He's No Good For Me Towers

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 Table of Contents

He’s No Good For Me

Ten years as a Navy SEAL followed by five years in prison...

It feels like my entire adult existence has been controlled and dictated. I made my choices and accepted the
consequences. I’ve done a lot of horrible things in my lifetime. Things that wake me up in the middle of the night
screaming and in a cold sweat. Perhaps prison was where I deserved to be.

But she doesn’t think so...

I’ve never met her face-to-face, but she’s my shining light.

Just months before my release, she’s granted a conjugal visit. What was meant to be a physical release and a
private moment to plan our lives together turned into a shock I never saw coming, which forces me to decide between
the man I was and man I am aiming to be.

Excerpt from:
Opposites Collide
I may be a fortune teller, but I never saw this arrogant billionaire in my future.
Thankfully, he's only snowed in for one night...With me.

Willow
A blizzard strands strait-laced tech billionaire, Mr. Adam Mayes, in the humble motel I manage. And he clearly hates it.

He seems to find everything about my quaint little life ridiculous and beneath him; from my pack of rescue hounds and the
shelter I run on my property, to my side gig of tarot reading. And he’s not the least bit shy in letting me know.

Well, screw him.

There’s more to life than money and power, although considering I’m currently living month-to-month barely able to keep the
doors open to my rescue, a few extra 0's at the end of my bank account balance wouldn't hurt.

As much as I need the money from his room rental, I need him gone. The cards were very clear only chaos would result from
him being near me. The cards have yet to fail me.

There’s only one problem, despite the fact we mix like oil and water there’s a raw sexual energy between us that’s undeniable
and even more irresistible. Call it insanity, but I’m starting to think that the cards are right and that fate has bigger plans for us
than one simple night of passion.

Contact Info and Backlist

He’s No Good For Me

by

Terry Towers
 Description

Ten years as a Navy SEAL followed by five years in prison...

It feels like my entire adult existence has been controlled and dictated. I made my choices and accepted the
consequences. I’ve done a lot of horrible things in my lifetime. Things that wake me up in the middle of the night
screaming and in a cold sweat. Perhaps prison was where I deserved to be.

But she doesn’t think so...

I’ve never met her face-to-face, but she’s my shining light.

Just months before my release, she’s granted a conjugal visit. What was meant to be a physical release and a
private moment to plan our lives together turned into a shock I never saw coming, which forces me to decide between
the man I was and man I am aiming to be.
 He’s No Good For Me
Copyright January 15, 2024
By Terry Towers
Temptation Creations

All rights reserved. With the exception of brief quotes used for critical reviews and articles no part of this book may be
used or reproduced without the written permission of the author Terry Towers. Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely
coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors imagination and used fictitiously.
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Chapter 1

Breanna
My nerves were getting to me as fear-based adrenaline shot through my body, urging me to turn on my heels and get out
of there ASAP. I should just forget this harebrained idea once and for all. My hand shook ever so slightly as I passed my
identification card to the guard at the front desk of the Spring Meadow Correctional Facility. The broad-shouldered blond man
carefully inspected my documentation and then began inputting something into the computer in front of him.
Oh God, this is such a very bad idea. What am I thinking?
Not a single person close to me knew I was visiting Cole Lincoln today. Not my family, not my coworkers, and not even
my closest and dearest of friends. I’d been careful to keep my visits to the prison and my relationship—if you could call it that
—a well-guarded secret, mostly because I wasn’t sure what their reactions would be. I doubt it would be good. They wouldn’t
even pretend to be on board if I mentioned to them that for the past six months, for an hour once a week, I’d been visiting an
inmate I’d never met on the outside world.
They’d say I was insane for going and try to prevent it. They’d think of every reason for me not continue to pursue this,
and they’d talk about me behind my back about how naive and foolish I was being. The other reason was that I was
embarrassed by how it came about that I was coming here in the first place. Most women who visited men at the prison were
their wives, sisters… people who knew the prisoner for their entire lifetimes.
But not me. Nope. I was an outlier all the way it seems.
My family would probably be right and maybe I was insane. Considering my history with men, all evidence would
support that conclusion.
But none of that mattered, because today was extra special for us as a couple. Cole had requested a “family visit,”
which meant—from my understanding—that we were being given privacy to do whatever we wanted in a small trailer, which,
of course, would be well-guarded. The most physical contact I’d had with him over the past six months was to hold his hand or
give him a quick hug. Today was the day I’d been daydreaming and masturbating about for what felt like an eternity. I was
going to feel every inch of his extremely oh-so-sexy body, and the thought was both exhilarating and terrifying all at once.
The officer at the front desk cleared his throat and when I pulled myself from my momentary daydream, found him
glaring at me. Would it kill them to smile once in a while? It can’t be that bad working here… Can it?
As my eyes swept over the gray, dingy walls and the faint smell of disinfectant tickled my nose, I decided I’d been
wrong. It probably was that bad.
“All right, ma’am, everything seems to check out. Proceed on in through that first door when you hear the buzzer, and
Officer Rizzo will assist you from there.” The officer gave me a nod and went back to whatever he had been doing before I’d
showed up and interrupted him.
“Th-Thank you,” I stuttered, snatching up my handbag, slipping my identification inside and quickly proceeding through
the first steel door.
Once through the door I took notice of a lean Latina woman with her dark hair pulled tightly back in a bun and a
nametag reading Rizzo, sitting at the first desk I came to. Sitting next to Officer Rizzo was a husky, balding man with the
nametag identifying him as Cooper.
As I approached, Officer Rizzo stood and motioned for me to follow along. “Have you been here before?” the officer
asked. She walked several feet from her desk, pulled out a card key from her pocket, and unlocked the door. When the reader
blinked green she ushered me inside, following after me and closing the door behind us. The severity of the loud bang from the
door closing caused me to gasp.
I needed to calm my nerves. There wasn’t anything to fear. It was a prison for heaven’s sake. Besides, innocent people
didn’t act suspiciously. I was acting super sus right now despite everything being on the up and up.
“Umm, yes,” I finally answered as I surveyed my surroundings, which was a small windowless room consisting of a
single wooden table, with two chairs, and a storage locker at the back. “But this is the first time I’ve been granted a family
visit.” I let out a nervous chuckle. “It’s got me on edge, I guess.”
Officer Rizzo crossed her arms over her chest, her dark eyes narrowing at me. “I see. Would there be a reason I should
know about that would make you nervous?”
My blue eyes widened as I shook my head. “No, of course not.”
“Yes, well, the procedure is a little different with these types of visits. I’m going to need you to strip down to your
undergarments, Miss Sutten, to check for contraband. And I’m going to need to go through the contents of your purse.”
Oh, God! Cole had forewarned me that this was common practice, but now that the time had come it hit me that I hadn’t
quite mentally prepared myself for what was about to happen. His assurances sure as hell didn’t make having to strip naked
under the cynical eye of the female officer any less intimidating.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath in, slowly releasing it as I opened my eyes again. “Okay.” I could do this. It
wasn’t like she was a man about to grope every part of me. This was her job and she looked like she took her job seriously.
“Now?”
Of course now, you idiot, a voice at the back of my mind mocked.
“Yeah, that would be ideal and would be appreciated. We don’t have all day. I’m sure you want this over as much as I
do.”
I nodded, wondering for the millionth time what was wrong with me that of all the men in the world I had to choose
someone I couldn’t fully be with. Someone who I kept to myself like a dirty little secret. Could that in some twisted way be
part of his appeal?
No, there was more to it than that, whether I wanted to admit the truth or not.
“Who are you visiting today, Miss Sutten?” Officer Rizzo asked, grabbing my little black fake leather handbag, tossing
it to the wooden table, and unceremoniously emptying the contents. I’d been through this procedure before—at least the purse
part anyhow—so I never carried anything other than my wallet and a few odd necessities when I came to see Cole. It was to
avoid the pain-in-the-ass task of gathering up my belongings when the officers were finished pawing through all of my things.
“Cole Lincoln,” I replied, unbuttoning the last of the buttons on my black cotton blouse and slipping it off my slim,
ivory shoulders to reveal my breasts contained in a C cup black lace bra.
Officer Rizzo stopped flipping through my wallet to stare into my eyes for a moment and then clicked her tongue against
the roof of her mouth. “Aww, Cole. Yes, I know who he is. Triple homicide isn’t it?” A mocking smile spread across her lips.
“Known him long, have you? Got a thing for the really bad ones?”
Annoyance overrode my embarrassment. I was stressed enough; I didn’t need shit from her right now. I just wanted to
get on with it so I could finally be with him. Was that too much to ask?
Brushing a long, golden strand of hair from my face, I planted my hands on my hips and glared at the other woman. “Just
so you have your information correct, it was manslaughter and two men, not three. Cole was a victim of circumstance and was
simply defending himself.”
 Instead of reprimanding me for the correction Officer Rizzo merely smiled as if amused. “That what he told you? None
of the men in here are really guilty.” She made air quotes as she unashamedly rolled her eyes at me. “The prisons of America
are just overrun with innocent men, who are all victims of circumstance.”
I wasn’t going to let her goad me. I didn’t know what she was trying to achieve by getting under my skin, but whatever
it was I refused to allow her to find a reason to deny my visitation. “No, it’s what I learned from reading the newspaper
accounts of the case, but more importantly from reading the transcript of his trial. I’m not just some foolish woman.”
“So how long have you known him?” She repeated her question as she tossed my belongings back into my bag.
“Six months.”
Officer Rizzo huffed. “How did you meet him? Hasn’t he been here for a few years now? Serving out a dime if I recall
correctly.”
Heat began to burn my cheeks. If I was going to have any chance of having a relationship with him, I needed to swallow
down the shame that came with how we met. “I met him online.” But damn, did I ever hate to admit it. Maybe with time…
Naked except for my bra and matching black lace thong, I couldn’t resist the urge to cross my arms over my chest, as
though to protect myself from the ridicule and scrutiny coming from the other woman. Why was she making this process so
hard? She must know how humiliating and tough it was to be in my situation. It felt unnecessarily cruel.
Instead, the correction officer’s features softened and she sighed. “Spread your arms straight out so I can ensure you
don’t have any contraband on your person. Then you can proceed on.”
Closing my eyes, I reluctantly did as told, wondering and hoping that what I was enduring would be worth it. I was so
close to having some private time with Cole and feeling his body against mine.
What if Officer Rizzo decided I couldn’t proceed and denied our time? I felt my anxiety over the situation begin to rise
all over again.
Officer Rizzo began to pat me down as I held my breath, standing perfectly still. “You’re not the only young woman
who has come through here after meeting one of these men online and you won’t be the last, I guarantee that much.” Once done
with my humiliating examination of virtually every crevice of my body, she straightened back up, standing before me. “You can
get dressed now.”
“Thank you,” I whispered as I quickly grabbed my clothing from the floor—a faded pair of blue jeans and a black
blouse.
“But I’d like to give you some advice, honey.”
Pulling on my jeans, I looked up, my weary blue eyes meeting the other woman’s now sympathetic chocolate-brown
ones.
“Men in here have nothing but time. They may seem like they’re the perfect men: attentive, sincere, and appreciative of
what you do for them. But here’s the thing, once they’re back on the street…” She paused for a moment and frowned. “Well,
let’s just say men in here change outside these walls. If you have any fairy-tale dreams of him outside of this place, you might
want to think again.”
The smile I gave her was weak at best, and my heart sank just a little bit. I didn’t like being hit with what could be the
brutal reality. Not today. Not when I was about to get a brief moment of fantasy. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“Just saying is all. Now let me take you to your man. He’ll be anxious to see you, no doubt.” She shrugged. “They
always are.”
Fastening the last button on my blouse, I slung my handbag over my shoulder and followed Officer Rizzo out of the
room and down a series of drab and dreary corridors. I didn’t miss the number of condescending looks being shot at me by
several of the male guards. Despite the negativity, I refused to let them ruin my day or lessen the excitement that was building
within me at the prospect of seeing him and holding him—and being held by him. With each step I took toward him, my
excitement grew.
 We stopped at a door with a red sign labeling it as the exit door. With a final look over her shoulder at me, Officer
Rizzo opened the door and ushered me through. The door led to a small courtyard where there were half a dozen small trailers
lined up.
“This one over here. Number four.” She stopped halfway between the trailer and where we had exited and pivoted
around, a curious look on her face. “I have to ask you one more thing.”
Fuck. So close… yet so far it seemed.
Reluctantly, I nodded as I chewed nervously at my bottom lip. “All right. What do you want to know?”
“Why?”
“Why?” I parroted, slightly confused.
“Yes, why get involved with an inmate? You’re an attractive woman... Why not find yourself a good, successful man
who isn’t in here?” She huffed, jerking her thumb toward the jail. “It never makes sense to me. I’ve worked here for years and
it still makes no sense to me. Maybe you can be the one who makes me see the light on the subject.”
I sighed as I thrust my hands into my back pockets. “My father was incarcerated. He said it was the loneliest time in his
life. After ten years he was finally released on parole. I was a teenager and he found that life had moved on without him. But he
still had my mother. She waited for him.” I shrugged and gave the officer a weak smile. “Cole was in a similar situation, but
now he has me. Everyone in his life has turned their backs on him. But I won’t. I’ve known him long enough and learned enough
about him to know that he’s worth the wait and the effort.”
Officer Rizzo was quiet for a moment and her features softened slightly. Finally she nodded, although by the look in her
expression, she wasn’t convinced. She thought I was just another foolish girl. Maybe she thought that since I grew up without a
dad for much of my life I had some sort of daddy issue. Maybe she was right. I didn’t care to dig into it, scared of what the truth
may end up being.
“Fair enough. Come on,” she said, motioning for me to follow her.
I was led to the first trailer which had two armed guards standing at the entrance.
“This is Miss Sutten.” She nodded toward me. “She’s here to see prisoner Lincoln.”
Both guards eyed me, but the older and stockier of the two didn’t seem shy about scrutinizing me. His blatant leering at
my breasts made me feel more uncomfortable than some drunk guy at the bar ever could.
“He’s in there and waiting,” the younger guard replied, and then directed his attention toward me. “You’ve got three
hours. Ten minutes before your time is up we’ll yell a warning, which means stop what you’re doing...” The stockier guard’s
snickering interrupted his partner. “Wrap it up and leave the trailer so we can retrieve the prisoner. Understood?”
I nodded, “Understood.”
This was it. It had been nearly six months, but the moment was finally here.
 Chapter 2

Cole
As I sat on the single bed of the small, dingy trailer waiting to see if she would actually show up or not, there was an
anxiety within me that I hadn’t felt in a very, very long time—perhaps from the day I began the grueling process of Navy SEAL
training. That was a definite stressful time for me. Or it might have been the first time I had a person in the sights of my sniper
rifle just before pulling the trigger and the red mist that immediately after seemed to float in the air around the mark.
Those moments haunt me.
But this was a different type of anxiety.
My eyes scanned the room for what felt like the millionth time. The room was nothing more than a bed with a table, a
couple of chairs, and a small bathroom. They had given us some fresh linens for the bed, so at least it was clean, but there was
still a stench of sex and disinfectant in the little room that was slightly nauseating.
The guards had supplied me with a handful of condoms which I had shoved in the back pockets of my well-worn jeans
—just in case. I won’t sugarcoat it; I fully intended to use them today. I fucking hoped anyhow. Even self-gratification was hard
to achieve when in this hellhole. But I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t push her.
Since I’d been convicted, my family and friends had more or less disappeared. They came around the first year of my
sentence, but now, nearly five years into my ten-year sentence, visitors were virtually nonexistent. My one and only light in this
dreary godforsaken place was Breanna.
For the past six months, she’d shown me nothing but loyalty and devotion, a devotion I hadn’t experienced ever in my
lifetime. Each and every week—no exceptions—she’d show up.
A smile touched my lips and my dick sprang to life as I envisioned her during her last visit to see me. Her golden hair
had shone under the fluorescent lights overhead and the simple blue sundress she’d worn had matched the royal blue of her
eyes to perfection.
Each night I would call her collect—as per prison regulations—and we’d spend my allocated ten minutes on the phone
with her. After our conversation, I’d spend another hour writing her letters, which I mailed every morning without fail. This
particular visit was a special favor granted to me by the warden and I was immensely grateful to him for it. There was no price
tag on my special favor—yet—but one thing you learn quickly in prison was that nothing good came without strings attached.
Breanna was what made my life worth living at the moment and I cherished everything about her, from her beauty—she
was a stunning woman, as close to perfection as I could envision—to her kindness and quick wit. She was the perfect woman
and I thanked a God I really didn’t believe in each day that I had her in my life.
All of that was what made me feel so nervous today. The rest of my stay and the quality of my life while here all
depended on today and what happened.
It was going to go well.
It had to.
If she got cold feet and didn’t show up, I’d be crushed in a way I’d never been before. I had to keep positive. She was
going to show up; I had to believe she would and couldn’t allow myself to entertain the idea that she wouldn’t.
The sound of voices outside had my heart racing as I fought the urge to get up and walk over to the door. Instead, I kept
myself seated on the edge of the bed, my elbows braced on my knees, hands clasped as I watched the windowless door.
After a couple of minutes, the voices died off and the sound of the door being unlocked brought me to full attention.
This was it! The next five years hung in the balance of these coming three hours. Moments later the door swung open and
Breanna cautiously stepped up into the trailer, worry etched into her beautiful face.
 With her fully inside, the door was quickly closed and locked behind her, making her flinch before her eyes lifted to
look into mine and then quickly looked away.
Slowly standing, I silently watched her eyes scan the contents of the small trailer and a wave of shame washed over
me. This wasn’t where I’d have preferred our first time to be, but it was the best I could offer her. Her body appeared still, but
I couldn’t help but notice her hands grasping her little handbag shook ever so slightly. Slowly, cautiously, as if I were to keep
from startling a wild animal, I closed the distance between us. This was no doubt scary for her and due to that, I knew that I
needed to handle her cautiously. With less than two feet separating us, her eyes finally met my gray ones.
“Th-they told me w-we have three hours.” A slight smile touched her pink-painted glossy lips, which was all the
motivation that I needed. Quickly I closed the remaining distance between us, pulling her tight to me, my large frame practically
eclipsing her.
Her body froze in my arms for a moment, as her little handbag slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor.
Fuck, I’d moved too quickly. She wasn’t ready for me to advance on her like that.
She remained still for an instant and then seemed to relax, wrapping her arms around me and burying her face in my
neck.
She felt and smelled like fucking heaven. Ten times better than I’d dreamed. Fuck, one hundred times even. This was
already the greatest day I’d had in as long as I could remember.
I took a deep breath in, taking in the intoxicating scent of peaches as I inhaled. Damn, she smelled good—so fresh and
clean, so wonderfully feminine. In a place like this, she smelled like freedom. Sweet, sweet freedom.
I’d gone over five years without the feel of a soft, beautiful woman in my arms; so even if all she permitted us to do
today was allow me to hold her close, her lush breasts pressed tightly against my T-shirt clad chest, then I’d go back to my cell
a happy man.
“You have no idea how much I’ve looked forward to this day. I’ve been counting the hours since we were given the
approval,” I murmured into her hair. My dick was growing at an alarming rate, straining against the denim containing it.
Pulling away from me, though still keeping the palms of her hands resting on my chest, she looked up into my eyes and
nibbled nervously at her bottom lip. My gaze was automatically drawn to those lips, which shone in the dim fluorescence of the
overhead light.
Was the gloss on her lips flavored?
I was dying to find out.
She reached up and caressed the line of my jaw, which bore a slight stubble. The feel of her soft hand sent a chill
through me, increasing the fire within. A light, nervous laugh passed her lips and she dipped her eyes to scan the expanse of my
chest and shoulders. Due to all my years in the Navy and then in the SEALs, I’d been in peak physical shape before going to
prison. However, in prison there wasn’t much to do, so I spent as much time as possible in the gym working out. A strong,
muscular body was the result.
“I’m a little nervous,” she finally admitted, casting her gaze downward and refusing to look into my eyes.
So am I, I silently told her.
Pulling her in tight against me once more, I placed a tender kiss on her temple and stroked her hair, which fell halfway
down her back. Even the feel of her silken locks as they passed through my fingers was turning me on.
Fuck, keep control of yourself, Lincoln, I scolded myself. If things got to the point of being physical, then the last thing
I wanted was to end up being a thirty-second wonder.
“There’s no need to be.” I released a low, deep chuckle. “If anyone should be nervous it should be me. This is the first
time I’ve held a woman in over five years.”
When she didn’t respond, I cupped her chin in my hand and forced her eyes to meet mine. I needed her to see my
sincerity. “Nothing will happen unless you want it to happen. I swear to you I’m happier now just holding you than I’ve been
since I was put in here. Hell, longer than that, even. So there’s nothing to be nervous about, and I don’t expect anything other
than your company for the next three hours. What we do or don’t do is completely up to you. This has already been the best day
I’ve had in a very, very long time.” And I meant it.
When she didn’t respond right away, I caressed her soft cheek with my thumb, causing her to inhale sharply. She had the
cutest heart-shaped face. She was so fucking perfect.
“Okay?” I prompted, concerned about her failure to respond.
 Chapter 3

