“You know what? Never mind. That was Adrian’s mistake and one I’ll correct.” Heat rippled across her skin from the fire lacing her veins, constricting her sweater around her neck. She pulled at the hem for some needed air.
Time to go Bella. Now, before you do something stupid.
A muscled wall stood between her and the front door. Guess that left only the back door. With one last glance over her shoulder at the warm fire, and the promises the golden fire light held, she turned toward the kitchen, her dreams dying a little with each step.
She rolled her eyes at the sound of heavy footsteps behind her.
“Are you done?” The arrogance in his tone turned her on her heel.
“Por dios! Done? Si, I’m not only done, Blake—”
In two steps he closed the gap between them. His lips claiming hers a split second before he caught her hips and pulled them into his. He walked them backward, devouring her mouth with each step.
Solid wood pressed at her from behind but it was his obvious hard-on against her lower abdomen that held her full attention.
Maybe she was a fool to let him have so much control over her. With a single caress the pain of not having him close receded, replaced with the urge to fall into the passion he provoked deep within her. Was it so bad for her to crave him so strongly? That he had the power to heal the hurt with a kiss, a touch here or there?
She ached to return the attention, to nuzzle closer, rub her hand up and down his hard length and dish out as much tease as he was giving her. Isabella braced herself against the table and against the assault on her senses. The man was driving her crazy. “Every time you touch me, Blake, you make something come to life. Something I thought died when I buried my brother—my heart. And here we are again, dealing with the loss of another loved one. Yet, through the pain I see the desire in your eyes when we touch.” She took a deep breath. “But you close it down so fast I half-think I’m seeing things.”
He gathered both of her hands in one of his and spun her around.
He eased his hands down to her hips, his grip tight against her jean-clad skin. Welcome warmth cocooned their bodies together.
In the background, pops and cracks from the fire filled the silence that settled around them. Small flakes of white glistened in the soft light outside the window. All the makings of a romantic rendezvous.
She threw a quick glance over her shoulder. God, she could get high just being this close to him. How pathetic did that make her? Did she really care? This was her Heaven anyway.
Instead of answering her question, he eased his free hand beneath the hem of her sweater. Shockwaves of lust took over her senses the moment his callused fingers made contact with her sensitive nipple through the thin silk of her bra.
To contrast the squeeze and tug, blunt teeth nipped her shoulder, swiftly followed by warm kisses. Pain-pleasure rocketed her libido past mere want, landing her dangerously near instant combustion. They were both in danger of burning alive tonight. Did she dare reach out and test the heat that tempted her closer?
He moved his right hand downward with slow tender caresses across her abdomen, pausing to swirl a single digit around her navel before continuing further south. He pushed past the clasp and zipper of her jeans. She arched to give him better access and that was all he needed.
Blake pressed against her already swollen bud, his fingers teasing her, stroking her desire to an all new heat level.
With a gentle flick of his free hand Blake moved her hair forward and over her shoulder. “Bella, let me love you tonight,” his rough voice filled with the same need that flooded her own body. “If I have to go another night, my balls might explode with all the need I have for you.”
His explicit words brushed against her ear in a warm caress of promises. Thunder filled her ears with every beat of her heart. Her body wanted him, but through her lust-filled haze she couldn’t ignore one detail. What about tomorrow? Could she go through with this and live with what the morning would bring?
Despacito, chica. I need just a minute to-
Breathless, desperate to throw on the brakes to the runaway train, Isabella managed a few words. “A one-night stand isn’t my style, Blake.”
He dipped his fingers between the wet folds of her pussy, causing her words to hitch. His lips trailed the length of her neck while his left hand sought out her breasts, his dick pressed up against her backside. Electricity shot through her body eliciting a gasp in response. He’d pinched her nipple. “Blake,” she moaned, unable to hold back from the pleasure.
She shook her head to gain some semblance of control then slowly eased herself out of his hold.
His grip tightened on her hips. Not painfully, but more of a possessive hold on her. The simple gesture woke her submissive side enough to scare—and thrill—her. Not that she wasn’t interested in letting Blake do everything she’d read about in the hotter romance novels she secretly read on lunch break, but for tonight she wanted full control.
She looked over her shoulder again, this time catching his gaze. Lust mixed with delicious levels of danger flooded her body at the smoldering look he gave her.
His shaft pressed against her ass, a point he made with a rock of his hips. One more of those and she wouldn’t be able to hold back. All caution—if she ever had any—would be out the window with a mess to follow come morning.
She was never big on teasing, but he needed a little of what he was dishing out. Leaning over the table with her hands as support Isabella rubbed her lower body down the length of his hardened shaft in a slow seductive slide.
As reward, a masculine grunt deep in his throat vibrated straight to her core. With the single sexy sound, Bella was ready to wrestle him to the floor.
She moved to face him, but something caught her attention. Two rumpled papers stuck to the palm of her hands as she tried to push up from her bent position.
She froze. Icy fingers gripped her heart. An arctic cold seeped into every pore in her body and filled her with dread. She gasped for air, but her lungs didn’t get the memo. Stars danced in her vision, blocking out the black and blue lettering.
Instantly Blake pulled back from Isabella.
