Gwen Campbell - [Love from the Ashes 02]

by Recon [Shadowfire] (epub)

  Ignoring his growl of disappointment, Paige ducked under one of Rick’s arms, slipped behind him and washed his back, the firm globes of his ass, the endless length and defined bulk of his legs. He sighed with pleasure when she pressed her body against his, sliding her arms around him to soap his chest and belly. Then she reached up and angled the showerhead to rain over him.

  When all the soap was rinsed off both of them, Rick turned off the water, grabbed Paige’s hand and pulled her out of the stall. He picked up a towel from a nearby stack and rubbed it over her vigorously. When her skin was tingling, he wrapped the towel around her body and anchored it beneath her arms, then grabbed a second towel and tossed it to her.

  Grinning, Paige didn’t waste any time rubbing the water off Rick’s body. He wrapped the towel around his lean hips, took her hand and practically ran with her back to his private quarters.

  “My room is closer,” Paige gasped as he rushed her through the empty, central gathering room.

  “My bed’s bigger,” Rick countered. He slowed as they passed the earthenware bowl and snagged a bunch of condoms.

  “You don’t need those,” she said as her momentum carried her past. The tempered strength in the hand holding hers stopped her.

  His brow furrowed.

  “You’re disease free. So am I. I’ve got the test results to prove it.”

  “What if you get pregnant? I’ll be shooting off live ordnance here,” he said, glancing down at his bobbing erection.

  “Birth control inoculation,” she explained.

  Grinning, Rick dropped the condoms back in the bowl, tightened his hold on her hand and started walking, double quick. Paige didn’t need any more encouragement to follow him through his office and into his sleeping quarters.

  Shutting the door behind them, he grabbed her towel then his and threw both across the back of a chair. He yanked back the covers on his double-wide bed. With a practiced, easy grace, he swiped her feet out from under her. Anchoring his arms beneath hers, he sent her sprawling in a controlled arc until she landed dead center on his bed. Then he laid his massive body on hers.

  Disoriented, Paige clutched Rick’s arms. She sighed with dawning contentment as his chest eased onto hers. His belly, hips then legs eclipsed her. Rick used his elbows to keep the bulk of his weight off her and his hands to pull the pins from of her hair. He tossed them onto the table beside the bed then combed his fingers through her hair, spreading it over his pillow and sighing with obvious pleasure at the sight of it.

  Before she hugged him to her, Paige released the silver clip at the nape of Rick’s neck, loosening his hair. It fell forward in light brown waves, softening the otherwise hard, very male and intense lines of his face. The ends teased her shoulders as he shifted and lowered his mouth to hers.

  It was a slow, drugging kiss. The soft play of his lips over hers, a gentle nip then the restrained edge of his teeth made her gasp and arch into him. His tongue slipped between her lips to caress the tip of hers then stroke the roof of her mouth before retreating and luring hers forward.

  Paige felt her fingers digging into the heavy muscles on Rick’s back but he didn’t seem to mind her enthusiasm. If anything, he groaned and kissed her harder. He felt so good in her arms. Every hard, naked inch of him pressed against her was a rush of aphrodisiac. She’d waited so long to be with him like this, wanting the freedom to touch him, to look at him and not hide the things she felt.

  “I’ve thought about this a lot,” he whispered against her lips. His breath, on her cheeks, made her shiver. “Making love to you. Hell, even just being with you.” Brushing her hair back, he laid his forehead on hers. “I’ve got no business taking a woman in this world. Tying you down to me, leaving you vulnerable and heartsick while I take off to one hellhole after another. I’ve especially got no business taking you. Recon medics are in damn short supply and I’m screwing with your head...taking your focus and painting it square onto me.”

  “Coming from anyone else,” she said and nipped his earlobe, “that would sound vain.” She sighed. “But truth isn’t vanity. Not in our world anyway. I figure we’ve got the better part of two days with nothing to do but each other.”

  Rick chuckled at that and she tipped her head away so she could look at the unguarded smile brightening his face.

  “We’re both smart,” she continued. “Between us, we’ll figure out a way to be together. Even if it is just on leave.”