Breanna
I released an unsteady breath and nodded. I’d built this moment up in my mind for so long that now that it was finally
here, I was at a loss.
One thing was for sure. Having his arms around me made my knees weak. The man was amazingly sexy; the hard lines
of muscle strained under the cotton shirt. While I knew the sweet, sensitive side of him, there was an underlying bad boy edge
to him that was exhilarating, yet intimidating. Or maybe it was this place, this little trailer that told me that he wasn’t good for
me. Why else would he be in a place like this if he didn’t belong here?
He was the kind of man your mother warned you about, but you couldn’t wait to hop on the back of a motorcycle with.
But there was so much more to him. If his words were genuine, and I felt they indeed were, then he was the type of man women
fell hard for and ultimately got hurt by in the process. Not due to him being dishonest, but due to them falling for the dream and
jumping before looking first.
Kinda like I was doing now?
Maybe.
He pulled me back into him against his warm body and I sighed.
The initial timidness that had been plaguing me when I first entered the trailer faded away as the longing I’d been
feeling for him over the past months took over. Dammit, I wanted him worse than anyone before.
He was a secret. Forbidden. And all mine. At least for the next few hours.
I ran my hands across his chest and shoulders, feeling the beautiful hard and defined muscle under the prison-issue
cotton T-shirt. I wanted to say something, but words seemed to be at a loss for me.
“Everything and anything that happens here is up to you. I’d never push you,” he reiterated. His voice and words were
soothing, like satin running over my flesh and causing goosebumps.
Looking back into his eyes it was easy to determine that he was indeed telling the truth and damn did it ever turn me on,
causing my pussy to clench with anticipation.
Pressing my body up against him, I ghosted my lips across his. “I want this,” I whispered against his mouth. Damn, I
don’t think I’d ever wanted anything worse.
His response took me by surprise, sending a thrilling shiver down my spine. Pulling me even tighter against him, his
eager cock pressed against my stomach. His lips came crashing down onto mine, claiming me with an urgency that I’d never
felt from anyone before. When his tongue slipped between my lips, I let out a soft moan as our tongues met and began to duel.
Cole’s kiss was filled with such intense hunger and passion that it seemed as though the last sliver of my mind’s control
over the situation gave way to my body. Our bodies took over, my hips rubbing against the hard ridge of his cock through the
layers of clothing. My hands slipped up and under the back of his T-shirt to feel the contours of muscle.
He felt so good, so hard; every inch of his body, muscled and rigid, was pressing against me. His hands slipped to my
ass, cupping my ass cheeks in his palms and pulling my groin tighter against his hardened shaft.
I moaned against his lips again as fresh waves of pleasure crashed through me, ending with an intense pulsing between
my legs. My panties were becoming increasingly and uncomfortably wet as the desire within me rose.
How we managed to make it across the small room without me realizing we were moving is beyond me. But suddenly I
was falling backward onto the bed, his large frame collapsing over me. He caught his weight with a hand on either side of my
head to prevent himself from crushing me with his massive frame. His eyes locked onto mine, the intensity of his gaze sending a
shiver through me as the world around us momentarily stood still. Fisting the back of his T-shirt, I attempted to gain control
over myself.
 My Lord, do I ever need this man!
It was thrilling, yet as scary as hell. He could hurt me—not physically of course. But if this were to happen, I could be
hurt worse than I’d ever been hurt before. Could my heart handle it? Did it matter?
“You have no idea how much I’ve dreamed of touching and kissing your sweet lips. Every day, every night. You’re all I
think about, Bre,” he whispered, as he bent down and trailed a line of kisses up my neck from my collarbone to my earlobe.
I was losing my mind from the combination of his words and the teasing feel of his lips and tongue on my sensitive
flesh. Hot bursts of desire shot through me and I cried out, closing my eyes and clutching tighter to his shirt.
I was vaguely aware that every moan, every scream, every loud word could be heard by the guards outside, but fuck
it… It didn’t matter at this moment. In fact, in some messed-up, twisted way it made me even wetter thinking about the men
outside getting hard just hearing me with Cole.
“Say the word and we stop,” he whispered in my ear, nipping at my lobe.
I barely had a second to reply a weak, “Uh-huh,” before his mouth was covering mine once again. Stop? Why would I
stop? Why would I ever want this to end? I’d never been so aroused, or so desperate to see and feel a man naked over me in
my twenty-six years.
Maybe it was the three months of knowing him, falling for him, and knowing I couldn’t have him in this way that fueled
my desire and urgent need to have him in me with such urgency. I didn’t know the reason and didn’t care.
Grabbing the bottom of his shirt, I struggled to pull it up. Taking the hint, he sat up between my legs and pulled the
troublesome shirt up over his head, tossing it onto the table next to the bed. He began to lower himself back down over me, but
I stopped him, pressing a palm to his chest.
“I want to see you.”
Cole didn’t say a word but simply stayed where he was on his knees, between my legs, his chest heaving heavily and
the large outline of his cock straining against his jeans. His body was right out of a fitness magazine, defined abs, lean torso,
broad chest, and powerful, muscular shoulders and arms that were easily the size of my thigh. Damn. Between the beauty of his
body and his strong jaw, high cheekbones, and piercing gray eyes, he looked a thousand times better than any male cover
model.
The lighting in the trailer was dim, despite it being the middle of the day, but I could still see the numerous scars that
littered his upper torso. I was tempted to ask about the scars, but decided to leave those questions for a better time.
I ran my fingers along the lines of his abs, which caused a low, deep growl to escape his lips. Looking up I saw an
intense, feral hunger in his eyes as they surveyed my body. Another shiver of anticipation shot through me.
Running a hand through his short, sandy blond hair, he released a pent-up breath in an attempt to calm himself. “Just so
you know. I have condoms, if you want to... well... and I’ve been tested, we are required to be to…” When a slight coy smile
touched my lips, he stopped his rambling and laughed. “And you already know all this...”
His neck took on a slight pink tint that gradually moved up to his face and made me giggle. This whole situation was so
damned sexy, uncomfortable, arousing, and exciting all at the same time. I felt a million emotions rushing through me at once,
making it the most intense feeling I’d ever experienced.
Sitting up, I placed a kiss on his stomach as he slipped my open shirt off of my shoulders and let it slide to the bed
behind me. I paused, taking a deep breath in and slowly releasing it, attempting to calm the fire blazing within me. Then he
began to undo his jeans, freeing his thick, erect cock. It was monstrously huge, with a dollop of cum seeping out of the slit at the
tip. I fought the urge to take his cock into my mouth, sucking it dry.
Not now. Not yet.
Hooking my thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans, I tugged them down over his hips. The briefs he was wearing
quickly followed suit. Cole’s body tensed up against me as his hands worked their way into my hair, while he gently urged my
lips to his shaft.
 I licked my lips in anticipation before flicking my tongue across the slit, lapping up the already gathered cum from the
tip. He moaned softly, his hands fisting my hair giving it a little tug. Flicking the tip once more, I then circled my tongue around
the thick head, before running it along the underside of his cock, from his balls to the tip, circling the head a second time.
“Damn that’s fucking torture,” Cole groaned. “Don’t fucking stop.”
As I took the tip of his cock in my mouth I looked up, my blue eyes catching his desire-filled gray ones. I held his gaze a
moment before sinking his cock into my mouth until the tip reached the back of my throat. He groaned a little louder this time,
his hips lightly thrusting against my mouth as I began a steady rhythm, his hips rocking to meet my mouth.
I reached down and grasped his balls in the palm of my hand, massaging and tugging at them gently as my lips continued
to torture his shaft.
“I can’t remember feeling anything so good,” he gasped, his hands tightening in my hair as his hips began to thrust with
slightly more force. If I wasn’t still wearing my jeans I’d have slipped my hand between my legs and begun to stroke myself.
But I couldn’t. I was forced to endure the fire that was burning in my pussy which was driving me to near insanity, my body
demanding his cock.
With my free hand I began to stoke the base of his cock in time with my mouth’s up and down movements. His dick and
balls became rock solid. Sensing his impending release, I increased my efforts.
“If you don’t stop soon, I’m going to end up coming in your mouth, honey,” he warned, his voice breaking as he spoke.
Closing my eyes, I moaned, anxious to taste him and feel his explosive release pummel the back of my throat and
tongue.
Taking my moan as an invitation, he took control, fucking my mouth in earnest, his cock and balls solid and throbbing
moments before his release met my greedy mouth, his cum surging from his dick to pummel against the back of my throat. I
moaned again, quickly drinking down every last drop, as if it were the finest wine.
“Oh God, Bre,” Cole groaned, sitting back on his heels once more. Hooking his index finger under my chin, he tilted my
face up so my eyes met his and then lowered his lips to mine, kissing me so tenderly and with so much affection that it left me
lightheaded. “I have no words. I...”
When he pulled his mouth back from mine, I looked up at him with a coy smile on my lips. “Maybe I’ll find out.”
“After that, you can have anything you want,” he teased as he slid off the bed and stripped off the remainder of his
clothing and set it on the table with his T-shirt. I watched every movement he made intently.
As Cole came back over to the small bed and stretched out on his side beside me, he pulled me back into his arms. The
nervousness I’d been feeling when I first arrived about being here in this dingy trailer and with him had vanished. A shiver of
anticipation ran down my spine as his eyes drank in every exposed inch of my body.
“I’d like to see all of you, baby,” he finally said, his eyes catching mine. “I need to see every inch of you.”
A shiver of anticipation raced through me once more, causing my body to slightly tremble.
Cole frowned. “Are you cold? There’s a blanket in…”
I placed a hand on the side of his face and urged his lips to mine. “I don’t need a blanket,” I whispered against his lips.
“I need you.”
“Oh Breanna,” he growled, claiming my lips, pushing me back against the bed, his fingers trailing down my stomach
until they reached the button of my jeans. When he hesitated, I grasped his semi-hard cock and gave it several fast and hard
jerks; it quickly turned solid and ready for a second round.
That seemed to be all the encouragement he needed. His fingers undid the button and unzipped my jeans, pushing them
down past my hips. Within second, my jeans were off and I lay naked, except for my black lace bra and matching thong, which
was drenched with my need.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve masturbated while thinking of you, Cole,” I admitted. Generally, I would have
been too shy to have admitted that to the man I was with, but with Cole it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world to
reveal. There was something there, something intense and beautiful that I had a hard time wrapping my head around, but I knew
I never wanted to let that feeling go.
Cole whipped his eyes up to peer into mine as he pushed my wet underwear down my hips and off. Reaching behind
me, he undid the clasp at the back of my bra and slipped it from my shoulders, revealing my C-cup breasts with taut, pink
nipples.
“Masturbate for me, Bre. I want to watch,” he whispered in my ear, sending yet another chill down my spine. I closed
my eyes and moaned softly, as my fingers made their way between my legs and parted the lips to reveal my moist pussy and
swollen clit. He caught my chin in his hand and kissed me lightly. “Open your eyes. I want to see the look in them when you
come.”
I nodded, chewing at my lower lip, looking into his desire-filled eyes, pushing back the urge to shy away from the
request.
Softly I began to stroke my clit as Cole palmed my breast in his hand. His fingers rolled my nipple into a tight peak
before he lowered his mouth to it, sucking hard and making me cry out as a jolt of pleasure shot through me combined with the
throbbing between my legs. I clung to his shoulder with my free hand, my French-manicured fingernails digging deep into his
flesh, but he didn’t seem to notice or care.
As the fire within me intensified, I increased the pressure and speed at which I stroked myself. “I thought you wanted to
look in my eyes when I came,” I gasped as I moved closer to orgasm and he moved his mouth to capture the other peak, nipping
at the bud.
“Oh, I do,” he assured me with a deep, throaty chuckle.
“Oh, God!” I groaned, sinking two fingers deep into my pussy. “I need your cock in me, Cole.”
With a final flick of his tongue over my nipple, his mouth grazed mine again, then he looked deep into my eyes. He
slipped his hand between my legs, pushing aside my hand so he could cup my mound himself. “You will. As many times as you
want it, baby.”
“Then give it to me now Cole, please!”
Without another word, he positioned himself between my legs, running the tip of his cock back and forth along the
length of my slit. He pressed his cock at the entrance of my core, then paused. “I can just…”
I didn’t let him finish. I wrapped my legs around his waist and held tight to him. “I have it covered; please fuck me,
Cole.”
With a sexy grin that could make any woman fall to their knees, he replied, “You’re the boss.” With one forceful thrust,
he plunged his dick into me, filling me completely, his massive shaft stretching me to my limits.
I screamed out, which gained the attention of the guards outside and a knock sounded on the door. Neither one of us
seemed to care as Cole began thrusting into me, filling me to the hilt.
“Is everything all right in there, Miss Sutten?” one of the officers inquired.
Oh, shit! Generally, I would have died from embarrassment, but the feel of him pounding into me didn’t allow me a
moment to become embarrassed as it brought me quickly to the brink, moments away from exploding over his cock.
“Answer or we’re coming in,” the officer warned.
“Fine, I’m fine,” I somehow managed to assure them through my gasps and moans. My fingers clung to his back, my
fingernails leaving deep, angry red scratches across his flesh. As I came, my pussy clenched around his shaft in an orgasm that
was more intense than anything I’d experienced before, leaving me panting and feeling lightheaded.
“Dammit, that felt so good, baby.”
He suddenly switched positions, sitting back on his heels and taking me with him. With his cock still buried deep inside
of me, he placed my legs over his shoulders and with my rear suspended in the air, resumed his dick’s assault on my quivering
pussy.
 I watched as his long, thick rod rammed deep into me, disappearing to the balls to reappear shining with my juices
coating it. Over and over he punished me with his dick. Slipping a hand between my legs, I parted my folds completely and
restarted my masturbation efforts while he fucked me into oblivion.
“You’re so fucking tight; it’s so fucking good.” He continued pummeling me, punishing me, rekindling the fire that had
been raging within me before the orgasm. My plump breasts jiggled with the force of his thrusts as I gripped the iron headboard
tightly to steady myself.
“Come with me, honey,” he coaxed, slowing the speed of his thrusts slightly.
“Almost there,” I gasped, increasing my efforts on my clit. With the combination of his cock, which was stroking my
inner walls, and my hand on my clit, I rapidly ascended toward climax. “Coming,” I screamed out just as the floodgates burst
open.
As I cried out, he gave me several, faster, harder thrusts and grunted as he unloaded within me, his cum mixing with my
juices. As my pussy vibrated from my orgasm, it milked his cock of every last sweet drop of his seed.
My heart was beating so rapidly that it felt as though it was going to explode through my chest. I’d never come so hard
in my life as I had with his cock buried deep into me. My gaze shifted up to meet his and he gave me a lazy, satisfied smile,
before placing a light kiss on my inner thigh and then gently lowering my legs to the mattress. As I lay spread-eagled on the
bed, he stretched out alongside me and ran a hand through my hair, watching the strands catch the light as they slowly fell from
his fingertips.
 Chapter 4

