by Score, Lucy
“I love how close you all are,” Summer said, envy in her tone. “Sometimes in a city of millions I feel like I’m all alone. Maybe more often than not.” She looked down at her feet.
Why was she spilling all this?
“Summer, you’re never alone,” Carter’s grip on her tightened. “You’re an honorary Mooner. We don’t let anyone be alone. This group of well-meaning weirdos got me through a lot.”
“Like what?” She liked the way she felt with his arm around her. Liked the way her name sounded on his lips.
“Like when I came home with bullet holes and anxiety so bad I still felt like I was in the field.”
They stopped walking and Summer turned to face him. “I’m so sorry, Carter.”
“PTSD, they said it was. But I got through it, thanks to these people,” he jerked a thumb behind them. “Beckett would get in the ring with me when I felt like I couldn’t fight back the shadows alone. Fighting someone felt better to me than fighting something. Those first few weeks back were a nightmare. One or both of us was constantly sporting a black eye.” He shook his head at the memory.
“I had help on the farm, help with the house. Mom made me lunch every day and stayed until I was better. Jax called every damn day for six weeks straight. And Joey got me on horseback. The closer I got to animals, to nature, to real people the more pieces of my soul I got back.”
Summer laid a hand on his arm. “What was it like? The PTSD.”
He looked out into the darkness. “Like everything was a threat. Like there was no hope or happiness. Just a constant state of alert. And I was angry. It took a long time to feel anything but anger or fear. But through that I learned that we’re stronger together.”
Carter put his hands on her waist and pulled her in.
“How do you feel now?” she breathed, her heart hammering in her ears.
He threaded his fingers through her hair, settling his thumbs under her chin. “Let’s find out.”
This time there was no wavering. No second-guessing.
The sweet, gentle pressure of his lips on hers had Summer bringing her hands to his chest where her fingers gripped his shirt. He smelled like sunshine and grain. He tasted like nothing she had ever sampled before.
Carter teased her mouth open, and Summer sighed into the kiss as it deepened. The sweetness slowly began to melt into something more intense. One of his hands dove into her hair and fisted there. Her breath caught in her throat.
“God, I love your hair,” he whispered against her mouth. “And your eyes. When you look at me it just guts me.”
She shivered against him and he pulled her in tighter. He took ownership of her mouth under the spring moon. Her heart stuttered and tumbled as the kiss turned gentle again.
His hands streaked up her sides, down her back holding her to him. His warmth penetrated the chill of the evening. She wanted more. So much more.
“Will you take me home?” she whispered. “Please.”
“Yes.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Carter was careful to touch only her hand on the way home. He was worried if he touched her that he’d pull over and ruin what should be something special. She deserved romance, stars and candles, and soft words, not the backseat of a Jeep.
He didn’t want to scare her with the ferocity of his need. His blood was pumping in hot, hard thrums. And still he only stroked her thumb with his.
He eased up to the front of the house, fearful that his heart would explode before he got his hands on her. Summer unfastened her seatbelt and leaned across to kiss him. It was all the invitation the beast inside needed.
Their mouths met in a tangle and the whimper from the back of her throat had him cruising his hands over her curves. She perched on the console, worked him from his jeans while her mouth sampled his.
Her slim hands circled his shaft and pumped. Once. Twice. He felt the wetness seep out and knew he was in trouble.
“Christ, Summer,” he hissed.
He pulled her hand free and returned his focus to her mouth. So much sweetness and need. It tempted him, tortured him.
When her hand skimmed down his body again, he dragged her across the console.
Trying to get out, he found he was still wearing his seatbelt. And he’d left the Jeep running. Yanking off the belt and turning the key, Carter pulled her out the door. Summer wrapped those long, long legs around his waist and he leaned her against the fender of the Jeep.
“I can’t get enough of your mouth,” he murmured. He pressed his lips to hers as his hands cruised over her body. The slim hips, the flat stomach, her soft, round breasts. Her fingers threaded into his hair and gripped as he crushed his mouth to hers.
Carter carried her to the porch. The front door was unlocked, but it seemed so far away.
She unwrapped her legs and slid down his body. When her boots hit the porch she dropped to her knees and with no warning took him into her mouth.
It happened so fast he had no time to brace himself. Those soft lips wrapped around him, taking the head of his shaft into the back of her throat. She moaned, and the vibration nearly sent him over the edge.
“Summer, wait —”
But she didn’t listen. That hot mouth slicked over him again and again drawing him deeper into heaven. He was too close.
Carter grabbed her hair and yanked her up. “Not yet, baby.” He needed her lips off of his dick so he could touch every inch of her, discover all her secrets. He wanted to taste her, stroke her, worship her.
He dragged her to the porch swing, unbuttoning, unzipping as they went. He shoved her down on the swing and dropped to his knees. Her boots were first. He tossed one and then the other over his shoulder. Next came the jeans. He worked them down her hips, careful to leave her underwear in place.
He had plans for that lace.
