by Cat Miller
Jennifer missed being a part of a family. Even if hers had been demanding and overbearing, they’d been her family. It was so nice to be among people who cared for her. She swallowed hard and fought the building tears. She’d been through so much since she left the shelter of her parent’s protection. Being alone in the world was harder than she’d ever imagined. Maybe she would call her parents. Not to beg forgiveness or to admit that they might have been right. Just to tell them she loved and missed them very much.
After an excellent dinner accompanied by stories of past holiday celebrations and the childhood antics of Rourke and his friends at the home of Pastor and Mrs. Davis, Jennifer and Rourke did the dishes. Rourke chased Mrs. Davis out of the kitchen to go relax with her husband. She’d earned a chance to put up her dainty feet after toiling in the kitchen all day.
Rourke and Jennifer chatted and laughed while tidying the kitchen. The big, stern looking man turned out to be quite chatty with a dry but witty sense of humor. Rourke was telling Jennifer about a prank he’d pulled on a teammate that involved stretching clear cling wrap over the toilet bowl. The person who settled in to use the facilities would get a nasty surprise.
“Tank, that’s what we call him because he’s the size of a damn tank,” Rourke explained, and Jennifer wondered if Tank could possibly be larger than Rourke. “So Tank is in the latrine doing what people do in there while the rest of us tried to control our laughter. In no time, Tank was shouting and cursing. He came barreling out of the stall with his pants down. Well, needless to say, the joke was on us. I swear I’ll never get the image of a naked Tank with his junk swinging out of my head.” He shivered with male revulsion.
Jennifer laughed uncontrollably at the mental image of Rourke being chased by an angry man with his pants around his ankles and shit smeared on his ass. Rourke smiled down at her and seemed to relish her enjoyment of his outrageous tale.
Jennifer’s heart played hopscotch in her chest. He didn’t look like the kind of man who smiled often, and that was probably a good thing for womankind. His smile was devastating. Rourke was such a surprise. He was easy to talk to and even easier to look at. Her ability to withstand Rourke’s charm steadily crumbled the more time she spent in his company.
Rourke placed the last dish in the washer and turned to Jennifer. He blinked a few times as if confused, and then shook his head. Some internal struggle played out on his face before he stepped closer to Jennifer. Rourke stood squarely in her personal space. Jennifer’s mind told her body to step back. Don’t let this captivating man get too close. Her body, however, had other plans.
“You should laugh more often, Jennifer,” Rourke told her, and he sobered. His smiling eyes turned hot and hungry as they dropped to her mouth. “This mouth'” He lowered his head to brush his firm lips over Jennifer’s softer ones. “These pouty lips,” he growled. “It’s enough to drive a man insane.”
Jennifer’s lips parted in surprise, but neither of them moved to deepen the kiss beyond the teasing whisper of Rourke’s lips over Jennifer’s mouth. Their breath mingled, and she took him into her lungs. Rourke’s pupils dilated. A needy sound rose involuntarily from her throat. He was so large, so overwhelming, so perfectly shielding her from all of her fears when he wrapped those big hands around her waist and pulled her body against the long, hard planes of his.
Then, he was kissing Jennifer, really kissing her, and she wanted it. He massaged her lips with his own, nipping and teasing her with little licks. Jennifer clutched Rourke’s shoulders, trying to pull him deeper into the kiss. He chuckled, nipped her lower lip one more time, then he went in for the kill.
When Rourke’s tongue invaded her willing mouth, Jennifer opened completely to him. He consumed her entirely. He overwhelmed Jennifer with his sheer masculinity. His tongue delved and retreated again and again in a simulation of what she wanted him to do to her body.
Jennifer stretched upward to get as much contact with all that muscle as she could get. Rourke groaned and cupped her ass, pulling her hips flush against his. The straining proof of his desire pressed into her belly. Jennifer rocked her hips into his and reveled in the heat of their mutual need. His cock felt thick and rock-solid. She pressed closer, wanting what he had to give her.
