Texas Marine Mayhemn

by Cynthia D'Alba

  He chuckled. “Oh yeah? What job?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe fortune teller. Or bareback horse rider.”

  “You don’t know the first thing about telling fortunes, and I know for a fact you can’t ride a horse.”

  She squeezed his shoulders. “True, so the Marines it was.”

  For the first time, he raised his head to look at her. “You would have looked good in a bareback rider’s tutu.”

  She laughed. “Thank you, I think.”

  “I wish…No, I’m not going there. No playing what if tonight.” He looked into her eyes. “I like who you are, Nessie. Don’t get me wrong. There was nothing wrong with how you were, but now, well, you’re more confident, more self-assured. You carry yourself with a poise you never had before. It’s very sexy.”

  “Well, thank you again.” She bumped shoulders. “My ego is loving all the flattery.”

  “I’m serious. Didn’t you notice that every man in the restaurant watched you walk in? And that guy on the way out? I thought of coming over to remind you that you were with me.”

  “You’re such a goose.”

  “And that poor valet? He told me you were a hottie.”

  This time, a loud laugh burst out. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing me.”

  He turned on the sofa until they were facing each other. He set a hand on her waist. “You take my breath away, Vanessa Britt Devlin.”

  “Just Britt,” she reminded him. “I dropped your name after the divorce.”

  “Why? Losing my last name wasn’t part of the divorce petition, or at least I am sure I didn’t ask you to.”

  She shrugged. “I felt like I was starting over so I figured it was like being reborn.”

  He ran the back of his hand down her cheek. “I look at you and I look at my life, and I realize how much I lost.”

  “But you have your millions to keep you warm at night.” With a two-finger grasp, she lifted his hand off her face.

  “Ouch.”

  “You had a choice. You made it. Now, you have to live with it.”

  “No, I don’t have to. I can change, Nessie. I have changed, but my feelings for you haven’t.”

  She pressed a hot kiss in the palm of his hand. “I think the emotional stress of tonight has you confusing the adrenaline rush of surviving a shooting with true feelings. You’ll be back to normal in the morning. Speaking of which…” She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his. “I’ll do a walk around of the house before we go to bed.” When he grinned, she added, “Separately.”

  When she stood, he rose and took her hand. “I’ll do the door and window checks with you.”

  “No need. That’s my job.”

  “That may be your job, but if I go with you, I can postpone being apart from you.”

  She scoffed. “If only you’d been this attentive all those years ago.”

  He cringed at the truth in her words. “I’ve grown. Matured. Gotten wiser.”

  “So have I,” she answered. “And I know how to protect not only my person, but also my heart.”

  After ensuring the house was locked up tighter than a merry widow’s corset, they said their goodnights and went their separate ways. Once in the bedroom she was using, Vanessa pulled out her computer to compile a report for Hank.

  She’d already spoken by phone with him and Agent Freeman from the FBI. So far, Knue hadn’t been seen in or around Malibu, so they all agreed that no matter how unlikely, they had to give credence to the idea that Knue had somehow traveled from California to Texas and discovered where Devlin was staying. A written report from her for the files was SOP.

  She decided sleep was overrated anyway. Might as well get the report done.

  Hank had asked if protecting her ex was too much of a hardship. She’d assured him they had worked through all their issues. Hank asked her to include a statement about the working conditions and cooperation of Craig Devlin as part of her report.

  When she got to that section of her statement, her fingers froze on the keys. Lifting her shoulder, she rubbed her cheek, as if that could remove the sensation of his hand stroking her face. He had no idea how much she’d wanted to lean into that caress. How much she’d wanted to move closer when he’d grasped her waist.

  And then, to do the dumbest thing of all, how could she have kissed him? Sure, it’d been a light brush of lips. She’d not stayed there long enough for him to deepen the kiss, and heavens knew that was exactly what she’d wanted. And because she’d craved that gesture, she slapped another brick in the wall separating them.

  Letting her love for him flourish again would be so easy, but she’d never survive if things fell apart again. Had it not been for bootcamp, she’d never have made it the first time. Bootcamp took every ounce of her determination. She didn’t have time to mope. Hell, she hadn’t had the strength to mope. Every day had been a challenge, and she’d been unwavering in her commitment to succeed.

  Bootcamp had saved her sanity and her life.

  With her account of the evening filed, sleep was evasive. She relived the shooting again and again, analyzing what she missed or what she could have done differently.

  She had been a little distracted by the attractive man who’d held the door open, and then asked for her name and phone number. She’d been flattered, especially since she’d been aware Craig was watching the scene play out.

  She’d been thinking, See what you threw away. Other men find me attractive.

  And maybe she had strutted a little toward where he waited at the valet stand. And maybe her mind had been on watching his reaction instead of being alert to possible threats.

  He could have been killed on her watch. His life was her responsibility.

  After a full hour of reliving and reanalyzing the evening from every possible angle, she finally felt the pull of sleep. She was right there on the edge between awake and asleep when a noise sat her straight up in bed. Straining her hearing, she listened for a repeat of the sound.

  There it was. A low moan. A deep shout.

