by Zoe York
“Good.”
“We should head back, right?”
“Only if you want some rest before finishing this race tomorrow.”
She laughed. “I love how you can just keep going. Yeah, I need rest. I’m going to be in a world of hurt tomorrow as it stands already.”
“Just remember, we’ve got that hot tub waiting for us back at the hotel.”
Standing up, she pulled Cade up as well and slid against his warm, solid body. “Oh, I have big plans for that tub. And at least half of them involve you.”
— —
Mel’s first thought when she woke up was that the ground was damn hard. Since she’d spent most of the night halfway on top of Cade, she hadn’t noticed until now. Her second thought was, where is Cade?
The sound of the tent zipper and the smell of coffee answered that question.
“It’s early,” she mumbled.
“And yet the fancy caterers still had breakfast ready,” he said, laughing.
“Mmm.” She rolled to sit, reaching for one of the two cups he had in his hands.
“I like how you can find the coffee even with your eyes closed.”
“They’re cracked. I can see you.”
“And by ‘me’ you mean…”
“The coffee.”
There wasn’t really room in the tent for them both to sit up, so Cade crouched in the open doorway, and together they sipped the hot liquid in silence. Slowly it sank into her chest, warming her from the inside out, and she started to yawn and stretch.
Waking up sucked.
“We can sleep in tomorrow, right?”
He just laughed at her.
“That was a serious question. If we’re dating now, you need to understand how I feel about mornings.”
“It’s really cute that you think someone could spend even one night with you and not figure that out.” He sighed. “A bigger issue is going to be you realizing that I’m an unrepentant morning person.”
“Uhm, hello? Painfully. Obvious. But you get out of bed so quietly. I’ve decided this means I just have a human coffee maker now. I embrace your morning personhood.”
“Does that mean I’ve got a standing invitation to sleep over at your place?” Cade winked at her over his steaming cup of joe.
Mel’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You’ve never even been in my apartment. I have no idea where you live. This is kind of crazy.”
The corners of his mouth turned up. “I live about eight blocks from you. And I imagine your place is decorated in mostly white furniture with splashes of color, and it’s crazy neat.”
“Close.” A whistle sounded, a thirty-minute warning interrupting their conversation. Their finish time from day one put them in the last third of start times, so they actually had almost an hour.
The porta-potty line would take most of that, though.
"Up and at 'em." She yawned before draining the last of her coffee. “We can finish this conversation in the hot tub.”
"I'll tear down if you want to go grab some food."
She kissed him on the cheek after climbing out of the tent. “You are shaping up to be the best boyfriend ever, Cade Duncan.”
“You need higher standards, Melissa Vincent,” he called after her.
But the thing was…she had the highest standards. And he sailed over them with ease.
In the middle of the night, the direct path up to the ridge had been blocked off by the race organizers. After lining up and being released at their designated time, the racers were redirected to an obstacle area between the campsite and the plateau at the top of the ridge.
This part of the race was set up round-robin style, and participants could start at any of the three obstacles. Most people were doing the monkey bars first. Since there was a bit of a line there, Cade grabbed her hand and they ran together to the sand-bag carry. Then they double-backed to the monkey bars and finished with the tire climb. It meant a bit more running back and forth, but they didn’t wait in line once, and when they left the obstacle area, they quickly caught up to the second wave of racers.
The rush of competition was amazing. Adrenaline surged through Mel’s body in a whole different way than the day before. Now that the obstacles were behind them and it was just running, she wanted to do the best she could possibly do.
As they crested the ridge where the ascending trail spilled out of the forest into the amazing view they’d had a glimpse of the night before, Cade tapped her arm. “You want to stop?”
She understood his question. Did she want a picture? A moment to remember her mother?
She’d had the latter, and she didn’t need the former. Running like the wind—that was how she’d honor her mother’s legacy.
“Let’s keep going,” she said, the wind stealing her voice. But it didn’t steal her smile, and Cade knew exactly what she meant.
Off they went down the descending path, and it wasn’t long before they were at the spot of their first kiss two days earlier. They didn’t stop there, either.
They weren’t going to stop until the finish line now. There was a water station set up halfway down, but they zoomed past it. The elite athletes were at the bottom, already done. But for a regular racer, Mel was doing better than all right. She was killing it, and she knew it.
Fire licked up her muscles. Fatigue burned her from the inside out. She used every trick in the book to keep going, and right beside her the whole way was Cade.
This race wasn’t anything like twenty-five years earlier. The Vincent women were pretty different, too. And the men they fell for were like night and day.
Cade wasn’t her competitor, he was her teammate. He didn’t want to eclipse her—he helped her shine. And when they crossed the finish line, it was hand in hand, both of them covered in mud from head to toe.
Mel flashed a giant, beaming smile at the photographer as they sailed past him. If that photo turned out, she’d want it enlarged.
