by Susan Stoker
Coach stood on the step that led into Harley’s townhome and stared in disbelief. He ran his eyes from her head down to her toes, then back up again. He couldn’t even believe it was the same woman he’d gotten to know over the last month or so. The Harley he knew eschewed dresses and skirts, and usually wore oversize T-shirts when they were hanging around together. He’d seen her in a tank top once, but that was only because he’d stopped by to see her one evening when she wasn’t expecting him. She’d quickly gone to change into something less revealing.
Knowing his mouth was hanging open, but not able to close it, Coach looked his fill at the woman who had begun to mean the world to him.
She was wearing a black dress that would’ve been modest on most women, but because it was Harley, and she wasn’t secure in her femininity, it was even more sexy. The dress had a halter top that tied around the back of her neck and dipped low in front, showcasing her shoulders. Coach could see a hint of cleavage where the V ended between her breasts. It clung tightly to her ribcage, outlining her body and delectable curves. Instead of flaring out at her hips, it went straight down to right above her knees. There was a slit in one side, and when she turned to grab a small black purse sitting on a table near the door, Coach could see nothing but bare back.
Rounding out her outfit was a pair of black heels. The straps looked complicated, and sexy as hell, as they wrapped around her ankles. The only splash of color on her body was the red paint on her toes.
He wanted to tug on the small bow at the nape of her neck to bare her to his gaze. He wanted to put his hands on her and learn every curve, up close and personal. Over the last month, they’d made out on her couch, or his, but Coach had tried to keep his hands on top of her clothes. He could literally feel his mouth watering with the need to taste her…all over.
“Is it…do I look okay?” Harley asked in a trembling voice, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “I know my glasses don’t exactly go with the outfit.”
“Shit. Yes. You look amazing. The glasses are perfect. They give you that naughty librarian look or something, I…” Coach couldn’t think straight. A thought suddenly came to him. “Are you wearing anything under that?”
“Underwear, yes. A bra, no. Why? Should I be? It’s backless…Shit, are my nipples showing?” Harley looked down at herself, trying to see if she was indecent. When she turned to head toward the bathroom off the hallway to check her outfit, Coach caught her arm and pulled her back to face him.
He couldn’t keep his hands off her if his life depended on it. Not having the ability to look her in the eyes at the moment, he ran one fingertip across her collarbone and into the V of the dress, skimming her warm skin as he went. He felt her inhale as his finger brushed against the side of one breast, then the other.
“Your nipples aren’t showing at all. More’s the pity.” He finally looked up into her eyes. “You are beautiful. And it’s not the dress. You’ve always been beautiful. But tonight…” His finger veered farther under the dress, entering territory he hadn’t explored skin-on-skin yet. “You wore this for me, didn’t you?”
Harley nodded, speechless.
Coach moved his finger just a bit more to the right and encountered his target. Her nipple beaded even further as he ran his fingernail over it. “You know tonight will be torture for me, don’t you?” He didn’t seem to expect a response, because he kept talking. “I’ll be thinking about what you don’t have on under this.”
“Coach,” Harley warned, bringing one hand up to grab his wrist. She didn’t pull it away from herself though, she just held on, as if she wasn’t sure if she wanted to stop or urge him to keep going.
He moved his finger away from her erect nipple and meandered it over to her other breast, circling the beaded nub there, giving it the same attention he gave the opposite one as he spoke. “You’re beautiful, Harley. I can’t wait to get my lips around these beauties. But to ease your worries for tonight, the dress has enough material that I can’t tell you’re excited under it…I only know because of this…” He flicked the tip of her nipple and smiled at her indrawn breath.
“I wouldn’t embarrass you in front of your family. I’d tell you if I thought the dress was inappropriate. It’s anything but. It’s beautiful, and so are you. But damn, I might embarrass myself with this hard-on if I’m not careful.” He smiled, not embarrassed in the least at the erection prodding against her stomach.