Rourke tried to pull away, tried to stop the runaway train of their passion, but Jennifer refused to let him go. When he retreated, she followed, sucking and lapping at his mouth until he gave up the fight and returned the kiss.
“Jennifer, baby, I have to stop, now, before I can’t stop. You have to leave. I can’t walk away from you. I can’t,” he told her between kisses. “Oh god, you taste so fucking good.” He groaned against her mouth and kissed her frantically. Rourke was as overcome as Jennifer by the intense attraction that arched between them.
Why should they stop? Why couldn’t she have something for herself? Rourke would hurt her eventually, and she knew it. The fact that she was letting him touch her was a testament to her weakness for him. Jennifer didn’t know him, not really. Just hours ago, she’d refused to even consider her attraction to him. He’s a military man. A Navy SEAL, who would be gone before a girl knew he’d been there. He would use her body and leave. She knew it, and she had wanted nothing to do with it.
That was before she’d heard him talk to the pastor about how much he missed his mom, his friends, and his church when he was deployed. These were things she was sure he only admitted because he was with people who have known him since he was little. Jennifer tried to deny her attraction to Rourke before they laughed over dinner and Pastor Davis told her stories of Rourke’s childhood antics. That was before he held her close and begged her to walk away before he took things too far because he didn’t have the strength to let her go. She didn’t have the strength to let him go either.
It was all different now. Jennifer needed Rourke more than she needed the air in her lungs or the heart in her chest. For this brief moment in time, she needed to feel safe, protected and wanted by a man she couldn’t resist. She had nothing left. No one to hold her. No one to care what happened to her. It wouldn’t last past this fleeting encounter, but she needed the closeness of human contact. She could let Rourke give that to her, and then he would be gone. She wouldn’t blame him. Moreover, she wouldn’t allow the danger of her situation to touch Rourke, either. He lived a dangerous life in the military. He didn’t need it at home as well.
“Please?” Jennifer clutched frantically at his biceps. She could say nothing else. Jennifer was begging Rourke to make her forget her cares for just a little while. If he rejected her, she’d walk away and never look back, but she needed him badly enough to plead. She needed him for more than just a passing physical release, though she suspected he would make that memorable as well.
“Please?” Jennifer looked into Rourke’s lust clouded eyes and pleaded for what only he could give her.
THREE
“Please?” Jennifer asked Rourke not to stop his unprovoked assault on her soft, sweet body.
Rourke wasn’t sure what had happened. He was loading the dishwasher and making Jennifer laugh. He wanted to make her more comfortable with him. Maybe then, she would open up a little about herself. It was hard to get to know a person who was so very evasive. In an effort to loosen things up, he was telling her a frankly inappropriate story to amuse her, and it was working. She was smiling, laughing, and leaning ever so slightly into him. A sure sign she was becoming more comfortable in his presence.
The next thing Rourke knew, he was lost in the endless green and blue of her eyes. She was beaming up at him so openly. He’d shaken his head to try dislodging the idea that he had to kiss her, but it didn’t help. She was still there looking perfect and delicious. He knew those pouty lips would be soft and sweet. Jennifer’s chin tilted up ever so slightly. Those lips parted a bit, her pupils dilated, and she didn’t back away from the need he could feel burning in his own eyes.
A man could only take so much before he broke. Rourke crumbled under the w
eight of Jennifer’s magnetism. He kissed her, sipping delicately at her lips at first. Then Rourke claimed her mouth more aggressively. Once Rourke was sure Jennifer was with him, and he hadn’t misread the situation or crossed the line, he let himself go. She wanted him, and he was dying for her.
Rourke gathered Jennifer up in his arms, pulling her feminine curves against his aching body. It had been far too long for him. His dick was ready to split in his pants when she rubbed the heat between her thighs against him and circled her hips. The warmth of her sex penetrated her clothing and his, nearly robbing him of all sanity.
“Please?” Jennifer repeated. Rourke could no more refuse her than he could refuse to breathe.
Rourke lifted his head and looked around the spotless kitchen. Was he really about to have sex with this beautiful woman in the kitchen of the pastor and his wife? No, he was not. At least not in the kitchen when there was an alternative nearby. He was a SEAL. He could improvise in any situation.