— —
Cade had asked his friends who did racing on a more regular basis for tips, and the general agreement was to get the hell out as soon as possible after crossing the finish line. To that end, he’d put beach towels in the rental car so they could hop in, mud and all, and sit on the towels to get back to the hotel.
The first thing he did back in their suite was get Mel into the shower. The second thing he did was fire up the hot tub, so they could soak as soon as they were clean.
Forty-five minutes later when room service delivered their late lunch, they got out reluctantly but left the jets turned on.
“This was a really excellent upgrade,” Mel said, licking cream cheese off her fingers as she lounged on the king-sized bed. He lay across the foot of the bed, lazily rubbing her foot. One long, brown leg spilled from the robe she’d thrown on, and Cade itched to trace her skin up to where it disappeared under the cotton terry towelling. To where she was soft and wet and pink. But mostly wet.
“On a scale of one to ten, how sore are you?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows at her when she laughed. “What? It’s been days.”
“I think the last time we had sex was four hours before the race started yesterday. Which would be barely thirty hours ago. Not days.”
“Feels like days.” He loosened his towel, letting his thickening cock rise free to his stomach. He liked her watching him. “Maybe we should just touch ourselves. I want to see you get yourself off.”
With a groan, she reached out with her foot and stroked the inside of his thigh. “No. I want you inside me.”
“Good.”
“But my legs are sore,” she mock-groaned, smiling at him as he loomed over her.
“I have a plan for that,” he whispered, lowering himself on top of her as she squealed. “You. In the hot tub, bent over an extra-soft towel on the ledge. I’ll do all the work, and your beautiful, hard-working legs can have a rest.”
She eagerly lifted her mouth to meet his, her tongue
darting between his lips as he tugged open her robe. They both groaned for real as he palmed her breast. Thirty-six hours was too long to go without this connection right now.
“Maybe we could just…” She sighed as he kissed down her neck, tasting her from jaw to collarbone. “Right here.”
“Condoms are over by the hot tub.”
She hesitated, and he could read her mind. But that step—that level of trust—could wait until they were back in San Diego. Maybe until after a few sleepovers at each other’s apartments.
They had all the time in the world.
“Come on,” he said, dragging his teeth along her collarbone to her shoulder.
“Don’t you dare bite me,” she breathed, but she rocked her hips against him as he laughed.
“Never.” Leaving his towel and her robe behind, he scooped her up and carried her back to the hot tub built in between the master bedroom and the private lanai.
He set her down outside the tub, and after they climbed in, she stood dutifully in the middle, waiting for his master plan, her lips only twisted into a tiny bit of a mocking smile.
“I enjoy how you’re letting me be bossy here,” he murmured, turning her around.
She folded willingly over the towels he’d set on the tub’s edge and twisted her head around so she could look at him as she spread her legs. “I’m pretty sure the enjoyment will be all mine in a minute.”
She wasn’t wrong—her pleasure was his top priority. It always would be.
But he always vibrated with a need to mark her and stake his claim. His cock throbbed at the sight of her spread out above the water for him, her ass tipped in the air, her pussy peeking at him from between her thighs.
He wanted to take her like this. Hard and fast.
And he would, but first he wanted her on the edge. Slick and desperate, so when he lost himself inside her, she’d be flying from pleasure, too. He smoothed his hands down her straight back, his fingers tracing the edge of her ribcage, then dipping in at her waist and out at her hips. He filled his palms with her luscious ass and let his thumbs graze between her cheeks before delving lower. He squeezed the backs of her thighs, making her sigh as his fingertips glanced off her swelling sex.
By the time he started stroking her pussy, she was dripping for him, and rocking back against his hand.
He stilled her with one hand on her back as he fingered with the other hand. First one digit, then two. Slowly parting her folds, then dragging back out, scissoring his fingers as he stretched her. Readying her.
“Cade,” she begged. “Now.”
Grabbing a condom, he covered up, then notched his aching crown against her entrance. He couldn’t hold back even if he wanted to—as she arched against him, her wetness welcoming him into her body.
And he was a goner.
She was still tight, a hot, hungry sheath around him. But they’d done this enough times now they both knew the difference between snug and not quite ready.
She was ready.
Water sloshed around their hips as he rocked forward, filling her completely. Then out again, as she whimpered in protest. He knew the feeling. But for each withdrawal, there was another thrust, another blindingly perfect penetration.
There was nothing like sinking into the woman you were falling in love with. It sounded more romantic than it felt. It felt elemental, not sappy. Mel could be the one for him; he felt it in his bones. And when they came together like this, when her body literally clenched around his most sensitive bits and said mine, his nuts drew tight and made the same fucking claim right back.
She was his. His. The idea made him want to mark her, inside and out.
With a groan, he folded over her back, rutting faster and harder against her as he kissed the back of her neck and across her shoulder blades. “Mel,” he whispered. “God, you feel so incredible.”
“I’m gonna come,” she cried, whispering his name over and over again as he reared up again. She spread her legs even wider still, and he reached around her hips, holding her tight as he surged into her from behind and found her clit with his fingertips.
