’ve felt in months. I like sitting here with you, holding you.”

  Thank God. “Okay then.” He stands up and shuts the doors to the den. Leading me over to the area they’ve set up for him as a bedroom, he reaches in a drawer and hands me a t-shirt.

  He strips down to his boxers and climbs in the small double bed. I put on the t-shirt, leaving only my panties on underneath it. I slide into the bed beside him and our legs automatically intertwine.

  My eyes grow very heavy as he strokes my hair and before I know it, I’ve drifted off to sleep.

  ~*~*~

  I’m startled awake by someone sweating and shaking. I pull away a little from Judd. He’s still asleep, and I know from some of my classes that it can be very dangerous to wake soldiers from their nightmares.

  Then I hear his soft sobs. I have to do something so I stroke his hair. “Shh Judd, baby, it’s me. You’re okay. You’re at home. Please baby, wake up.” I keep stroking and suddenly he jumps up.