  He nodded, but it looked forced. There was, however, nothing forced in his expression when he touched her face. His kiss was gentle, like he was savoring her, and when his lips moved over her jaw, when he brushed his tongue against her throat, Paige felt marked, even owned.

  The hand on her cheek moved lower. Leaning to the side, he looked at her breast, licked his lips then covered her mound with his palm. Paige trembled when he squeezed gently. She felt his gaze move to her face, like he was absorbing her reactions to his touch. Everything she was feeling had to show plainly—need, lust, even the growing surety that there could be nobody in the world for her but Rick.

  With a groan, he took her nipple into his mouth and made love to it fiercely. Paige gasped and wove her fingers into his hair as he suckled her, flicked his tongue against her, used his hand to plump her and hold her right where he wanted. He spent what felt like forever loving her, biting gently then licking away the sting, before kissing a path to her other breast. It was selfish but Paige sighed, lay back and got lost in the incredible things he was doing to her. Her thighs shifted restlessly as moisture pooled between her legs.

  When he mouthed his way down her abdomen, Paige gasped and wrapped her foot around his thigh. The weight of his chest on her mound was so erotic it made her shiver. With his head tipped to one side, Rick looked up at her, then, so slowly she couldn’t not watch, he trailed his hand over her hip and between her legs. A single, thick finger stroked her cleft, found the entrance to her body and pressed inside.

  “You’re wet.” Rick’s voice was unnaturally rough and deep. He swallowed, hard, then swallowed again. “I just touched your breasts and you’re dripping.”

  It wasn’t appropriate but Paige laughed. A short, sharp sound burst from her before she could stop it. “Did you expect anything less, Sergeant? Just the sight of that hard body of yours gets my libido thumping. The scent of your skin makes me want to touch myself. And the sound of your voice...hmm.” Paige cupped her breasts and squeezed.

  With his mouth hanging open, Rick stared at her. “What about my voice?” he blurted out with enough anticipation it made Paige temper her tease.

  She touched his face. “Your voice makes me want to wrap myself around you and stay there for a week.”

  “Amen to that,” he breathed, rolled his wrist and pressed a second finger into her.

  Arching into his touch, Paige hissed then rubbed the sole of her foot up and down his back in unsubtle invitation. When he shifted and kissed her mound, when his tongue found her cleft and nudged her clit, she jerked, grabbed his head and held on tight in case the man had any foolish notions about stopping.

  At first he licked her softly, in time with the patient thrusts of his fingers, the slow turning of his wrist. Gradually, his strokes picked up speed, then strength as he flicked her clit until she trembled and sweat gathered between her breasts. His breath was hot and came in bursts, like his feelings were coming to a boil and he couldn’t hold then back. He wrecked her self-control and, on some fundamental level, it thrilled her to be able to weaken his.

  Electricity shot through her as a rush of sensation squeezed her belly. Sweating, arching into him, clutching Rick’s head way too hard, Paige gave in to the first delicious pulse of ecstasy as it claimed her. Throbbing pulses of release left her gasping. Every nerve ending in her body seemed hyper-sensitive and she clearly felt every thrust of Rick’s fingers, the tensing in his shoulders, the wicked, almost diabolical flurry of his tongue against her. When the sensations became too intense, she yelped his name
but didn’t scurry away. He crawled up her body, kissing her skin and openly savoring her taste. Shaking like she’d been hit by a stun weapon, she found the strength to wrap her arms around him, and prod the backs of his thighs with her heels.

  His heavy chest crushed her breasts. Despite that, she could still breathe, could smell his need seeping out his pores, could feel his heat eclipsing her. The head of his cock, when it brushed her pussy, felt hard, even though his skin was satiny smooth. He rubbed her gently, pressed lightly, retreated and rubbed her again.

  “Rick,” she blurted out and brought her fist down on his back. His only response was a hedonistic chuckle just before he nuzzled her throat and bit just hard enough to make her squirm.

  “Yes, Corporal?” His coy tone made her fume. “Something I can do for you? To you?”

  “So help me, Richard Miles, if you don’t nail me right now I’ll rip your arm off and beat you with it.”

