by Cindy Dees
He grinned down at her. “Now there’s a hell of a life skill.”
She released his back with one hand to swat him on the upper arm.
He caught her hand with his own, twining his fingers between hers. “Your hands are so small and soft. Mine are all scarred and calloused.”
“I like your hands. They’ve seen hard work. And they toughened and survived.”
“You’ve got to quit romanticizing me in your mind, Anna.”
“Well, I’m sorry,” she declared. “I happen to find you romantic. Deal with it.”
His gaze caught hers, and all of a sudden, they were staring into each other’s eyes. The air shimmered with tension in the blink of an eye, and she couldn’t seem to look away. When she finally did manage to tear her gaze away from his blue-as-the-ocean gaze, darned if she didn’t catch herself staring at his lips.
The lower one was slightly fuller than the top one, and a faint shadow of mustache outlined the bow of his upper lip. His tongue slid across his lips slowly, unconsciously, and now his mouth glistened slightly, its fullness and warmth as tempting as sin.
“You gotta stop looking at me like that,” he muttered.
“Like how?” she murmured back. Good grief, her heart was going a mile a minute, and she couldn’t seem to catch a breath.
“Like you want to eat me alive.”
Like she—
Huh. She kind of did want to eat him all up. Well, that was new. The last time she’d panted after a boy had been Eddie back when she was sixteen or so, and he’d been the prettiest thing she’d ever seen.
Brett wasn’t boyishly pretty like Eddie had been. But he was ruggedly handsome in a more mature way. His skin was tanned and roughened by years outdoors, there were wrinkles at the corners of his eyes that had more to do with sun and laughter than age, and his facial features were harder, more chiseled than Eddie’s had been. But it was their eyes that differed the most. Eddie’s had gone dead, or maybe always had been flat and dead, and she’d been too young and naive to notice it. But Brett’s eyes? Ah, Brett’s eyes were so alive. Intelligence and awareness filled his blue gaze, along with humor, sadness and, right now, heavy-lidded passion.
He leaned forward one millimeter at a time, so slowly she could’ve run to the kitchen sink and back, no doubt giving her plenty of time to evade him as he closed in on her.
But for once, she didn’t want to evade a man. She wanted to kiss Brett again. In fact, he was taking altogether too long to get on with it! She leaned forward quickly and planted her mouth on his before she could talk herself out of doing what felt good for once.
His mouth opened against hers, and his tongue swept into her mouth, simultaneously exploring and claiming his territory. This time there was no tentative smooching. This kiss was carnal and Brett made no apology for it. He leaned back, drawing her up his body, sprawling her atop him in the most blatantly suggestive fashion. And he never broke their kiss, never stopped sucking and tasting and devouring her, branding his territory. Although truth be told, she did her best to return the favor, claiming his mouth for herself, relishing the way his lips opened beneath hers, the way his tongue welcomed and tangled with hers as she tasted his mouth back.
Kissing him was like falling into darkness. Not a scary abyss, but a soft, welcoming night that embraced her like a velvet blanket and welled up within her with feelings she couldn’t remember feeling before. Was this what real attraction felt like? Well, no wonder her girlfriends made such a fuss about sex!
His hand pulled up the hem of her shirt and then paused on her waist, an unspoken question. Was it okay for him to proceed? She arched into his deliciously muscular body, offering hers to him.
His hand didn’t move, and she mumbled impatiently against his lips, “Touch me, Brett.”
His lips curved into a smile beneath hers. His palm burned like fire on her skin, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake as it traced the waistline of her jeans. His splayed hand spanned much of the width of her back and made her feel small and fragile. But for once, she didn’t hate that sensation. With Eddie, he’d used her petite stature against her to bully her. But Brett’s hand was sliding carefully up her ribs, cherishing her and treating her as if she might break if he played too rough.
For her part, she unbuttoned his shirt between their bodies, pushing aside the flannel shirt eagerly. Her own tank top had slid up in the front a bit, too, and the heat of his washboard-hard belly against her naked skin was enough to make her gasp into his mouth.
