Saving the Seal 2: A BWWM Navy Seal Interracial Romance Read online

  The sound of his skin making contact with hers, over and over, filled the room as each delicious thrust drove her hips flush against the mattress, weakening her knees. Genny wanted to sob, to scream his name, but nothing but whimpers and moans escaped her. She grabbed handfuls of the sheets beneath her and she was sure she must have torn something, but at the moment, her mind was filled with how unbearably good Owen felt, fucking her into a near delirium.

  As he grew closer and closer to his climax, the SEAL’s rhythm grew more and more frenzied, until he was pumping into her with a force that took her breath away. Genevieve gasped, her hips backing back against his eagerly once, twice – before she exploded. Her orgasm crashed over her like a wave and she trembled violently, her womanhood milking Owen’s pulsating cock hungrily.

  He shouted her name, thrusting once more – impossibly deep – before spilling himself within her willing body. With a groan, the man collapsed atop her, his warm weight pinning her to the bed.

  Closing her eyes, Genevieve sighed blissfully. God, she needed that. They needed that.

  It was a long moment until Owen finally raised himself from her, and Genny bit her lip as he slid from her, leaving her sated and sleepy. When the man lifted her from her hips to scoot her completely onto the bed, a soft laugh escaped her. Lazily, she turned onto her back to watch him join her on the mattress, gloriously nude and gleaming with a thin sheen of sweat.

  “You are gorgeous.” She breathed softly, watching muscle groups bunch and contract with rapt attention. “You know that, right?”

  “That’s supposed to be my line.” He grunted, settling next to her as he smoothed a few strands of dark hair from her brow. His lips met hers leisurely, and for a moment, she kissed him, the sound of the ocean filtering into their room through the open window.

  Once he let her get a breath, Genny cupped his face, staring deeply into his eyes. Her fingertips traced the jagged scar on the side of his face as she relished the sight of him – reveled in the fact that this man was hers. “I love you, Owen.” She murmured lowly, her lips curving into a smile.

  With a sigh, Owen buried his face in her shoulder, his weight warm and welcome. “You too.”

  Since the very first time Owen admitted he loved her, she’d only ever managed to get him to murmur those two words to her in reply to her own profession. Genny knew better than to push. She didn’t doubt the way he felt about her and eventually, she was sure he would be able to speak more freely about how he felt.

  After all, she hadn’t forgotten how emotionally constipated the man could be. It had taken her months to get him to admit to his own problems, and they were still working on getting him back to active duty like he wanted. It would be easier after the trial was all over and done with. There was a lot of pressure on both of them just now.

  It was enough for Genevieve to be with him, alone, like this. With a smile, she stroked through his hair, closing her eyes as she lounged, half asleep, among pillows and mussed sheets. Just now, she didn’t have a care in the world.

  **

  Owen didn’t move until she’d been asleep for at least five minutes. He was loathe to disturb her. For the past few months it seemed that Genny was up until three or four every night, looking up information in obscure law volumes and going over the papers they would use to press their case against the Admiral and Doctor Kant. While he helped as much as he could, it was clear that Genevieve had more of a mind for paperwork than he did. As a psychiatrist, she’d been filling out forms all her life. In Owen’s line of work, he usually passed his paperwork off onto anyone willing to do it.

  He considered himself a man of action. But he was smart enough to know that the actions they took now need more behind them than brute force. To go up against someone who had half of the East Coast Armed Forces in his pocket, and the former head of Riperton’s Psychiatry department, would require wits.

  But, Owen never doubted they’d win. Genevieve was brilliant. It was one of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place. She filled in all his gaps, compensated for his brusqueness and softened his rough edges.

  She was his perfect match.

  So why the hell was he having such a hard time telling her so?

  The SEAL worked his way from bed gently, careful not to disturb the sleeping woman beside him. When he’d extricated himself from her grip, he covered her with a light blanket before padding, naked, to the kitchen to retrieve a beer.