Cole
Glancing over at the basic analog clock mounted on the wall, dread rushed through me. An hour had gone by already.
There was so much I wanted to say while I had her there cuddled next to me. There was a mountain of information we had yet
to share, yet never enough time to share it. I knew a lot about her, from her favorite flavor of ice cream to the name of her
childhood pets—in order. But I wanted to dive deeper into what made her who she was. The deep type of sharing that could
only really be done face to face and looking into each other’s eyes. It seemed like two hours just wasn’t going to be enough.
And for the life of me, I had no idea where to even start to get out all I wanted to say to her.
“What’s wrong, Cole?” she asked, turning to her side and facing me. With her fingertips, she began tracing the contours
of muscle through my chest and shoulders. Her bright blue eyes looked up at me, a frown creasing her pretty features.
I ran my hand through her golden hair and watched the strands as they slowly slipped through my fingers. So soft and
silky. Such beauty in a place filled with ugliness. My gaze caught hers once more and I sighed. “I know we usually don’t talk
about why I was put in here. I know you’ve read the transcripts and the newspaper articles on it, but I think I need to tell you
my own account.” When she opened her mouth to protest, I leaned over and kissed her lightly, effectively silencing her.
“Please.”
She nodded.
Clearing my throat, I began, “I had just gotten my honorable discharge papers from the Navy and I had stopped by a
local bar to have some celebratory drinks before catching a bus the next morning to Nashville, where my family lived and
currently does—as far as I know. It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken to them so it’s hard to say. Anyhow, I was a mix of
emotions that night. Glad to be done and yet there was a part of me that feared being back in the real world. It’s hard to explain
and I don’t expect you to understand. I really didn’t have any real-life adult experience in the real world. If that makes any
sense.”
She nodded again.
“I was waiting for some buddies to show up for one last night of drinks before I was on my way. Who knew when I’d
see them again—if ever. I was drinking pretty heavily, too heavily if I were being honest with you, and these two men
approached me. I guess I resembled some man they’d been looking for. The guy owed them money or something... I still don’t
know to this day for sure.”
She nodded but didn’t interrupt as she continued to run her fingertips along my chest. Rolling over to my back I pulled
her over with me, holding her tight to my side and placing a kiss on her forehead.
“They started hounding me, mouthing off, just talking nonsense. I didn’t pay much attention to what they were saying. I
wanted none of it. I just thought they were a couple of drunk fucks. Finally, I decided to leave. I really didn’t want any trouble,
I just wanted to enjoy a good time, y’know? But it was more than that. There was something inside of me that was aching to
lash out. Years of training? Pent-up anger? Who knows really? I just know I needed out of there before I lost my patience and it
escalated. Told the bartender that if the boys showed up after I left to tell them to meet me at a different bar a few blocks
away.”
Breanna nodded. “I get that. Makes sense.”
“So, I paid for my drink, stood, and made my way to the exit, but they followed. They didn’t say or do anything, just
followed me.”
Memories of that night began to flood the forefront of my mind. Other memories joined them, of my time when I was
trained that if given the command life was considered expendable. Grueling, mind-fuck kind of memories. Fuck, I wished that I
could just bury them forever.
 I fell silent for a moment in thought, blankly peering up at the dingy off-white ceiling with its peeling paint. I wanted to
ensure that the details I told her were as accurate as I could remember them. Even though the incident changed my life
dramatically, it had happened over five years ago. Admittedly, I had been somewhat intoxicated at the time. Despite all that I
did remember the details fairly well—as though it had happened much more recently. The long, drawn-out trial had a lot to do
with that as well. I sometimes wondered how much I remembered myself and how much had been hand-fed secondhand
information from the trial that had filled in the gaps in my memory of that night.
“So I made it to the parking lot and was looking to see if there was a cab available. The other bar wasn’t far away but I
felt a cab would give me the separation I needed from them. As luck would have it there wasn’t at that moment. I was about to
go back in and call someone when the first one punched me—lower back. Fucking brought me to my knees, mostly because I
wasn’t expecting it. I was, but I wasn’t.” I looked over at her again. “You know what I mean?”
She nodded but remained silent, snuggling tighter to me, draping a bare leg over my thighs and placing her head on her
hands, over my chest, her eyes glued to mine.
“Things get a little hazy at this point in my recollection. I just seemed to lose control.” There were a lot of bad
memories, memories I wanted to keep locked away that came rushing back. “I knocked the first one’s legs from under him and
as he was on the ground I landed a punch to his neck. I know I was intending to hit his jaw, but the alcohol messed with my aim,
I guess. I later found out the punch had crushed his windpipe. He was dead before the ambulance arrived.
“The other man came at me from behind and put a knife to my neck. I brought my elbow back and caught him in the
stomach a few times, until he let go. I should have stopped there, but I didn’t. I was too caught up in the moment. I tackled him
to the ground and started beating him. I couldn’t seem to stop myself, I was in some sort of rage-fueled PTSD frenzy. He was
pleading with me, telling me to stop, but I didn’t. At least that’s what the eyewitness accounts say. Blood was everywhere, all
over me, all over him, and I just continued to beat on him, his head, neck, face. Just couldn’t stop. It was like I was possessed.
It took two police officers and a taser to pull me off.”
Shame washed over me. The first man, I could almost live with myself over. Almost. Accidents happen. But the second
man, I knew I should have stopped but I didn’t. I hadn’t been strong enough. It had haunted me every day of my life. Those two
men along with all the other faces who died as a result of my taking orders haunt me to this day. Therapy was helping, but I
suspected I’d be needing therapy for the rest of my life to sort out how fucked I was in the head—at least it felt that way at
times.
The days were bad, but the nights… The nights were infested with dreams so bad that I’d wake up in a cold sweat
screaming. I didn’t share that with her. Maybe one day, but certainly not tonight.
She placed a sweet kiss on my chest, pulling me from my thoughts. “It wasn’t your fault. You were assaulted. You did
what you needed to do.”
With a shake of my head, I looked down at her. “Nah, it was excessive use of force by a trained killer. The second man
especially. I lost control and I deserve to be in here. I deserve those ten years I was given—fuck, I sometimes think I deserve
more. If I do get paroled next month like we expect, I’ll be starting my life over at thirty-five. I’m losing five years of my life,
maybe ten if I don’t get paroled, but they’re dead forever…”
“They brought it on themselves. You did what you had to do, Cole.”
I grimaced. “Then why don’t I don’t feel that way? I was stronger than them. Better trained. Fighting and killing is what
I’d spent the previous ten years doing. Even with me intoxicated, they didn’t stand a chance, Bre. They simply didn’t.”
Breanna clung tighter to me, burying her face into my neck. “Because you’re a good man, with a conscience. You made
a mistake and you’re paying for that mistake now.”
I pulled away from her slightly, caught her chin in my hand and brought her eyes to mine, “I’m not a good man. I’m not.
I’m sure as hell not good enough for you and I know it, but you’re the light that keeps me going through each day. I live to hear
your voice and to see your beautiful face once a week. I live for you. So I’m going to be selfish and take what you will give to
me of yourself and be grateful every moment you’re at my side.”
Having said what I needed to, I fell silent, running my hands through her hair. Again, I watched as the silken strands fell
through my fingers. I took in a deep breath and exhaled loudly, then asked the question that had been plaguing me for the past
few weeks. “With so many great eligible men to choose from, why do you even bother with a con?” I laughed but it was a
hollow laugh, which seemed to echo through the small trailer. Then I stared intently at her. “Why devote your time to a man that
is simply no good for you?”

Breanna
I blinked back the tears that were beginning to form. This was hardly the conversation I was expecting to have with him
today. Small talk perhaps, but certainly not this heavy conversation. “Well, I told you about my father...”
Cole shook his head, “No, there are tons of women with relatives in prison. And of all the men in prison, why did you
log onto that website for cons? Why select the profile of a man in for a double count of homicide?”
“Manslaughter,” I corrected him.
Suddenly I felt a chill and shivered against him. The chill was partly due to the temperature, but mostly due to the secret
that I’d been hiding from him. I hadn’t meant to hide anything from him; I’d meant to be up-front and honest about who I was
and why I’d chosen him, but as we got to know each other and our connection deepened, I realized I was beginning to fall in
love with him. And that left me in a major pickle. I feared that the truth would ruin everything, so I’d kept the reason why it was
him—why it had to be him—to myself.
“Shit, you’re cold. I’m sorry, let me grab that blanket.” Cole pulled himself from our embrace, slid from the bed, and
walked over to the table where the thick gray fleece blanket was sitting. Snatching up the blanket, he hurried back to me. Lying
back down he pulled me tight to him, covering our naked bodies with the blanket.
I had to tell him. It wasn’t fair not to. Our relationship was already plagued with problems and obstacles to overcome.
Dishonestly couldn’t be added to the list of issues we had.
As long as his parole hearing went smoothly and everyone assumed that it would—he’d been a model prisoner the past
five years—he’d be released and we were expecting to start a normal life together in a little over a month. He had to know
who I was.
I just…
Dammit.
The last thing I wanted to do was ruin the moment.
But now seemed like it was the time to tell him. I couldn’t let the charade last any longer.
“Cole, I need to tell you something,” I started, chewing nervously at my lower lip. I could hear the hesitation in my tone
and it made me cringe.
What if I lost him? I couldn’t bear the thought.
Cole frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Please don’t be angry... er... at least please hear me out.” Tears filled my eyes, threatening to escape. “Promise me that
much?”
 His body tensed next to mine, causing me to cringe and my frown deepen.
“Tell me what’s going on,” he pressed.
“I didn’t just randomly pick you, Cole.”
His brow furrowed as he stared at me more intently. “What do you mean?”
My heart felt like it was about to explode from my chest as I gathered the nerve to tell him the complete truth.
Shifting positions so that my head was propped up on my hand, I attempted to avoid his gaze, but he wasn’t having it.
Cupping my cheek in his hand, he forced me to keep my eyes focused on his.
“The second guy that attacked you...”
“Yeah, Carson Whitmore. What about him?”
Taking a deep breath in, I exhaled loudly, deciding to just blurt it out and let the chips fall as they may. “I was engaged
to him.”
Cole’s body tensed beside me as his expression turned blank before my eyes. He said nothing, did nothing, just stared at
me as if I’d grown a second head or something.
I’d dropped a bomb on him. This was probably the worst time to have confessed to him. I should have confessed well
before now. I was a piece of shit and a coward. I just…
Panicked that his silence meant losing him, I began rambling, laying it all out for him in one long word salad that barely
made any sense to me let alone him. “He was a horrid man—you have no idea how horrible he was. He was a monster, Cole.
He’d hurt and killed so many people... so many... He wasn’t the upstanding citizen he’d been portrayed to be.”
Silence.
“He wasn’t that way at first, mind you. I’d met him fresh out of high school. I was young and foolish and he was
charming and made me feel so special... Then it changed. It took some years, but he changed. He found a new group of friends.
They were into a whole lot of shit. When he started using he became hateful and angry all the time. Oh God, I don’t know. I
just...”
I took a deep breath, attempting to control the flood of emotions threatening to escape if I let them, before continuing.
“Never in my life did I think I’d end up in a relationship like the one I was in with him. It was the type of relationship that I
would warn friends to steer clear of, yet there I was fully into it. Drowning in it even.”
“I see.” His expression remained blank. Fuck, I wish I knew what was going through his head. I’d gone through the
possible outcomes of this conversation in my mind a million times. None of them were good.
“When I came to my senses, I wanted out and away from him. When I got up the nerve to tell him that it was over,
everything exploded. A look I’d never seen before came over him. It’s hard to explain.” I shuddered as the memories of that
night came back to me. The pain… So many levels of pain came from that night. “He just... lost his mind. Or maybe I was
seeing the real him, the him that he’d been hiding. Or maybe it was the drugs. He beat me, calling me a whore and telling me he
was going to kill the fucker that I’d been fucking behind his back. When I lost consciousness, he took off before the police
showed up. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
Tears were flowing freely now. I sniffed and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.
Cole remained quiet, but he pulled me tight to him, and I took comfort in the strength of his warm body next to mine.
Clinging to him, and through sniffles, I finished my story. “He and his buddy didn’t attack you for money; they attacked you
because you looked like a man they thought I was cheating on him with. The man was a cook at the restaurant I was a waitress
at. Carson couldn’t accept that I just didn’t want him and that he was the problem. He needed to pass the blame to someone, so
he saw you and thought you were my co-worker. He called me at the hospital, telling me he was taking care of the fucker that I
was screwing, and... well... you know the rest better than I do.”
Cole frowned. “But I don’t understand... there was no mention of a fiancée at the trial. This makes no sense. Why didn’t
that information come up?”
 I shook my head but kept my face buried against Cole’s shoulder. “I was too scared to come forward. I pretended I
knew nothing about it. You’re in jail because of me. If I had had the courage to testify about what I knew, you probably
wouldn’t be here.” I lifted my tear-stained eyes to meet his. “I’m so sorry, Cole. So, so sorry. I ruined your life. I am just…”
My shoulders shook as the sobs overtook me once more. “All I wanted was for it to be over with. I refused to tell the police
anything so no charges were filed. If I’d pressed charges. If I’d come forward then he’d never have been there that night and
you wouldn’t be here right now.”
There were so many ifs with this situation that haunted me.
 Chapter 5

Cole
I released a loud puff of breath. My mind was racing; never would I have ever expected anything like this. How I was
understanding it was that she was saying she was with me because of her guilt? She sought me out and was with me because of
guilt? I had no idea how to even take this revelation. A part of me knew that I should be angry with her over this. Hell, on one
level I was fucking furious. There were so many things she’d done wrong in this situation. Would it have changed anything
though? That was the thing that was tripping me up and keeping the anger at bay. Whether she came forward or not was
irrelevant. I’d been convicted of manslaughter, not murder. I still would have been convicted. Her blaming herself for me being
here was unnecessary when the outcome would have been the same regardless.
Maybe this. Maybe that. There was a lot of would’ve could’ve should’ve in life. She had no way of knowing how it
would all end. None of us did.
The one thing that irked me the most was that I’d spent countless hours tormented about what I’d done to become a
target for them just to find out this information. They intended to kill me. I’d been consumed with guilt for something that had
been completely out of my control.
She could have told me from the beginning. By all rights, she should have.
Dammit.
I ran a shaky hand through my short blond hair, trying to remain calm and think about this rationally.
Being in this place, I didn’t have the luxury of storming out of the trailer and telling her I needed to get a beer and we’d
discuss it when I calmed down. Telling her to leave could mean her never coming back. I had to handle this delicately.
She lied. And I damned well had a right to be upset. But when it came right down to it, I simply didn’t have it in me to
be angry over what happened in the past. Regardless of this new information, the first and foremost question on my mind was
where did we go from here?
The past was the past; I needed to know what the future held, for me, and for us now. This business of her and the ex
and me being here because of it could be sorted out another time. I needed to think for the future, not live in the past.
“I’m so sorry, Cole, you don’t know how…”
Her eyes were red and swollen from the tears which had left black streaks from her makeup down her cheeks. There
was enough suffering over this. The future was what was important and I’d be damned if I’d allow this to fuck up the vision I
was hoping for the future. My vision for the future was what kept me going in this hellhole most of the time.
Slipping my hand around her neck, I brought her lips down to mine. My lips ghosted hers, and I nipped at her lower lip.
When a soft moan escaped her lips, I thrust my tongue past her teeth and into her mouth. She moaned louder, kissing me back,
matching my passion.
My body came alive, and all that I could think about was sliding deep into her. But I still hadn’t gotten my answer, so I
pulled my lips from hers, despite her protest, and looked intently at her.
“I’ve learned a lot over the past five years here, and one of the most important things is that the past is the past. I’m not
going to blame or accuse or get angry over anything that may or may not have been your fault. The end result is the same. I
killed two men, and I was given a sentence; nothing is going to change that. Nothing you could have done or said would have
changed that. But there is something very important that I need to know.”
Her sad eyes peered up into mine, and it nearly broke my heart. I didn’t want to see her carrying guilt over what had
happened. As far as I was concerned, she was as much a victim of circumstance as I was; I needed her to see that. It just stung
that she felt she couldn’t have told me the truth about why she sought me out. Why couldn’t she have trusted me with that
information?
 I shook my head. I refused to go down that road. It was over. We’re starting fresh. Period. Part of being incarcerated
and doing time was so that when you were released you could start fresh. This new information wasn’t going to change that—I
wouldn’t allow it.
“You understand I don’t blame you?” I asked.
She nodded. She didn’t look convinced.
“So, no guilt, promise me that?”
Again, she nodded. Her expression seemed to brighten just a smidge. Good. I’d take it.
Taking a deep breath in, I slowly released it as I formulated how I was going to word what I said next. “I need to ask
you something, something extremely important to me. Something I need to know.”
“All right.”
She attempted a weak smile, which I appreciated. “Bre, are you here because of your guilt, or are you here with me
because your heart wants you to be?” I nearly cringed at the corny way I’d asked the question, but I needed to be clear on that
score; I didn’t want there to be any confusion. In for the right reasons or not in it at all.
God, I hoped it was for the right reasons. Losing the one light I had in my life currently would fucking kill me.