Keeping one hand on her breast, Coach brought the other one up to her face and held her gently. “Thank you for getting dressed up for me, Harley.”
“You’re welcome. Um, Coach?”
“Yeah?”
She shifted in front of him, and he smiled at her obvious arousal.
“When we go back to your apartment tonight…I’d like to stay, if that’s all right.”
Coach closed his eyes and fought to bring his libido under control. He opened them again and gazed into her anxious brown eyes. “That’s more than all right. But, Harley, I’m repeating this, just so you understand it…”
He waited for her to acknowledge his serious tone. When she raised her eyebrows at him, he continued.
“I’ve wanted you for a month. You wearing this sexy-as-all-get-out dress isn’t why I want you. Okay?”
She smiled and nodded. “It’s a good thing. Because I think it’s the only dress I own and don’t be surprised if I spill half my dinner all over myself when we eat.”
Coach removed his hand from the front of her dress, reluctantly, and kissed her on the lips gently. “I’ll help clean you up if you spill. You’ll never know what it means to me, however, that you went all out for me tonight. You have a bag packed?”
Harley nodded shyly. “It’s around the corner. I wasn’t going to bring it up if you weren’t receptive to the idea.”
“I’m receptive. Extremely receptive.”
“Good.”
“Tell me where it is, I’ll grab it and we’ll get going. I don’t want to be late the first time I meet Montesa and Davidson. But Harley?”
“Yeah?”
“If we weren’t meeting them, we wouldn’t leave the house.”
Harley giggled, loving that she could turn him on so much that he didn’t really even want to leave her place. “My bag is sitting in the kitchen, around the counter.”
Coach leaned down and kissed her briefly before taking a step back. He adjusted his obvious erection as he walked, which made Harley smile even wider. She’d never been the kind of woman to make men get hard-ons…and it felt good.
He came back around the corner, her bag in his hand, and smiled. “Jesus. Seriously. You look great.”
Coach held out his elbow, and Harley grabbed hold, handing her keys to him so he could lock her door. “I don’t know about that, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
“I don’t care if you believe it or not, honestly,” Coach told her as he locked her door, keeping her by his side. “But every man who sees you tonight is gonna be jealous as hell of me. As much as I want to take you to my apartment and unwrap you, I’m looking forward to having you by my side, meeting your siblings, and generally showing everyone we meet tonight how beautiful you are.”
They walked toward his Highlander. “But don’t mistake me, Harley,” he cautioned.
She looked up at him in confusion. “About what?”
“Every time I go somewhere with you, I feel the same way. No matter what you’re wearing. I’m a lucky man, and I know it.”
Harley rolled her eyes. “Coach, I don’t mind if you compliment me while I’m wearing this. I did make a conscious decision to put it on tonight, hoping to surprise you. Just as I don’t expect you to put on your dress-blue uniform every time we go out, you shouldn’t expect me to always make this much effort. I’m sure I’ll love you in your uniform, just as you love me in this dress, but most of the time we’ll be in our normal clothes. I’m happy being around you no matter what you wear.”
“There’s an Army Ball later this year. W
ill you go with me?”
“Will you be wearing your uniform?”
“Yes. And all the guys will be there in theirs too.”
“Yes. If we’re still together, I’d love to go with you.”
Coach helped Harley step up into the vehicle, making sure she didn’t lose her balance as she scooted in. When she was seated, he held out her seat belt and leaned in as she buckled it. “We’re still going to be together.”
Harley smiled up at him. “Okay.”
“We are,” he insisted.
“I said okay, Coach.”
“You said it, but I’m not sure you believe it.”
