He caressed the length of her spine, so supple yet so strong. “No regrets?”
She shook her head. “How can you have regrets when your dreams are coming true?” she whispered, looking up into his warm gray eyes. Aly ached to make love with him, each movement of his body inciting her, teasing her.
Getting serious, Clay said in a low voice, “You talked to your parents about this roller-coaster relationship of ours?”
“Yes. I told them everything, Clay.”
“Our stormy beginning and middle?”
“They understood,” she told him softly. “Both my parents are sorry that Stephen lost his life. And I am, too.”
He sighed and nodded.
“My parents are very understanding people, Clay. They’re sensitive, and they have an ability to see why people act or react the way they do. They don’t blame you.”
“They sound special,” he admitted almost wistfully.
“My mother is a nurse,” Aly explained. “She saved my father’s life behind enemy lines in the Korean War. My father says he learned a lot from her about sensitivity.”
“What’s her name?” Clay asked.
“Rachel.”
“Pretty name, but not half as pretty as you.”
Aly tried to ferret out why Clay was retreating. “Clay? What’s wrong? Are you upset because of the past?”
He leaned over, kissing her cheek. “No, I’m worried about the future. Come on, let’s get out of here. I need a place where I can do some serious talking with you.”
Aly felt Clay’s tension on the drive up the coast toward Hampton Inn. The moon was full, casting its radiance across the desolate beauty of the Monterey Bay. Aly sensed Clay’s worry and reached out, sliding her hand into his to reassure him. He squeezed her fingers, offering her a forced smile.
Nervously, Aly smoothed the light flannel floor-length granny gown she wore. It was all she had—the only sleepwear she’d taken with her to Florida. Deep inside, she fretted over Clay’s unexpected somber mood. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door from the bathroom and stepped into their spacious bedroom suite. She saw Clay standing at the sliding glass doors that overlooked the ocean. He had taken off his sport coat and tie. As she rounded the bed and walked to his side, she saw that his shoes had been tossed to one side, too.
Clay heard Aly approach, pulled his hands out of his pockets and turned around. Some of his terror abated as she halted and stood shyly before him.
“I know this isn’t very sexy—”
“It’s perfect,” he whispered, moving to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “With your tousled red hair and freckles, it suits you.” She looked vulnerable in the simple gown, and so very, very beautiful.
Clay’s tender smile drove some of the nervousness out of her. She slid her hands around his waist, pulling him to her. His groan of pleasure was music. “This is all I want,” Aly whispered.
He embraced her tightly for a long moment, resting his jaw against her hair. “Sure?”
“Very sure.”
“For how long?”
Aly nuzzled beneath his jaw, savoring Clay’s closeness, his ability to share his complex emotions with her. “As long as you want.” She sighed softly, feeling his mouth moving temptingly along the length of her jaw.
“I warned you once before, I only like long-term commitments,” he growled, inhaling her spicy fragrance.
A small moan came from her throat as he sought and found her mouth, cherishing it with small nips and kisses. “Fine,” Aly agreed breathlessly.
Clay said a prayer, his mouth hovering against her smiling lips. “Forever?”
Aly opened her eyes, looking dazedly up at him. “Forever?” she whispered, perplexed.
Clay’s hands tightened around her, molding her form against him. “I want to marry you, Aly.” There, the words, the need, were finally out in the open. Clay watched her blue eyes widen enormously, and she struggled briefly in his arms, but he wouldn’t let her go.
“Marry me?” Aly repeated dumbly.
“I told you I liked long-term commitments, honey.” Clay didn’t know how to read the confusion he saw registered in her eyes. Aly’s cheeks had gone bright red in reaction.
Faintness swept through Aly, and she leaned against Clay for support. “Oh, Clay…I never expected this….”
“What? Ever getting married, or me asking you?”
If she hadn’t been so shocked by his proposal, Aly would have found that funny. But she was breathless as she sought his turbulent gray eyes, which were fraught with anxiety. “I had hoped someday to marry,” she began lamely.
She wasn’t going to say yes! Clay froze, fighting the terrible cold filling him. “Then it’s my name? My past, that you object to?” The words came out in icy monosyllables of pain.
The awful clarity of their conversation struck Aly directly. “No, Clay. God, no!” She framed his face between her hands, drowning in the pain she saw in his features. “Is that what you were afraid of? I loved you, but not enough to marry you because of your name? My name? Our complicated past?”
He nodded, words unable to come out because they were stuck in his throat.
Aly placed a warm, inviting kiss on his mouth, feeling him tremble in the wake of her sweet assault upon him. “I love you, you crazy jet jockey,” she breathed, nipping at his lower lip, cajoling him to join her. “And I wouldn’t care if your name was Humpty-Dumpty. None of that matters! You do, darling. Do you hear me? There’s nothing more I want than you as my husband.” She crushed her mouth against his, breathing life, breathing fire into the coldness that had inhabited him.
