“So I hear.” She licked her lips, then stroked the caramel-veined granite counter with her fingertips. “You know, it’s rather disturbing you standing there like a terra cotta warrior with your cock pointing at me.”
“Terra cottas aren’t as big as me.”
“Amen.”
“And don’t get hard-ons.”
She snickered and fell back against the kitchen island, assuming the same stance as he. Minus the dick, of course. “If I’ve assumed too much to come here, then—”
“You haven’t.”
“Oh.” She let out an audible breath and toyed with a smile. “That’s good.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Hungry?” She glanced around the cavernous kitchen. The cool, calm collected reporter was nervous. “No.”
He’d help her out, maybe himself, too, by being a bit more conversational. “I was going to make a pot of caldo.”
“You cook?” She grinned, obviously thinking the hobby unlikely for a man like him.
“I do. A man has to eat.” This man has to eat you. He took a step toward her, wanting to smell her again. Her lemon soap. Her shampoo…which was what? Orange blossoms?
“Are you any good?” Blushing, she opened her mouth and snapped it shut. Then she looked away. She didn’t seem to know whether to come at him as the snappy pro or the sexy broad.
“Proof is in the pudding.” Let me strip you of that dress, get those two sweet cupcakes of yours in my mouth. Then I’ll go lower, open your wet pussy and lick you until you come with my tongue inside you. “You’ll have to tell me.”
Her jungle green eyes darkened to black desire. “What’s…um… caldo?”
“Chicken soup for the soul. Lots of veggies, seafood, and spices. You eat it to get over colds or love affairs.”
“Do you have a cold?”
“No. Do you?”
“Un-uh.” Her eyes had lost their longing. She shook that gorgeous mane of hers over her shoulders and gave him a brave look. “So you’re cooking caldo because…”
“I’m frustrated.” Over you. “I’ve been a SEAL for four years and we don’t do affairs. Duty’s too rough. Death rates are high. Marriages—ninety-eight percent of them—fail.” He wanted to get all the nasty stuff on the table now, before they started something easily that they had to finish hard. “I have the hots for a lady I haven’t seen in a while and, until a few minutes ago, I had no hope our friendship might be more than platonic.”
She formed a perfect O with her sensuous lips. “I want more than platonic.”
His heart flipped over and his cock strained, pre-cum dribbling out in his crazy need to take her here and now.
“So, okay then.” She flapped her hands at her sides. “I don’t proposition men often. Actually, you’re the first. So tell me. What’s wrong?”
He let his gaze wander down her figure. “You’ve gained weight since I last saw you.”
Narrowing her gaze on him, she licked her lower lip. “Eleven pounds.”
“Shows up in your breasts and fills out the hollows beneath your cheek bones.”
At his words, her nipples hardened in the halter dress. She shifted. Why? Was her pussy creaming for him?
Let it be. He grinned, well pleased with himself, wanting to make her ripe for him, drenched and swollen so he could slide in and lock, nice and tight. “I like the pink color of the dress, too. Accents the green of your eyes.”
Her lips parted. She stared at him with admiration.
“I liked looking at you in Egypt. You were lovely even though you were sick and dirty. I love looking at you now when you’re all girly and pretty.”
“Glad you like how I clean up. But what is your problem? You think I’m fragile?”
“Far from it.” Weak women don’t take up with SEALs. Vice versa, too.
“Then what gives? You’re not being natural with me.”
“Don’t you want a little romance?” Like I haven’t thought about this hook-up? How unique you are? How impossible we are? How fruitless any effort to forge a relationship would be? Me, on call 24/7, off to Timbuktu or one of the “Stans” in a flat minute, while you’re in your own sandbox, a target of homemade mortar and PK machine guns? “Can’t just bang you and say thanks, now can I?
“Every girl wants roses and wine. But I’m here for obvious reasons and you’re…you’re being a hard ass.”
