She drew in a shuddering breath when he pulled back and stared at her. She had never felt such sensations before. She didn’t want it to ever end. He lifted one of her breasts gently, weighing and molding it in his hand, and she let out the ragged breath she hadn’t even been aware she was holding. Her breast fit perfectly into his large hand, as if it were made for him to hold. When his thumb flicked over her nipple, she arched off the bed in ecstasy, her hands clenching the bedsheet beneath them.
“So perfect,” he whispered, then lowered his head, his lips kissing her breast, though he teased her by avoiding the bud that craved the warmth of his touch so desperately. Her fingernails dug into his chest, and she was having a hard time catching her breath. Her hands wandered farther down his body until she was stroking the ripple of muscles of his stomach.
He moaned, and his tongue rasped over her nipple, then gently pulled it into his mouth, suckling at it as his tongue continued to circle it and tease it. Anya gasped, and her hands slipped from his stomach to curl into his hair, tugging restlessly. “Stryker,” she beseeched, unsure what it was she was asking of him.
His hand that had been caressing her breast shifted lower, feathering over her lower belly. A quivering began deep within her, and she squirmed on the bed, feeling the sheets and blanket twisting at her feet, the cool contrast to Stryker’s warm hands and mouth causing her to desire more of his warmth. Yet, at the same time, she felt flushed all over, down to the tips of her toes.
Stryker suddenly released her nipple and shifted to her lips, kissing her with a passion she matched, arching her back so her nipples brushed against his smooth chest, and she moaned into his mouth. His hand shifted to her hip and pulled at her leg as he nestled himself between her thighs. She thrilled at the feeling of his obvious desire for her.
The thickness of his erection pressed against her, and she felt his fingers slide around her hips, drawing her closer against him. She wanted nothing more than to feel all of him. She reached for his jeans to discover he’d already shed them and wore only his boxer briefs. He caught her hands in his waistband and pulled them up to kiss her knuckles.
“I want to enjoy this for as long as possible,” he said softly to her, “and with your eager little hands, I don’t know how much more I can take.”
“Stryker…I need you.”
He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. “You are a temptation unlike anything I’ve ever known,” he whispered. Her hands were caught splayed between them, and she flexed her fingers against the strength of his muscles.
“And you make me desire things…things I never thought I would…”
His lips pressed down on hers, and he released her hands, allowing her to slide her fingers under his waistband and carefully push his boxer briefs down, freeing his erection to press intimately against her core. She had never been more certain of anything in her life. She wanted him. She wanted him to claim her as his.
His hands gripped her hips, and he continued kissing her, his lips urgent and demanding. Then suddenly he paused, his breathing heavy. “I didn’t think… This wasn’t supposed to happen… I have to get a condom.” He reached into a drawer in the bedside table and drew one out of his wallet.
He smiled down at her, the smile she so thoroughly enjoyed. “I haven’t been with anyone in a long time. I’m very careful.”
“Good, so am I.” She smiled up at him and wrapped one of her legs around his, encouraging him to continue. The muscles in his jaw tightened as he looked down at her with unbridled passion.
His fingers slid down the length of her body and into the soft curls between her legs, and she gasped as his fingers found her moist folds. He moaned in approval. His fingers, slick with her excitement, circled the nub above her folds, and she nearly came off the bed. Her inner thighs began to shake, and she arched into his hand. “Stryker!”
Suddenly, he was pressing his erection against her, and she felt the intense pressure build up. “Oh,” she moaned, her heart racing so fast, she wondered if she was going to have a heart attack.
He pressed into her farther, and she hitched her leg higher up his, spreading herself wider to receive him. He had barely entered her when he suddenly froze, his eyes flying up to her face. “Anya?” he asked, his voice strained.
Her hands tugged at his hips, trying to get him to continue filling the void she knew only he could fill. He was the man she needed, the man she had chosen to give herself to.
“You’re a virgin?” He wasn’t moving any farther, despite her insistence, and she froze too, her gaze lifting to his. He looked surprised and concerned.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Is that… Does that…? I’m sorry, I didn’t think that would be a problem. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… I should have said something sooner…” Anya felt horribly exposed and vulnerable. She had never thought it would be a deterrent to a man to discover she was a virgin. But to a man like Stryker, who was probably very used to experienced women, an inexperienced woman in his bed was probably a major turnoff.
She wanted to get away from him. She wanted her clothes, and she wanted them immediately. She wanted to retreat to her clinic and cry her pain away. The first man she had ever offered herself to didn’t want her. But when she tried to move, he held her in place.
“Anya, you’re about to give me the greatest gift a woman has ever given me. Are you sure you want me to be your first?”
He wasn’t angry. He still desired her. “Yes,” she said, her voice throaty. “Yes, I want you, Stryker. I want to give myself to you.”
He dropped his lips to hers and kissed her tenderly, lightly, then slowly increased the pressure until she could taste his passion again, could feel his desire pressing against her as he once again began to ease inside her.
