Marcus

Chapter Twenty

Marcus~

Marcus was grinning like an idiot as he sat around the table outside with his teammates. Now he fully understood why Declan, Caleb, and Pierce would get so distracted when the girls were around, because he couldn't pull his eyes away from Caroline.

"Can you believe this shit?" Marcus said with a wide grin and his eyes still glued to Caroline as she laughed with the girls inside.

God she's the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen.

"It's fucking wild, man. And we're happy for you." Declan said, giving him an endearing squeeze on the shoulder.

"Thanks for being here tonight." Marcus said to the group who all tipped the mouths of their beers toward him in response.

"Sorry I wasn't on time. Kenzie was late dropping Zeus off." Hunter grumbled against his beer before he took a sip.

"Oh so it's Kenzie now huh?" Pierce joked, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head.

"You're a fucking child." Hunter said flatly.

"Maybe I should start calling you daddy too." Pierce sassed shooting Hunter comical wink that made Marcus fear for Pierce's safety.

Hunter glared at Pierce from across the table as he drained the entire contents of his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his arm.

"Goddamn Hollywood, you got a death wish or somethin'?" Caleb muttered under his breath at Pierce.

"Ah he'll be fine." Pierce chuckled, completely unfazed by Hunter's death stare.

"Look at them." Marcus said, admiring Caroline and the rest of the girls throwing their heads back with laughter.

"Pretty nice view, isn't Mac?" Declan said with a grin.

Marcus nodded and sipped his beer, unable to tear his eyes away from Caroline and positioning his chair so that she remained in his peripheral vision so he could check on her.

"I'm gonna be honest fellas, I never thought this day was going to happen. All of our girls inside together. It's...it's better than I imagined." Marcus admitted.

"And it's only gonna get better man." Caleb added with a smile.

"You got that right, but we've gotta get this shit with Fox sorted out and we've got less than six weeks to do it." Marcus said, getting down to business which seemed to flip a switch in all of the men around him.

"We'll do whatever we can to help with that." Austin added.

"Absolutely man, because meeting with that guy was like sitting down with devil himself. There was somethin' off about him." Axel chimed in confirming what Marcus already knew to be true.

Fox had given Marcus the same feeling and the looks he'd received from Fox hadn't helped either. Fox seemed to be pissed that Marcus was around Caroline and had no remorse or concern for Caroline's well being. It was like looking in the eyes of a psychopath, but a psychopath that was in charge of giving his girl orders.

"Call us when she's feeling up to it and we'll have a briefing as a team so we can go over next steps." Hunter said, giving Marcus a chin lift.

"Will do Sir." Marcus replied. "I appreciate everybody being all hands on deck with this." Marcus said, but his words didn't elicit smiles from the group, they did just the opposite.

Most of the men sitting around the table hung their heads, refusing to make eye contact with Marcus, knowing that they hadn't tried as hard as they should have when Marcus suspected Caroline was still alive.

Before any of the men could speak or apologize, Marcus waved his hands and shook his head at the general attitude and energy of his team.

"Alright cut the shit. You guys can't beat yourselves up over this forever so go ahead and stop now. I'm over it. It's done. I know I acted like a lunatic, hell, I felt like a damn lunatic. None of you could have known and you were just trying to protect me. But I'm fine and I'm over it. You should be too." Marcus said flatly.

"You got it Mac." Pierce said, swallowing his guilt.

None of them should feel guilty. In fact no one should feel anything but happiness tonight because despite the long torturous road that we took to get here, my girl's alive and I'm about to take her home.

*****

A few hours later Marcus helped Caroline through the front door and into his living room, letting her lean on him with her bag slung over one of his shoulders.

"I love your house." Caroline said as she entered and looked around.

Love it enough to stay forever?

"It's not bad." Marcus said, locking the door behind him and tossing his keys onto a small table.

Caroline was visibly exhausted and he could tell her ribs were becoming painful. She favored her side, nursing her injury and grimaced with almost every movement of her body.

"Let's get you to bed." Marcus said softly.

Nodding at his words, Caroline let Marcus wrap his arm around her and lead her to his king sized bed that had been calling to them for hours.

"I'll get you set up in here and can sleep on the couch if you want." Marcus said as they crossed the threshold into his bedroom.

Whipping her head up toward him, Caroline studied his face and furrowed her brows in confusion, trying to figure out why he'd just offered to sleep in a different room.

"Why would you want to sleep on the couch?" Caroline asked.

"I just want to respect your boundaries sweetheart. I don't know where your head's at Red, but the last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable. I'll only get in that bed if you invite me, just like in the hotel."

Caroline stopped abruptly and turned in his arms to face him.

"And how do you want me to invite you exactly?" She asked, looking up at him with love in her eyes.

"However you want," Marcus said with a half smile.

"Well consider this your invitation." She whispered, raising up as high as she could on her sprained ankle, closing the space between their lips.

Meeting her half way, Marcus lowered his head and dropped his mouth on to hers, feeling a jolt of electricity radiate through his entire body at the sweet contact. Caroline whimpered against his lips as if she'd just felt the same sensation and melted against him, letting him take her body weight in his arms.

Oh my god I've missed those lips.

Marcus wrapped his arms around her, holding her upright as they leaned into one another, deepening their kiss with gentle swipes of their tongues as they devoured each other. Unable to contain himself Marcus took hold of Caroline's neck with one hand and plunged his tongue deep into her mouth, loving the way her moan vibrated against his lips.

They pulled away slowly, drunk and satisfied from their passionate kiss that they had been deprived of for seven years.

"Holy shit." Caroline whispered as her eyes fluttered open.

"Now I might need to sleep on the couch for different reason." Marcus chuckled, unsure if he'd be able to control himself alone in a bed with her after that kiss.

Caroline's laugh seeped into Marcus' heart and he knew right then and there that she was right where she needed to be. He wanted that sweet laugh to fill every room of his house for the rest of his life and he had six weeks to figure out how to make that happen.

*****

Thoughts? Theories? I love hearing from you!