“Fine. Yes,” she spat. She wanted to wipe that satisfied smirk right off his face.
“There. We agree on something.” He cocked his head and studied her. “But we’re not done yet, are we? You don’t believe being defenseless is a good enough reason for me to be concerned, so for the sake of argument, let’s say you did have your own room. Let’s say whoever wants the information you may or may not have comes calling. Even if you were able to alert me to trouble, do you have any idea what kind of damage could be done before I could get to you? Because I do. Trust me, sweetheart, you were lucky yesterday.”
Her blood ran cold. Her bruises proved she had at least some idea, but Booker was right. It could’ve been so much worse. “Do you think we’ve been followed?”
“I think the better question is, are you willing to take the unnecessary risk? You have me. I have both the tools and the experience. I can’t fucking protect you if you’re not with me, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the night on the hard sidewalk outside your door just so you can have some space. Hence the single room.”
Booker glanced at his watch. “We good here? I’ve got some work to do.”
He went to the door and worked the key into the lock.
“You don’t have to be such a jerk about it. You aren’t the one having decisions made without your wants or needs being considered.”
“Oh, I put your needs ahead of mine when I chose the room, Ellie. That’s the only reason there are two beds instead of one.”
#
Booker worked the handle harder than necessary and flung open the motel room door. The room wasn’t special. It was small, but adequate for their overnight stay.
On one side of the room were the two aforementioned full-sized beds, covered with tacky bedspreads, with a nightstand set in-between. On the other side of the room, a desk with a small flat screen TV perched on one end. The door at the opposite end of the room must lead to the bathroom.
Booker led Ellie inside, motioning to the farthest bed as he secured the locks on the door. “You take that one.”
He dropped his bag on the bed closest to the door, staking a claim before Ellie could argue. Not that she’d win. If trouble followed them to the motel, it would reach him first.
He placed the laptop on the desk and dug around in his bag until he found the power cord. He plugged it in and powered it up.
He could feel Ellie’s eyes on him, watching him as one might a dangerous animal encountered in an unexpected place. He couldn’t blame her after the bomb he’d just dropped.
All goddamned day he’d fought with the memories of how things had gone down between them. The deeper he dug, the more he didn’t like what he found. Over and over he relived the scenes in his head. Every conversation they had about the military. His actions the day he joined up. He could make an argument that Ellie had known the military was what he wanted. But when it came right down to it, she hadn’t known for sure what he was up to until it was too late.
He hated the idea that Ellie had been right. Not because that meant he was wrong, but because it meant he had been a total asshole to the only woman he ever loved.
If that realization hadn’t been enough to darken his mood, his mental exploration of their relationship had taken a detour down naked lane.
Alone and trapped in the truck with Ellie and her tropical scent, watching her lip plump the longer she chewed on it, watching her long, jean-clad legs open and close as she shifted in her seat had been pure torture. Picturing her in those panties she’d tossed into the cart had almost been his undoing.
Fucking Christ.
He’d been hard for the better part of the day and fighting to keep his hands off her.
And now she knows it. Way to go. Way to stay focused.
Ellie shuffled behind him. “You never remarried.”
“I assume you don’t need confirmation since that didn’t sound like a question.”
“Why?”
“You know why.” Did she think he’d been kidding when he stood before God and family and promised to love her until the day he died?
Men say things all the time that they don’t mean.
Apparently, the joke was on him, because he kept his promises.
“I tried to get in touch with you.”
He glanced over his shoulder at her. Her new flip flops had been tossed to the floor. She was sitting on the end of the bed, legs crossed.
“When? Last night?”
“About a week after the attorney sent the papers.”
Shit. He turned back to the laptop. Talking about their failed marriage wasn’t something he wanted to do while his dick was still hard. “The divorce papers you signed and had forwarded to the base? Those the papers you’re referring to?”
“Forget it,” she huffed. “I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”
Booker cursed. “No. Wait.” He reached out and took her wrist as she tried to move around him, intending to apologize.
Her skin was soft and warm. Her pulse jumped under his fingertips. Booker had a stupid impulse to feel that beat against his lips and he went with it. Raised her delicate wrist to his mouth and got his first taste of her in twelve years.
She gasped on contact and his lips absorbed the jolt.
“Booker.”
Oh yeah. He was a goner. “Why did you try to get in touch with me, Ellie?” he muttered, encouraged when she didn’t pull away. Her pulse raced against his lips. “Tell me.”
He brushed the tip of his nose along the curve of her hand. She untucked her fingers and he moved in, pressing a light kiss to the center of her palm.
Yeah, baby. That’s it. Open up for me.
“I-it’s not important. It doesn’t matter anymore. It won’t change anything.”
“Won’t it?” He flicked the tip of her thumb with his tongue. “Maybe what you have to say will change everything.”
“How can it?” she asked softly. “It’s been too long. Too much time has passed.”