He was slow and gentle, rubbing against her and barely penetrating her, driving her passion even higher. He continued to kiss her, then slid his lips down her jaw, her collarbone, and took a nipple in his mouth. She moaned in pleasure as he suckled on it hard, then gasped as he drove himself forward into her, breaking through her hymen and claiming her body.
He froze for several seconds, breathing heavily, and she could feel a fine trembling in his body. But he didn’t move. Instead, he looked down at her, concern on his face. “Did I hurt you?”
“It…it was a surprise. And I feel very…full. Are all men as large as you?”
He chuckled, causing him to move within her, and she bit her lower lip to keep from making any sound. “I don’t know. Though I have been told I am larger than some.”
He continued to stay still, and her inner muscles rippled around him as she grew accustomed to feeling him within her. He closed his eyes and rotated his hips, and she gave an approving moan. Slowly, he withdrew and then eased himself back in until he was moving at a steady rhythm, and she was raising her hips to meet each thrust.
He began to move faster, his breathing ragged. With each thrust, he seemed to get deeper and deeper, touching more and more of her sensitive flesh until he was finally in her to the hilt, filling her completely. The tension in her lower belly seemed to be intensifying, coiling tighter and tighter, and she wanted everything he had to offer.
She began to meet his thrusts harder, gasping as he returned his attention to her breasts, suckling on one while rolling the nipple of the other one with his fingers. “Oh, Stryker,” she moaned, feeling something building, feeling as if she were creeping to the top of the roller-coaster ride with the plummet just on the other side. “Stryker!” she cried as his last thrust sent her over the edge and she soared, the joy of her orgasm gripping her from the tips of her toes to her hair.
He thrust a few more times before his body tensed over her, and she felt the contractions of his body within hers. After several intense moments, he collapsed, breathing heavily, and rolled to the side, taking her with him.
“Thank you, Anya. Th
ank you.”
* * *
He had thanked her. Was that what you were supposed to do when a woman gifted her body to you? He had no idea. He had never had a woman give her virginity to him. He still couldn’t believe Anya had given him hers. He had been afraid he would hurt her, but she had responded to him with a passion he’d never expected.
He left her briefly to dispose of the condom and get cleaned up in the bathroom before returning and pulling her against him. She lay halfway across his body, her breathing even in sleep. He knew she needed her rest, but the feeling of her breasts lying bare against his chest and knowing that her soft, damp center was only inches away had him getting hard again rapidly. He wanted her again. He needed her again.
She sighed in her sleep, and her hand moved across his chest. He felt her press a light kiss to his shoulder. “Why did you thank me?” she asked softly, as if she didn’t want to break the magical bubble they were in.
His hand made slow circles on her back, and he closed his eyes, enjoying this moment, this time with her. Because who knew, with the case they had to take on, he might not be returning home. It was that way with any new mission. “Because you chose me to be your first,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck. She smelled like sweat and lilies and sex.
Anya made a humming sound low in her throat and turned her head to give him more accessibility to her neck. “You’re the first man I ever desired so strongly, so passionately. And the more I got from you, the more I had to have.”
He wanted to groan. He could take her again right then and there, but he was afraid it would be too much for her too soon. Her hand slipped down and rubbed over his strong, rippled stomach, and he drew in a deep breath as she continued to get closer and closer to his erection.
She hesitated, leaning up on her elbow to reach his ear and gently tugging the lobe into her mouth. She suckled at it, and he couldn’t resist the temptation any longer. He pulled her farther on top of him and sank his hands into her luxurious hair, then sought and found her lips, pressing against her with the maddening desire coursing through his veins. He needed her, and it almost felt like he had never had her in the first place.
He maneuvered her body so she was straddling him and she could feel his erection pressing at her tender core. She gasped with excitement and her face flushed. She rotated her hips, and he felt his hard tip quickly get slickened by her renewed excitement. “Is it…normal…to want this again so soon?”
He smoothed her hair back and hooked it behind her ear. “With you, bella, I’m beginning to believe nothing is normal. And I like that.” He fumbled in the nightstand drawer again and quickly rolled on another condom.
She smiled at him and lowered her hips, taking him within her sweet body. He clenched his jaw and held her hips in his hands, desperately trying to hold on to his control. Sweat beaded on his forehead as she began to take him within her body slowly, inch by agonizing inch. She threw her head back, arching her breasts out, and took him fully within her body.
Breathing raggedly, he began to guide her hips, lifting and lowering her, until they were both in a frenzy and moving in sync with each other. “Come with me, Anya,” he whispered, as he felt himself tighten and edge closer to orgasm.
“Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, Stryker, yes!”
Several minutes later, she stirred in his arms and ran her hand lazily through his thick, black hair. “I think it is my turn to thank you,” she said with a smile.
He lowered his head and kissed her cheeks. “No, I still get to thank you. How does your head feel?”
She shrugged. “It’s tolerable. You’ve managed to distract me from the pain. So I do get to thank you. Who knew making love had such powerful side effects?”
Make love. Is that what they had just done? In his mind he was under the impression they had just had mind-blowing sex. Making love was something entirely different. It meant there was something between them, emotions and feelings that he didn’t want to feel ever again.