Breanna
His words had helped relieve some of the stress and anxiety I’d been harboring since I’d first begun talking to him. I
was somewhat surprised that he’d taken the news as well as he had, but I was nonetheless relieved. There was something to be
said about not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
I chewed at my bottom lip as I looked deep into his gray eyes. Beautiful gray eyes that visited my dreams each and
every night since I’d first made contact with him. Reaching down, I ran my hand down the length of his arm, the muscle flexing
under my touch. We lay there in silence as I took a moment to sweep my gaze along the beautiful body that I’d thought about
each night when I masturbated.
It didn’t take a genius to know why he was asking that question. He was fearful I was here out of guilt, or as penance
for the wrong I’d felt I had done to him. And despite his reassurance, I don’t know if that guilt would ever fully go away. But
that wasn’t the case, and I needed to make sure he knew that and wouldn’t have a sliver of doubt when I left that it was the
truth.
Dammit, this whole situation was hard. Or maybe I was just making it harder than it needed to be?
I had to be so careful on how I worded this. I wished this were different and we had more time to sort this out. The fact
that we were in a time crunch didn’t help the matter.
“When I first started speaking to you and seeing you, it was about my guilty conscience.” His expression immediately
darkened. Reaching out to him, I touched my hand to his cheek, and caressed the slight stubble.
I continued, “That hasn’t been the case for a long time now. Everything I’ve said to you was true; you mean everything
to me. While I tracked you down out of guilt, I’m here now because of the bond we’ve formed. You are the man I need in my
life and even if your parole isn’t issued next month, I’ll continue coming here each week, speaking with you each night, and
anxiously awaiting your letters every day until you’re free.” I laughed. “I mean how many girls can say they get love letters
from their boyfriends every day?”
The tension in his expression seemed to dim, but it was still there. I needed to just put it out there and let the chips fall
as they may. I survived a lot in my life, and while it would crush me, I needed to be brave even if a rejection was in my future.
Pushing him back against the mattress, I straddled his waist and laid my body over his, relishing the feel of his erect
cock between my legs, and his hard body under mine.
“I’m in love with you, Cole. That’s why I’m here and why I’ll always be here for you.”
I swore for the span of several beats the room was so quiet I could hear the sound of the guards outside the trailer
playing games on their mobile phones.
The stony expression he’d been wearing broke as a hint of a smile formed on his lips. I yelped as he quickly flipped me
onto my back, bracing his body above mine, settling himself between my legs as his lips came crashing down on mine with a
renewed passion. I moaned under his mouth, my hands wrapping around his back and clinging to his shoulders, pulling him
down closer to me.
My pussy came ignited with my desire, aching for him. As he continued kissing me, his tongue forcing mine into
submission, his hand slipped between us and cupped my mound. I bucked violently against his hand, needing something in me
and now! Hand, cock, tongue, I didn’t care, but my body needed it—demanded it—now.
His fingers parted my pussy lips and stroked the length of my slit, beginning at my anus and slipping to my clit. Over
and over.
“Fuck, so wet. So beautiful,” he groaned against my mouth.
“Please!” I cried out before his lips came crashing down onto mine again.
His torturous fingers continued, sliding along the length of my opening, but not giving me the pleasure of filling me. I
gripped tighter to his shoulders, my nails digging into the tanned flesh. After the fifth swipe of my slit, he focused on my clit,
pinching the swollen, sensitive nub.
“Oh God!” I gasped, when he lifted his mouth from mine and began working his way down my neck in a mixture of
licks and kisses and nibbles that sent a shockwave down my spine. “Fuck me please, Cole. God, please.”
Cole chuckled as he rolled my clit between his fingers. “You’ll get it soon enough.” His mouth progressed to my breasts
and he quickly captured a hardened nipple between his teeth.
“Cole!” I cried out as jolts of electric pleasure continued to shoot through my body, intensifying the need between my
legs. The need was so intense that my warm juices began to seep from my pussy and down my thighs and ass.
A knock came at the door. Fuck! “Miss Sutten, is everything okay in there?” the guard asked.
The fucker knows it’s all okay in here, I silently cursed his interruption.
“Everything is fine. We’re fine,” I called back. I would have bet money that he and his perverted partner were outside
the door with their ears pressed up against it, getting off on listening to my moans. I tried to pull the thought of them from my
mind, which was easily accomplished as Cole’s mouth finished the torture on my breasts and began to work its way lower,
over my torso and stomach.
No longer having Cole’s hard body to cling to, I reached up and behind me, fisting the linen under me. The tension
within me was so strong that by the time his mouth made it to my newly shaven mound, I thought I was going to explode just
from the anticipation of his mouth on me where his fingers had just been playing.
Cole stopped for a minute and I groaned my frustration. Why? Why was he so wicked in his torture? Opening my eyes I
looked down, loving the view of his head between my legs, his eyes drinking in the sight of my moist pussy.
“So soft, I love it, Breanna,” he whispered, grazing his fingertips over my mound, which I’d ensured was perfectly soft
and smooth—in anticipation for today.
Propping myself up on my elbows, I smiled. “It’s just for you.”
Slipping two fingers between my folds, Cole parted my lips wide, exposing my clit and the entrance to my heated,
needy core to him. He slipped two fingers deep into me and began stroking my inner wall, hitting just the right spot to make me
gasp and then moan loudly. Too loudly. My breath hitched as I anticipated another knock on the door, but to my relief none
came.
Closing my eyes again, I lay back onto the hard, lumpy mattress, tightening my grip on the linen under me. His expert
stroking was bringing me rapidly to my climax, so close that I could barely breathe. His mouth joined his fingers in his torment
of my pussy, his tongue flicking and circling my hard clit. Shivers rushed down my spine, and I writhed on the bed, desperate
for release.
As his lips closed over my clit and sucked lightly, I exploded over his hand. My juices drenched his fingers and ran
down the back of his hand leaving a slight shimmer in their wake.
“Damn, honey!” He slipped my legs over his shoulders and slid off the bed to kneel on the floor. Before I even had a
chance to relax and enjoy my orgasm, his tongue replaced his hand as he buried his face between my legs. His tongue darted
into me, working as he would his cock, darting in and out, thrusting.
The fire within me quickly reignited. The sounds of him as he lapped up my juices were driving me nearly insane with
need.
“Please Cole, I need your dick. Please…” I begged, but he was relentless.
“Come for me once more and you can have what you want,” he murmured against my mound.
I groaned in frustration. Even the vibrations of his words against my throbbing, moist pussy increased the fire within me
to almost unbearable heights. His tongue felt so good, but I wanted more, needed more.
My groin bucked wildly against his mouth. I was moments away from being overtaken by yet another orgasm. My body
tensed, my pussy clenching around his insistent tongue until I exploded into his mouth. I had to clamp my jaw tight to keep from
crying out his name and summoning another intrusive knock from the guards outside.
He greedily lapped up my juices as I lay spent on the mattress, panting hard and basking in the feel of his tongue over
my heated flesh. When he was satisfied that he’d gotten every last drop of me, Cole slid my legs off his shoulders and climbed
back onto the narrow bed with me, holding me close.
Despite experiencing back-to-back orgasms, looking over at Cole and feeling his heated body and hard cock against me
had me longing for more of him. Pushing him onto his back, I straddled his hips.
“Now will you fuck me?” I asked, giving him a coy smile and flipping my hair over my shoulder so he could get a good
view of my breasts.
Reaching up, his hands palmed my tits, kneading the flesh and pinching my nipples back into hardened peaks. Moaning
softly, my head fell back, causing my golden hair to cascade down to my lower back and lightly graze his thighs.
Grasping his cock in my hand, I began stroking him while slipping the head back and forth between my heated and eager
pussy lips. It was Cole’s turn to groan, louder than I had, but surprisingly enough the guards didn’t seem too concerned about
him. No knock came.
“Tell me how much you want it,” I demanded, lifting my head back up to peer down at him. It was my turn to tease and
torment, and I intended to take advantage of every second of it.
“I’ve wanted you since the first day you came to see me.”
“Mmmm,” I licked my lower lip, keeping my gaze locked onto his. “And...”
“And I came every night imagining how good and how tight your little pussy was going to feel when I had the chance to
experience it.”
I loved that answer. Placing his cock at my entrance, I took in the head. I took him in, for just an instant I pulled him
back out and continued with the torment, slipping it back and forth between my pussy lips. I fully intended to make him suffer as
he had me.
“My God, that’s torture, honey,” he growled, his hands leaving my breasts and gripping my hips, attempting to impale
me on his cock.
“So when you get out, how often are you going to fuck me?”
Cole chuckled. “Anywhere, anytime, for as long as you want.”
I smiled. “Good answer.” Without another word I slammed myself down onto his cock, taking him in fully, and then
wiggled my hips, taking the remaining tiny part of an inch.
“That’s perfect, take it all in and ride me. Ride my cock, honey,” he urged, his hands on my hips setting the pace of my
thrusts.
Rocking on him, I began rotating my hips in circular motions as I moved up and down on his massive cock. Each time I
moved up on him, I would pull almost completely out before slamming back down onto him, creating a faint slapping noise. My
breasts jiggled and bounced from the vigorous motions.
His cock fit so perfectly inside me that I would swear it was meant especially for me. With each up and down motion,
his cock rubbed my inner walls, bringing me closer and closer to yet another orgasm. The waves of pleasure that came rushing
through me were becoming so intense that I began to feel lightheaded, but I didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. His groans urged me to
keep going.
“Dammit, that’s good, Bre. So good,” he moaned, his hands tightening on my hips, forcing me down tighter and tighter.
“I’m so close!”
“Good.” He had barely gotten the word out when his body tensed against me, his dick thickening. His seed shot deep
into my core; pummeling my inner walls was enough to send me spiraling over the edge with him.
“Fuccck!” I cried out as my pussy clenched tightly to his cock and then released, flooding it with my juices. Completely
spent, my smaller frame collapsed over his.
Cole, also still reeling, circled his arms around my waist and pulled me tightly to him. As I snuggled up to him, content
in his arms, he brought me back to full attention the second he spoke. “Bre, I’m falling in love with you,” he confessed.
Time seemed to stop, and I gave my head a little shake. Had I just imagined with I’d heard? I’d felt hurt when he hadn’t
reciprocated my proclamation earlier, but it’s been a rocky road for us and I wanted his feelings to be genuine, not just to
appease me.
My heart began to race as I looked up and into his eyes. I’d never have thought falling for someone in this manner
would be possible. Hell, after I was left for dead by my ex-fiancé, I’d seriously doubted I’d ever fall in love with any man
ever again. But here I was in a beat-up old trailer, which stank of sex and mold, cuddled in the arms of the man to whom I felt I
owed my life, and falling deeply in love. No, scratch that. There was no doubt about it; I was in love with the man who killed
my ex.
“That makes my heart feel so good to hear. You know I feel the same way.” I lowered my lips to his but was interrupted
by the sound I was dreading: a loud bang on the door of the trailer.
Angry and frustrated that the guards wouldn’t just mind their own business and leave us alone for the short three hours
we had together, I was about to yell for at least the third time since I’d arrived that I was fine when I took notice of the clock on
the wall and gasped.
Cole followed my line of sight to the clock and frowned. “We have to hurry and get dressed. I hear they aren’t shy about
coming in when the time is up and we have less than ten minutes.”
Shit! How did three hours go by so quickly? With a depressed sigh, I slid off Cole. Already missing the feel of him
close to me, I got to my feet and quickly began dressing. Cole followed suit. After dressing, I glanced at the clock again; we
had three minutes left before the guards came after us.
Once clothed, I rushed into his arms, holding tightly to him and trying to imprint the feel of him in my mind.
“It’s only going to be a month or so, and then we can try our hand at a normal life.” Cole hooked a finger under my chin
and forced my eyes up to look at him. “A normal date, normal sex without people listening at the door. Just a normal couple
living a boring life.”
A smile crept onto my face. “I think I could grow to like normal.”
“Good, then normal we’ll be.”
The final knock that I had been dreading sounded, followed by the unlatching of the lock on the door.
Cole leaned over and kissed me gently. “Soon,” he whispered against my lips as the door was flung open, revealing the
two male COs and Officer Rizzo.
“All right lovebirds, time is up. Come on out, Miss Sutten.” The older heftier officer motioned with his hand for me to
exit as he spoke. “Officer Rizzo will escort you out.”
“Soon,” I parroted as I reluctantly stepped out of his embrace, tears brimming my eyes, and began walking toward the
open doorway.
Exiting the trailer, I sniffed as I forced myself not to turn back around for fear I’d begin getting emotional again. Instead,
I followed Officer Rizzo back out the way we’d come, neither of us speaking and me feeling both sad and uncomfortable. I
mean, what would we have to talk about? As I reached the exit, Officer Rizzo broke the silence. “Can I ask you a question,
Miss Sutten?”
I nodded, hoping she wasn’t going to pry or ask something that would make me break down in front of her. “I
suppose...”
“Is it worth it? Is coming here every week and sacrificing having a normal, real relationship with a good man to be with
a felon worth it?”
I was too emotionally exhausted to be offended by the question. Looking the officer square in the eyes, I didn’t hesitate
in my answer. “Without a doubt, Officer Rizzo. He’s worth it.”

Cole
Between our few hours together and the information she dumped onto me, it was a lot to process. As if I needed more
on my mind at the moment. My mind was consumed with the parole hearing. After my time with Breanna I wanted even more
desperately for it to work out.
“Hurry up,” the guard growled, giving me a push. “I have shit to do.”
I cut my eyes to him and didn’t answer, but I did increase my pace across the courtyard and in through the steel doors
that took me into the heart of the suck again. The guards and prison used a variety of methods to keep us in line, but having the
conjugal visit made me even more eager to get out of here. I’d do anything to make it happen.
“She’s a hot little number. Probably has a half dozen dicks lined up for her on the outside.”
I gritted my teeth, refusing to be goaded. Brian had a way about him. Fucker loved to get the inmates riled up,
especially when they had parole hearings coming up. He wasn’t going to ruin my parole.
“Did you hear me?”
“Heard you, Boss.”
“What do you think about that?”
“No thoughts.”
 He chuckled.
Motherfucker. It would give me immense satisfaction to kick the shit-eating grin off his smug face. But not reacting was
even worse for him. He wanted a reason to use the baton or taser on me.
Not going to get what he wanted from me.
As we passed the cells there were cat calls and yelled vulgarities from the other inmates. They all knew where the door
led and what coming in from that door meant. I ignored them.
The Navy had taught me to ignore goading, but nothing quite toughens you up like prison. I sometimes wondered if I
even had heart enough anymore to allow Breanna in to love her fully. I wanted to.
I just didn’t know…
The prison was a maze of twists and turns of cages of men, but we finally reached my cage on the second floor.
Opening the door, he gave me a push into the cell and slammed the door behind me.
“Your boyfriend has been missing you. Maybe you can let him lick your girl’s pussy juice off your cock?” He chuckled
at his crude joke and sauntered off.
“Dickhead,” I muttered under my breath as my cellmate set his book aside and sat up on the lower bunk, looking up at
me. I felt bad for Jamal; he was here on a second-degree murder charge. Twenty-five years. If he’d been white instead of a
black inner-city kid, under the circumstances that I knew them, he’d have gotten ten to fifteen. Sentenced at the tender age of
nineteen. All of his youth would be gone by the time he got out because of some bad choices made as a kid. When he came into
the system a year ago and became my cellmate, I ended up becoming his friend and confidant, doing my best to keep him from
the wrong crowds. I worried for what would happen to him when I was gone. I’d visit him frequently and hope he took my
guidance over the past year and used it to get though his time relatively unscathed.
I allowed myself to smile for the first time since Breanna left my mind, reenacting our time together and the feel of her
soft, fragrant skin against mine. “Amazing.”
“So?” His grin widened as he rubbed his hands together. “Let me hear the deets. How was it? Don’t leave anything
out.”
Laughing, I grabbed the railing of the top bunk and swung myself up, lying down on my back and lacing my fingers
behind my head. “I’m not telling you shit, brother.”
“Come on, man. You’re leaving in a month. Share this last detail. Don’t hold out on me now.” He got up from the bunk
and stood, turning to face me. “Was it incredible?”
I shrugged. “It was okay.”
His eyes narrowed at me. “Man, don’t be like that. I’d share with you.”
“I wouldn’t want you to share with me.”
“But I need something to jack off to.”
“I’d rather you didn’t. And that’s really weird my friend.”
“Bah.” Waving a dismissive hand at me he plunked himself back down on his bed. “I’ve seen her pictures. I can make it
up in my head anyhow.”
“Disgusting.”
“Bro, and I’m going to do it right now.”
“Jesus.” Shaking my head, I couldn’t help but chuckle. My bunkmate was one of the few things I’d miss about this
place. Less than a month. There was no way I was going to do anything to fuck up this release. Come hell or high water I’d be
walking through the front gates into the beautiful and loving arms of Breanna.
 Chapter 6