Carter freed one leg from her jeans and spread her thighs. In the moonlight the plum scrap was the only barrier between him and what he desired most of all. He pressed a kiss to it and groaned when Summer’s legs wrapped around his shoulders, drawing him in.
“Look at me.” His voice was jagged as gravel.
Summer’s gaze, wide and glassy, met his. He tugged her underwear to the side and slid two fingers into her tight center.
She closed her eyes on a gasp, arching against him.
“Open your eyes, Summer.” He wanted to watch her as he ravaged her. Wanted to know that thoughts behind her eyes were only of him, his hands and the pleasure they brought.
Her lashes fluttered open and he withdrew slowly before driving back inside. She was so tight around his fingers. It made him grit his teeth to imagine what it would feel like to take her.
He pulled out of her and brought his fingers to his mouth, tasted. She whimpered and strained against him, needing more.
Carter slid his hands under her perfect ass and lifted her to his mouth. His tongue followed the sweet, slick folds to her sensitive bud. He flicked it gently and heard her sob. His mouth moved lower until he found her center. With a deft thrust of his tongue, he tasted heaven.
Her thighs quivered. He tasted and licked, thrusting just enough to make Summer cry for more.
She was so close already. He needed to take her over the edge. “I need you to come, baby.” He sheathed his fingers in her again as deep as they could go and stroked her with his tongue. She writhed against him.
“Carter!” There was panic there, but he held tight and continued his merciless pillage.
He felt the flutter around his fingers and groaned as she let go. Her moans made him ache to be inside her. His cock demanded he end this sweet torture. But not here.
Summer trembled as the orgasm blazed through her system. He watched her as it broke inside and wished he could capture and hold this moment forever.
“Carter?” she whispered, his name on her lips was a sigh.
He gently withdrew his fingers and gathered Summer to him, lifting her in his arms.
“Where are we going
?”
“Upstairs,” he said, his mouth playing over her lips as he wrestled the front door open. “Take off your shirt, baby.”
Her fingers fumbled with the hem before yanking it over her head.
“Bra,” he ordered.
Summer released the front clasp and the matching lace fell away. Carter lifted her higher until his mouth found her breast. His lips locked on a sensitive peak and he began to suck. Long, deep pulls that made his cock painfully harder. She gasped in pleasure. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him to her breast.
He started up the stairs, blind to everything but Summer’s taste, Summer’s scent.
His shaft was nestled between her legs, those wet folds teasing him with dark promise. He groaned as every step stroked him closer to orgasm.
Finally they stumbled through his bedroom door. He released her breast long enough to dump her on the bed and strip out of his boots and jeans. Summer’s slim hands worked his shirt up and over his head. Only his briefs were left and he was already halfway out of them.
He settled her back against the pillows to feed again. He latched on to her breast again to suckle. As he devoured her, Summer found his shaft again. She began to stroke him.
He wasn’t going to last long. Not with the grip she had on him. And not with the noises she made. Soft little whimpers that went straight to his throbbing dick.
He needed to be inside her, surrounded by her, part of her.
Shifting, he positioned himself at her center, his shaft begging to be buried in her. “Baby, are you ready?”
“God, yes!” Her hands fisted the sheet. “Please, Carter.”
He said a prayer of thanks and slid into her inch by sweet inch until he was completely sheathed in her wet heat.
She was everything he’d been missing.
Summer drew her knees up and he clenched his jaw at the sensation the movement caused. His instinct was to plow into her over and over again, filling her with his seed. He was going to humiliate himself if he didn’t get a grip.
“Oh my God!” The panic in her voice cut through the haze of lust. “Carter, we forgot a condom. I’m not on birth control.”
Shit.
“Fuck.”
In his thirty years he had never been so caught up that he forgot protection. Not even at sixteen when he had talked Ally Lynch into taking off her clothes in her daddy’s barn.
“Stop moving baby, or there won’t be time for a condom,” he grimaced. He had condoms, didn’t he? If there was a God in heaven, there was a box somewhere. Under the sink in the cabinet maybe?
Carter clenched every muscle in his body and slowly pulled out. Fighting every instinct he had to slam back into her, he ran for the bathroom. He gutted the cabinet, dumping cleaning supplies and bathroom miscellany onto the floor before he found the box in the back corner.
“Thank you,” he whispered. He grabbed two and hurried back to the bedroom. Summer was on her knees on the bed.
“Hurry, Carter.” Her voice was a breathless plea.
His cock jerked as he climbed back onto the bed.
He ripped one of the foil packets open and rolled it onto his shaft as quickly as his shaking hands would allow. The second it was on, Summer was dragging him over her. He didn’t give her any time to prepare. He entered her with a violent thrust, filling her. There was no stopping him this time. He pulled out and slammed back into her.
Her muscles clenched him. A slick, velvet vice.
Her breasts trembled with the force of every thrust. Nails dug into his back, pulling him down against her. Hard nipples teased his chest. The pace he set was furious.
She was made to take him, he thought, as Summer let him ride her into oblivion.
Her nails dug into his back. That little hint of pain only pushed him harder.
He felt her quicken around him. The beginning of her orgasm was all it took to send him over the edge.