  As he took a long drag, he silently berated himself. He’d already told her he loved her once. What would be so hard about repeating a simple phrase? Genny knew how he felt about her. He was pretty sure it was evident in every look he gave her – in every touch they shared. However, he knew how women were.

  And even if he didn’t, Sean would have filled in those gaps for him. When he’d mentioned his difficulty in speaking of his feelings with Genny, the man had merely snorted, calling him hopeless.

  “The woman gives up everything for you, and you can’t even say three little words.” The Captain had scoffed, shaking his head in reluctant amusement. “Still a stubborn jackass.”

  Owen might have felt less guilty if Sean’s words hadn’t been true. Genevieve had given him everything. For him, she’d risked and eventually lost her job, faced ridicule by the military system and by people who called him a liar. She hadn’t hesitated, not even once, to stand by him.

  And here he was hiding in the kitchen with his beer.

  The SEAL cursed lowly. How was it that he could jump out of planes into enemy territory, shoot a target from two kilometers away and go hand to hand with terrorists, but he couldn’t tell Genny how much he loved her?

  Part of him blamed his old man. As much as he loved the cantankerous codger – and as much as he appreciated him standing by his son during the hell he’d gone through – Eli Sinclair had never been big on emotions or displays of affection. His dad had been all about instilling a sense of masculinity and purpose into his only son. Though his efforts had ultimately succeeded, Owen was a man who would rather wallow in his woes than share them with anyone.

  It was lucky for him that Genny was patient. That she wasn’t put off by his outbursts and tantrums. Slowly but surely, he was trying to come to terms with what had happened to him in Fallujah two years ago. He was trying to find more stable ground and build a solid foundation for returning to what he loved.

  But he knew he still had a while to go.

  And that was if they won the case. Owen knew they had the evidence. There was enough proof to convict Kant and Trace a hundred times over. The question was: who did they have on their side? That was what was going to determine the outcome of this fight. Who had friends in higher places?

  Finishing his beer, Owen made his way into the bathroom to start the shower. On the way, he checked his phone for messages. His lips curved upwards in amusement when he found a picture of Gina rubbing Eddie’s belly in Sean and her backyard. He had left the Rottweiler with his commanding officer and his wife, knowing that he’d be in good hands.

  Gina hadn’t let the fact that she was expecting stop her from running around after the dog. She loved pets, and swore that she would get one as soon as her baby was a year old. Of course, expecting had turned Sean into a nervous wreck. Gina, an already volatile woman, was now all over the place with hormones, which had the Captain out of his mind when he was home on leave.

  As much as he complained, however, Owen knew that he would give anything to be present for his son’s birth. There was no guarantee, as the schedule of a SEAL’s deployment could be unpredictable, but he had promised his friend that he and Genny would be there for Gina if he couldn’t be.

  The prospect seemed to mollify Sean somewhat – enough for him to agree to care for Eddie in Owen’s absence, at least.

  As he stepped into the shower, letting the hot water sluice over him, Owen exhaled a long breath. So much had changed for him in the past two years. He’d gone from believing he’d never be a SEAL again to b
eing determined to make it back to active duty; from seeking the next sexual encounter almost robotically to craving one woman more than anything else in the entire cosmos. Hell, he was even starting to get in touch with his deepest emotions.

  Whatever the hell that meant.

  Emotions were, of course, more Genny’s line of expertise. He wondered, vaguely, if she missed working at the hospital. Though she would, of course, find another job eventually, he knew that Riperton had been her heart and soul. He couldn’t imagine it how much it must have hurt her to leave.

  When the case was over, he’d see if he couldn’t get Captain Ryce to pull some strings and get her a job on base. He knew she wouldn’t feel complete unless she was helping troubled veterans find their feet again.

  And as long as Genny wasn’t happy, he sure as hell wasn’t.

  Chapter Two: A New Beginning

  One month later

  He still couldn’t believe it.