Gently, Clay lifted Aly into his arms, his mouth ravishing her moist, giving lips. She was going to marry him! As he carried her to the bed, he murmured, “You’re going to be my wife, Aly. I can’t live without you. I need you—your sweet fire.”
As he laid her on the bed, Aly sat up and pulled Clay down beside her. Her fingers trembled as she unbuttoned his shirt to reveal his massive, powerful chest covered with black hair. His fingers fumbled with the buttons on her granny gown.
Looking up into his eyes, Aly found them burning with desire for her alone. “Ever since I met you, I’ve never wanted anyone else, darling. I need you, too.” His shirt fell open, and she slid her hands beneath it, pulling it off his magnificent shoulders. Taking in a breath, Aly confided, “You’re so beautiful.”
Joy surged through Clay as he removed the gown from her shoulders, allowing it to pool around her hips. “And you,” he said thickly, cupping her exquisite small breasts, “are even more beautiful….”
She drew in a quick gasp of air as he leaned over, his mouth seeking, finding a soft pink nipple. A little cry escaped her as Clay pulled her into his arms, their flesh meeting hotly for the first time. A thrilling arc of lightning danced through Aly as he sucked upon each nipple in turn, drawing them to budding life with his slow, cajoling movements. She lost sense of time, of direction.
Dazed, Aly watched through lowered lashes as Clay divested himself of his trousers. He was a consummate male animal, the darkness of his hair emphasizing his power, his promise of meeting and matching her hungry femininity. Reaching out, Aly welcomed him back into her arms, arching to graze his taut body with her own.
“Love me,” she tremored close to his ear. “I need you, want you so badly, Clay…” She pressed her hip against his hardness resting between them. Each touch of his mouth upon her was explosive. As he teethed one nipple, his hand slid down the damp length of her long torso, slipping gently between her thighs, asking her to give him entrance.
Her breathing became erratic as his hand sought and found her moist womanhood, the center of her longing. Gripping his shoulder, feeling his powerful muscles flex and tighten, she cried out, twisting toward him, begging him with her eyes to enter her.
Clay smiled tenderly, sensing her every desire. She was so wet, so hot. Her lips upon his neck, spreading a sheet of fire across his chest, caused him to
groan out in pleasure. He started his silken assault upon her, her thighs taut and trembling as he began to wreak pleasure from her.
“Let me show you how much I love you,” he whispered against her cheek, kissing her hungrily. “Give yourself to me, sweet woman of mine….”
The shattering fire exploded to life as he teased her core, and she could do nothing but cry out, pulled tautly against his hard male body.
Clay laughed shakily. “You’re so hot, so vibrant with life,” he murmured as he eased across her glistening form, finding her, sliding into her liquid depths.
A gasp escaped Aly as she welcomed Clay into her. This was so right, so perfect, she thought as she rose and fell with the rhythm he’d established for them. His eyes shone with love as she looked up into them, nearly drowning in his lambent gaze. Her lips parting as she felt their mutual need quicken, Aly slid her hands around his corded neck, kissing him, taking his groan of pleasure as he released his life deep within her. A heartbeat later, a rainbow explosion tremored through her as she sought and found release within his strong, powerful arms. Her cry was drowned within his mouth as he kissed her long and fiercely.
Clay kissed her cheek, her closed eyes and that aristocratic nose of hers. Sweat glistened off the planes of his face as he lay within her, savoring her in every way. “Open your eyes,” he breathed raggedly. Aly opened them, and he could see moonlight in their dazed, sated depths. He shifted some of his weight, smiling down at her.
“I’ve never seen you so happy.”
Languidly, Aly reached up, her fingers trailing through those damp, errant strands of hair across his brow. “It’s your fault, darling. All of it.”
He kissed her swollen lips gently, soothing them with his tongue in the aftermath. “This is one time I’ll take the blame for everything.”
A softened laugh escaped her in a breathy rush. Aly sifted her fingers through his hair, memorizing the joyous flame in his gray eyes, that arrogant, self-confident smile on his male mouth. “I love you, Clay Cantrell. Even that inflated ego of yours.”
Clay sobered, caressing her copper-colored hair. “And I love you, Aly Trayhern. All of you. Past, present and future.” His voice grew hoarse. “I want you to know that, honey—that the past doesn’t bother me the way it did. You helped me understand you’re the way you are because of your family.” He gave her a little smile, wiping the perspiration from her brow with his fingers. “You couldn’t be this giving, unselfish and unconditionally loving unless you’d been raised in that kind of environment.”
Tears gathered in Aly’s eyes as she heard and felt Clay’s admission. With a cry, she threw her arms around him. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I was so afraid the past would get in our way again.”
He gently left the sweet confines of her body and turned over on his back. “Come here,” Clay called her softly, pulling Aly on top of him. Once she was comfortable, he cupped her face between his hands, looking deeply into her sultry eyes, sparkling with tears. “We are what we are because of our families. You’ve taught me that each person is an individual within that unit.”