“Then come, beautiful. Come on my hand and on my dick. Come for me.”
He’d already gone past the point of no return for himself. It was a miracle he was still talking. Thoughts weren’t really happening. Just feelings. Hot, tight, tingling, throbbing, pulsing, imminent explosion type of feelings.
Fucking your woman and making her scream type of feelings.
“Jeeesssus,” he groaned as she spasmed around him, milking the first spurts of his release into the condom. He jerked hard against her, rocking the head of his cock against whatever magic fucking button inside her that felt like Christmas and his birthday all rolled up in an ice cream sundae.
His legs started to cramp before he remembered not to lock them straight, so he hurt like a motherfucker as he tried to disengage and deal with the condom while still being the attentive boyfriend. Somehow he got rid of it and eased himself down into the water, then her, too.
“Mmmm,” she said, curling up against his side.
“Mel?”
“Yeah?” She kissed his arm, then his chest, and giggled.
“What’s so funny?”
“I have no idea. What were you going to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you crazy tired and weirdly sex-drunk right now?”
“Yes!” He laughed as he pointed back toward the bed. “Come on. Let’s have a nap.”
She grinned at him. “That’s a fantastic idea.”
— EPILOGUE —
Mel shook her head at her boyfriend of nine months. “You are certifiably crazy.”
“Uh-huh. Come on. Jump with me.”
They were in Belize, standing near the edge of a rock overhang, above a turquoise pool of standing water. It was safe—Cade wouldn’t ask her to do anything that wasn’t. This was an authorized jump point, blah blah blah.
Her heart still thumped wildly in her chest and her feet wouldn’t move any closer to the edge of the precipice.
“You know,” Cade murmured, his voice warm and low and sexy in her ear. “Local legend has it that there are gemstones in that pool.”
“What?” Mel rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t make any sense. For one thing, there would be a long line of morons throwing themselves off this cliff, and for another, the gems wouldn’t last long.”
“Maybe they’re magical and they only appear for the right divers. Soul mates or long-lost lovers.” He winked at the last part, a tease about the pirate romance novel she’d been reading while they were on vacation. Their first getaway together since Hawaii.
She laughed and held out her hand. “Okay, crazy man. Let’s go find some gemstones.”
Cade wrapped his hand around hers, his thumb rocking over the knuckle on her ring finger. “We’ll probably only find one.”
Blood rushed through her ears—whoosh—and her knees sagged a bit as she pressed her hand to her chest. “You didn’t leave a diamond ring down there.”
He grinned at her as he dropped to one knee. “Nope. Thought about it. Couldn’t be sure a fish wouldn’t eat it while I was gone.”
“You’re…wow.” She laughed, her own smile spreading wide across her face. “You’re doing this. Here. That’s…spectacular.”
“You’re spectacular.” Even down on one knee, Cade was still pretty tall, given that she was in bare feet, and he was a giant. So his handsome, sculpted face was right there for her to see and touch and trust.
He held on to her left hand while she traced his jaw with her right, and he waited until she processed what he was about to do before continuing. “You have become my best friend and most trusted counselor. You make me want to be a better man, every single day. You make me laugh. Most importantly, you love me, unconditionally, for me. And I want to do the same for you, every day for the rest of our lives. I want to make you coffee in the morning and rub your feet at night. I want to hold you in the dark and
share secrets nobody else knows. I want you to have my babies and shower them with all the love in your heart. Melissa Vincent, I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?”
She’d been nodding since he’d said she was his best friend, but when he got to the babies part, she’d burst into tears, and now her head was doing this weird bobble thing she couldn’t stop. “Yes, yes, yes. A hundred times yes. I want all of that, every day.”
He held up a picture of a gorgeous ring. Diamonds, set in a circle around a bigger pink diamond. A platinum band. “This is waiting for you back at the hotel.”
“Wow. That is exceptionally girly,” she said, grinning through her tears.
“It’s beautiful, and it reminded me of you.” He stood up and cupped her face his hands, kissing her softly, then not-so-softly as she teased his lips with her tongue.
“More kisses,” she whispered, and he picked her up, holding her tight as he gave her exactly what she wanted.
“I love you,” he said when they broke apart, both breathless and happy.
“You are the best boyfriend in the entire world,” she said, shaking her head in amazement. Then she stopped and got serious, because the next thing she needed to say was the biggest of deals. “And I know you’re going to be a wonderful husband. I know that deep in my bones, Cade Duncan.”
He grinned and held out his hand. “Ready to jump?”
“With you? Absolutely.”
—THE END—
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Keep reading the SEALs Undone series! Short, hot, fun reads about sexy Navy SEALs and the women they fall in love with.
The SEALs Undone Series
Fall Out - Drew and Annie
Fall Hard - Jared and Cassie
Fall Away - Trick and Gaby
Fall Deep - Miles and Piper