He brought her hand to his heart and held her there, letting her feel the erratic beat. “Says who? Nobody here but the two of us, and I say it’s never too late. It’s true we can’t change the past, but I think whatever it is you want to say matters a great deal, querida, if you’re bringing it up now. Tell me.”
She spoke to the floor. “I was angry. Angry and hurt and alone.” She sucked in a breath and her head snapped up. Her cocoa eyes were shining with tears as her hand flew to her mouth. “Good lord. How did I not realize…? I did the exact thing I had blamed you for doing. I made a decision that affected your life without a word to you about it.”
“You wanted out. What was there to discuss?”
“I didn’t want out. You were my husband and I loved you. I thought you wanted out, remember? That thing you said to me about being done?”
“I already told you that’s not what I meant.”
“I understand that now. At the time it made sense. You joined the military the first month of our marriage. When I was excited about making a home with you and starting our lives together, you were excited about leaving me behind.”
That was bullshit. Booker opened his mouth to argue, but she held up her free hand, the one he didn’t have in a death grip against his chest.
“I didn’t say I was right. I was young, Booker. Hiring that attorney was stupid and impulsive and I regretted it almost immediately. That’s why I tried to reach you. The man I spoke with at the base said he couldn’t tell me where you were or what you were doing, but swore he’d get you the message to call me.”
Booker cursed. He hadn’t gotten any message. “I can’t give you the details, except to tell you the op was last minute and I was gone for several months.”
“You warned me that might be a possibility.”
“Do you remember who you spoke with?” Booker wanted to know whose ass he was going to kick.
Ellie shook her head. “No, but I tried again after a few weeks. Same guy, same respo
nse. I had no idea if you’d gotten my package. I didn’t know what to do. Then one day my attorney called and said he received the documents and that you’d signed them…” A tear slid down her cheek and she lifted one shoulder. “That was that. Eventually, I heard from Brandon. The two of you had been gone close to two years by then. The divorce had been final for a few months. He told me you had volunteered for a special task force and wouldn’t be coming back to the states for a while.”
“I couldn’t stand the thought of being home without you. Being away made it easier.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Her voice was weak and full of pain.
“Ah, hell. I don’t know, Ellie. Getting those papers did something to me. In here.” He squeezed her hand and tapped it against his chest. “I wanted to fight the divorce, but how was I going to do that from thousands of miles away? I had just been informed my stay overseas had been extended six months to a year. I felt helpless and out of control. I didn’t understand. Like you, I was angry and hurt. I kept staring at your signature, wondering what you’d been thinking as you wrote it there. The only thing I could come up with was the obvious. You didn’t want to be married to me anymore. It’s too bad the military don’t allow alcohol when deployed. I really could’ve used a drink or two that day.”
Her tears were more than he could stand. He pulled her into his arms and tucked her head under his chin. “Don’t do that. Don’t cry, Ellie.”
“I’m sorry, Booker. I never meant to hurt you.”
He believed her. “I’m sorry, too, querida. You were the most precious thing in my life, and I’ll never forgive myself for giving you reason to believe otherwise.”
She sniffed and pulled back, looking up at him with those big brown eyes he could lose himself in.
“I’m glad we got that settled. I don’t think I could stand another day in the truck with you being so broody.”
“Broody?” Booker laughed, and the tension drained right out of him. “You think I was quiet because of the fight we left unfinished this morning?”
“Weren’t you?”
“In part,” he admitted and decided to hit her with another truth. “The other part of me was trying not to imagine how you would look wearing nothing except those panties I bought as I put your sassy mouth to work on something other than taunting me.”
Chapter Seven
Ellie was not prepared for the onslaught of sensations Booker’s blunt words provoked. Her abs clenched as her lungs emptied with a whoosh. Fiery sparks ignited her blood, and since her heart was racing, it didn’t take long for the heat to reach every part of her body.
“I-I…” Damn it. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I thought you said we weren’t safe. It might be best if we kept our clothes on. In case we have to make another run for it.”
“I can be very effective, clothed or not. Or don’t you remember?”
“I remember,” she said on a shaky breath.
For all their history, Booker made her nervous. She’d only been with one other man, and that had been years ago. Her body had changed. She was out of practice. If the pure sexual energy pouring out of her ex-husband was any indication, he was not.
What if she disappointed him? She wouldn’t be able to stand it. Plus, they were mere minutes into their new understanding. What did it all mean? What kind of relationship would they have now, if any? Were they going to be friends? One-time lovers?
“I can see you working through all the angles,” he said. “And you’re right. It’s too soon and there are still things we need to figure out.”
It was scary how well he could still read her. “Like who broke into my house, and who tried to run us down last night?”
His hold on her hip tightened. “Like why those things should be top priority in my head, but the only thing I can think about right now is tasting you.” His head dipped until his breath warmed her lips. “Will you let me, Ellie? Will you let me have a taste?” His heavy-lidded gaze implored her. “Come on, sweetheart. I’m starving here.”
Ellie tilted her head ever so slightly and their lips brushed. His full bottom lip was a temptation she couldn’t deny. She licked at him.
