Gone Away Home (Bringing Home Trouble)

CHAPTER 10

ZAYLA

I was worried about today, but it needed to happen. Dustin, right from the moment he showed up on my doorstep to make my dreams come true, dreams I had buried long ago, was willing to go at my pace with how we went public with our relationship. I knew why, and I’ve been grateful.

The more time we’ve spent together, which is a lot considering I never told him to move somewhere else and we went from not seeing each other in 14 years to living together seamlessly, the more I realized not being open was bugging me. Everyone who has the kind of love Dustin gives me should be shouting about it from every rooftop, water tower, and high rise. They should be spreading that love and showering it on the world.

Because doesn’t the world need a little more love? A little more understanding? A little more connection?

I’m lucky to have found it in a man who changed his entire world just to come home to me when he didn’t have to. He could have stayed away. He could have kept his feelings to himself.

I would never have been the wiser. It would have been a shame, but I wouldn’t have known differently beyond not feeling whole.

Dustin gives me a feeling of being complete and content. But it’s so much more than that as well. He makes every day exciting, even if we aren’t doing anything more than building a pillow nest in the middle of the living room and watching movies.

When the most mundane thing becomes an adventure, you have something special. And Dustin is special. He makes me a better person.

After the disaster of Thanksgiving, I realized I couldn’t hide the amazing way Dustin loves me, and I don’t want to.

When we get home, I’m tired, but the feeling melts away the moment I’m lifted into strong arms and cradled against a solid chest. I’ve never felt safer.

My body melts into his. It always does when we’re this close. My soul knows his and it’s all there is to it.

He carries me until we’re in our bathroom and only then does he set me back down on my feet. Our gazes lock and our hands move at the same time, pulling our clothes off while staring into each other’s eyes the entire time.

With every breath we take my pussy gets wetter, and I get more turned on. The tension between us builds, anticipation zipping around the enclosed space along with steam as the shower heats up. Everything this man does seems to turn me on like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

“Do you know how hard I’ve been all day, Zayla?” His voice is a husky rasp which feels like his fingers ghosting over my skin. He doesn’t give me a chance to answer, but he doesn’t need to. “You stood up for me today. You put that chick in her place and didn’t give a single fuck about what anyone thought of you or what you said to her.”

He hooks his arm around my waist and pulls me closer. My hands land on his shoulders right before our bodies touch. We’re plastered together from knee to chest and it’s everything.

The heat from his body seeps into me and makes me feel loved.

Fuck. I missed him so much while he was gone. I never allowed myself to feel it, really feel it, because it was consuming, and I would have been lost to it.

“Did I ever tell you how much I missed you? I would dream about you, Dustin. About you coming home finally. About you whispering sweet words in my ear. About you showing me the man you’d become,” I admit something I hadn’t told anyone, but need him to know now. My hands slide from his shoulders and up his neck until I’m cupping his jaw. “The reality of you? Being loved by you and feeling it with every part of me? It’s better than those dreams.”

I see the emotions swimming in his eyes, the hope for us being together he banked, the regret, the pain because of all the time we lost. But we didn’t lose it, not really, we just had to wait so we could be better, stronger.

When he kisses me this time, it’s slow and sweet. He explores my mouth like it’s our first kiss. The way he savors me has me pressing my body against him while holding him closer. I wish I could crawl inside of him and stay that way.

But, then again, maybe I’ve already found a way to do that because I’ve given him my heart and he’s given me his.

Dustin easily picks me up and steps into the shower as he kisses me. I hiss out a breath when my back meets the shower wall. It’s still cool even though the water is the perfect temperature.

“I love you so damn much, Zayla,” he whispers against my lips. “I was barely living, barely holding on. I needed you and thought I couldn’t have you because of a past that wasn’t even of our own making. I’m sorry I deprived us of everything we could have been for so long because of it.”

“You have no reason to be sorry, Dustin,” I insist, “you thought you were doing the right thing. Maybe you were. I wouldn’t have been strong enough then to hold my head up high and not give a single fuck whether anyone looks down on us or not. We know the truth and it’s all that matters. Those who support us will have our backs and everyone else will have to get out of our way.”

“Fuck,” he groans, his fingers flexing on my ass as he lifts me higher against the wall, “you have no idea how fucking sexy you are, sweetheart.”

“No?” I look up at him from underneath my lashes, a coy smile playing on my lips. I grip his cock and angle him just right as I challenge him, “How about you show me.”

My breath hitches as he thrusts into me, filling me to the hilt. The walls of my pussy stretch to accommodate him and I’m so damn wet there’s no resistance to speak of. Only pure fucking bliss which has stars blinking into existence behind my eyelids.