“We’ve worked through and understood our past. Now, we have the present and future to build on, Clay.” She sighed, realizing they were both freed. “I like the idea of being Mrs. Alyssa Cantrell,” she told him huskily.
His smile was very male and very tender. “Tomorrow morning, let’s call your parents and tell them the good news.”
Aly sniffed and nodded. “I think they already know we’re in love with each other.”
He kissed the two tears away, bringing her against him, her head on his shoulder. “Good, then they won’t mind us dropping in on them a few days from now. Think they’ll balk if we want to get married, say, two weeks from now, down at their home?”
Aly sighed, sliding her hand across his chest. She could hear the solid beat of his heart beneath hers. “No. The more you know of my family, the more you’ll realize that we’re flexible on a moment’s notice.”
Clay closed his eyes, content as never before. “And strong, and enduring, and so very, very loving,” he murmured, kissing her brow.
Aly smiled wistfully, nuzzling beneath Clay’s chin. “I can hardly wait until tomorrow, darling….”
“I can’t, either, little hellcat.” Clay brought up the sheet, covering them both, his arms settling around Aly. Embracing her, he murmured again, “I can’t, either….”
Keep reading for an excerpt from The Loner by Lindsay McKenna.
Excerpt from The Loner
A loner suffering from PTSD, former Marine Dakota Carson is wary of teaming up with the beautiful Deputy Shelby Wolfe. But when two convicts escape from prison, Shelby’s ability to track them is invaluable, and her healing touch is a balm to the wounded Dakota. Can old wounds heal before it’s too late? Read on for a sneak peek of THE LONER by Lindsay McKenna, coming July 2013 from Harlequin.
“He’s right about that,” Shelby muttered. “I want to track those two and land their asses back into federal prison like I did before.”
Dakota respected her decision. “I’m having a helluva time looking at your natural blond hair and grasping the fact you tracked them down.” Giving her an uneven grin, Dakota added, “That’s a backhanded compliment, Shel. Old dogs like me have to learn new tricks. Tracking isn’t a gender skill. I’m just too used to working with the men of my SEAL team. It just never occurred to me a woman could do it, too.”
Her shoulders slumped, the tension bleeding out of her. “Tomorrow, we need to start sniffing around, Dakota. I want to find them. My gut tells me they’re going to hole up in the Tetons.”
Nodding, he said, “Bingo. Welton hid in the mountains of Yellowstone. The last stolen car has put him in our vicinity. We’ll go see Cade tomorrow and start creating a mission plan to locate them.”
She saw the commitment in his eyes. “Are you really going to sleep outside every night?”
“Yes. It’s better this way.” For you. For me. He struggled and said, “I don’t like it, but I couldn’t live myself if I harmed you, Shel,” and he held her steady gaze. She was upset and concerned. Not for herself, but for him. His heart opened wide with feelings he’d never felt before. This woman had a SEAL backbone whether she knew it or not. She possessed the same fierce team spirit they did. He wanted to close the space between them and kiss her until she melted into him.
“Well,” she groused, trying to lighten the tension, “I’ll miss you.”
“Yeah?” It made him feel good for the first time in such a long time. She had the capacity to reach him in a place he thought had died when he was seventeen.
Shelby saw a slow, heated male smile touch the corners of his mouth. Recalling the scalding desire he’d sparked within her before, she felt herself respond powerfully to that glittering look in his eyes. Now, he was the wolf stalking her.
Don’t miss THE LONER by Lindsay McKenna, coming July 2013 from Harlequin.
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
LINDSAY McKENNA
A man at war with himself
In all her years as deputy sheriff, Shelby Kincaid never met a man as stubborn as Dakota Carson. Practically eaten by a grizzly bear and still that man insists on returning, alone, to his isolated cabin in the Tetons. Shelby’s not even sure why it ruffles her-but she suspects it has a lot to do with the instant, powerful connection she feels with Dakota. If only he’d let down his guard with her….
Ten years as a navy SEAL took its toll on Dakota’s body, his mind and his heart. Since being released, he’s endured months of painful physical therapy…and brutal nightmares. Dakota wants nothing more than to hide from the world, so why does Shelby’s gentle presence suddenly make him question his seclusion? But when Shelby’s life is threatened, Dakota knows his warrior spirit won’t hide any longer. He just hopes it’s not too late….
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LINDSAY McKENNA
As a writer, Lindsay McKenna feels that telling a story is a way to share how she sees the world. Love is the greatest healer of all, and the books she creates are parables that underline this belief. Working with flower essences, another gentle healer, she devotes part of her life to the world of nature to help ease people’s suffering. She knows that the right words can heal and that creation of a story can be catalytic to a person’s life. And in some way she hopes that her books may educate and lift the reader in a positive manner. She can be reached at www.lindsaymckenna.com or www.medicinegarden.com.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-1495-1
No Surrender
Copyright © 1989 by Lindsay McKenna
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