  She threw off the sheet and hurried next door. As she’d instructed, the door was shut, but wasn’t locked. The room was inky dark. The curtains over the window were pulled tight, not letting in an ounce of moonlight.

  From the dark came a grunt and cry. “Stop. Don’t hurt her.”

  Craig’s voice. Nightmares from the shooting was her guess, although with the gritty suspense books he wrote and the research he had to do, she wondered if he had nightmares often or if this experience was something new.

  Holding up her phone as a flashlight, she saw him, white sheets twisted around his tanned body. Her heart did a rat-a-tat as she looked at him, his firm chest muscles reflecting her dim light.

  Not that she would admit this fact to anyone else, but she’d fallen in love with him in the second grade. There’d never been another man for her.

  If she said she’d never kissed another man, that’d be a bold face lie. She and Craig had broken up in high school and she briefly dated a couple of other senior football players, but that’d been to make him jealous. Dating other guys hadn’t been a serious attempt to start a relationship with anyone else.

  He threw an arm over his head and kicked the sheets off his legs, leaving only a swatch of material covering his groin. Did he still sleep in the nude? She’d had to give up that habit in the military, but she missed the slip and slide of satiny sheets across her skin at night.

  The room was now quiet. He seemed to have settled down from whatever he’d been dreaming. She took a couple of steps backward to leave when he cried out, “No.”

  This time, she hurried over to the bedside.

  “Craig,” she said. “Craig. Wake up. It’s only a dream.”

  “What?” he asked in a groggy voice.

  “You’re having a bad dream,” she said.

  “Nessie?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I dreamed you got shot,” he said. “You died over there.”

  She
smiled and brushed his golden hair off his brow. “Nope. Still here.”

  He scooted over. “Don’t leave.” He lifted the top sheet for her to slide in.

  The plea, so heartfelt and raw, tore at her restraint. After turning off the light on her phone, she sat on the edge of the bed, her heart racing like at the conclusion of a twenty-five mile jog.

  The sheets were warm and smelled like Craig. Love and longing overwhelmed her. Not longing for any man’s touch. Only his. They might have had trouble during the day, but their nights had been filled with love. She missed this—the comfort of knowing someone was with her.

  She slipped between the sheets and drew in a deep breath, letting his scent fill her senses. Her stomach quivered with nerves. Ten years had passed since they’d shared a bed. How should she act?

  An arm wrapped over her side and around her waist. He pulled her snuggly against him.

  His hard chest pressed to her back. His thighs cradled hers. His erection nudged at her bottom.

  She swallowed against the lump in her throat and the rising lust in her groin.

  “I’ve missed you,” he said, his nose in the tresses of her hair. “You’ve changed your shampoo.”

  She chuckled. “Well, we haven’t seen each other in ten years so I suspect a number of things have changed.”

  “No, it hasn’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve seen you since our separation. I was at your bootcamp graduation. And I saw you every Christmas when you visited your parents.”

  Stunned by his revelation, her breathing froze. “You came to my graduation?” She dragged in a breath. “And at Christmas? Why didn’t I see you? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I didn’t know if you’d be glad to see me, so I watched but didn’t speak. You looked great every time.”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “What if I’d brought home a husband? Or a lover? What would you have done then?”

  If possible, he drew her tighter to him. “I don’t know. Hitman maybe?”

  She sighed. “You realize how sick that is given the current situation.”

  He kissed the area behind her ear. “I probably would have gone nuts. I knew you might have a boyfriend or two since you left, but I also knew you couldn’t have married.”

  His kisses and caresses while he wrapped himself around her made her insides melt. Of course, alarm bells clanged loudly in her head.

  The arm at her waist shifted downward. Thick fingers worked their way under her T-shirt until she felt them glide along her abdomen. Reflexively, she sucked in her gut as they moved upward until his hand fondle her breast.

  Reality crashed through her lust fog. Through her shirt’s material, her hands caught his. “Craig. Doing this is a really bad idea. Really bad.”

  He ran the tip of his tongue around the rim of her ear, sending a platoon of marching goose bumps down her spine. “I disagree. This is really good idea.”

  When she turned her head to continue her protest, she was met by his mouth taking hers in a soft kiss that rapidly grew hotter and deeper. His tongue tasted her bottom lip and she open her mouth, and herself, to what he offered. He thrust his tongue between her teeth and into mouth. Their tongues met in stroke-for-stroke caresses. The next moan she heard wasn’t from a bad dream, and the sound wasn’t from him.

  With a deep groan, she rolled over to face him, dislodging his hand from her shirt. Her vision had adjusted to the dim room and now she could make out his chiseled, beautiful face. She placed her hands on either side of his head. “How can you still be so fucking handsome?”

  He smiled.

  Another brick in her resistance wall fell.

  “Clean living.”

  A laugh burst out. “I doubt it.”

  Threading his fingers through her hair, he pulled her face to his for a kiss.

  This kiss wasn’t a soft kiss of past love. It was a rough, powerful, take-no-prisoners demand for her total surrender. He lowered her back to the mattress and rolled atop her.

  Her bones melted and her insides flooded her canal in preparation. She wanted to fight, wanted to tell him again they shouldn’t do this, but for once, she let her emotions override her logic. She kissed him back, his lips firm and open and welcoming for her tongue.