Rourke lifted Jennifer high against his chest and resumed their kiss as he moved as swiftly and quietly as was possible with combat boots on his feet and a fucking log in his pants. The television and conversation could be heard from two rooms away. Rourke had the feeling he and Jennifer had been purposely left alone to talk and get to know each other. The pastor sure didn’t expect them to get to know each other in the biblical sense, but that was about to happen. There was a slight chance they’d be caught, but Rourke was beyond the point of refusing Jennifer’s plea for relief. He’d have an ocean of guilt and self-recrimination to swim in later, though.
Rourke released Jennifer with one had to open the pantry door. He carried Jennifer into the small, darkened room and pulled the door quickly shut behind them. Jennifer’s exploring hands continued to roam over his shoulders and down his back. She kissed with a desperation that was breathtaking. Her need was palpable, and it fed Rourke’s until he was blind and dumb to everything but the desire to please her. He rested Jennifer’s back against the wall, and she wrapped her lean legs around his hips.
“Are you sure?” he asked, but he was already sliding a hand between them to unbutton his pants. He had to ask, though. If she told him to stop now, of course, he would, but he’d be lowered to jerking off in front of her in the corner of Mrs. Davis pantry by the canned green beans and peaches just so he could walk again without pain.
“I’m sure, Rourke, so sure,” she said against his throat. Her hands had traveled down his sides to tug his shirt up so she could touch his skin.
Jennifer pulled the bow holding her wrap dress closed, and silky fabric slid away to reveal her shapely body and warm, flushed skin. Rourke was surprised at the toned abs marching down her belly to the scrap of material that barely covered her shaved sex. Her breasts sat high and tight. Fuck, she wasn’t wearing a bra. Rourke froze in the act of freeing himself to stare at her glorious body. Jennifer was more than perfect. She was like sculpture. This was not the body of a pampered socialite. Not unless she was a slave to the gym. What the hell did she do for a living?
“Is everything okay?” Jennifer was watching him apprehensively. Did she believe it was possible he wouldn’t enjoy the sight of her hot little body?
Rourke wanted to reply with a compliment or reassurance of some kind, but he’d devolved to the point of grunting when her dress fell open. He kissed her and gripped her ass instead of attempting coherent speech. A brush of his long fingers moved aside the strip of fabric that was the only barrier between them so he could lower all the wet heat she had pressed against his stomach down over his aching cock.
As soon as her slick pussy brushed over the crown of his dick, Rourke stopped. The haze of lust cleared just enough for him to realize he wasn’t wearing a condom. He’d never in his life been so carried away that he’d fucked a woman raw. Never. He’d never even tried to imagine what it would feel like to be inside of a woman without protection. It wasn’t something he would do until he was a married man. If he was ever a married man. He’d seen too many of his friends suffer broken marriages due to the strain being married to a military man put on their wives.
Jennifer moaned and rotated her hips, taking him partway into her body. The wet heat, the tight pull, and rotation of that perfect ass in his hands combined to fry every ounce of self-preservation Rourke had, and his composure snapped.
Rourke drove himself the rest of the way into her welcoming body. Her sheath gripped him so tightly he nearly came on that first inward stroke. She writhed in his arms, rocking against him, clinging to his neck. Rourke was just holding her up like an idiot who didn’t know what to do with a woman while she fucked him. She was fucking him. He was short fucking circuiting. The incredible feel of flesh-to-flesh contact with this amazing woman momentarily stunned him into stillness.
She kissed him, bringing him back to himself and the task. All other thought floated away like smoke. All Rourke knew was the taste of Jennifer’s mouth, the drag of her nails over his skin, and the tight grip of her sex milking his cock.
Rourke pinned Jennifer’s hips to the wall and let go of the cool reserve he’d perfected over the years. Even when he occasionally took a woman to bed, Rourke never lost control. He never forgot to hold himself apart. This wasn’t a lapse of memory. This was a total loss of sanity. He pounded into Jennifer. Stroking her so hard and deep, she gasped with every thrust of his hips.