  “When you put it that way...yes, ma’am.” Bracing his weight on his elbows, he entered her slowly.

  Paige felt her jaw go slack. With his eyes focused on her every reaction, Rick grinned ferally and held himself still, just inside her. It was hard to breathe. He felt so big and the stretching was unlike anything she’d ever felt. That strength was tempered and even though he could have driven her through the mattress, he waited.

  The furrows in his brow relaxed when Paige exhaled, slow and deliberate. She stroked his back and curled her fingers around his triceps.

  He shifted his hips in an easy, seductive roll that made her tremble and tighten her hold on him. “You mean the world to me, Paige. I mean that. If you’re uncomfortable with this on any level...” His voice trailed off.

  “I’m not,” she murmured, lifted her hips and prodded his ass with her heels. “I’m so not.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he repeated in a sultry drawl, wove his fingers into her hair and eased another inch of his cock into her.

  The outstroke made her gasp. He felt so good inside her, like the actualization of all those wicked fantasies she’d had about him. All those times she’d wanted to touch him and simply look at him like he meant the world to her. His loving was tempered but intense because of it. Paige felt cherished, safer than she’d ever been.

  Her breath caught again when he sank deeper, then a little deeper still. The thick, spongy head of his cock rubbed the front of her sheath on every downstroke, slid against the base of her clit every time he withdrew. With the sweat dewing their bodies, he slid against her easily, and when his balls hit her ass, they made a wet, smacking sound that cranked up her arousal.

  Finally, his hips slammed into hers and he was fully buried inside her. Rick lifted his chest, looked down their bodies, and made a sound of masculine pleasure as he rolled his hips. His public bone ground against her pussy. Groaning at the same time he did, Paige felt her core tighten around him.

  For the second time, pleasure squeezed her belly then shot out in waves of ecstasy and unbearably sweet tension. Rick thrust into her hard and stared as her orgasm shaped the curve of her mouth, drew her brows together. A few more thrusts and he joined her. Grunting, he buried himself deep in her still convulsing body, and stayed there. His shaft got uncomfortably hard then pulsed in time with his ragged gasps. A part of Paige’s still-rational brain was surprised when the discomfort enhanced her pleasure.

  Pervert, she sighed to herself as the incredible tension in her body faded, leaving her feeling fuzzy and soft.

  Rick nuzzled her cheek, sighed like his lungs had finally remembered how to draw in air, then laid his head on the pillow beside hers. His big body still cocooned hers, and, inside her, his softening cock felt right. Everything about him, about lying with him felt right. Smiling, she kissed his shoulder, stroked his back and let her foot trace the muscular rise of his calf.

  All too soon, Rick lifted his head. “We should get cleaned up.”

  “Or we could stay like this.”

  “Sounds good but if I get any more relaxed,” he said and buried his nose in her hair, “I’m going to fall asleep and crush you to death. Helluva way to repay you for the sweetest loving I’ve ever known.”

  Her breath caught. “That was positively romantic.”

  “From me of all people. Go figure.” With a wink, he eased his cock out of her and rolled to his side.

  The sudden emptiness was devastating and Paige would have cupped her sex, only Rick beat her to it. One of those big, lethal hands covered her like she was precious, stroked her nether lips with delicate sweeps of his fingertips, rubbed her pussy like he couldn’t bear not to touch her.

  “I want to be inside you again.”

  That single statement was so thrilling, Paige’s belly clenched. She reached for his arm, eager to draw him closer but Rick frustrated the hell out of her by standing up. Instead of petting her, he offered her his hand.

  “Come on, baby. Let’s get cleaned up and grab some lunch. Then maybe we’ll see about scheduling some R and R time together.”

  “All right,” she agreed ungraciously. “But for the record, I was more than happy to stay in that big bed. With you.”

  He led her into the small, attached head. “Same here.” Snagging a washcloth, he wet it under some warm water, squeezed out the excess and started sponging her chest. “But we’ve got some details to figure out. How do you feel about Pensacola, Florida?”