Booker growled. He bent, wrapped an arm around her waist, and crushed her against his body. He fused their mouths, barely giving her time to adjust the feel of him before he pressed his tongue past her lips and into her mouth.
He explored her with honed precision, each stroke of his tongue soothing her nerves until there was no worry about the next minute, the next hour, the next week. There was only him.
“You feel so good,” he said against her lips. He rocked his shoulders and her nipples rejoiced at the friction caused as his chest moved against hers.
She grabbed onto his neck, trying to get closer, to deepen the contact. “So good,” she agreed, lost to him, to the familiar promise in his kiss. “I might’ve been wrong about that not getting naked thing.”
She hooked her ankles around the back of his thighs and rocked against his impressive erection. “We should rethink that.”
Booker’s hands slid around and cupped her ass. He followed her choppy rhythm, grinding his hard length against her. His laugh was dark and dirty. “Look at you. Greedy little thing riding my dick like you can’t wait another second to have it buried deep.”
Ellie froze. Oh, God. What was she doing?
You climbed your ex-husband like a tree and proceeded to hump him like a bitch in heat.
Humiliated by her response to him, Ellie hid her face in the curve of his neck. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what—Oh!”
She gasped as his hand came down on her ass with a quick slap. She jerked back, searching his expression for a sign of displeasure. All she found was a boatload of hot, aroused Booker.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” he warned. “I’ve been dying to get my hands on you all day. I want you greedy. I want you wet and aching and begging for my mouth, my cock. I want you any way I can have you.”
She yelped when he spun around and dropped them onto the bed. He cradled her against his chest, protecting her head when they bounced.
His declarations aroused and confused her. He spent the day wanting her? She could hardly believe it. She’d been the thorn to his bear paw, just not in the way she thought.
He wanted her.
“Booker.” His name was all she could manage. His heavy weight pressed her into the mattress. Muscled thighs spread hers wide to accommodate his hips.
“There will be time for all of that later. Tonight, I want to touch you. You want my hands, don’t you, baby?”
She closed her eyes as he trailed soft kisses across her jaw and down her neck.
“Answer me.”
“Yes,” she groaned, too far gone to give him any other answer. “I want your hands. I want your mouth. I want your … your cock.”
The words felt wicked and dirty and so, so right.
Ellie felt a vibration from his chest as he buried his face against her neck. A string of Spanish flowed from his lips. He thanked God for her answer, and then proceeded to list the things he wanted to do to her in such explicit detail he surely lost any heavenly graces he might’ve earned with the gratitude.
She nipped his earlobe. “I understand every word you’re saying, you know.”
His head snapped up. A roguish gleam brightened his eyes as he rolled off her. He settled onto his side, head propped on one hand, his body stretching the length of hers and then some. “Then you won’t be surprised when I do this.”
He released the button on her jeans. His fingers danced along the strip of skin he bared, making her belly jump.
“Your shirt and bra,” he said. His gaze darted to something behind her. The door? “Lift them, but don’t take them off.”
Had he heard something? Was he worried about someone trying to get in? Of course he was. The whole reason they were there was because someone had found them at the cottage.
His gaze returned to her. “We’re o
kay for now. I’ll keep you safe,” he said, reading her mind again. “The only thing you need to worry about is how fast you’re going to show me what I’m dying to see. Do it now, Ellie.”
Her fingers shook as she followed his instructions. The moment her breasts were freed, a sudden burst of self-consciousness hit her and she covered them with her hands. Her waist hadn’t been the only place that had suffered a loss of weight.
He caressed her belly, his brows pinched. “This bruise makes me mental. Are you in pain?”
Pain? What?
“No.” Tender, maybe, but whatever ache she felt in her ribs had been replaced by a lower, more urgent one.
He nodded once and tugged on her wrists. “Don’t hide yourself from me.”
“They’re not as big as they used to be.” The words sounded silly once she heard them out loud, but he had loved her breasts before.
“They’re perfect.”
“How do you know? You haven’t seen them yet.”
“Show me.”
Ellie closed her eyes and dropped her hands. She sucked in a breath as her nipples were simultaneously assaulted. On one side, warm and wet. On the other, the sinful pressure of being plumped.
She lifted her lids to the sight of Booker’s mouth and fingers working her nipples. Her pale skin seemed to glow under his darker tone.
“Please,” she begged, satisfying the last of his list of wants. She already checked off the greedy, wet, and aching portions of the list.
Booker took her nipple between his teeth. He nipped, soothed with his tongue, then suckled her. Nipped, soothed, suckled. Over and over. Each time harder, more insistent than the last.
A delicious pressure began to build between her legs. She savored it, reveled in the fact she could still feel intensely sexual after such a long drought.
She wanted more.
Ellie arched her hips in a silent invitation Booker readily accepted. He abandoned her breasts. He slid his hand down her body. Tiny sparks of sensation fired everywhere he touched, leaving her skin sensitive and alive.
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