I tip my head back against the shower wall and grip the back of his neck. I might be holding him tightly, but I’m not worried about him dropping me. He has me; I know it. I’m holding on to him just to make sure I don’t float away.

When he starts to move, I moan, “Yes, Dustin, please.”

“Please?” He teases me, “What are you begging for, sweetheart?”

“You,” I groan, my voice husky and filled with need. “I need you to fuck me hard and make me come.”

He circles his hips, griding his pelvis against my clit and sending electricity through my body. My eyes drift closed as he moves. Every time he fills me, I feel almost too full; I love it.

“Fuck,” he grits out through his teeth, “I can feel how close you are. Your pretty pussy is begging my cock to fill you up.”

His words wash over me and push me even closer to the edge. The way he plays my body is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The way he knows me. The way pushes me. The way he demands.

It always sends me soaring.

I move one hand to his ribs where his tattoo is and slide my fingers along the words there. The meaning behind his tattoo has my heart fluttering in my chest and I remember when I finally got a good look at it. It was when we were in our fluffy nest, and I was almost to blissed out to even take notice of his tattoos.

If he hadn’t sucked in a sharp breath when my finger ran over some of the lettering, I might not have looked closer, but he did. It had me focusing when all I wanted to do was float in the afterglow of the pleasure he gave me.

In order to see better, I scooted down a little bit. The moment I was able to see the whole piece my eyes filled with tears. “Dustin,” I whispered, awe in my words, “what is this?”

“You know what it is,” he challenged me to say it out loud and acknowledge it.

“The last letter I wrote to you,” I murmured.

I couldn’t look away. My fingers ran over the words over and over like I was right back there feeling everything I was feeling when I sent him my heart without realizing that’s what I was doing.

Dustin,

I can’t write to you anymore. It hurts too much to know you’re so far away and I can’t see you to make sure you’re okay. Maybe it doesn’t make sense, but that’s how I feel. I’m sorry.

I want you to keep yourself safe. This world is a better place with you in it and not just because you chose to serve our country. It’s better because you have a light within you that I was lucky enough to be close to, even if only for a short period of time.

While I might not write anymore, I’ll be thinking of you.

Stay safe and, hopefully, one day you’ll come home.

XO

Zayla

“I wasn’t sure if I should send it or not,” I whispered, unable to look away from his tattoo.

“The moment I read it, I knew I wanted to have it tattooed on me so I would always have you close even when the paper became faded and worn. I’ve been carrying you with me, at my side, for a long time, Zayla.”

Dustin punches his hips forward, the brutal force ripping me from my memory and causing me to dig my fingernails into his side right below where he has my hug and kiss tattooed in my handwriting.

“Fuck, yes,” he growls, “milk my cock.”

I’m a panting, moaning mess as my legs tighten around his hips and I teeter on the edge. When Dustin leans forward and sucks one of my nipples into his mouth before biting down, I explode.

“Dustin,” I gasp before screaming silently, my thighs shaking and my body jerking with the intensity of my pleasure.

Light dances around us and the pounding of the water against the tiled floor mixes with his panted breaths. The feral growl he lets out drowns out all other sound as he fills me once, twice, three times and I feel the first jet of his cum coating my walls.

He buries his face in the crook of my neck as we cling to each other, pleasure wrapping us up in its arms and holding us close. I sink into the feeling of love, protection, and safety I always feel in his arms. It’s like nothing I’ve ever been granted before and I know how much of a gift it is.

“Love you so much, sweetheart,” he mumbles against my skin.

I’m barely coherent, my mind swimming in a sea of light and rightness. “I love you without fear, Dustin.”

The sound of contentment he lets out makes me fall in love with him all over again. I did that. I made him feel that way.

It’s heady.

It’s perfect.

Dustin keeps me in his arms as he manages to wash us. His strength never ceases to amaze me and there isn’t a single second when I’m concerned that he’s going to drop me.

When we step out of the shower, he puts me back down, but he continues to hold me close. It’s probably for the best because my legs are still a little wobbly.

“So perfect for me.” He kisses my forehead, my eyelids, and my cheeks. Finally, when I don’t think I can wait a moment longer, his lips brush against mine.

While we lost time together and he had to go away to find his home was always right here, we’re stronger for it. I know the same will be true when we look back at this time, a time when some people aren’t willing to accept us.

I don’t need acceptance from them. I just need this.

“I’m yours,” I whisper, needing him to know, needing him to hear it.

His mossy green eyes darken, his soul hungry to soak up my words. “And I’m yours, Zayla.”