  Rinsing the cloth again and again, he cleaned her efficiently but without detachment. He swirled the cloth around her breast, let water drip onto her nipple then licked the moisture from her skin. Long fingers spread over her belly, touched her with a reverence that stilled her heart then laid his forehead on her. Touching his hair, Paige felt a peacefulness coming off him. Rick Miles was many things. Peaceful wasn’t normally one of them and she smiled as he let her see this facet of him.

  “Or we could go to this place I know off South Carolina.” As Rick talked, he sponged her pussy, kissed her thigh, her mound. “It’s kind of a hedonist retreat. It’s an independent state outside of New North America.”

  “You mean New Eden Island?” she asked and felt one brow arch up. There must have been a tone in her voice because Rick flashed her a guilty look. “Gold-based currency, gambling and every known kink available for sale?”

  “Well,” he hedged and stood to rinse the cloth. “That too. But it’s also got some real nice hotels, lots of clean beaches and romantic restaurants. I thought you’d like that part.”

  She took the cloth from him and arched her brow even more.

  “Okay so me and some buddies have catted around there a couple of times on leave.” He blurted the words out like he was embarrassed about having to fess up. Then he made a grumbling sound in his chest. “But whenever I was there, I always thought to myself if I ever had a woman of my own, I’d like to take her to the classier parts of the island and forget about the job for awhile.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “For just a couple of days, I’d like to be with you in maybe the only part of the world that wasn’t touched by the Great War. Just be...together.”

  Ramping back her unfounded jealousy, Paige began sponging Rick’s chest. His skin glistened in the midday light streaming through the room’s lone, high window. “I’ve never been there,” she said, keeping her voice carefully neutral. “Sounds nice.”

  He touched her forearm as she bathed him. “It is. It’s clean and there’s lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. God that feels good.” Rick sighed as she cupped his sac and rinsed it gently. He made a low sound of pleasure and rocked his hips forward as she cleaned his rod. Crouching in front of him, she tossed the cloth into the sink and fisted him lightly. Her other hand held his ass for balance...and for the pleasure of it.

  Looking up, she was mesmerized by the centered, aroused look in his eyes. Rick was beautiful. Of course, that was hardly an appropriate way to describe a man with his presence, but it honestly said what she felt. Dipping her head, she tongued the head of his cock then drew him into
her mouth.

  “Fuck,” he hissed as his hips canted and he grabbed onto her for balance. “Paige.” He said her name breathlessly, like he adored it and her even more than a guy would while getting his rod sucked.

  Faster than she expected, his cock lengthened and started to get hard. She loved the scent of him, the light, salty taste of his skin that lingered after bathing. She also loved the way he responded to her—the groan that came from deep in his chest, the crooked grin that bared his teeth, the way he tossed his head back and held her hair with such fierce restraint. Swallowing, she took him deep, forced her gag reflex down, and worked him with mouth and hand. Backing off, she inhaled through her nose, gathered saliva in her mouth and by pumping her cheeks in and out, swirled and sucked around the head.

  Rick moaned with obvious pleasure and his knee buckled. It took him a second to regain his balance and when he did, he eased her mouth away from him, spun her around, planted her palms on the mirror above the sink and toed her feet apart. Looking at their shared reflection, he cupped her breasts then grinned decadently when she hissed in response to him pinching her nipples. Placing soft kisses on her shoulder then drawing his teeth over her, Rick squeezed and explored her mounds until they were swollen and the peaks taut with need.

  His hand skated down her belly and cupped her pussy. This time it was her hips that canted forward, then back into the hard cock rubbing her ass. Strong fingers slid between her legs and rubbed sensually. Tight mind-blowing circles over her clit then her sheath was probed. Lightly. Repeatedly.

  She breathed his name and his free arm came around her chest, anchoring her into the solid mass of his body. In the mirror, she watched him watch her as he stroked and teased her pussy. When she tried to lower her arms, he stopped, positioned her palms back on the glass, and only when she nodded her acquiescence did he resume petting her.

  Arching into him with need, Paige found it hard to breathe as Rick stroked her over and over, teased her pussy with light slaps then pumped two fingers into her so deep she came up on her toes. Her breasts felt swollen, her nipples looked distended and flushed with color.