By the time her long curls had mostly dried and she made her way to the palatial bed, Gaia no longer cared what she looked like. She just needed some sleep. Ryan, thankfully, was seeing to business matters just as he’d forewarned her he would be so she was able to dive under the covers without any embarrassment.
She released a long, cathartic breath as she settled into the cloud-soft pillows and closed her eyes. Her last cogent thought was that she could get used to this… if she let herself.
Chapter Five
Tortured screams. Drones. Guns firing. Hand-to-hand combat. Dead bodies everywhere. Massive casualties. Billowing smoke rising up from the various buildings on fire. A little boy with flaming red hair crying over his mother’s lifeless corpse. Not the little boy, she thought in horror. She couldn’t just stand by and watch one of those fuckers take out another kid…
A scream of outrage and anger warbled from her throat. She was wounded, but she managed to bend over and scoop up the little boy, plopping him down on her left hip. He grabbed a handful of her long cornrows and fisted them tightly. Holding the child with one hand, she used her free one to shoot at the enemy with a pilfered gun.
The wafting smoke affected her vision, made it nearly impossible to detect friend from foe. She then fired the gun only when fired at. She had to get the boy to safety—it was her singular goal. The enemy had no remorse, no empathy, no nothing of virtue. They were savages, all of them. They deserved to die.
Please, God, she thought. Help me save this little boy.
Gaia awoke on a gasp. Her heart rate was through the roof, perspiration dotting her fevered skin. Her breasts heaved up and down in time with her labored breathing, her nipples stabbing out against the silk nightgown.
“Baby,” Ryan said. “Wake up.” He shook her shoulders a bit. “You’re having a nightmare.”
It took her a long moment to orient herself, to separate the dream from her reality. She sat up in bed, still panting as her heart rate slowly returned to normal. “It felt so real,” she said hoarsely. “It was awful.”
“Shh. It’s okay. You’re okay.” He pulled her into him, hugging her against his shirtless chest. “The wars are over. It was only a bad dream.”
Gaia nodded. She put her arms around his neck, inadvertently smashing her hard nipples against him. She was too shaken at first to notice the arousing effect the action had on him, but became aware of their intimate position—and his resulting erection—as the last vestiges of sleep dissipated. “Ryan, I…”
“I know,” he said thickly. He cleared his throat. “I was going to take a nap with you. I promise that was my only intention.”
She believed him. He was still wearing a pair of boxers after all. “Will you hold me while we sleep?” she whispered.
“Of course, baby.”
It took them a moment to situate themselves, but Gaia melted into his arms as though she was meant to be there. Then again, she supposed she was. She had married him for a reason after all. Apparently her body remembered what her mind couldn’t.
In that moment she had never felt closer to another human being. She hugged the knowledge close to her heart as Ryan hugged her closely to his chest. She fell back into a peaceful slumber, his heartbeat as soothing as a lullaby.
* * * * *
He blew out a breath, his erection bordering on painful. Ryan realized he wasn’t likely to get a moment’s rest with his nearly naked wife in his arms. He inhaled the scent of her hair, which smelled of vanilla and cinnamon, and contented himself in the knowledge that she’d already come to him of her own volition. She might not have been ready to make love, but she had trusted him. It was a start—and a damn good one at that.
They hadn’t managed to destroy him despite their best efforts. Gaia was alive and well… and fast asleep in his arms. Tonight, when his wife stood by his side as he delivered his victory speech, the maggots would know she hadn’t succumbed to her nearly fatal injuries. They would know they had failed.
Ryan kissed Gaia’s sleeping forehead as he possessively held her in his arms. She was his. What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
* * * * *
Gaia awoke to an empty bed. She assumed Ryan was off working, which made sense on an election day, but then she heard the sound of the shower running and realized he must have been in there instead. She tiptoed into the wardrobe hoping to find something to cover herself with when the strained sound of pain came from the bathroom. Frowning, she quietly glided forward to investigate. Her eyes widened. Gaia backed up against the wall, her pulse racing. The sound coming from the shower was definitely not one of pain.
Sneaking another look, Gaia watched the forceps and biceps of her husband’s left arm tense and flex as he masturbated. His eyes were closed, his teeth gritted, as he pumped his well-endowed cock up and down. His breathing grew more ragged as he neared completion. She knew she should look away, but couldn’t seem to. He came on a muffled groan, cum spurting from the head of his penis, his hand pumping faster and faster. She snapped out of the daze that had ensorcelled her, grabbed a robe, and quickly scurried into the living room as she donned it.
Her skin a bit flushed, she hoped her expression was one of ignorance. Sitting down in front of the television, she picked up its remote and fiddled with it. Technology had apparently changed, she thought glumly, having hoped to pretend she’d been caught up in a TV show by the time Ryan emerged from the master bathroom. The damn remote was not cooperating. Sighing, she kept messing with it anyway.
“You’re awake.”
Startled, Gaia yipped as she turned in her seat and faced her husband. Wearing only a towel around his hips, she got her first good look at his powerful body. He wasn’t freakishly muscled like a roid-head at the local gym, but muscled he was regardless. His entire physique bespoke of a rigidly disciplined man who likely worked out every day of the week. He was a general, she reminded herself, and he had the military shape to prove it.
“I just woke up,” she lied. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. “I can’t seem to figure out the remote to this TV.”
He stared at her for a long moment. She wondered if he believed her and suspected he didn’t. Thankfully, he let the subject go.
“Here,” Ryan said, reaching for the remote. He gave her a quick tutorial of how to work it. “I have to meet with my advisers, but I’ll just be down the hall. You can open the door if you need me. One of the Secret Service agents will bring you to me or vice versa.”