“You feel so good,” he muttered against her lips.
“Ha. You have no idea,” she mumbled back. She shifted her weight, slipping her leg between his hip and the sofa back, straddling his hips as she tried to climb down his throat. Wanton urges surged through her, and a need to get as close to this man as she possibly could had her pulling up her own shirt to bare even more of her body to his.
His hand hovered over her bra clasp behind her, and she broke off her tongue tonsillectomy long enough to challenge, “Do it. I dare you.”
A gust of silent laughter filled her mouth, and he neatly popped open her bra. Now her whole back was bare to his roaming palm, and he rubbed up and down her spine slowly, melting away the last vestiges of tension she was holding in her body. She might as well have been a pat of butter melting in his hand.
She plunged her hands into his hair, resting her full weight on him as she tilted her head to kiss his mouth, his jaw, his temple, his ear. She dipped her tongue into his ear and swirled it around once. Twice. He groaned aloud, and she abruptly became aware that the front of his jeans was filled and hard against her nether regions.
She stilled, absorbing the shocking realization that she’d done this to him. Little old mousy, unlovable her. She’d turned on this hot, mature, confident man. “Thank you,” she murmured to him.
“For what?” he asked back, kissing his way across the base of her neck, pausing to lick the pulsing fluttering wildly in the hollow of her throat.
“For finding me a little attractive.”
“A little? Don’t sell yourself short, Anna.”
Gratitude warmed her belly. “Thank you for that, too.”
He pulled back to stare down at her sprawled all over him. “That’s not the first time you’ve said something like that. How big a jerk was Eddie to you?”
Sadness filled her eyes as she smiled up at him. There were no words for the horror of living with Eddie Billingham.
“Good thing he’s dead, or I’d have to kill him myself,” Brett growled.
She kissed him for that, too emotional for words.
Brett reversed their positions, putting her on her back with him stretched out beside her, his body plastered down the length of her side. He lazily stroked her hair out of her face and stared down at her in the flickering firelight. “Damn, you’re beautiful.”
She shook her head, her throat still too tight for speech.
“You’re the kind of woman I could make love to for hours and hours and still not be tired of.”
She gaped up at him, mouth open. She couldn’t help it. No man had ever said anything like that to her and actually meant it. Even in his most romantic moments, Eddie had been a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kind of guy.
“It’s your call, Anna.”
“What’s my call?” She was missing something significant, but for the life of her she didn’t know where he was going with that comment.
“If you ever want to make love—” He corrected himself. “When you want to make love with me, you let me know. I’m ready, willing and able. But it’s your call. You obviously have some baggage in your past to work out, and I’m not about to add to it. Say the word, and I’m there.”
He stilled, his gaze shifting to the fire, his hand resting quietly on her bare stomach.
That was it? He wasn’t going to make out with her
anymore until she said so? What the heck?
“I, um, don’t want you to stop kissing me,” she said tentatively.
He glanced down at her sidelong, a sexy come-hither look that invited her to kiss him as much as she wanted to. Oh, he was a tease! She reached up and tugged his hair, pulling him down to her.
He kissed her chastely, forcing her to deepen the kiss and go hunting for his tongue and all the clever things he could do with it. Frustrated, she tugged on the back of his muscular neck, pulling him deeper into the kiss. She wriggled beneath him where he lay half across her, pressing her achy, tender breasts against the wall of his chest. Oh, yeah. That felt better.
He smiled against her lips, not breaking the contact, but not advancing it either.
Finally, she lost all patience and blurted, “Oh, for the love of Mike. Would you please stop being such a gentleman and take me to bed already?”
Chapter 9
Brett’s heart actually, no kidding, skipped a beat. She wanted him enough to fight through her fear and heartbreak? The magnitude of the gift did not escape him. In fact it scared the hell out of him. Not that he feared he wouldn’t be decent to her or make sex good for her. He just wasn’t sure he deserved her trust or caring. “You’re sure?” he asked aloud.