“Right.” Hell, why pussy-foot around then? She had flown here, declaring what she wanted and what she was ready to give. He hadn’t turned her away. He had a private room and a monster bed. More importantly, he had that priceless commodity—time. Enough to take them both to the moon and back again. Maybe more than once, if his pager didn’t go off.
So he walked up to her and drove his fingers straight back into that wavy champagne hair. Christ, she felt soft and supple. “I like the way you smell. Now I need to learn how you taste.”
“Copy that.” She lifted her face, and her breath, faintly minty, drifted into his nostrils.
And the moment when his mouth met hers, he reveled in all the flavors he adored about her. Citrus, salty ocean air and sexy, welcoming woman.
He groaned. Up on her toes, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close, bringing him in for a scorching brush of lips and a battle of seeking tongues and suppressed desire.
Pulling back, he swallowed hard against the impulse to strip her here and take her in the kitchen. But with all the windows facing the shore, he wouldn’t risk the exhibition. She was famous, more so after her kidnapping and rescue. But tonight, she was his to ravish and please. His alone to view while she came apart just for him. He grinned at her.
“Don’t stop,” she objected.
“Not on your life.” He caught her up, realizing she not only weighed more than she had in Egypt but she had more dexterity. That alone soothed his worries about her wobbly moves out on the beach.
“Want you now, here,” she said, kissing the crook of his neck. “I’ve never made love in a kitchen.”
“You won’t now, either.” He strode down the hall and then took the circular stairs two at a time up to the next floor. “Not in front of half of Key West. Or any of my teammates that come charging through the door. We’ll do this in my room where there’s only you and me.”
“Hope you have a big bed,” she whispered and nipped his earlobe.
He pinched one of her firm ass cheeks, loving her squeal. “Be good, lady. In a minute, I’m gonna give you a big bed, a huge shower, and lots of rug burn. So open the door.”
Chuckling, she reached down and turned the knob. He had them inside in two steps, kicking the door closed. Whirling, he let her feet hit the floor then pressed her up against the wall, his palms rushing over her body, stroking and caressing every bit of her that had driven him crazy with need. He cupped her jaw, rained kisses down her elegant throat, dropped homage into the hollow of her clavicle, and thrilled himself by filling his hands with her generous breasts.
She arched, giving him more, and he nuzzled her, sucked her—dress and all—into his mouth while his painfully stiff cock rubbed against her taut belly.
Christ, she still wore clothes. He was half way to fucking her against the wall and he hadn’t even taken the time to prep her right.
Eager, he stepped backward and she moaned at him.
“Don’t worry,” he consoled her. “Not leaving. Just being a gentleman. Taking your dress off.”
He took hold of her straps and tugged at them, but the damn thing wouldn’t budge over her breasts.
“Too tight, no bra,” she said by way of explanation, wiggling to help him. But in the move, the fabric ripped.
“Hell,” he said, “I’m sorry, honey.”
One hand to his chest, she pushed him back a step and tugged at the garment, this way and that, freeing her firm breasts. Then she shimmied out of the thing.
He stood there, dumb struck. In the moonlit room, there stood Kimberly Stansfield, Chief Correspond
ent for the Middle East for ACN cable news sans make-up or microphone. Without a stitch on her ethereal goddess-like physique, she made his eyeballs water with her raw beauty.
“Jesus,” was all he could summon while he stared. “I thought you felt good in my arms when I held you in that desert shack. And I liked the way you felt against me a minute ago, but wow, sweetheart, you are stunning.”
Her gaze glistened with dark green desire. “And you are going to fuck me.”
“No.” Holding her at arms’ length, he admired the heavy fullness of her breasts, ripe as melons. Her nipples looked like big succulent strawberries. He savored the sight of her small waist, the surprising little diamond jewelry piercing her belly button. But most of all, he loved the sight of her frothy blonde bush. “No, I’m not.”
She thrashed her head against the wall. “Zeus!”
“I’m going to make love to you. All night.” He hooked his hands on her hips and fit her to him, curve for plane. He bent his knees, and his cock—happy dude—found her seam and slid right between her soaking wet labia. He nearly wept, he was so enthralled. “Ready?”