Harley rolled her eyes. “You aren’t a fortune teller. You can’t know for sure. You might get annoyed with all the time I spend on my computer. Or I might decide that you’re too much of a neat freak for me. You can’t know what will happen in the future. I’d love to go to the ball with you, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“I’m not going to get annoyed with you, and if it will make you feel better, I’ll leave my dishes in the sink overnight. I might not be able to tell the future, but I have no doubt whatsoever that, after tonight, taking your sweet body for the first time, I’ll want to get in there again. And again. Making love with you is going to be unbelievably awesome, and it’s going to be the icing on the cake that is Harley Kelso. Because I’m already so addicted to you it’s not even funny. So yeah, a few months is nothing. I’m tempted to ask you to go to my retirement ceremony as well. I’m that sure I’ll still want to be with you in the future.”
“Coach,” Harley protested in a weak voice. She hadn’t heard such heartfelt words…ever. Certainly not aimed at herself.
“Watch your arm, I’m closing your door,” he warned, grinning warmly at her as he stepped back.
She held her arm out of the way and waited as Coach walked around the car, opened the back door to put her bag on the floor of the backseat, then got into the driver’s seat. He started the SUV as if he hadn’t just rocked her world.
“Are you planning on retiring soon?” Harley asked as they started toward the restaurant.
“Nope. I’ve got at least ten more years to go.”
Harley was silent when he didn’t elaborate. Deciding to let it go and bring up one more heavy subject before dinner, she ventured, “I have a question, but I’m not sure you’re gonna want to answer it. And I’m not asking because I’m being nosey, I just need to know what to tell Montesa and Davidson. They’ve already asked, and I didn’t know how to answer them.”
“Shoot.”
“Are you Delta Force?”
If she hadn’t been watching him so carefully, she would’ve missed the flinch that he immediately controlled. Harley went on quickly. “Again, I don’t care. But it’s just that Davidson brought it up right after the accident. I didn’t know, and he said that you probably were since you have missions that don’t last for long periods of time. He mentioned something about Rangers and Special Forces, but I don’t remember what he said. I won’t say anything about it to anyone, I just—”
“You’re too smart for your own good.” Coach said as he put his hand over hers on the console between them. “I can’t talk about my job. Not to you or your family. Delta Force is one of the most secretive Special Forces groups in the military. You might hear on the news that SEAL Team Six was on a mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, or you might see a movie about them being dropped into Mogadishu, but you’ll never see or hear anything like that about Delta Force teams. Deltas never talk about what they do. They’re sent into situations knowing no one will ever know they were there.
“The divorce rates of Delta Force soldiers are high, higher than the rest of the Army, simply because of the secrecy involved. They can’t tell their spouses where they’re going or when they’ll be back. It’s too much for a lot of couples. I never thought about it in the past. Never thought about how tough it would be to keep that kind of secret from someone I was with, it hasn’t ever been an issue in my past relationships because I knew they weren’t the forever kind. But, I find myself understanding now how hard that would be on a SF soldier.”
Coach paused, but his thumb ran back and forth over the back of her hand as they waited for the light to turn green. Finally, he turned to Harley and looked her straight in the eye. “I won’t ever lie to you, Harl. Being with me won’t always be a walk in the park, but I don’t lie.”
Harley nodded, understanding what he was saying. He hadn’t said he was a Delta Force soldier, but he also hadn’t denied it. Lying was one thing, leaving details out was another thing altogether.
“I appreciate that, Coach,” she told him earnestly, not looking away from his eyes.
It wasn’t until a honk behind them sounded that they looked away from each other. As he started driving, he said casually, “The good thing about me having such good work friends, and some of them having girlfriends, is that you can now go to them to talk when you’re worried about something. They’ll be feeling the same thing as you. It gives you a support system of sorts.”
“It does,” Harley agreed, smiling. “Thank you. I’ll try not to ask too many questions about what you do.”
“You can ask,” he quickly countered. “Just understand when I can’t answer.”
“I will. I appreciate your help the other night when I was stuck on my code.”
Smiling wider now that she’d changed the subject, Coach said, “No problem. I had thought maybe you were calling to continue where we left off at your doorstep, but quickly realized that it wasn’t phone sex you were after, just for me to describe, in detail, what happens when a sniper sets up on top of a building.”