Her pussy gripped him tighter and tighter until her body was sucking at his cock, trying to hold him deep inside her, and he had to fight for every inch of penetration. Jennifer made a strangled sound and cupped his face. He looked up to find her staring at him. She looked shocked. Amazed. He thrust one last time, and Jennifer detonated around him. The force of her climax was so intense that her flesh clamped down on his cock and dragged Rourke into orgasm with her.
She never looked away while she shuddered and gasped through her release. It was the most intimate and erotic encounter Rourke had ever experienced. He was simply unable to pull his eyes away from the beauty of seeing Jennifer take her pleasure and his.
When the violence of their joining finally began to wane, and Rourke could almost catch his breath, he pulled Jennifer tightly to his chest and kissed her slowly. He’d seen something in her eyes when she came down from the orgasm, and he didn’t like it. Sadness. Resignation. Loss.
She was preparing for him to dismiss her now that the deed was done. She had no way of knowing that Rourke had resolved to get to know her before he’d even been invited to dinner with her. She didn’t know he was already planning to learn everything he could about the mysterious beauty in his arms. He wanted her, and not just for the night. So he kissed her again, softly and slowly, and he hoped it somehow expressed all of the tender feelings quickly building in his chest. This wasn’t over. This was far, far from being over.
Rourke set Jennifer gently on her feet, and she wobbled on those sky-high heels that had somehow managed to remain on her feet. She looked shocked when her eyes took in the shelves full of food lining two sides of walls in the tiny room that wasn’t much larger than a closet. Rourke had taken Jennifer against the wall where Mrs. David hung her aprons and rested her broom.
He, too, looked around, and the reality of what they’d done began to sink into his cooling brain. This wasn’t the best way for him to start a relationship. He couldn’t bring himself to regret the passion they’d just shared, but he wished he’d been able to wait and find a bed for their first encounter. But Jennifer had needed him. Her desperation overruled his honorable intentions. Now he’d have to work to put things right.
“Let me help you, baby.” Rourke straightened Jennifer’s dress, wrapping it around her and tying the ribbons in a neat bow.
Jennifer was blinking rapidly. Her hands hung limply at her sides until he’d finished, and then she smoothed down her dress. Her legs were shaking and her cheeks a deep crimson.
“I . . . I need to clean up,” she stammered and slid out of the confined space between him and the wal
l at her back. She looked at the floor as she said, “I’ll go out first.” She cracked the door, and the coast must have been clear because she hurried away from the pantry without a backward glance.
Things were awkward when Rourke made his way out to the living room. Judging by Mrs. Davis’ blush and Pastor Davis’ knowing looks, their activity in the pantry hadn’t gone unnoticed. Jennifer remained a shade of red that had nothing to with their physical exertions.
Rourke excused himself to use the bathroom. His reflection in the mirror as he washed his hands surprised him. He looked tense but somehow happy. Yes, that was a shit-eating grin on his smug face. Rourke wanted Jennifer, and he had every intention of having her. His mother had told him many times that he would know he met the right woman. Now he understood. Jennifer was his woman. He just knew it. He had to have her, and he would.
He didn’t know where she was from or even her last name. He had no idea if she liked coffee or tea, or whether she was a morning person or a night owl. He didn’t know what she did to get that smoking hot, muscular body hiding under her dress or how she made her living. What he did know was that he had fallen ass over tin cups for the woman in under a day. Christ, he hadn’t even made it home to his apartment yet, and his whole life had changed. He had decisions to make and fast.
When he returned to the living room, Jennifer and Mrs. Davis were nowhere in sight. Pastor Davis was waiting for him with a grim expression on his face. Great. Rourke was about to be dressed down about his lascivious behavior. He hoped Jennifer wasn’t getting the same treatment from Mrs. Davis. She’d already looked ashamed of herself. Rourke, for his part, was not feeling the guilt he’d expected. He felt like a man on top of the world.
“Pastor Davis, I know I’ve upset you. I apologize for acting so inappropriately in your home. I have no excuses.”