  Sitting in Genevieve’s car outside the courthouse, Owen hardly noticed all the reporters clamoring to get a statement from him. The windows were rolled up and he was waiting for Genny herself to return – but while he did, the SEAL took a moment to catch his breath.

  They’d won.

  The trial had taken an astonishingly short five days from inception to completion. While Owen knew they had a substantial amount of hard evidence against the Admiral and Doctor Kant, he hadn’t realized how much until their lawyer had actually started tearing into the two officials’ defense. To both Owen and Genny’s surprise, it hadn’t taken long to lay bare the foundation of what Kant and Trace had been trying to do.

  They had made a joint deal with several large pharmaceutical companies who agreed to give them a cut of whatever drugs they sold over the normal hospital quota. As a result, the men had conspired to funnel more veterans back into service with the aid of drugs, bringing up the hospitals success rate, providing Trace with more soldiers and both of them with a payday that amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

  The jury had deliberated for only a few hours before finding both the Admiral and Kant guilty of embezzlement, grand larceny, forgery, and murder in the second degree. At the last charge, Owen watched Genny burst into tears. She had long told him about Staff Sergeant Spencer McAvoy, who had wrongly been prescribed drugs by Kant and ultimately committed suicide. The conclusion of the trial had left the entire nation in upheaval. Some insisted that the entire thing had been fixed while others rejoiced that two men exploiting a broken system had gotten their due.

  Regardless of how anyone felt, the sentences stood: Kant had twenty years without the possibility of Parole, Admiral Trace twenty five. Both men were formally removed from their places of power and marched out of the courtroom to a state penitentiary.

  And just like that, it was over. Owen thought he might still be reeling for days.

  At a rising commotion outside the car, he returned to the present to see Genny and Matilda Brown, their attorney, making their way through the swarm towards the vehicle. Immediately, Owen pressed the door open, pushing through the reporters to tug the two women over to him. They didn’t answer any questions or even pause for the barest moment, quickly shutting the car doors the moment they were inside.

  Both women couldn’t stop smiling, and Owen felt his heart swell at the sight of Genny’s grin. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her like this.

  “I can’t believe it.” The psychiatrist breathed, her eyes still red from crying. “It’s over. Just like that, it’s over.”

  “I told you, you two had it in the bag the whole time.” Matilda’s blue eyes sparkled as she looked from Owen to Genny, her face flushed with pleasure. “At least fifty soldiers will get the justice and treatment they deserve now.” Reaching into the back seat, Matilda squeezed Owen’s shoulder with a slender hand. “I know it’s been hard, but it was worth it.”

  “No fucking kidding.” Owen couldn’t repress his own smile, even as Genny’s gaze reprimanded him for his language. “Sorry.”

  Matilda only laughed, shaking her head. When the sixth reporter in the past six minutes pounded on the passenger’s side window, begging for a statement, the attorney groaned. “Ugh, let’s get out of here and get the press conference over with so we can relax.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more.” Genny buckled herself in before starting the car. It took a couple of presses on the horn for the media to finally get out of the way, but in short order, they were on their way to a local news station that had agreed to host the post-trial press conference. As she drove, Owen leaned forward to massage his lover’s shoulders gently, whispering in her ear.

  “We did it, Gen. We did it.” She raised one hand to cover his warmly, and in that moment, Owen felt more at peace than he had in a long while.

  The press conference was an absolute shit show, but that, of course, should have been expected. Reporters were too busy speaking over one another to let anyone get a proper word in edgewise. Thusly, they ended up answering far fewer questions than they’d anticipated. What they thought would be a difficult two hours instead ended up being merely a messy hour and a half and, soon, they were on their way out of the building, both of them thoroughly exhausted. At least at the station, the police had erected a barrier so that the reporters couldn’t come within ten feet of them.