“Uh-huh.”
“Say it.” He wanted there to be no mistakes here, no misunderstandings, no later recriminations. If he made love to her, it truly had to be her call.
“I want you to make love to me, Brett. Is that good enough for you?”
Carefully, slowly, so as not to scare her, he stood up, scooped her into his arms and carried her into the tiny bedroom, filled almost wall to wall with a big, old-fashioned iron bed. He took his time, giving her every opportunity to change her mind, and he watched her face for any sign of stress. So far, so good.
The bed was piled high with pillows and quilts, which he leaned down far enough for Anna to grab and throw back. He laid her on the bed and she gasped.
He froze. “What’s wrong?” he asked quickly.
“The sheets are freezing!”
Thank God it was nothing more serious than that. He murmured, “We’ll fix that fast enough.”
He stretched out beside her and she rolled partially on top of him eagerly. Did he dare believe that she really wanted this? Wanted him?
He used his foot to hook the covers and pull them up far enough to reach by hand. He covered both of them and savored the weight of her body on his, pressing him down into the down mattress topper. Her honeyed hair fell in a curtain around both of them, its vanilla scent wafting around him in a cloud of comforting invitation.
His erection was so painfully hard he struggled to ignore it. But he sensed that he absolutely had to take it slow with Anna. Eddie had obviously been as big an asshole in bed as he’d been on a football field.
“Warmer now?” he murmured.
“Yes, thank you. But, um, Brett. Aren’t we supposed to take our clothes off to do this?”
“Well, now,” he drawled. “It’s not always necessary, and it can be hot to sneak off in a corner in a crowded room and hike up a woman’s skirt, pull down her panties, unzip my fly and press into her from behind when no one’s looking. It’s pretty sexy to be in a roomful of people, silently doing the deed, having to make no sounds, and having hot, secret sex while not a soul’s the wiser.”
“In public?” she gasped, sounding scandalized.
“Sure. If two people are consenting adults and no one else knows what’s going on to get offended, why not?”
“But...but...in public? With other people around? That’s...”
“Scandalous? Naughty? Hot as hell?” he suggested, smiling up at her.
“All of the above.” She sounded a little disgruntled. In need of an education in sexual adventure, was she? Well, he was the man for the job.
“About those clothes,” he murmured. He sat up, taking Anna with him so she ended up in his lap, straddling his hips. He quickly divested her of her plaid blouse, tank top and sagging bra. Only a little light came in through the door, but it was enough to see the perfect curve of her breasts. They weren’t huge, but they were so damned round and full and pink-tipped that he all but came in his pants right then. It didn’t help that it had been way, way too long since he’d had a woman.
Getting off their jeans was awkward, and they ended up laughing, tangled up with each other and the bedsheets. He stared down at her as the laughter faded from his eyes. “Ah, you’re good for my soul, Anna.”
“I think you’re about to be very good for mine, too.” From another woman in any other situation, it would have been a cheesy line. But she said it so sincerely, so hesitantly, that he realized she was genuinely nervous about having sex with him.
“I promise I’ll make it better than good for you,” he whispered.
She smiled at him, running her fingers through his hair. He loved it when she did that. It was as if she was really seeing him. She was totally present with him. A lot of the groupie chicks who hung out at the bars Spec Ops guys frequented were all hung up on the idea of doing soldiers. But they hardly cared which soldier they screwed and barely managed to remember a guy’s name. It was all very impersonal and routine.
But this moment was a big deal for Anna. And shockingly, it felt like a big deal to him, too. What was it about her that made this more than mere sex?
More unsure of himself than he’d been in a long time, he lowered himself slowly to kiss her. Words failed him as her sleek, warm body pressed against his, all soft curves and sexy, smooth flesh. Man, it had been a long time since he’d been with a woman. And his body wasn’t letting him forget it. He clenched his teeth against the lust pounding through his erection, impatient to get inside her and mindlessly slam into her.