~ 1 month later ~
Breanna
As expected, and to the relief of both Cole and myself, Cole’s parole was granted. His lawyers had told him it was a
slam dunk, but one thing we both knew and had experienced firsthand in our lives was that even slam dunks could have a
wrench thrown into them. Even now with the parole granted, I still felt scared that somehow or some way the parole board
would change their mind. A fight would break out in the prison and he’d end up in the middle of it, rendering his parole null
and void. So many things could go wrong. Irrational I know, but until I was in his arms on the other side of those heavily
guarded prison gates I refused to get my hopes too high.
But that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to be prepared for his arrival, and that meant shopping. I didn’t have the money
to spend frivolously, especially when I was going to need to support a second person until he got a job. However, I could buy a
few things to make it feel more at home for him, including buying some men’s toiletries and stocking the fridge with some foods
and beverages that I knew he liked.
And I wasn’t planning on doing it alone.
If he was going to be a significant part of my life then I needed to start letting people close to me know about him and
us, which led me to the Sunset Café, a cute little breakfast and lunch restaurant. I had weekly breakfast here with my best friend
since grade school. The plan was to have lunch, spill the tea, beg her forgiveness for keeping him from her, and then have her
accompany me shopping.
I just hoped it all went well because if I couldn’t get Allison on board, then I was absolutely fucked when it came to my
family.
Would it matter if my family objected?
I’d cross the bridge when the time came.
Entering the café, I spotted Allison immediately in the back corner, on her mobile phone texting like a mad woman. No
doubt getting a little work done while waiting. There were always two constants with Allison: her work as an insurance
adjuster always came first, and she always had to arrive fifteen minutes early for any and every meeting.
Sensing my approach she looked up, her dark eyes looking into mine. She grinned when she noticed me approaching.
“Good morning, babes!”
Returning her smile, I gave her a quick up and down and laughed. “Always having to outdo me, I see.” She looked
amazing. She always did. I don’t think I’d ever seen her leave the house without a face full of expertly applied makeup and her
short, dark hair styled in a perfectly imperfect pixie look.
“Oh please. You’re naturally stunning. I have to work at it.”
“You’re too kind.” Slipping into the chair opposite her at the small two-person table, I slung my handbag on the back of
the chair and gave a brief look at the menu even though I already knew what I was getting.
Once we finished ordering, she gave me the look I’d get from her when she felt I was up to something. She knew me too
well.
Keeping this secret from her had been eating at me more and more with each passing month.
Sitting back in her chair, she crossed her arms over her chest and waited. “So what’s the tea? Spill it.”
Taking a sip from my glass of water, I tried to figure out the best way to start telling her everything. From the beginning
I supposed.
“There has been something I’ve been keeping from you. From everyone honestly, and I wanted you to be the first to
know.”
She lifted a perfectly shaped brow at me. “Sounds like it’s something pretty juicy. I’m all ears.”
 I shrugged. “It’s semi-important, yeah.”
“Enough with the theatrics, spill it. What’s going on?”
“Well, I met someone.”
“That’s wonderful news,” Reaching across the table, she gave my hand a little slap. “You had me scared it was
something bad. You came in here looking like you were heading to the principal’s office for a good talking to.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get too excited. This guy is different.”
“Well, tell me everything. How did you meet him? How long have you been seeing him? Relationship status… You
know. The usual.”
“His name is Cole Lincoln. He’s thirty-five. He’s absolutely gorgeous. He has these gray eyes that just… Mmm. You
know?”
“Oh, I know.” She leaned forward in the chair, bracing her elbows on the table, her gaze fixed on me. “How’d you
meet?”
Let the drilling begin...
“Online. We met online.”
She shrugged. “You make it sound like a bad thing. Most people these days meet online. It’s not a big deal, Bre. What’s
he like? What’s he do?”
“He’s amazing. He’s in between jobs at the moment. He was in the Navy.”
And there we go, she scrunched her nose up as if being unemployed meant a bottom-feeder. “He’s unemployed? So he
was just discharged and in between that way?”
“I guess you could say that…”
“Breanna, cut the shit. What aren’t you telling me?”
“Well, he’s not employed because he’s in prison. He’s getting out on parole next week. That’s why I need a shopping
partner—”
Her mouth dropped open as her eyes widened. “I am...” She gave her head a shake. “Okay, I’m obviously having a
stroke or something because you’re telling me he’s a felon and I’m thinking you’re about to tell me that he’s going to be staying
with you. But you’re not that fucking stupid so I know you’re not saying that, are you?”
Oh boy, did I ever wish I wasn’t saying that.
I threw my hands up in the air, in defeat. “That’s a pretty accurate description of what’s going on.”
“Are you out of your mind? Didn’t you go through enough when that asshole left you for dead? If you hadn’t texted me
that he was going off on you, and Craig and I hadn’t shown up at your place when we did, then you’d be dead right now!”
That stung and the fact that she’d throw that in my face really hurt. Tears threatened to emerge. Sniffing, I grabbed the
napkin on the table and dabbed at my eyes. “That’s not fair, Allison. Even you liked him at first. He changed, we both know
that. And I planned on leaving him.”
Her expression softened. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.” Reaching across the table, she took my hand in hers. “But
that was tough on all of us. I thought I’d lost my best friend. And then you wouldn’t even press charges.”
“I just wanted it to be over.”
“I get that—but still. If that bastard didn’t get what was coming to him then who knows how many women he’d have
beaten or even killed by now. Trust me, if I ever come face-to-face with the guy who killed that son of a bitch I’ll kneel at his
feet and thank him on behalf of all the women out there he saved.”
A clap of laughter erupted from me. It wasn’t funny, it really wasn’t, but I’d been under so much pressure that the irony
was just too much for me. The laughter was so intense that tears sprang to my eyes and trickled down my cheeks. By the time I
stopped laughing, I’d gathered the attention of everyone in the café and Allison was staring at me, mouth agape.
“Are you mad? Do I need to take you to see a doctor, Bre?”
 “No, of course not. What I find so funny is the fact that you just may have your wish.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
Before I could respond, the waitress arrived with our plates and slid them in front of us. I waited for her to leave
before explaining.
“All right, let me explain. Maybe you’ll understand better if I start from the beginning.”
She picked up a slice of bacon. “Yeah, the beginning is a good place. I’m seriously worried about you.” She bit off a
chunk of the bacon, keeping her gaze fixated on me.
“Obviously, when I heard the news that Carson and his asshole friend were dead I kept track of the trial, or at least as
much as I could. You know, you did as well.”
“Well, yes.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you say this guy’s name was Cole Lincoln?”
“You were right all along, I should have pressed charges when he put me in the hospital. And when he was killed I
should have come forward then as well, but I didn’t. It weighed on me. So after the guy was convicted on two counts of
manslaughter I had to track him down. I mean… Shit… How could I not?”
I ran a hand through my hair and looked down at my food.
“It was a hard time for you, Bre. It wasn’t your fault.”
I nodded. All the reassurances in the world couldn’t change the way I felt about it, although I appreciated the efforts of
Allison and Cole who tried to convince me otherwise. For it was and would forever be my truth.
“Well, I needed to talk to the man who killed him. If nothing else, to just tell him my story and apologize. I felt like I
needed to set things right, if that makes sense. If he was beating himself up over what he’d done maybe my story would help
ease the guilt.”
“I suppose…” She didn’t look convinced.
“There’s this app that connects lonely prisoners with women on the outside. Kinda like an online pen pal.”
Allison scooped up a forkful of egg and shoveled it into her mouth.
“So, I gave it a shot, went on the site, and lo and behold Cole was on it. We started talking and something connected
between us. It’s hard to explain, but I just felt that he was someone I was destined to meet and be with.”
“Destined might be a stretch, but I’ll stay on board for the rest of this story. How did he take it when he found out who
you were?”
Flashes of our short time together in the trailer bombarded my mind, his lips on my body, his hands caressing… My
face began to grow warm as I felt my heart begin to race. One week and…
“Breanna?”
“Sorry.” I released a loud huff. “He didn’t know at first.”
“So you’ve been lying to everyone?” She immediately corrected herself before I could reply “I’m sorry, you’ve been
keeping things to yourself?”
“Well, I started talking to him and we hit it off, like I said. The longer we chatted the harder it was for me to tell him the
truth. I guess I was scared he’d cut off communication. He’s the first man since my experience with Carson that I felt something
with. I know I have you and I have my family, but I was lonely for a different kind of connection, and he filled that void for
me…”
I stopped myself from chattering on. I swear one of my biggest flaws was the massive extent of verbal diarrhea that
would flow from my mouth when I was nervous.
“This is a lot to process.” Dropping her fork onto the plate, she ran her hand through her hair as she sat back onto the
chair.
“I know, it’s a lot for even me to digest and I’m living it.”
“Have you even met him? Face-to-face I mean?”
 “I have. I’ve been meeting him once a week for six months now.”
“Is that where you take off to every Thursday morning? That’s why we had to switch our weekly breakfast to Friday.”
Cringing, I shrugged. “The prison has a very strict visitation policy, so that’s the day it had to be. Are you mad? I didn’t
mean to leave you out of the loop, I just didn’t think you’d approve and I didn’t expect things to go as they have. I guess I didn’t
know what to expect and I was scared you’d try to talk me out of it. It’s something I needed to do.”
“You’re right, I would have, but you seem to be hell-bent on pursuing this. A little late for me to talk you out of it now, I
suppose. When does he arrive and when do I get to meet him and give my seal of approval?”
The stress I was feeling over this morning slowly lifted and a smile reappeared on my lips. “Next week and as soon as
he’s up to it. He’s been in for five years. It might take him a bit to adjust before tossing him into the lion’s den.”
“One last question.”
Oh Lord. I took a bite from my buttered toast and sighed. “Shoot.”
“When are you planning on telling the folks?”
Yeah… The folks…
A shrug was my only reply to that question. I wanted to say never, but knew that that wasn’t an option. Once they knew
the story they’d accept him. They had to.
 Chapter 7

Breanna
I was a bundle of nerves, excitement, and a bunch of other emotions all heaped up into one as I waited outside the gates
of the Spring Meadow Correctional Facility. It felt as though butterflies were fluttering in my stomach.
Any minute now the steel gates to the prison would part and the love of my life would come strolling out—a free man
after serving five out of his ten-year prison sentence. We’d beaten the odds and made a long-distance relationship work for
over six months, but I knew the real work was about to begin as we assimilated our very different, separate lives into one.
There hadn’t been any further conjugal visits. We’d only had three hours to hold each other, but that’s all I needed. I
looked forward to making up for lost time—over and over again. A grin spread across my lips and heat colored my cheeks as I
thought about being with him again.
Taking a compact out of my small, black leather handbag, I opened it and peered at myself in the mirror to ensure my
makeup and hair looked perfect. They did. The sun reflected off my locks perfectly and I’d spent more time than I cared to
admit on my eye makeup to perfect the smoky cat-eye look. Closing the compact, I thrust it back into my handbag and then
nervously flattened down the skirt of my form-fitting black sundress that dipped low into my cleavage.
The sound of the gates unlocking had me jerking my head up to look toward the door. It pushed open and there he was.
My Cole. My breath caught in my throat just looking at him, and I was sure my heart missed a beat. He looked sexier than I’d
ever seen him: wearing dark blue jeans and a black T-shirt that stretched across his broad muscular chest. Since there wasn’t
much to occupy the inmates’ time while incarcerated, Cole chose to focus on staying fit and it showed. He had the body of a
Greek god and damn if I didn’t want to drop to my knees and worship the excellent specimen of a man that he was.
His gray eyes immediately caught my blue ones and a wide smile broke out on his face. There was a look of happiness
that I’d never seen before and it made my heart sing. He started to jog across the lot toward me, closing the distance between
us in seconds.
Before I could react or even say so much as hello Cole’s arms circled around my waist and I found myself being lifted
into the air and hugged so tight to him that I was left breathless.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I held tight to him, burying my face against his neck and savoring the smell of soap
and aftershave. So masculine, so Cole. I’d been dreaming of this moment for so long, that for it to finally be here, with me in
his arms and us about to start a “normal” life together, brought tears to my eyes despite my attempt to hold them back.
“God, how I’ve longed for this moment, Bre,” Cole said as he kissed my temple and stroked my hair while keeping my
body tight to his.
“I know. Me too.” A sob escaped me and Cole immediately set me down on my feet. He pulled back so he could look
me in the eye, while keeping his arms still protectively around my waist.
“What’s the matter, baby?” He frowned, worry evident in his eyes. “This is supposed to be a happy time, right?” He
reached up and swiped a tear that had escaped my eye and was running down my cheek, leaving a slick smudge of eyeshadow.
Keeping my eyes locked on his, I traced the line of his jaw with my fingertip and then pressed myself up against him
again as I ghosted my lips across his. “I am happy,” I whispered. It seemed so surreal and overwhelming. I kept thinking this
was some sort of dream.
But it wasn’t. He was standing before me just like I’d been dreaming of. I shook my head, laughing.
Slipping his hand into my hair to rest at the back of my head, Cole’s lips claimed mine roughly, passionately. I sighed
against his lips, mine parting slightly. He took it as an invitation to slip his tongue past my lips to explore my mouth, his tongue
teasing mine and sending a shockwave of desire through me. Our tongues dueled as my desire rose. Gone was the nervousness
and anxiety of seeing him free at last; all that remained was the deep and primal need to be with him and to feel his rock-hard
naked body pressed against mine.
No more time limits. No more guards listening to every word and intimate moment. This was a dream come true.
I moaned against his lips, feeling his pulsating arousal pressing against my pelvis. My pussy throbbed as I pressed
harder against the bulge in his jeans, anxious to relieve some of the pent-up tension. It had been too long since I’d last had him
inside me and felt his thick, hard dick filling me to capacity. I was more than ready to retire my vibrator.
We were so lost in the moment that neither one of us heard the footsteps coming toward us. But the clearing of
someone’s throat pulled me back to reality. Ending the kiss, I distanced myself slightly from Cole, but remained within his
strong embrace as we looked in the direction the sound had come from. Two large, stern-looking correction officers stood
before us, arms crossed over their chests and scowls on their faces.
“If you wouldn’t mind folks, could you move the reunion away from the prison?” the elder of the two barked.
Good Lord! I could feel my face growing warm and I was certain it was turning several shades of red. Memories of our
conjugal visit in the dingy trailer of the prison while the guards listened outside came rushing back to me. Cole’s body tensed
up next to mine. I gave his hand a tug as I stepped away from him. The last thing we needed was a pissing match or him doing
something we’d both regret on our reunion day.
“Of course, sorry, officers.” He may be too proud to acknowledge them, but I sure as hell wasn’t. I’d waited too long
for this. He was out and with me, and as far as I was concerned that’s all that mattered.
Cole hesitated a moment, squaring his shoulders and locking gazes with the officer who had spoken. It was evident
there was no love between the two, making me wonder—briefly—the history between them. Maybe I’d ask later, but it wasn’t
important; that was all in the past and I only wanted to focus on the future. I gave his hand another tug, redirecting his attention
to leaving.
“Yeah, we were just going. Thanks,” he finally replied—none too nicely—making it known that he wasn’t at all happy
about having his reunion with me being interrupted.
It doesn’t matter. I silently tried to will the thought to him.
As he turned and began walking, I let out a loud sigh of relief when we both made our way toward the parking lot, hand
in hand, fingers laced. His large hand eclipsed mine.
The farther we got from this place the better. Cole was on a five-year probation and the last thing I wanted was for him
to get into a brawl with one of the correction officers minutes after being released. A fight would surely end badly for him, and
he would be locked back up for the remainder of his five years, if not longer depending on how it all went down. Yes, the
farther we could get away from the horrid place, the better.