“You’d better hurry, SEAL man. You might miss the train.”
He lifted her straight up in the air and let her toes rest on his. Then he walked her backward to the edge of his bed. “Trains are leaving this station every hour on the hour, probably sooner. Got everything you need, lady?”
“Yeah,” she cooed with sultry satisfaction. “I have you.”
“My kinda girl. Stand here.” He ripped the coverlet back and, in the move, dislodged all the pillows. The sheets were taupe, all the better to see her with. “Okay, honey, now you can lie down.”
She sat on command, her long legs wrapping around his calves, her eyes at cock level. “Can I?”
“You’d better. But don’t— Oh. God.” The feel of her lips around his shaft was an oral treat he’d only dreamed about. She was hesitant and he didn’t blame her. He knew he was big. Correction. Bigger than most guys. But at the moment, he really couldn’t give a damn about his size, as long as she tried to take him all in.
She pulled away, her lips making a little popping sound. “Am I doing this right?”
“Very.” He gulped.
“You’ll tell me if I do it wrong or if I hurt you.”
He sank his fingers into the wealth of her hair and massaged her scalp. “Christ, baby, it hurts so good. Do it some more.”
She batted her eyelashes at him and set to work. And oh, brother, was she devoted to her job. She was, in fact, so gentle about it that it was all he could do to force back the urge to howl like a wolf. Her fingers cupped his balls, tenderly pulsing. Her mouth descended, taking more and more of him with each stroke. She had rhythm, by god. She also had a sense of play that had him moaning like a fool when she used her tongue on him and punctuated her loving with little cat-like purrs.
But when she licked at his slit, kissing his crown with a tender devotion, his thighs quivered. His blood raced. When her other hand wrapped around the base of his cock and squeezed him, he jammed back the urge to shoot his wad. He corralled his breath and urged her to stop by putting a finger to the corner of her mouth. “Baby, you’re so fine. But I have to get a rubber or we’ll be done here. And not the way I want, either.”
He lifted her chin, bent to kiss her, and tasted his own musky need on her lips. She looked at him with dreamy eyes. “A goddess for Zeus,” Coyote had joked when he’d seen how his buddy was a love-sick pup after they choppered away, leaving her in sickbay on the carrier.
“Hold that thought,” he murmured and strode to the closet to dig in his duffel. He hadn’t brought much on this trip. Swim trunks, wet suit, a few T-shirts, shorts, and condoms. A box.
When he turned back to her, she had reclined on her side, her head on her extended arm, her brilliant bright hair a wavy curtain draped along her luscious curves. Her eyes adored him. Her voice was mellow as aged whiskey as she whispered, “You are beautiful.”
He crawled up on the bed to kneel beside her. With one hand, he brushed the arc of her ribs and hip down to her thigh. “Not like you, baby.” He stroked one of her nipples and kissed her forehead. “You know, I’ve got a dozen of these foil bad boys, but it occurs to me I just walked out of the ocean. Let me shower and come back to you.”
She shook her head as she tugged a condom from his hand and opened the foil. “I like you fresh from the water. Where you work. Who you are.”
He stared at her. What woman said that? What woman wanted a man who smelled and tasted of briny water? Only this one. This one who understands firsthand what I am, what I do, and maybe even why.
With quick precision, she extracted the latex and sheathed his cock. Then, she took his hand and entwined her fingers with his. Her expression grew dreamy, her words insistent. “Make love to me. You promised.”
He threaded her hair back from her face. In that second, his mind snapped to attention. Reality, like puzzle pieces he’d been unable to put together, fit into one truth. He loved her.
“I want you, Jesus Rodrigo Calderon.” She rolled to her back and opened her arms to him. “The sooner the better.”
Chapter Three
This was everything she had hoped for from him. Honesty about his attraction to her. Attention to her, if only for a few hours. She would take what he could give her and count herself satisfied, even if he never agreed to more. She’d had few lovers in her life. Although she had never been without dates or men who wanted to lay her, she had rarely been interested in a quick fuck. Armed with birth control pills, condoms, and a raging desire to build a journalism career, she wanted bedmates she could connect with mentally and physically. Picky, she had found only a few she liked enough to screw. But this man appealed to every nerve in her body, every synapse in her over-active brain. He was whip smart. Funny.