  He closed them when her tongue was inside his mouth and sucked it.

  She wrapped her arms around his back and her legs over his thighs, opening herself to him. Her heart raced with an emotion she didn’t want to name. Her breathing was ragged and shallow. Every cell ached with yearning for this man.

  “Nessie, oh, Nessie,” he said with a moan. “I’ve missed you so much. You have no idea.”

  She didn’t say anything because she didn’t know what she wanted to say. Part of her agreed with his sentiment. She’d missed him also. But another part, albeit a much smaller part, demanded she protect her heart, reminding her that he’d been responsible for the greatest pain she’d ever experienced.

  So, no words. Instead, she spoke with her body, sliding her calves up and down his legs, luxuriating in the feeling of his coarse hair. She scored her fingernails down his back until she found his naked ass…and it was a very fine ass. Not too flat. Not too full. Just tight and firm and perfect.

  Pulling his mouth from hers, he left a trail of damp, chill-bumped flesh as he kissed and licked his way down her throat until he met the resistance of her shirt. He rolled off and reached for the hem of her shirt but then paused.

  “If this comes off, I’m not stopping,” he warned.

  She met his fingers at her hem. “This…this…whatever this is, doesn’t change anything between us.”

  “We’ll see,” he said.

  “No, you have to agree. We live separate lives. I can’t, I won’t, plan for any type of future with you.”

  He gave her an almost violent kiss, invading her mouth with his tongue like an advancing army. She arched her back, pressing her swollen and achy beasts against his chest.

  “Whatever you say,” he finally said. “I’ll agree to anything. I need you tonight like I need oxygen.”

  She grabbed the hem of her shirt and jerked it over her head.

  Fire and desire flashed in his eyes as he stared at her.

  The room was suddenly hot. Her flesh tingled. Lust filled every pore, every cell. Dampness coated her panties and thighs.

  Almost reverently, he traced a fingertip across one nipple and then the other.

  Her breasts swelled under his touch.

  “Beautiful,” he said on a whisper. “So beautiful. Even better than my memories or my fantasies.”

  He took one breast into his mouth and fondled the other with rubs and caresses.

  She sighed and arched into his hands, into his mouth.

  “Harder,” she said, her hips thrusting upward. “Suck harder.”

  He did, almost to the point of pain, but it was a delicious agony. Her pelvis ached with need. Rubbing her thighs together only magnified the throbbing of her sex.

  He released the suction on her breast and blew across the damp nipple, drawing the erection tighter.

  She shivered at his touch

  As he applied his mouth to her other breast, he rolled and firmly pinched her rigid nipple.

  A combination of pain and ecstasy shot to her groin and she moaned in pleasure.

  After a while, he settled himself between her legs and started a trail of sucks, licks, nibbles, and kisses on her flesh as he worked his way down her body.

  The musky scent of arousal filled the air. Hers or his? She didn’t know, didn’t care. But the aroma heightened her sexual excitement even more, and she didn’t think that was possible.

  When he reached her panty line, he caught the elastic between his teeth and pulled as he scooted down the bed.

  Lifting her hips, she helped him get off her panties. Cool air wafted across the engorged, hot flesh between her legs.

  “You smell so good,” he muttered a second before set
ting his mouth on the delicate, swollen lips of her sex. He sucked and then thrust his tongue into her wetness.

  She dug her heels into the mattress and arched into his mouth. “Oh God,” she moaned. “Feels so good. So good.”

  He ran his tongue along her slit and up to her puffy clit. He traced the distended button around and around.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” she said on a gasp. “Don’t stop.”

  He shoved a finger into her opening. He glided his finger in and out as his lips and tongue sucked and stroked her sensitive nub. A second and then third finger joined the first, filling her, twisting around inside her, and flexing until he found the secret area of release.

  The tension inside her grew, the voltage amping up to painful levels, but she didn’t want to come yet. She fought against the rising tide of energy.

  Craig continued his fingers thrusts but glided his other hand under her rear. He separated her globes with his fingers, finding her puckered hole. He rimmed the edge with his thumb.

  Vanessa gasped even as her hips rose off the mattress.

  He took his mouth from her clit. “I want to watch you when you come,” he said.

  His voice was raspy and rumbling. She felt every word and every vibration deep inside.

  He pulled his fingers from her and when he shoved them back in, he pushed his thumb through the tight ring of her ass. “Come on, baby. I know you want to come. Let go.”

  Her ass burned from the intrusion. Her heart and breath raced each other. Fire like she’d never known shot through her.

  They’d never engaged in any type of ass play and she’d never thought she’d like it, but damn. She dug her heels deeper into the mattress, elevating her ass farther into the air.

  Rotating his thumb in a circle, he jammed it up his knuckle.

  Her hands knotted the sheet beside her. She pressed her head against the mattress. Sucking in her stomach, she pushed her lower back off the bed to give him complete access.

  “You mouth. I want your mouth on me,” she demanded.

  His thumb left her hole and his mouth found her clit again. Catching the swollen, tender bud, he sucked on it and pounded his fingers in and out of her in rapid moves.