Cole
“What are you thinking?” Breanna asked, taking her eyes from the road to glance at me sitting in the passenger seat of
her car.
Good riddance, Spring Meadow Correctional Facility.
We officially left the grounds of the prison and turned onto the highway. Soon it would be nothing but a speck in the
distance. I wished the memories of that place would fade quickly.
 “Nothing,” I replied, smiling over at her.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” she teased.
She was right. But how do I put into the words the emotions rushing through me at the moment? It was taking everything
I had in me not to break down into fucking tears of relief.
I was free.
Fully and completely free. Free from the Navy. Free from the insanity of the prison. Free from government restraints
that I had both voluntarily and involuntarily endured. I didn’t have any family—at least none worth talking to anymore, but I did
have her and that was a blessing in itself.
But I wasn’t free from the memories.
I feared I’d forever be plagued with the faces of those whose lives ended at my hand. But there wasn’t a hell of a lot I
could do about that. I’d been in therapy the past five years while incarcerated and therapy did sweet shit all. The demon I
harbored always came each time I closed my eyes.
“Cole?” The feel of her hand on my leg pulled my mind back to the moment.
Smiling again, I chuckled. “Sorry. My mind was wandering a little bit. I honestly don’t know what to think or feel right
now. I’m feeling numb, I guess. At least I don’t know how to describe it.”
“I see.”
She looked hurt.
Well, shit.
Heaving a sigh, I tried to organize my thoughts in a way she’d understand. “Imagine being trapped and forced to do
things you never dreamed you’d be capable of. To spend years fearful you wouldn’t see another day…” Looking at her profile
and the tension in her face, I sighed. “I suppose you can relate. Different situation, but the feelings would be relatively close.
I’m sorry, Bre.”
It was her turn to shrug, returning my smile. “It’s not quite the same.”
“No, it’s not. You got hurt by someone you loved and trusted. I put myself in the positions I was in. You got the raw end
of it.”
She sniffed turned her head back and focused her eyes on the road. “Well, it’s not like that anymore. We’ve got a great
future to look forward to.”
“Have you filled your folks in on me yet?” I knew the answer.
Color rushed to her cheeks and she grimaced. “I will. I think they should meet you first. Then we’ll tell them.”
I bit my tongue despite wishing she’d already told them. I didn’t want to be the reason for a wedge to form between her
and her family. Springing me on them seemed like a risky endeavor to me, but it wasn’t my call.
“Trust me.” She reached over and took my hand. “This is going to be fine.”
Turning my head, I looked back to the road ahead of us, watching as the miles took us further from the past and closer to
our new lives.
 Cole
Day one at my new home…
As I sank into the warm, sudsy, rose-scented water filling the bathtub I knew I should be feeling good—relaxed,
relieved. It had been a very long time since I’d had a bath. I couldn’t remember the last one, actually. Between prison and then
the prior ten years with the Navy before joining the SEAL team, the best I could hope for was a shower. I was a free man at
last, so it would make sense that I’d finally be at peace with nothing but happiness coursing through me, right?
But I wasn’t.
I was far from okay, and no amount of bath oils and scented candles could change that.
Breanna’s place was a little studio apartment, quaint for one person, tiny for two. Not that I wasn’t used to small
accommodations; I certainly was and had no issues with it. My biggest concern was her. I felt as though I was going to smother
her being so close all the time.
She’d lived alone for five years, having the space to do as she wanted. I was messing with the Zen she’d created for
herself; she didn’t need to tell me for me to know.
To make matters worse, the rent and her assortment of other bills made up the lion’s share of her weekly paycheck at the
restaurant. She had a minimal amount left over for spending and now that I was living here, her finances were stretched to their
limit.
Since I had no job and only a hundred and fifty bucks to my name, I already felt like a damned freeloader. Breanna
deserved to be taken care of, not mooched off of.
Fuck!
Closing my eyes and moaning softly, I sank deeper into the bath. A big change from the smells and atmosphere of the
prison shower room. Breanna even lit a few candles. It would add to the luxurious feeling, she’d stated, as I had protested her
indulging me despite secretly loving it. It was both strange and flattering that she was doting on me. I didn’t need her to and
certainly didn’t intend to allow her pampering to continue, but for one day I’d just be grateful.
First thing in the morning, I planned on hitting the ground running and getting myself a job. Construction preferably—it
was spring so those types of jobs should be abundant. But I’d take anything. I’d scrub bathrooms of the local 7-Eleven if I had
to as long as it brought in money to help take care of her.
Since I joined the Navy straight out of high school at the age of eighteen and had only been trained in killing, my work
experience was limited and so were my job options. Working the laundry room and folding sheets in the prison was hardly
something I wanted to add to my resume. I needed to find a means to contribute until I could figure out a way to fully take care
of her so she could start following whatever dreams she may have for herself. She’d mentioned numerous times about wanting
to go to school to become a paralegal, and I was determined to help her achieve that if that was what she really wanted.
Paralegal, lawyer, whatever she wanted to do, I wanted to make happen for her.
A soft knock came at the bathroom door seconds before the door slowly opened and Breanna peeked in tentatively.
Upon her opening the door the delicious aroma of dinner came drifting into the room, mixing with the steam. My stomach
grumbled in anticipation.
Sitting up in the tub, I opened my eyes and wiped the water from my face. “Hey baby. Come on in.”
The sight of her, barefoot in the cute black sundress, pushed my worries and concerns to the back of my mind as my
dick took over. She gave me a soft smile and fully entered the bathroom, walking toward the tub.
“Come closer.” I reached my hand out to her and she accepted it as she stopped at the side of the tub.
“I wanted to know what you wanted as a side with dinner.”
I couldn’t have stopped my eyes from roaming the length of her body if I wanted to—which I didn’t. The neckline of the
bodice dipped just low enough to display the tops of her breasts. My mind raced back to our first time together in the dingy
trailer of the prison during the conjugal visit. My cock hardened as I remembered how perfectly her breasts fit in my hands and
how she moaned as I pinched her small pink nipples until they became hardened peaks.
I wanted her. No, I needed her.
“What do you need?” She took her lower lip between her teeth as her eyes glanced down to focus her attention on my
erect dick peeking out through the bubbles. Blinking, her eyes slowly moved back up and caught my gaze.
Sitting up in the tub, I gave her hand a tug, scooping her off of her feet and pulling her fully dressed into the tub with me.
She squealed in surprise as she toppled into the water. The tub overflowed and splashed over the side as she wiggled on my
lap to gain her balance and straddle my hips. She slammed into my junk for a moment, making me grimace, but not enough for it
to change the rock-hard erection I was sporting.
“Couldn’t you have let me take the dress off first?” she teased, leaning over and grazing my lips with hers. Her lips
tasted faintly of strawberries. Fucking delicious.
“Sorry. Anxious. I’ve had a bit of a dry spell the past five years,” I replied with a chuckle and grin as I began to work
on the buttons on the front of her bodice. “Let’s take it off now then.”
The fabric had become translucent now that it was wet and clinging to her frame. It was so damned sexy I could have
come right then and there. As the bodice came undone, her nipples became small, hardened peaks pressing against the wet
black lace covering them. Sexier than fucking anything I’d ever seen before.
“You realize that we have years for this,” she whispered as she bent over again and grazed her lips along the side of my
neck, sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine.
“Oh, I’m counting on that. Now sit up so I can get this over your head.”
She did as she was told, sitting up and lifting her arms skyward with an amused expression on her face as I struggled to
get the wet material, which was now becoming more of a hindrance than sexy, up and over her head.
“Okay, maybe I could have planned that better,” I grumbled as I pushed it up and over her tits. “That was supposed to
be sexy.”
“Ohhh, it was.” The teasing note in her tone had me grinning with her as I finally relieved her of her dress and swiftly
worked on the black lace bra. Within seconds the bra as gone and discarded to the floor along with the soaking-wet dress.
Slipping a hand behind her head, I fisted her locks and gently pulled her mouth down to mine as my other hand slid
between her legs to cup her shaven mound. “No panties, Miss Sutten?”
“Hmmm, none,” she confirmed, pulling my lower lip between her teeth and nipping lightly.
I chuckled softly, deepening the kiss and slipping my tongue between her lips as I spread her pussy lips and stroked the
length of her slit. Her soft moan and slight thrust of her hips against my hand further heightened my arousal, turning my cock as
hard as granite, the tip continuing to breach the surface of the sudsy water between our bodies.
Her mouth tasted of succulent berries as our tongues wrestled, mine forcing hers into submission. I found myself in
conflict as every nerve in my body was demanding I grab her hips and force her hand down onto my shaft, fucking hard and
fast. But this was only the second time I’d been with her; the first had been an opportunity to savor each other. Despite my
urges to take what I needed immediately, my will commanded I take it slow, showing my love and affection in each and every
touch, kiss, and caress.
 Breanna
Was Cole intentionally being cruel? The sweet torture of his two fingers as they gently stroked my inner walls while
our tongues frolicked was nearly my undoing. It had been too long since I’d felt his beautiful shaft within me, bringing me to
climax over and over. At least it had felt like an eternity. Our short time in the trailer had only given me something to long and
yearn for over the past several months as I waited impatiently for his parole.
If I could have had it my way I would have pulled the car over on the side of the road on our way home and fucked him
senselessly and not given a damn who saw. But he’d insisted we wait until we had some privacy. I doubted that sex in the
bathtub was originally what he had in mind, but it worked for me.
His mouth suddenly left mine and his lips began to make their way down the side of my neck. The light nips of his teeth
and flicks of his tongue against the sensitive skin of my neck caused me to arch my back, let my head fall back, and moan softly
as tremors rocked through me.
“Take me, Cole. Please.” My fingers dug into the hard, defined muscle in his shoulders—the product of years of intense
physical training.
“After you come for me,” he countered with a soft chuckle just before his mouth latched onto my first nipple.
I cried out as a jolt of pleasure rushed though me. My fingers tightened on his shoulders, my fingernails leaving deep
crescents in his tanned flesh. My hips thrust with more force against his persistent hand. His thumb began to stroke my clit as
his fingers continued rubbing me in just the right spot to leave me teetering on the edge of desire. His mouth left the first nipple
hardened and began its delicious work on the second, his tongue circling as he sucked.
I was getting closer, so close. I longed to reach between us and stroke his beautiful cock, but the pleasure was too good
—too intense. My moans became louder, more frequent, my body thrashing against his, sending water sailing over the edge of
the tub to spill onto the floor.
“Cole!” I screamed out as my body tensed and was slammed by an orgasm so intense it brought tears to my eyes. But as
my pussy trembled over his hand and my juices slipped down his fingers, he refused to let up and I found myself at the
beginning of a series of orgasms. One after another, the waves of pleasure flowed through me and I was at their and his mercy.
Was it three? Four? Five? I had no idea, but by the time he finally removed his hand from between my legs I found
myself falling against his hard, wet wall of a chest. Cole held me close as I clung to him, panting softly and basking in the
strength of his embrace and the pleasure that had just rushed through me.
Sitting back up on him I looked down into his eyes—dark and heated and pulling me into him and spurring my urges
once more. The tip of his dick settled between my legs, pressing against my entrance—taunting and teasing. Closing my eyes, I
moaned softly.
“Take me in,” Cole whispered, his voice strained. I opened my eyes back up and locked gazes with him, seeing the
increasing heat in them and the tension in his expression. Lowering my mouth down to his, claiming his lips softly, I slowly
pressed myself down onto him. Cole’s hands slipped to my hips and his fingers tightened on me—almost painfully, but I barely
noticed.
The feel of his thick shaft as it slowly slid into me, stretching my wet needy pussy, caused me to moan against his lips
and turn the kiss from tender to hungry. I’d fantasized about feeling him in me again so frequently over the past few months that
by the time I’d taken his shaft in completely, I was teetering at the brink once more.
“My God, Cole,” I gasped, my body trembling over him.
A low feral growl came from Cole as he moved under me while pulling me down tighter onto him. A sharp jolt of
pleasure rushed through me and I cried out in response as a second orgasm raced through me, leaving me lightheaded. Spent,
but eager to give him the pleasure he’d given me, I let my head fall back and arched my back, bracing my hands on his legs
behind me as I began to move on him. The thick head of his cock stroked my inner walls as we moved together, bodies working
in perfect harmony.
 Keeping my eyes shut, I savored the feel of him stretching me, filling me. I savored the perfect harmony of our bodies
and the splash of the water around us showering my upper torso with gleaming droplets of water. His hands moved up my torso
to my breasts. They fit perfectly in his firm grasp and he began to pinch and roll my already hard nipples between his thumbs
and index fingers. The short jolts pulsed through me, exploding between my legs.
I gripped tighter to his thighs as our pace increased. The water around us splashed more violently and the deep groan
coming from him had me opening my eyes to look back down at him. The fire within his eyes had turned into an inferno. As I
fell back against his chest Cole slipped a hand behind my head and brought my lips roughly down to his. His cock became
granite within me, throbbing softly as his tongue slipped between my parted lips to dominate mine.
I surrendered to him as I found myself rapidly ascending the summit for a third time. His hands slipping back down to
my hips, Cole pulled me tight to him, balls deep, with each fast and furious downward thrust.
“I’m coming, baby.” Cole groaned as he pulled his lips from mine and I slammed down onto his cock a final time.
Seconds later, a warm stream of his cum rushed to fill me. The feel of him filling me sent me toppling over the edge and I cried
out softly as I fell down against him. Tremors rocked through my body, from the top of my head to the apex between my legs.
Moaning softly, I clung to him, burying my face against his neck and letting the feeling wash over me, leaving me sated while
nestled tightly against him.
Without warning Cole’s body tensed under me and he sat up fully. “Burning!”
Burning? I smiled softly as I pulled up from him. I supposed that would be one way of saying it. My smile quickly
faded as I caught a whiff of the air and it dawned on me what Cole was actually referring to.
Cole was out of the tub in the blink of an eye followed by another wave of water slopping out onto the already
drenched floor. By the time I was out of the tub the fire alarm had begun to blare. Scrambling across the slippery bathroom
floor, I rushed from the bathroom and made my way to the kitchen where Cole was pulling the pan from the smoking oven.
I sighed as I looked at the burnt, blackened chicken in dismay as Cole set it on the counter and proceeded to turn off the
smoke alarm and open a window.
“I’m so sorry, Cole.”
At the sound of my apology, Cole turned his attention back to me and frowned as he noticed how distraught I was over
the ruined dinner. In several long, powerful strides he was in front of me, pulling me tight against his wet, naked body. “I’m the
one that distracted you.” Pulling back slightly he looked down at me and gave me a reassuring smile. “The chicken looks
delicious.”
Raising a skeptical brow at him, I couldn’t help but return his smile as I glanced once more over at the roast. “If you
think that is going to be delicious then I have seriously overestimated the quality of food at the Spring Meadow Correctional
Facility.”
Chuckling, he pulled me back into his arms and placed a tender kiss at my temple. “Anything you make me would be
better than it was there. Besides, the fault of the distraction is on me.”
“Not all your fault.” I cuddled tighter to him, brushing up against his depleted shaft. His cock stirred at the stimulation
and began to slowly rise against my stomach. A stirring rose up within me as I glanced up into his eyes and saw the fire ignite
within them.
“Well, since dinner is written off already...” In one quick motion, he slipped an arm under my legs and lifted me up into
his arms. With a surprised squeal, I flung my arms around his neck and cuddled tight to him. “...We might as well finish what
was interrupted.”
“We’re not done?” I grinned up at him mischievously.
He shook his head as he made his way into the bedroom. “Not by a long shot, baby!”
My grin widened. Oh, I can really get used to this!
 Chapter 8

Cole
My hand paused on the tavern door handle. It had been a bastard of a day and the urge for a cool beer was nearly
unbearable. After speaking to over a dozen employers that day my worst fears had been confirmed—no one wanted to hire a
newly released ex-con. Especially an ex-con who had been put in prison on two counts of manslaughter. Manslaughter equaled
murder. The technicalities didn’t matter to them; as far as they were concerned I killed people, end of story. A couple of
employers had seemed slightly interested, especially when I’d told them that before I was incarcerated I’d been a lieutenant
honorably discharged from the Navy, but as soon as I disclosed my incarceration was for manslaughter, I could see the change
in their expressions.
I had an appointment with my parole officer the following week and had been told that they may be able to help with
finding me employment, but that was a week away and not guaranteed. My pride demanded I do something immediately to
remedy my self-perceived freeloading situation.
My hand began to turn the knob when the flower shop across the street caught my attention, advertising bouquets of
wildflowers on special. Breanna with her vibrant blue eyes and silky blonde hair came to the forefront of my mind. I longed for
the sweet smile that would touch her lips at the small gesture of flowers.
The tavern forgotten, I waited for the light at the intersection to change and then rushed across the street toward the
shop. Taking my time, I examined the bouquets until I decided on the best of the group and proceeded into the shop to make my
purchase.
Five minutes later I exited the shop—beer forgotten—and was about to continue my walk back to the apartment when I
took notice of a couple outside the tavern in the middle of a heated dispute. The self-serving part of me cautioned me to stay
away and keep moving. Nothing could come of me getting involved except trouble. But seeing the look in the man’s eye, a look
I’d seen many times in the joint—God help me—my conscience wouldn’t let me walk away.
Rushing across the four-lane street, barely avoiding being hit by oncoming traffic blaring their horns, I made it to the
couple just as the man’s hand rose and was coming down with the intent of landing an open-handed slap across the woman’s
face. He was quick, but prison time ensured that I was quicker. Seconds before the man’s hand made contact with the redhead’s
cheek, my hand snaked out and grasped his wrist.
“I’d reconsider that, pal. I’d advise you to just walk away now. It doesn’t have to get messy.” My grasp tightened on the
other man’s wrist as I shuffled my body over, positioning myself between the woman and her would-be attacker. Taking a
moment to examine my opposition, I noted the other man to be a couple inches taller than me, though less solidly built. A little
lanky to be honest. Mid-twenties perhaps.
It was easy to see looking into his dark eyes that the man was strung out on some sort of narcotic. That could be a
problem if things escalated. Looking over my shoulder briefly at the woman who was weeping softly behind me, I took note of
the short skirt and clingy, low-cut blouse and it started to become clear what their relationship was.
Well, isn’t this just a great situation to be in. I cursed to myself. Of all the roads to be walking down, it had to be one
where I needed to rush in to play the hero.
“This isn’t your concern, man,” the younger man growled, attempting to jerk his arm from my grip, but my grasp
remained solid. Chest heaving with anger and frustration, he locked eyes with me and with a huff his body relaxed showing his
submission.
He leaned a little to the left to look around me at her. “He can’t fucking protect you forever, whore. I’ll find you.”
With a nod, I released the other man and held my ground between the weeping woman and my opponent, bracing myself
for anything the other man may throw at me.
 Never trust anyone who posed a threat—especially someone shooting or snorting whatever the fuck he was on.
“We done?” I asked, my voice harsh and unwavering as I squared up to him.
Giving one last long look at the prostitute, the other man returned his nod with a scowl, turned, and stormed off down
the sidewalk. He gave a violent punch to the wall of the tavern as he walked past and then groaned, no doubt regretting that
decision.
I waited until the man was out of sight before I turned back to the woman still weeping behind him. “You okay,
ma’am?” I asked, just then noticing a man in his mid-fifties, his hair graying at the temples exiting the tavern, and walking with
determination toward us. I didn’t miss the fact he was carrying a pistol in a holster at his hip.
“What’s going on out here? Are you two all right? I was told there was an issue.”
Nodding, I noticed the black polo shirt had a golden name badge with the name Ron engraved on it. Below the name
was a declaration that he was the manager of the Black Panther Tavern.
I glanced down at the petite red-haired woman, confirmed that she appeared to be less shaken than she was moments
ago, and nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
Ron nodded and thrust his hand out in my direction. “Good. I’m Ron by the way.” Nodding toward the bar behind us he
continued, “Manager and owner of the tavern there.”
As I shifted the flowers to my right hand so I could accept the offered handshake, the rolled-up bundle of resumes that I
had tucked into the inner pocket of my brown leather jacket came loose and fell to the ground between us. Before I had a
chance to react, the older man, with unexpected agility, swooped down and snatched them up from the ground and took the
liberty to begin reading my credentials.
Unsure of what to do next, I ran a hand through my hair and then turned my attention back to the redhead who seemed to
have recovered and was watching Ron intently as he examined my resume. “Is there anything else I can help you with, miss?”
The last thing I wanted was for her to discover that her “hero” was an ex-con.
Considering she was a prostitute, I was certain she had seen her fair share of the insides of a jail cell, but that didn’t
matter to my pride.
“Wh— Ummm.” A blush touched her cheeks that rivaled the vibrant red of her hair. “Well, thank you for...” Her green
eyes darted toward the direction where her assailant fled and then glanced back up to lock with mine. “Just thanks.” Giving me
a timid smile, she turned and scampered off in the opposite direction.
What happened after tonight wasn’t my concern. I couldn’t save everyone. I had to be able to accept that.
“Well, a SEAL. Lieutenant. Not a bad start to this resume, my man.”
Ron’s voice shifted my attention away from the fleeing female and back to him. I immediately noticed a change in Ron’s
demeanor. He appeared to be standing taller, chest puffed out with pride. “I was in the Navy myself. Twenty years of service,
joined when I was nothing more than a young man. Got out and bought this place. Had a little inheritance money waiting for me
when I got out.” He motioned to the resume and raised a brow at Cole, “I assume you’re looking for a job? I see you left the
Navy five years ago, but no other work experience...”
Fuck. The sliver of hope that sparked up within me immediately dimmed. “I was incarcerated, sir.”
Ron clucked his tongue off the roof of his mouth. “What for?”
Well, here we go again.
I gulped down the lump forming in my throat and then sighed. “Two counts of manslaughter, sir.”
To my surprise Ron didn’t so much as blink at the confession, he only nodded, his eyes darting back to the resume once
more. “Can you work evenings? Late night? Bartending? Security?”
“I… Sir, I won’t lie, I’m pretty desperate at the moment. I would be happy with anything you have for me.”
While his expression remained unreadable, there was compassion in Ron’s dark eyes as they met mine. “Then I will
see you here tomorrow night at 5 p.m. sharp. My bartender quit last night, leaving me shorthanded.”
 After giving my hand a quick shake and passing my resumes back to me which I quickly pocketed, Ron gave me a nod
of the head and turned to make his way back into the tavern. But I couldn’t help but stop my new employer’s retreat. “As much
as I hesitate to ask, I feel I need to.”
“What’s that?”
Why did I feel the need to explain the reason behind my sentence? Fuck, don’t screw this up, Cole, I chided myself.
“Don’t you want to know the circumstances behind...”
My new boss raised a hand to stop me as he gave his head a quick shake. “Nope. The honorable discharge from the
Navy is all I need to know.” A grin spread across his face as he glanced down at the flowers in my hand. The tops of a couple
of the flowers had fallen off from the tussle, but they still looked good. “Besides, I have a feeling you have a little lady to take
care of at home. I’m sure she’ll keep you in line.”
Glancing down at the arrangement of fragrant flowers in my hand, I laughed. “Indeed I do, sir. Indeed I do.”
 Chapter 9