And oh yeah, side benefit? He was beautiful as any Olympian god. When he had told her his code name in that grimy little corrugated tin-roofed shack, she had laughed so hard her throat hurt. Zeus. Even if it was a play on his given name as it was pronounced in Spanish, “Hey, Zeus,” it suited him. Powerful in form, he was a no-bull-shit sort of man. Direct, kind, and handsome as any A-list Hollywood super stud.
She had suspected that he possessed this other sensuous side. What man who looked like this didn’t want to get physical? He probably got panties thrown at him everywhere he went. He could take his pick of women.
Tonight he picked her. Now, as he settled over her, she squirmed into the plush mattress. Supporting himself on his elbows, he teased her with the barest touch of his hot skin along her length. His firm lips were soft. His kisses, like a butterfly’s flight, flirted with her desire and drew her into his aura.
She drove her fingers up into his damp shoulder length hair and cupped his scalp. Tonight, she planned to touch every part of him. His head, his cock, his heart. She opened her thighs and let him sink against her open wet pussy. She hummed in delight. God, he was big. She’d been in bliss the moment he slid his rod between her slit against the wall minutes ago. Wiggling her hips, she invited him inside.
He spoke against her mouth. “Gonna take this slow so we both remember the first time.”
She suppressed the possibility they might never have a second. She nodded, her eyes absorbing his look of rapture as he positioned the tip of his cock at the entrance to her core and, in tiny increments, slipped inside her pussy.
She heard a savage sound of fulfillment and realized it came from both of them. The instant his shaft was fully lodged, the two of them halted in harmony.
His silver eyes flashed like lightning. “How good is this, huh?”
Breathless, she tugged his hair, her cunt so gloriously crammed with him. “Nothing compares. No one.”
He withdrew slightly and rocked into her with all his weight behind the thrust. The tip of his cock probed and tantalized her. She gasped. For a reward, she squeezed his member.
“Talented woman.”
> “I practice,” she whispered, licking the outline of his lower lip, “alone.”
His nostrils flared. He bared his teeth as he undulated his hips, pulling back, nearly out and gliding back in, locked and definitely loaded for fun. “Practice all you want with me.”
She used her muscles to caress him again. “I will. I want to be perfect for you.”
“You are.” He proved it to her by rocking inside her in a steady rhythm. “That you came here. That you called Coyote. That you took a chance on me.”
“I couldn’t let you walk away without knowing if you cared.”
“Kim. Honey.” He fucked her in tempo with his words. ”I couldn’t…couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
“I was more than a rescue?”
“More,” he murmured and captured her mouth again, his tongue proclaiming his desire for her in syncopation with his marvelous thick cock. “Everything.”
She gasped and clung to him, his words bringing tears to her eyes and raging need for a big orgasm. “I had to have you. If only once.”
Groaning, he braced himself more securely on his knees, hooked hers up over his hips, and went to town. He plunged into her with a speed and power that robbed her of breath. She met him, panting, stroke for stroke, desire for passion. Raging in the need to join, to come, she ground into him. Instantly, she throbbed with release. Like flying off a cliff in free fall, she pulsed with him, mindless and moaning.
She was hot, she was fierce, her pussy convulsing, her legs binding him closer. He came with gritted teeth and a shout. Then he drifted down, careful still, but seizing her lips in a torrid claim. Pressing her to him, he rolled to the side, brushed her hair from her face, and kissed her forehead.
Exhausted and exhilarated, she sank into a quiet euphoria. He had pulled his cock from her and went silent. She caught a glimpse of his lips, turned down, brooding. He had pulled his mind from her, too. She couldn’t let that happen. Not after all her efforts to get quality time with him.
Conquering Zeus (SEALs On Fire) Page 2