  Discreetly, Owen tried to pass Matilda a check for her services. She hadn’t charged anywhere near what they’d expected for such a high profile case, and while it was still a formidable amount, the SEAL wished he could afford to give her more. When he extended the envelope, however, Matilda merely smiled, pushing it away as she shook her head.

  “This one’s pro-bono, you guys. Don’t worry about it.”

  Genny’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Matilda, you can’t! Take it!” But the attorney wasn’t having it. She wouldn’t let Owen pay her in any shape, form, or fashion.

  “All I need is to know that the good guys won.” She hugged Genny tightly, and Owen remembered all the late nights this woman had passed with them. She’d believed in their cause more than anyone else and had been one of the only lawyers who’d wanted to take their case when it seemed like everyone was against them. They wouldn’t have been able to do this without Matilda, and now she wasn’t going to take their money.

  “There has to be some way we can repay you.” Owen insisted, his gaze intense. In reply, Matilda only hugged him as well.

  “Trust me, your happiness is payment enough.” They couldn’t convince her otherwise. No matter what they suggested, Matilda continued to attest that she wouldn’t take payment. After a good five minutes, Genny finally got her to agree to come back to her house for a glass of wine, at the very least.

  Owen tried not to be disappointed. As much as he appreciated Matilda’s efforts, he’d really hoped to have Genevieve to himself once they returned home. They might both be tired, but he’d promised himself that as soon as this was all over, he’d take his lover to bed for a few days. This was not a promise he intended to break.

  While Matilda slid into the back seat, Genevieve gave him a knowing smile. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a warm embrace as she whispered secretly in his ear in an attempt to pacify him. “It’s just a glass of wine, Owen. There will still be plenty of time for what you have planned.”

  Damn straight there would be.

  The SEAL kissed her as chastely as he could, considering the circumstances, and got into the car, willing away his rising erection. Soon, he knew. He just had to be patient.

  However, it turned out that Owen was to be kept waiting longer than he’d anticipated. When the three of them entered Genevieve’s dark apartment, the lights suddenly flickered on as no less than fifteen of their friends appeared to surprise and congratulate them.

  Ultimately, Owen was pleased enough to put off ravaging Genevieve for the moment, and enjoy the celebration that Matilda admitted to planning. Eddie greeted them wildly, bolstered by all of the ac
tivity, and flitted from person to person in a search for affection. Gina had bought him his own doggy cake made of treats and Owen tried not to lament over her making his dog fat. Eddie certainly didn’t seem to mind.

  His commanding officer hugged both Matilda and Gina warmly over her swelling abdomen. She was due in a few months now, but that didn’t stop her from keeping up with Sean. Owen rolled his eyes along with his commanding officer as the woman lamented over not being able to drink wine while she was pregnant. Matilda promised to drink enough for both of them, drawing an amused laugh from Gina.

  Captain Ryce soon joined Owen and Sean for their beers. Along with Eddie, they were the only men present, and thusly slightly outnumbered. The women all took the opportunity to ooh and aah over Gina’s swelling stomach before beginning to plan her baby shower. Stella was busy in the kitchen making something heavenly with the assistance of Genevieve’s mother. The elder woman, of course, couldn’t help but fuss over him, as she always did when she visited.

  Owen remembered the first time he’d met her. He hadn’t been distinctly nervous, but the way Martha eyed him had made him wonder if he should be. Ultimately, however, the woman had warmed to him and now he had to deal with her making inappropriate comments about his body every time they met.

  He was pretty sure the woman was already married, but he found it more endearing than annoying, and so he put up with her pinching his biceps and winking suggestively at him. At least this time she didn’t interrogate him about when he was planning on impregnating her daughter.

  Although, Owen had to admit...he’d contemplated the notion more than a few times. Though he and Genny hadn’t spoken about marriage or even considered their future together, he couldn’t deny that the notion of the dark-skinned woman’s belly swelling with his child made him smile secretly. If he had ever felt anything close to warm and fuzzy, this was it.