In an act of supreme self-discipline, he eased down her body, kissing his way across the soft swell of her belly, nuzzling the junction between her legs, and kissing his way down to her dainty foot and back up her leg. Nibbling the soft flesh behind her knee made her giggle and tug his hair, pulling him back up to kiss her luscious mouth. He couldn’t get enough of her berry-plump lips. It was an effort not to devour her whole, but the last thing in the world he wanted to do was scare her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, murmuring the words against the sweetness of her mouth.
“I’m great. You?” she responded, sounding a little surprised. She wasn’t used to practicing rolling consent, obviously.
“Ready for more?”
“If you don’t quit asking me stupid questions like that, I’m going to start seriously doubting your mental capacity.”
“I’m just trying to respect your wishes and not assume too much.”
“Assume this. I want you, and I want you now.” Her legs wrapped around his hips, her foot tucking up underneath his butt cheek and urging him into closer proximity with her.
“Slow down, baby,” he laughed. “Gotta be safe.” He fumbled in his wallet, which thankfully sat on the nightstand, and came up with a condom. He noted to self: if she was going to make a habit of getting snowed in with him, he was going to have to stock up on those the next time he went to town.
He ripped open the packet and quickly rolled the condom down his straining erection. Man. He hadn’t been this turned on since... Well, he couldn’t remember since when.
He rolled back to Anna and her open, welcoming arms. Who knew such a generous, brave woman lurked under her quiet, withdrawn exterior? What kind of an asshole did Eddie have to be to walk away from a woman like this?
He sank into her embrace, and it felt like coming home. For the first time he’d been stateside, he truly felt like he was back. He kissed her gently, reverently, silently conveying his thanks for that.
But then her clever tongue slipped into his mouth and stroked his tongue sexily. She plunged her tongue in and out of his mouth
in blatant imitation of the sex she was clearly telegraphing that she wanted.
“Last chance to say no,” he ground out.
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes!”
Grinning, he positioned himself and slowly, carefully, by millimeters, eased into her tight heat. She obviously hadn’t had sex in a while or her passage wouldn’t be so tight he had to push this hard to enter her. She gripped him with both arms and legs, though, murmuring words of encouragement and making little gasps that were all pleasure.
A lifetime later, he was finally seated all the way to the hilt in her, gasping himself with the incredible sensation of being sheathed in all that heat and throbbing flesh. “You okay?” he managed to ask without panting like a dog on a hot summer day.
“Better than okay. Amazing. Fantastic. Spectacular,” she replied.
“Aw, baby, we haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”
“Show me?”
He lifted up on his elbows to stare down at her. “Don’t tell me Eddie couldn’t manage to give you real pleasure.”
A sad little smile curved the perfect bow of her mouth.
He stared into her eyes in patent disbelief. “Well, then. We’ll have to fix that, won’t we?”
Silently vowing to himself not to come until she’d had a full-on, screaming orgasm, he started to move slowly, slowly within her, a gentle slide to accommodate her tightness to his size. Gradually, her muscles relaxed and her internal lubrication announced her readiness for more.
He took each of her hands in his, lacing their fingers together, his forearms resting on top of hers as he set up a steady, unhurried rhythm. In and out, in and out, piston-like, never relenting, but never demanding. He stared down into her big blue eyes, turned on like he’d never been before by the building wonder in them. Pleasure gradually glazed them over until he knew she was lost in something bigger than both of them, in a towering place of pure sensation. And he’d taken her there. A surge of pride passed through him that he could give her this.
Only then did he pick up the speed and intensity, driving into her more forcefully, careful not to hurt her but unleashing the beast within him a little bit more. A sheen of perspiration broke out all over his body, and her palms moved slickly across his back, sliding down to clutch desperately at his ass. “Still okay?” he panted, doing everything in his power to keep himself from exploding like a supernova.