Breanna
I kept an eye on the clock as I finished preparing dinner. The previous night’s dinner had been ruined so we’d opted for
having a pizza delivered. Not exactly the type of meal I had envisioned for him on his first home-cooked meal out of prison, so
for tonight’s dinner I was determined to make it perfect.
Cole had called me on his way home and sounded defeated. He wasn’t having much luck with the job hunt. I had tried
to assure him that it was fine. I’d reminded him that he’d just gotten out, and that it would take time to find employment,
especially in today’s economy where decent paying jobs were scarce. We would make do, I was sure of it. All that mattered to
me was that we were together. I’d been poor all of my life, so tightening the purse strings was not a foreign concept to me.
Opening the oven, I slipped on a set of oven mitts and pulled the roast out, setting it on the kitchen counter and closing
the oven door with my hip. The delicious aroma touched my nose and my stomach growled softly. Grabbing a knife, I made a
slice into the roast and a smile touched my lips.
Perfect!
Satisfied with how the food had turned out I rushed over to the bathroom and gave myself a once-over in the mirror. I’d
made a stop at the lingerie store on my way home from the supermarket that morning and bought a plain pink satin teddy that
fell to mid-thigh. It cost more than I was able to afford and I knew Cole would chastise me for wasting money to please him,
but I hadn’t been able to resist.
Scooping my hair up in my hands, I began to contemplate whether I should put it up or leave it down when the sound of
the door opening interrupted me.
Cole! My heart rate accelerated just at the thought of him being home.
Home... Cole.
A warmth spread through me, mixing with the excitement. Releasing my hair so it cascaded back down my back, I
rushed out of the bathroom barefoot to greet him. Cole was kicking off his boots when I caught sight of him, a depressed
expression on his face.
I have to be optimistic and nonchalant about the whole job thing. So he didn’t get a job. No biggie. Maybe if I don’t
mention it, he won’t. None of that mattered to me. Not for now anyhow.
I had to keep myself from swooning as our eyes locked. Would I ever stop feeling this way when I saw him? I doubted
it. Suddenly the defeated look in his expression faded and a mischievous gleam touched his gray eyes. A flash of color caught
my attention and my gaze slipped to what he had in his hand: a bouquet of wild flowers.
“For you.” He closed in on the distance between us and extended the stunning bouquet to me. Although it could have
been daisies from the garden outside of the building I’d have been equally as touched.
When was the last time I’d received flowers from anyone? I couldn’t remember. The flowers had seen better days. A
couple of them were missing the tops and he’d been clutching the stems so tightly some had broken. Nonetheless, they were
still the most beautiful flowers I’d ever seen. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I fought them back. Men bought women flowers
all the time. Sadly, I was never one of those women.
I didn’t accept the flowers just yet. Instead, I threw myself into his embrace muttering a series of “thank you’s” as I
showered him with butterfly kisses.
Laughing, he pulled me tight to his hard body, keeping the flowers at an arm’s length to avoid crushing them further.
“Boy, now if some discount flowers can get me a reaction like that...”
His sentence was cut off as I swept my lips across his. The intoxicating smell of his aftershave taunted me, enticing me
to get closer and explore every inch of his body. The one arm he had free snaked around my waist and tightened around me,
pulling me closer, my breasts crushing up against his chest as he moaned against my lips. My excitement shifted to desire as I
felt his cock thicken against my stomach when I pressed against him and our tongues began to dance.
Suddenly remembering dinner, I groaned inwardly and reluctantly pulled away from him. “You’re getting a decent
dinner tonight,” I informed him in my best no-nonsense voice, taking the flowers from him and bringing them up to my nose,
inhaling the sweet floral smell deeply.
So good. And so incredibly perfect.
“Oh, I was quite happy with the way dinner turned out last night.” Cole reached for me to pull me back into him, but I
scurried out of his grasp with a laugh.
“Well, you’ve had a long day, so tonight I’m feeding you.” I set about finding a vase, filling it with water, and arranging
the flowers before setting it in the center of the table.
I felt his arms slipping around my waist from behind as I started plating their food and had to force myself to keep from
collapsing back into his arms and forgetting the meal we’d prepared. Not again. Food cost way too much to continue to waste
it.
He seemed to be in an incredible mood. Much better than he had been when he’d called me on his way home and said
he hadn’t found a job. Maybe he’d given himself a pep talk between then and now? Whatever it was that caused the change in
mood, I was grateful for it. I just hoped the job issue wouldn’t last long. Not necessarily because of the money issue.
Admittedly more money coming in to pay the bills would be nice, but I could take more hours. I’d make it work for us.
As I scooped some mashed potatoes from the pot Cole’s lips grazed the side of my neck, sending a chill through me.
“Mmm. Cole.”
“Yes?” Cole pressed against me, pinning me against the counter, his massive erection teasing my backside through the
thin layer of satin and his jeans.
All thought was lost on me now as his hand slipped under the short skirt of my teddy and began to work its way up my
inner thigh. With each inch his hand rose on my thigh the wetter I became until my pink matching satin thong was drenched with
the evidence of my arousal. Cole played with the fringe of the panties around my leg until I was squirming and grinding my
backside against his arousal. “Cole, please.” My pussy was beginning to ache from needing him and I was fighting for control.
Just when I thought he was going to pull my panties aside and plunge a finger deep within me, he stopped and stepped
back quickly. Cole gave me a light, playful slap on the rear before his footsteps receded across the small kitchen. “That’s for
not asking me how the job hunt went.”
Rolling my eyes, I groaned my displeasure as I spun around to see him grinning at me from the kitchen chair a few feet
away.
Relief spread through me and a smile touched my lips. He landed a job on the first day? I knew he was motivated,
but… Wow. I was impressed. “You got a job!”
The wink he gave me confirmed my guess and relief washed over me.
Thank God.
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 CHAPTER XXVI.
CONQUEST OF PERSIA.

A.H. XXI., XXII. A.D. 642, 643.

It was not long before any doubts that

might still have rested in the mind of Omar Persian campaign forced on
were put an end to by the hostile attitude of Omar.
the Persian Court; and he was again forced to bid his armies take
the field with the avowed object of dealing a final blow at the empire.
After Câdesîya and the loss of Medâin,
Yezdegird may have buoyed himself up Yezdegird gathers a great
with the hope that the Arabs, content with army against the Arabs. a.h.
XX. a.d. 641.
the fertile plains of Mesopotamia and Irâc-
Araby, would leave him in undisturbed possession of the ample
provinces of Persia proper beyond the mountain range. But the
capture of the ancient capital of Media, and the threatening advance
of the invaders in the direction of Ispahan and Persepolis, put an end
to any such imagination. Teeming, restless hordes, still issuing from
the Peninsula, began to press upon the border; and their irruption
into the farther plains of Persia became clearly a mere question of
time. The king, therefore, resolved once more upon a grand effort to
stem the tide of invasion. With this view he ordered the governors of
the various provinces to gather their forces together for a final attack.
These, especially in the outlying regions, appear to have enjoyed an
almost independent authority. But their interests were now knit
together by the common danger. From the shores of the Caspian,
therefore, to the Indian Ocean, and from the Oxus to the Persian
Gulf, they rallied around the royal standard, and in vast number
gathered on the plain that lies below the snow-capped peak of
Demavend.
Tidings of the movement soon reached
Kûfa, and Sád apprised the Caliph of the Omar sends an army under
Nómân to oppose them.
rising storm. Each courier, as he arrived,
filled the city with fresh alarms. A hundred and fifty thousand men
had assembled under Firuzân; now they were encamped at
Hamadan, and now marching on Holwân; they would soon be close
to Kûfa, and at their very doors. The crisis, no doubt, was serious.
Any reverse to the Arabs on the mountain border would loosen their
hold upon the plains below; and all the conquests in Chaldæa, with
Medâin, and the settlements even of Kûfa and Bussorah, might be
wrenched from their grasp. As on previous occasions of imminent
danger, Omar at once declared his resolve to march forth in person.
Encamped midway between the two cities of Irâc, his presence
would restore confidence; and while able from thence to direct the
movements in front, his reserve would be a defence to them in the
rear. But the old arguments against leaving Medîna again prevailed,
and Omar was persuaded to remain behind.[389] Nómân was
recalled from the campaign just described for the reduction of
Khuzistan, to take the chief command. Leaving strong garrisons
behind, all available troops were pushed forward in two columns
from Bussorah and Kûfa. The army at Sûs, besides furnishing a
contingent for the main advance, was given the important task of
effecting a diversion by an attack upon Persepolis, and so preventing
the native forces in that quarter from joining the royal standard.
Arrived at Holwân, Nómân sent forward
spies, who reported that the enemy in Battle of Nehâvend. a.h. XXI.
great force was pitched at Nehâvend, on a.d. 642.
the plain of that name bounded on the north by the lofty peaks of
Elwand; but that the road thus far was clear.[390] So they marched
forward, and were soon on the famous battle-ground, face to face
with the Persians. The Moslems were 30,000 strong—one fifth part
of the enemy; weak in numbers, but strong in faith, and nerved by
the presence of many veterans and heroes of former fields. After two
days’ skirmishing, the Persians retired behind their line of
fortification, from whence they were able at pleasure to issue forth
and molest their adversaries. This went on for a time, till the
Moslems, wearied by the delay, resolved on drawing them out. At
Toleiha’s instance they practised a feint for the purpose. They fell
back, and, on the Persians following, they wheeled round and cut
them off from their entrenchments. A fierce engagement followed,
and in it Nómân was slain. But the bravery of the Arabs in the end
achieved its wonted success. Of the enemy 30,000 are said to have
been left dead on the field; the rest fled to an adjoining hill, and there
80,000 more were slain. Of the great army but shreds and scattered
fragments effected their escape. The fate of the Captain-general,
Firuzân, became proverbial. Flying towards Hamadan, he was
stopped in a mountain pass choked by a caravan laden with honey.
In seeking to turn the pass, he lost his way, was overtaken and slain.
Hence the saying—‘Part of the Lord’s host is the honey-bee.’
The importance attached to this battle
is signified by the tradition that a mounted Decisive effect of the victory.
Genius gave immediate notice of the
victory and of the death of Nómân to a traveller in the Hejâz, who at
once communicated it to Omar at Medîna. Hamadan fell into the
hands of the victorious army; and the royal treasure and jewels,
deposited for safety in the great Fire temple, were delivered up. The
chiefs and people of Irâc-Ajem, that is, the western districts of Persia
proper, submitted themselves and became tributary. The booty was
immense; and amongst it two caskets of priceless gems, which
Omar placed in the treasury at Medîna; but next morning, the courier
that brought them was recalled, and Omar told him that he had seen
a vision of angels, which warned him of punishment hereafter if he
kept those jewels. ‘Take them hence,’ he said; ‘sell them, and let the
price be divided amongst the army.’ They fetched 4,000,000
dirhems.
Omar was disconsolate at the death of
Nómân; and he promoted his brother Capture of Rei. a.h. XXII.
a.d.. 643.
Nóeim ibn Mocarrin (one of the three
heroes of Dzul Cassa) to high command. He had now embarked on
an enterprise from which there was no returning. The proud
Yezdegird refused to yield, and Omar no longer scrupled pursuing
him to the bitter end. But a long series of campaigns was yet
needful, effectually to reduce the empire. These it is not the object of
this work to trace otherwise than in such brief and cursory way as
shall enable the reader to estimate the expanding area and growing
obligations of the Caliphate. The warlike races of the southern
shores of the Caspian gathered under Isfandiar, brother of the ill-
fated Rustem, for the defence of Rei, one of the royal cities of
Persia. Assuming the offensive, they began to harry the Mussulman
garrisons. Nóeim advanced to meet them; and another great battle
and decisive victory placed the city at his mercy.[391] Isfandiar retired
to Azerbâijân; where, again defeated, he
was taken prisoner; and at last, without Yezdegird flies to Merve,
much compunction, he threw in his lot, and where
cause.
Turks espouse his

made common cause with the invading

army. From Rei, Yezdegird fled south to Ispahan; finding no shelter
there, he hurried on to Kermân; then he retired to Balkh: and at last
he took refuge in Merve, whence he sought the aid of the Khâcân of
the Turks, and of the Emperor of China. The Khâcân espoused his
cause; and for several years the contest was waged with varying
success in the vicinity of Merve. But in the end the Turks retired, and
with them Yezdegird, across the Oxus. The
conflict was subsequently renewed, and Death of Yezdegird. a.h.
nine or ten years afterwards, in the reign of XXXI. a.d. 651.
Othman, Yezdegird, bereft of his treasures and deserted by his
followers, who in vain besought him to tender his submission,
perished miserably in the hut of a miller, whither he had fled for
refuge.
On the fall of Rei, the Arabs lost no
time in turning their arms against all Reduction of the Persian
quarters at once of the Persian empire. Six empire.
considerable armies, drawn from Kûfa and Bussorah, and continually
replenished from Arabia and the provinces by soldiers of fortune
thirsting for rapine and renown, invaded as many different regions;
and these, as they were overrun, fell each under the government of
the leader who reduced it. Thus, one after another, Fars, Kermân,
Mokrân, Sejestan, Khorasan, and Azerbâijân, were annexed to the
empire of Islam. Some of these, though subordinate in name, had
been virtually independent; and so now, even after the heart had
ceased to beat, they maintained a dangerous vitality. When tributary
and reduced to an outward subjection, the people would ever and
again rise in rebellion; and it was long before the Arabs could
subside into a settled life, or feel secure away from the protection of
garrisoned entrenchments. But the
privileges of Islam on the mere confession Subordinate position of the
of the Faith were so considerable and conquered races.
enticing, that the adherents of the Zoroastrian worship were unable
to resist the attraction; by degrees the Persian race came over to the
dominant creed, and in the end opposition ceased. The notices of
Zoroastrian families, and of Fire temples destroyed in after reigns,
show indeed that in many quarters the conversion was slow and
partial.[392] But after the fall of the Court, the death of Yezdegird, and
the extinction of outlying authority, the political and social
inducements to join the faith of the conquerors were, for the most
part, irresistible. The polished Persian formed a new element in
Moslem society. But however noble and refined, he long held a place
inferior to, and altogether distinct from, that maintained by the rude
but dominant races of Arabian blood. Individuals or families
belonging to the subject peoples, on embracing Islam, attached
themselves to some Arab chief or clan, as adherents, or ‘clients’ of
the same; and in this dependent position could claim some of the
privileges of the ruling faith. But neither here nor in other lands did
they intermarry with the Arabs on equal terms; they were looked
down upon as of an inferior caste. Thus, although in theory, on
becoming Mussulmans, the conquered nations thereby entered the
equal brotherhood of the Faith, they formed, not the less, a lower
estate. The race and language, ancestral dignity, and political
privileges, of the Arabs continued to be paramount throughout the
empire for many generations.
While passing by thus cursorily the
military details of connected outlying Miraculous tale connected
conquest, there is one episode which I with the siege of Darâbgird.
may mention, as containing a curious relation of miraculous
interposition, such as we rarely meet with in the tradition of events
subsequent to the Prophet’s death. The warrior Saria had long
besieged with inadequate force the stronghold Darâbgird in Kermân,
when a band of Kurds came suddenly down to its relief. The small
Arab army, taken thus on both sides, would have been cut to pieces,
had not Saria, warned by a cry from heaven, promptly sought refuge
upon a hill at his rear. Omar on that very day (so the tradition runs),
as he conducted the Friday service in the Great Mosque at Medîna,
saw distinctly in a vision the impending disaster, and trembling for his
safety, cried aloud, ‘To the hill, O Saria! to the hill!’ It was this voice
which reached Saria, clear from the sky, just in time to enable him to
make good his retreat to the hill, from whence, having rallied his
troops, he turned again and discomfited the enemy. Omar, we are
told, related the whole affair of the retreat and subsequent victory, at
the moment it occurred; and with this the courier’s report, received
several weeks after, was found exactly to tally.[393]
 CHAPTER XXVII.
THE LATER YEARS OF OMAR’S REIGN—DOMESTIC EVENTS.

A.H. XVII.-XXIII. A.D. 638–644.

While the arms of Islam were thus

rapidly reducing province after province in Quiet in Syria, Arabia, and
the East to the sway of Omar from the Egypt.
Caspian to the Indian Ocean, the wave of conquest was for the time
calmed down in Asia Minor. There had now for some time prevailed
a period of comparative quiet. After the death of Heraclius there was
no spirit left in the Byzantine empire to continue the struggle either
by land or by sea. Desultory attempts were made, indeed, at
intervals upon the coast; but they were followed by no lasting
success.[394] Muâvia was busy meanwhile consolidating the
administration of Syria; and, with a sagacious foresight,
strengthening his hold upon the provinces against the contingencies
of the future. Elsewhere peace prevailed. Shorahbîl ruled over the
district of the Jordan. Amru maintained a firm government in Egypt;
and, pushing a chronic warfare against the native tribes and the
Roman settlements on the coast of Africa, gradually extended the
boundaries of Islam towards the West. Arabia, still pouring forth its
unquiet spirits to fight in the wars abroad, was tranquil at home
under its various governors.
Besides the journeys into Syria already
mentioned, Omar only quitted his Omar visits Mecca, and
founds Grand Square around
residence at Medîna for the purpose of Kâaba.
performing the annual pilgrimage.[395] The
governors of the various provinces were wont to repair to Mecca to
discharge at that season the same religious obligation; and the
Caliph used to improve the opportunity for conferring with them, as
they returned by way of Medîna, on such provincial business as
needed his attention. The occasion, in fact, served the purposes of
an annual report delivered orally of local government. Several years
before his death, Omar spent three weeks within the sacred
precincts of Mecca, and enlarged the space around the Kâaba. The
dwellings approaching too closely the Holy House were pulled down,
and the first step taken towards the formation of a grand square and
piazza fitting the place of worship for all nations. Some of the owners
refused to sell their patrimony; but the houses were demolished
nevertheless, and the price in compensation left at their disposal in
the treasury. The boundary pillars of the Haram, or Sacred Territory,
were renewed. And convenient halting places were constructed at
the pilgrim stations on the road to Medîna, for the custody of which,
and the care of the adjoining springs of water, the local tribes were
held responsible.
The seventh year of Omar’s Caliphate
was distinguished by the bursting forth of Volcano near Medîna. a.h.
XIX.
volcanic fires from a hill called Leila in the
neighbourhood of Medîna. The Caliph gave command for a general
distribution of alms amongst the poor. The people joined in the pious
work, and the volcano stopped.[396]
In the same year a naval expedition
was sent to Abyssinia, across the Red Disaster in Red Sea.
Sea, to check attacks upon the Moslems
on the coast, or on the borders of Nubia.
The vessels were wrecked, and the a.h. XIX. a.d. 640.
expedition suffered great privations. The
disaster led Omar to vow that he would
never again permit his troops to embark on Omar dreads the sea.
an element fraught with such danger. It
was not till some years after his death that the Mussulmans gathered
courage to brave the risks of naval encounter in the Mediterranean
Sea.[397]
In the governors appointed to control
the turbulent cities of Kûfa and Bussorah, Moghîra, Governor of
Bussorah, arraigned on
Omar was not altogether fortunate. Otba, charge of adultery, a.h. XVII.
Governor of Bussorah, died shortly after a.d. 638,
rescuing the unfortunate expedition to
Persepolis.[398] The choice of a successor in Moghîra ibn Shoba,
was ill-advised. Of rude and repulsive aspect, he had committed
murder in his youth at Tâyif, and Islam had not softened his nature or
improved his morals. The heartless insult which he offered to an
aged Christian princess of the house of Hîra, whom he demanded in
marriage on the capture of that city, has been handed down in Arab
song. His harem, stocked with fourscore wives and concubines,
failed to satisfy his vagrant passion. His enemies at Bussorah
watched his movements from an adjoining building; and through a
party-window were witness to an intrigue with a Bedouin lady, who
had visited his house. When he issued forth to lead the public prayer,
they shouted him down as an adulterer; and Omar summoned him to
his court to answer the accusation. By any
reasonable law of evidence, the crime had and acquitted.
been established beyond a doubt; but,
under the strange ordinance promulgated by Mahomet on the
misadventure of his favourite wife, there was a flaw in the testimony
of Ziâd, the fourth witness. And the Caliph, with an ill-concealed
groan at the miscarriage of justice, ordered the witnesses who had
brought the charge to be scourged according to the law, and the
accused released. ‘Strike hard,’ cried the barefaced culprit,
addressing the unwilling minister of the law;—‘strike hard, and
comfort my heart thereby!’ ‘Hold thy peace,’ said Omar, ‘it wanted
little to convict thee; and then thou shouldest have been stoned to
the death as an adulterer.’ The guilty chief was silenced, but not
abashed. He continued to reside in Medîna, a crafty courtier at the
Caliph’s gate.[399]
As successor to Moghîra, Omar
appointed Abu Mûsa al Ashári, Governor Abu Mûsa, Governor of
of Bussorah—a man of a very different Bussorah,
stamp. Of small stature, smooth in face, and little presence, he had
yet distinguished himself on the field of Honein; and had been the
envoy of Mahomet to Hadhramaut.[400] He wanted strength and
firmness (as we shall see hereafter) for the stormy times that were
coming; but he was wise and sufficiently able to hold the restless
Bedouins of Bussorah in check. Belonging to the tribe of Ashár, it
was perhaps an advantage, in the jealousies now growing up, that
he was himself outside the clique of Mecca and Medîna citizens. But
he still felt the need of Coreishite influence to support his
government; and as he departed he said to Omar: ‘Thou must
strengthen my hands with a company of
the Companions of the Prophet, for verily is accused of malversation,
they are as salt in the midst of the but 643.
aquitted. a.h. XXIII. a.d.