His balls tightened and he emptied into her with a force he had never known as she shattered around him.
Summer brought her hands to his face and they watched each other as they came together.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Carter recognized that, though it had been a while since he’d last had sex, it had never been like this. And he would never be the same again.
He rolled off of Summer and, gathering her close, pulled her into his side. He couldn’t get close enough. Not without feeling her from the inside. Her soft silvery blond hair cascaded over his shoulder and chest like a blanket. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”
Summer nuzzled in to his neck and sighed contentedly. “I feel like I exploded into a million pieces. Like a starburst.”
Carter stroked her back. “I’m sorry about the condom. I’m not usually in such a hurry,” he murmured.
He felt her smile against his neck. “I should have told you earlier I wasn’t on the pill. I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly either. It was amazing, Carter. You’re amazing.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Are you sure you’re all right? I wasn’t very in control there.”
She pressed a kiss to his throat. “It was perfect. I’ve never felt that way before. So craved, so desperate.” Her fingers trailed across his chest and stalled. “Is this where you were shot?” she whispered, fingers gently skimming scars. One on his shoulder, one over his ribs.
Carter grasped her fingers and brought them to his lips. “Yeah.”
She shifted over him and dropped a gentle kiss to each scar.
“What about this?” she asked, tracing a finger over the scar that split his eyebrow.
“That’s from Beckett shoving me out of the hayloft when we were kids. Landed on a pitchfork.”
“Oh, my God.”
“It’s okay. I got him back by accidentally slicing his leg open with electric hedge trimmers.”
“Your poor mother. It’s a wonder any of you survived.”
“Farm raised kids are tough.”
“Are you saying city kids aren’t?” Eyes still closed, she pinched him.
“I would never insinuate such a thing,” he teased.
“Good because I would have to hail a cab and run your fine ass over,” she yawned. And on that threat, his sweet Summer fell asleep.
Carter let his thoughts drift. He had told her more than he intended to about his experiences. The PTSD and recovery weren’t secrets, but he wasn’t usually so open about them. After having dragged his still-grieving family with him through a rocky recovery, it was nice to let the past stay the past.
Wounded didn’t have to mean broken.
He had moved forward, grateful for the support of his family and community. It had been a battle, just as much as the ones he fought with his men. But, as in war, he learned that there was strength in numbers.
After a few empty flings when he came home, Carter had made the conscious decision to give up on the meaningless and focus on meaning. He redoubled his efforts on the farm and gave Phoebe the confidence in him to move into her own place. It was a gift to them both. A new start, a new hope for the future.
And now his family was back together — for as long as Jax deemed fit — the farm was humming along, and he had Summer wrapped around him. This was no fling. This was the beginning of something special. If she wanted it to be. He wanted what his parents had shared. A partnership, a friendship, and something so much more. He could see having it with her.
Carter drifted with the memories of his parents until the scene in his head changed to one of gray and dirt. Of huts and cold.
He clutched his M16 and held up his left hand in a fist. The men behind him halted.
“It’s clear,” came the dispassionate voice of his second in command in his ear.
He signaled his men forward, advancing toward the adobe walls of the complex looming in front of them in the darkness.
“Hold,” Hawkeye’s voice warned him.
Carter and his men flattened themselves onto the ground. “Got eyes on two guards
on top of the wall.”
“Take the shot,” Carter ordered, his breath puffing out in a silvery cloud.
Even with the silencer, his well-trained ears caught the sound of bullets striking their targets.
“Clear,” Hawkeye said calmly. Just another day in Afghanistan.
Carter’s team silently pressed forward to the walls. They secured two ropes to the top and scaled the wall in silence. Carter was the last up and the first to move forward. Scanning the courtyard below, he spotted another guard. He signaled to the man on his right, Hector “Ninja” Ramirez. Ninja moved down the wooden stairs like a wraith. Sticking to the shadows, the guard never saw him coming. He collapsed into the darkness of death.
With the courtyard clear, Carter moved his team forward toward the small mud building on the right. According to their intel, the target was still inside and his gut agreed.
He signaled to the two men on his left. They broke formation and moved to the door of the other building. They would take both buildings simultaneously.
He felt the adrenaline surge through his system, knew his men felt the same. It was always the same, no matter how many doors they breached, no matter how many buildings they cleared. There was always danger.
Carter gave the signal and both doors were smashed down within the span of a heartbeat. He was over the threshold, gun up and ready, before the wood had hit the ground. A quick sweep of the dim room and he was moving to the back room. “Front clear,” he announced and heard Paul give the same report from next door.
The flimsy door was locked, but a well-placed boot had it bouncing off its hinges.
“Weapons down,” he shouted in Pashto. He sensed Ninja on his side. Laser sights focused on the foreheads of the two men in robes clutching semi-automatic pistols. Their beards were long and unkempt. “Put your weapons down, now,” he said, switching to Uzbek.
He heard the cry, a terrified wail and shifted his sights to the corner. A little girl, no more than six or seven cowered on the floor.
“Get the girl,” Carter ordered Ninja.