“Oh, did you want to have phone sex?” Harley asked innocently with a gleam in her eye.
Coach laughed. The tension in the car was gone. “I wouldn’t turn it down, just so you know, but I think the real thing is gonna ruin me for any kind of phone sex we might have in the future.”
Harley squirmed in her seat. She shouldn’t even have brought it up. She knew Coach wouldn’t let it go. But she was glad that she’d lightened the mood. “I don’t know; we’ll just need to get creative.”
“Shit, Harl. I know I walked right into that one, but have a little mercy on me, would ya? I already got rid of one hard-on tonight. Please don’t give me another right before we get to the restaurant. I’m not sure I’ve got it in me to will another one away.”
Harley patted Coach’s hand. “You’ll be fine. Oh, and I did tell you that Montesa is one of the most successful trial lawyers in the area, right?”
“Okay, that worked,” Coach griped good-naturedly. “Yeah, you told me. I’m a little afraid of her, if you want to know.”
“As you should be,” she returned immediately, teasing Coach further.
They grinned at each other and Coach turned into the parking lot of the restaurant. He parked and turned to face Harley.
“I’m excited to meet your brother and sister, but the bottom line is, even if they don’t like me, we’re still going back to my apartment tonight. I’ll just have to work harder to gain their approval. I’m not letting you slip out of my fingers, Harley.”
“They’re gonna like you,” Harley told him. “Don’t worry. But yeah, I’ve waited long enough. I want you. I’m ready.”
“Fuuuuck,” Coach groaned. “Come on, we’re five minutes late, I’m sure they’re waiting for us.”
Harley didn’t take offense at Coach abruptly ending their conversation and jumping out of the car. It was kind of fun to tease him. But she hadn’t lied. She couldn’t wait until tonight. She wasn’t even nervous. Much. She wanted to see Coach without a stitch of clothing on more than she wanted to preserve her own modesty. She was that into him.
For once, Harley waited for Coach to come around and give her his arm before she got out. She wouldn’t put it past herself to fall flat on her face trying to get out of the Highlander in the small heels on her own.
As they wa
lked to the front door of the restaurant, Harley turned to Coach and whispered, “Thank you for tonight.”
“For what?”
“For wanting to meet Davidson and Montesa. For making me feel beautiful. For recognizing the effort I went to for you. For it all.”
“You’re welcome. Although the pleasure was all mine. And will be all mine later.” He opened the door and they entered the dim and intimate restaurant.
Harley opened her mouth to respond to Coach when she heard, “Harley!” She turned and saw Montesa and Davidson standing by the hostess’s station, grinning from ear to ear, as if they’d been able to hear Coach’s last words.
She blushed. Harley knew they hadn’t overheard him, but it looked as though this was going to be a long dinner.
As she went forward to give her siblings a hug, for the first time ever, she wished that she was an only child and she and Coach could go straight back to his place.
15
“So you really like this guy, huh?” Montesa remarked when she and Harley were in the restroom later that evening.
“Yeah. I do.”
“For what it’s worth, I do too.”
“Whew!” Harley pantomimed, wiping her brow. Then got serious. “Thanks, Montesa. I appreciate you going easy on him tonight and not pulling out the whole lawyer persona.”
Her sister laughed. “I have to admit that I had planned on grilling him.”
“What changed your mind?” Harley asked, wiping her hands dry on a paper towel before throwing it away.
“You did. Specifically, your outfit.”
“What? Really?” She tried to sound surprised, but wasn’t sure she pulled it off.
“Uh huh. Harley, in the two years since we bought that dress together, you haven’t worn it once. Not once. When I asked why, you told me—”
Harley interrupted her sister, knowing what she was going to say. “That I would wear it when I had someone I wanted to impress.” She remembered that conversation clearly. At the time she hadn’t thought it’d ever happen.
“Exactly. So you wearing it, tonight of all nights, when you’re introducing Coach to us, told me that he wasn’t just another guy.”