people;’—so he took in his train nine-and-

twenty men of mark along with him. But even Abu Mûsa was near
losing his command. The story is curious, and illustrates Omar’s
style of government. After a successful campaign against the Kurds
in Ispahan, Abu Mûsa, as was usual, sent a deputation to Medîna to
report the victory, and carry to the Caliph the royal Fifth. Dhabba, a
discontented citizen, desired to be of the number, but was not
allowed. He forthwith set out alone to Medîna, and there laid certain
charges against Abu Mûsa, who was summoned by Omar to clear
himself. After some days of confinement to his quarters, he was
brought before the Caliph, face to face with his accuser. The first
charge was that a band of youths, from amongst the captives taken
in the recent expedition, had been used by him as personal
attendants. ‘True,’ said Abu Mûsa; ‘these sons of Persian chieftains
did me good service as guides; therefore I paid their ransom as prize
of the column, and now, being free, they serve me.’ ‘He speaketh the
truth,’ answered Dhabba, ‘but what I said was also true.’ The second
accusation was that he held two landed properties. ‘I do,’ explained
Abu Mûsa; ‘the one is for the subsistence of my family, the other for
the sustenance of the people.’ Dhabba answered as before. The
third was that the governor had in his household a girl who fared too
sumptuously. Abu Mûsa was silent. Again, he was charged with
making over the seals of office to Ziâd; which was admitted by Abu
Mûsa, ‘because he found the youth to be wise and fit for office.’ The
last charge was that he had given the largess of a thousand dirhems
to a poet; and this Abu Mûsa admitted having done, with the view to
preserve his authority from being weakened by scurrilous attacks.
The Caliph received the explanation, and permitted Abu Mûsa to
resume his government, but desired him to send Ziâd and the girl to
Medîna. He was so pleased with the knowledge and readiness of
Ziâd, who was already foreshadowing the greatness of his
administrative talent, that he sent him back with the full approval of
his employment in the affairs of the province; but the girl was
detained in confinement at Medîna. With Dhabba the Caliph was
very angry. Out of malice he had sought to ruin Abu Mûsa by one-
sided allegations. ‘Truth perverted is no better,’ Omar said, ‘than is a
lie; and a lie leadeth to hell fire.’[401]
Kûfa remained for several years under
the rule of Sád, its founder, the conqueror Sád deposed at Kûfa. a.h.
of Chaldæa and Medâin. At length, in the XXI. a.d. 642.
ninth year of Omar’s Caliphate, a faction sprang up against him. The
Bedouin jealousy of the Coreish had already begun to work; and Sád
was accused of unfairness in distributing the booty. There was also
imputed to him the lack of martial spirit and backwardness to show
himself in the field, a revival of the old charge made slanderously
against him at Câdesîya.[402] He was summoned, with his accusers,
to Medîna; but the main offence of which he was found guilty was
one of little concern to them. Sád in his public ministrations had cut
short the customary prayers; and Omar, deeming the offence
unpardonable, deposed him.
To fill a vacancy requiring, beyond all
others in the empire, skill, experience, and Changes in the government
power, Omar unwisely appointed Ammâr, of Kûfa.
who, having been, as a persecuted slave at Mecca, one of
Mahomet’s earliest converts, possessed a merit second to none in
the Faith, but was a man of no ability, and, moreover, advanced in
years.[403] The citizens of Kûfa were not long in finding out his
incapacity; and, at their desire, Omar transferred Abu Mûsa from
Bussorah to rule over them. But it was no easy work to curb the
factious populace. They took offence at his slave for buying fodder
as it crossed the bridge; and for so slight a cause the Caliph, after he
had been governor for a year, sent him back again to Bussorah.
Another nomination had already been determined on, when the artful
Moghîra, finding Omar alone in the Great Mosque, wormed the
secret out of him; and dwelling on the grave burden of a hundred
thousand turbulent citizens, suggested that the new candidate was
not fit to bear it. ‘But,’ said Omar, ‘the men of Kûfa have pressed me
to send them neither a headstrong tyrant, nor a weak and impotent
believer.’ ‘As for a weak believer,’ answered Moghîra, ‘his faith is for
himself, his weakness falleth on thee; as for a strong tyrant, his
tyranny injureth himself alone, and his strength is all for thee.’ Omar
was caught in the snare, and, the scandals of Bussorah
notwithstanding, was weak enough to confer on Moghîra the
government of Kûfa. With all his defects, Moghîra was, without
doubt, the strong man needed for that stiff-necked city; and he held
his position there during the two remaining years of Omar’s reign.
[404]

The vacillation of Omar, and his

readiness, at the complaint of the citizens Evil arising from change of
of Kûfa, once and again to shift their ruler, governors.
led that turbulent populace to know their power, and gave head to
the factious temper already disquieting the city. It was a weak though
kindly spirit which led the Caliph to nominate Ammâr to a post for
which he had no aptitude whatever. Upon his recall, Omar asked
whether his removal had caused him pain. ‘It did not much rejoice
me,’ replied Ammâr, ‘when thou gavest me the command; but I
confess that I was troubled when thou didst depose me.’ To which
Omar responded amiably: ‘I knew when I appointed thee that thou
wast not a man fitted to govern; but verily I was minded (and here he
quoted from the Corân) to be gracious unto the weak and humble
ones in the land; and to make them patterns of religion, and heirs of
the good things in this present life.’[405] At the same time, he
appointed another early convert of singular religious merit, Abdallah
ibn Masûd, who had also been a slave at Mecca, to a post at Kûfa,
for which, however, he was better fitted—the chancellorship of the
treasury. He had been the body-servant of the Prophet, who was
used to call him ‘light in the body, but weighty in the Faith.’ He was
learned in the Corân, and had a ‘reading’ of his own, to which, as the
best text, he held persistently against all recensions.[406]
There was still a considerable jealousy
between Bussorah and its more richly Additional endowment to
Bussorah.
endowed sister city. The armies of both
had contributed towards the conquest of Khuzistan, and had shared
accordingly. But Bussorah, with its teeming thousands, was
comparatively poor; and Omar, to equalise the benefits of all who
had served in the earlier campaigns, assigned to them increased
allowances, to be met from the surplus revenues of the Sawâd
administered by Kûfa.[407]
In the more important governments, the
judicial office was discharged by a Officers of State: judicial,
functionary who held his commission military, fiscal, and spiritual.
immediately from the Caliph.[408] The control of all departments
remained with the governor, who, in virtue of his supreme office, led
the daily prayers in public; and, especially on the Fridays, gave an
address, or sermon, which had often an important political bearing.
Military and fiscal functions, which vested at the first, like all other
powers, in the governor’s hands, came eventually to be discharged
by officers specially appointed to the duty. Ministers of religion were
also commissioned by the State. From the extraordinary rapidity with
which cities and provinces were converted, risk of error rose, in
respect both of creed and ritual, to the vast multitudes of ‘new
believers.’ To obviate this danger, Omar appointed teachers in every
country, whose business it was to instruct the people—men and
women separately—in the Corân and the requirements of the Faith.
Early in his reign, he imposed it also, as an obligation to be enforced
by the magistrate, that all, both great and small, should attend the
public services, especially on every Friday; and that in the month of
Ramadhan, the whole body of the Moslems should be constant in
the assembling of themselves together in their Mosques.
To Omar is popularly ascribed, not only
the establishment of the Dewân, and Omar establishes era of
offices of systematic account, but also the Hegira. a.h. XVII.
regulation of the Arabian year. He introduced for this purpose the
Mahometan Era, commencing with the new moon of the first month
(Moharram) in the year of the Prophet’s flight from Mecca. Hence the
Mahometan year was named the Hegira, or ‘Era of the Flight.’[409]
 Of the state of Mahometan society at
this period we have not the materials for Deterioration of social and
judging closely. Constant employment in domestic life.
the field, no doubt, tended to arrest the action of the depraving
influences which, in times of ease and luxury, began to relax the
sanctions and taint the purity of Bedouin life. But there is ample
indication that the relations between the sexes were already rapidly
deteriorating. The baneful influence of polygamy, especially now that
it was intensified by the husband’s power of arbitrary divorce and the
unlimited licence of servile concubinage, was quickened by the vast
multitudes of slave-girls taken by the army, and distributed or sold,
both among the soldiers and the community at large. The wife of
noble blood held, under the old chivalrous code of the Arabs, a
position of honour and supremacy in the household, from which she
could be ousted by no base-born rival, however fair or fruitful. She
was now to be, in the estimation of her husband, but one amongst
many, to whose level she was gradually being lowered. If his slave-
girls bore him children, they became at once, as Omm Walad, free;
[410] and in point of legitimacy and inheritance the offspring was
equal to the children of the free and noble wife. Beauty and
blandishment began to outshine birth and breeding, and the favourite
of the hour too often displaced her noble mistress.
With the coarse sensualist, revelling
like Moghîra in a harem well stocked with Story of the Princess Leila.
Greek and Persian captives, this might
have been expected. But it was not the less the case in many a
household of greater refinement and repute. Some lady, ravished, it
may have been, from a noble home, and endowed with the charms
and graces of a courtly life, would captivate her master, and for the
moment rule supreme. The story of the Princess Leila will afford a
sample. This beautiful daughter of Judi, the Ghassanide chief slain
at Dûma, was bought by the victorious Khâlid from the common
prize. The fame of her charms had already reached Medîna, and
kindled a romantic flame in the breast of Abd al Rahmân, son of Abu
Bekr. He was wild in his passion for her, and sang his grief in verses
still preserved.[411] At last he became her happy master, and she
was despatched from the camp to his home. At once he freed her,
and took her to wife. His love for this lady was so great that,
forsaking all other, he kept him only to her—so long as her beauty
lasted. She was the queen of his household. But after a time she fell
sick and began to waste away. The beauty went, and with it her
master’s love; and so her turn, too, came to be forsaken. Then his
comrades said to him: ‘Why thus keep her on, neglected and
forsaken here? Suffer her to go back to her people and her home.’
So he suffered her. Leila’s fate was happy compared with that of
others. Tired of his toy, the owner would sell her to become, if still
young and beautiful, the plaything of another; or if, like Leila, disease
or years had fretted her beauty, to eke out the weary, wistless,
hopeless lot of a household slave.
Relaxation of manners is significantly
marked by the frequent notice of The use of wine.
punishment for drunkenness. There are
not wanting instances of even governors deposed for the offence.
Omar was rigorous in imposing the legal penalty. He did not shrink
from commanding that stripes should be inflicted, even upon his own
son and his boon companions, for the use of wine. At Damascus, the
scandal grew to such a height that Abu Obeida had to summon a
band of the citizens, with the heroes Dhirâr and Abu Jandal at their
head, for the offence. Hesitating in such a case to enforce the law,
he acquainted Omar with the circumstances, and begged that the
offenders, being penitent, might be forgiven. An angry answer came:
‘Gather an assembly,’ he wrote in the stern language of his early
days;—‘gather an assembly, and bring them forth. Then ask, ‘Is wine
lawful, or is it forbidden? If they say forbidden, lay eighty stripes
upon each one of them; if they say lawful, then behead them every
one.’ They confessed that it was forbidden, and submitted
themselves to the ignominious punishment.[412]
The weakness for wine may have been
a relic of ‘the days of Ignorance,’ when the Influence of female slavery in
poet sang ‘Bury me under the roots of the the family.
juicy vine.’ But there were influences altogether new at work in the
vast accession to the households of believers everywhere of captive
women from other lands. Greek, Persian, and Egyptian maidens
abounded in every harem. The Jews and Christians amongst them
might retain their ancestral faith, whether in freedom or bondage,
whether as concubines or married to their masters; and with their
ancestral faith retain much also of the habits of their fatherland; and
the same may be said of the heathen bondmaids from Africa and the
Parsee slave-girls from Persia, even if outwardly converted to the
Moslem faith. The countless progeny of such alliances, though
ostensibly bred in the creed and practice of Islam, must have
inherited much of the nationality of the mothers by whom they were
nursed and brought up. The crowded harem, with its Divine sanction
of servile concubinage, was also an evil school for the rising
generation. Wealth, luxury, and idleness were under such
circumstances provocative of a licence and indulgence which too
often degenerated into debauchery.
For, apart from the field of war and the
strife of faction, Moslem life was idle and Intemperance, dissipation,
inactive. There was nothing to relieve its and depravity.
sanctimonious voluptuousness. The hours not spent in the harem
were divided between listless conversation in the city knots and
clubs, and formal prayers in the Mosque five times a day. Ladies no
longer appeared in public excepting as they flitted along shrouded
beneath ‘the veil.’ The light and grace, the charm and delicacy, which
their presence imparted to Arab society before Islam, was gone. The
soft warm colouring of nature, so beautifully portrayed in ancient
Arabian song, was chilled and overcast. Games of chance, and such
like amusements, common to mankind, were forbidden by law as
stigmatised in the Corân; even speculation was checked by the ban
put upon interest for money lent. And so, Mussulman life, cut off,
beyond the threshold of the harem, from the ameliorating influences
of the gentler sex, began to assume that dreary, morose, and
cheerless aspect which it has ever since retained.[413] But nature is
not thus to be pent up and trifled with; the rebound must come; and
with the rebound, humanity, in casting off its shackles, burst likewise
through the barriers of the Faith. The gay youth of Islam, cloyed with
the dull delights of the sequestered harem, were tempted when they
went abroad to evade the restrictions of their creed, and to seek in
the cup, in music, games, and dissipation the excitement which the
young and the light-hearted will demand. In the greater cities,
intemperance and libertinism were rife. The canker spread,
oftentimes the worse because concealed. The more serious classes
of believers were scandalised not only by amusements, luxuries, and
voluptuous living, held to be inconsistent with their creed, but with
immoralities of a kind which may not even be named. The
development of this evil came later on, but the tares were already
being sown even under the strict and puritanical Caliphate of Omar.
[414]

Such excesses were, however, for the

present confined to foreign parts. At home, Simplicity of Omar’s
domestic life.
the first Caliphs, fortified by the hallowed
associations of Medîna, and at a distance from the scenes of luxury
and temptation, preserved the severe simplicity of ancient Arab life.
This, it is true, was not inconsistent (as we see even in the case of
Mahomet) with the uncontrolled indulgences of the harem. But as
concerns the Caliphs themselves, Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othmân,
their lives in this respect were, considering the licence of Islam,
temperate and modest. Omar, we are told, had no passion for the
sex. Before the Hegira, he contracted marriage with four wives, but
two of these, preferring to remain at Mecca, were thus separated
from him. At Medîna, he married five more, one of whom he
divorced.[415] His last marriage was in the eighth year of his
Caliphate, when over fifty, perhaps nearer sixty, years of age. Three
years before, he had married a granddaughter of the Prophet, under
circumstances which cast a curious light on his domestic ways. He
conceived a liking for Omm Kolthûm, the young unmarried sister of
Ayesha, through whom a betrothal was arranged. But Ayesha found
that the light-hearted damsel had no desire to wed the aged Caliph.
In this dilemma she had recourse to Amru, who undertook the task of
breaking off the match. He broached the subject to Omar, who at first
imagined that Amru wished the maiden for himself. ‘Nay,’ said Amru,
‘that I do not; but she hath been bred indulgently in the family of her
father Abu Bekr, and I fear that she may ill brook thine austere
manners, and the gravity of thy household.’ ‘But,’ replied Omar, ‘I
have already engaged to marry her; and how can I break it off?’
‘Leave that to me,’ said Amru; ‘thou hast indeed a duty to provide for
Abu Bekr’s family, but the heart of this maiden is not with thee. Let
her alone, and I will show thee a better than she, another Omm
Kolthûm, even the daughter of Aly and Fâtima, the granddaughter of
the Prophet.’ So Omar married this other maiden, and she bore him
a son and daughter; but there was no eventual issue in this line.[416]
Many of those whose names we have
been familiar with in the life of Mahomet Death of persons of
distinction.
were now dropping off the scene. Fâtima,
the daughter, and Safia, the aunt, of Mahomet, Zeinab his wife, and
Mary his Coptic bond-maid, Yezid the son of Abu Sofiân, Abu
Obeida, Khâlid, and Bilâl, and many others who bore a conspicuous
part in the great rôle of the Prophet’s life, had all passed away, and a
new race was springing up in their place.
Abu Sofiân himself survived till a.h. 32,
and died aged eighty-eight years. One of Abu Sofiân, and Hind, his
his eyes he lost at the siege of Tâyif, and wife.
the other at the battle of the Yermûk, so that he had long been blind.
He divorced Hind, the mother of Muâvia—she who ‘chewed the liver’
of Hamza at the battle of Ohod. As for her, we are told that, having
received a loan from Omar, she supported herself by merchandise.
What was the reason of the divorce does not appear.[417]