“I could have told you that,” he quipped, though his heart was pounding with anxiety. “Now, I think I smell bacon, which means Snap is up and making us breakfast. Why don’t you take a shower while I check on his progress?”
She looked at him with confusion as he slid out of her arms and went to the bathroom for a second time to dispose of the condom. He returned quickly and began to get dressed. “Stryker, is everything all right?” she asked, slowly sitting up in the bed. He knew she sensed something was off by the way she kept the sheet clutched about her body, hiding herself from him.
“I’m hungry.” He forced a grin to his lips. “That’s all.”
She gave him a hesitant smile and nodded. “Me too. I’ll be quick in the shower.”
But she waited, obviously unwilling to walk to the bathroom in the nude. Why do I suddenly feel like I’m ruining something great?
He hesitated outside the door to the room they had shared for a moment to collect himself, and his heart sank when he heard the lock being turned on the door. Obviously she didn’t want anyone coming in, including him. He shook his head at himself.
It was for the best. He didn’t want a woman in his life. Even a woman as amazing as Anya. He had taken plenty of cold showers since meeting the beautiful woman, and he wanted nothing more than to lie in her arms and bask in the warmth of her smile. But apparently the intimacy they had just shared had a different meaning in her eyes. And he couldn’t blame her. This was her first time. But he had to make sure her expectations didn’t involve their relationship going any further than casual sex between two consenting adults.
He wandered into the kitchen where he found Snap and Phantom. Snap was cooking while Phantom was already munching on a pancake. “Oh, good,” Phantom said, his tone dry. “We were beginning to wonder if we were going to have to rescue you from the evil clutches of the doc.”
Stryker wanted to punch Phantom. He had no right to joke about Anya like that. He didn’t know what they had just shared together, didn’t know how beautiful it was. Stryker hadn’t been with a woman since he and his wife had agreed it wasn’t working and filed for divorce. Anya had been—amazing.
“Must not have gone all that well based on his face,” Snap said, shaking his head. “We warned you, Stryker, that you needed to get back on the horse sooner rather than later or you were going to lose your touch.”
“Anya is not your concern,” Stryker said, grimacing at his tone. He sounded like a jealous lover. But he wouldn’t let them talk about her in a degrading manner. “Leave her out of your filthy conversations.”
Snap stared him down for several tense seconds, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “She’s a good woman, Stryker. She deserves the best.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I think you may be a little confused,” Snap replied, his gaze still intense. “I think you may be thinking with the wrong head when it comes to Anya.”
“You sure are full of a lot of opinions this morning,” Stryker said, his tone heavy with warning. “It would be for the best if you kept your thoughts to yourself.”
Snap’s lips pulled thin. “Yes, sir,” he said, then turned back to making breakfast.
Stryker clenched and unclenched his fists. He had the desire to punch something, but he couldn’t take his frustrations out on his men. They didn’t know what had happened between him and Anya, but they could fairly well guess.
She had been a virgin, for fuck’s sake! He had seduced a virgin not once, but twice, and had experienced more pleasure than he’d ever experienced with a woman. She hadn’t held anything back with him. She had been completely uninhibited, trying her best to please him as he pleasured her. Her innocence had only strengthened the intense feeling of having her tight little body respond to him so passionately.
She had referred to it as “making love.” Making love meant there were powerful emotions involved, and a coup
le was only steps away from actually declaring those emotions to each other. But he didn’t feel that way about Anya. He couldn’t feel that way. He cared about her and wanted to make sure she was safe, but anything more than that? His failed marriage showed how little he had to give her. And Snap was right. She deserved the best.
The rest of the guys began to emerge from wherever they’d been hiding, as he knew none of them would’ve been able to sleep after they’d debriefed on their first mission together. Brusco was bragging that he had defeated Santo in pool three times in a row, and Santo was commenting that he felt sorry for Brusco and had let him win.
Phantom continued to hover in the kitchen, looking as tired as Stryker felt. His gaze flicked to Stryker, but he said nothing. Did he think the same as Snap? The obvious answer was yes. Somehow, Anya had won them all over, and they believed he wasn’t good enough for her. Did his men really think so little of him?
Then they all lit up with smiles and good mornings when Anya walked in, finger-combing her damp hair. She smiled in return at all of them, though Stryker noticed it seemed hard for her to make eye contact with him. Surely it was normal for a woman to be a bit shy with the man to whom she had given her virginity. It was a gift he was going to treasure, no matter what the assholes on his team thought or said.
“How are you feeling?” Phantom asked, walking over to her and gently sliding her hair out of the way so he could look at her wound.
Possessiveness rolled through Stryker. She belongs to me. His thoughts startled him. How could he be so possessive of a woman he knew he had to let go? His heart clenched at the thought. He wanted her in his life. He needed her in his life. But how could he keep her happy when his life was devoted to the SEALs?
“It’s tender, but much better than it was last night. Thank you, Phantom, for all that you did to take care of me.”
“Now, let’s get you some grub. You’ll be feeling like your old self in no time.” Snap was pulling the last pancake off the griddle.
A SEAL Never Quits Page 9