Oh God Oh God Oh God…
“Isabella, sweetheart, look at me.” She faintly heard a deep voice call to her over the thunder in her ears. Her heart raced, but for a very different reason now than only a second ago. What now? Tell him it was only a joke, and happy April Fools’? Not likely since it was a week till Christmas.
“Calm down, sweetheart. I didn’t mean for you to see those, but…ah, for fuck’s sake.” He backed up a step. “I’m not mad, baby.” He eased her around and wrapped her in his arms.
Not mad? How? He should be livid with her.
Isabella stepped out of his embrace, but couldn’t force herself to look in his eyes. Warm, roughened skin met her smoother, more cared-for, palm. She’d often wondered what those hard-earned calluses from years in the military would feel like against her body.
“It’s not like I jumped into my decision to leave on a whim, Blake.”
“I know, sweetheart. Like I said, I’m not mad. I’m hurt you didn’t come to me, and pissed you signed on with that ass-hat Johnson no less, but I’d never turn my back on you. Haven’t I proven that tonight?”
He feathered kisses across her forehead while his fingers trailed a seductive path down her back. Heat flushed her cheeks. She couldn’t lie, her selfish side wanted more of the proof he talked about. Hot liquid dampened her panties and she squeezed her thighs together to ease the ache. She was screwed, and not in the good flesh-on-flesh kind of way.
He squared his shoulders and gathered her hands in his.
She raised her gaze from their joined hands. “This is my fault, Isabella. I’m man enough to know when I fucked up.” He lifted her onto the dining table, their faces now level.
“I know I’ve kept my distance, baby. I had a lot riding on my shoulders, now more so than ever. I guess I used job for
Uncle Sam as a wall to hide behind.” He worked his jaw a couple of tics before continuing. “Damn, I know you don’t understand and hell, I don’t completely understand, but it boils down to a promise your brother had no right to saddle me with. A promise I think he’d take back if he knew how much I love you.”
He was right. She didn’t understand. Her vision clouded with disappointment. And tears. Damn it! She refused to cry. Isabella blinked back the water works, tired of being weak with her emotions.
Wait. What did he say? Her mind threw on the brakes while her heart raced ahead.
“Bella, this changes nothing.” He grabbed the papers from her and tore them down the middle in one swift, loud rip. “I found them by accident when I went looking for something in the office. You took off so fast I didn’t have time to ask you for the documents I originally went looking for.”
She nodded, focusing only on what he’d said about a promise and love.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, still trying to wrap her mind around what just happened.
“Are you not listening? This changes nothing, Bella.” Frustration laced his words. To drive his meaning home, he cupped her pussy through her jeans, and the stiff material added extra pressure to his grip.
“You’re wet for me even now, aren’t you, baby? You want my dick sliding into your pussy, my fingers teasing and pinching your nipples while my tongue claims your mouth.”
Her breath caught in her throat with the sinful picture he painted for her. Still reeling from his confession of love, her body flushed with a lustful heat. He sure knew how to get a girl’s attention.
Her clit throbbed. The burn traveled to her nipples and her lips. Hell yes, she wanted him, and her body was definitely on board.
She pulled the corner of her lip between her teeth and bit down. Control, Isabella. You’re leaving remember? Honestly, she wasn’t so sure anymore. His gaze left hers, zeroing in on her mouth like a wolf set on prey.
He moved in slowly. Soft lips, in contrast with everything that defined the war-hardened man slowly melted her heart, claiming her. He pushed deeper. She opened. His tongue glided over hers, consuming her one breath at a time.
It took all her power to pull back from the wicked pleasure his kiss promised. But she had to before this whatever-it-was went too far. More than anything, she needed to know this sudden change in him wasn’t out of grief and pain, but that he needed her as much as she needed him.
She rested her hand in the center of his chest and gently broke their kiss. To her surprise, the loss of his lips on hers was almost too much. A fierce desire to yank him back to her clouded her mind. He reached over, rubbed a lock of her hair between his fingers before tucking it behind her ear. Something he’d done ever since the first day they’d met.
Without her saying a word he looked like he already knew what she was thinking. She could see it in the set of his shoulders, how he stood waiting for her approval. His expression, one of hope, if not for a hint of arrogance marred the set of his eyes. He wouldn’t be Blake without it, which brought a smile to her lips.
“This time, no brakes, baby. It’s full throttle from here on out, and you’re not leaving me tonight if I have a say in it. And hopefully, if I’m lucky, tomorrow you’ll let me convince you some how to stay forever.” He thumbed the corner of her tilted lips then slid the warm pad of his thumb across the plumper bottom lip. Her mouth parted, and she sucked the digit into the depths of her mouth, hollowing her cheeks as she released his finger with a delicious pop.
A forever with Blake? Si, she liked that.
“Por Dios, Blake, I’ve wanted you since I turned seventeen and you marched through the front door in your dress blues. Your eyes were shadowed under your hat, but I didn’t need to see them to know something happened between us when we first touched. “Como fuego. Like fire, amor.”
“It was only a handshake. What made you so sure, love?” There’s that cockiness again.
“Your stance. You stood in front of me as my brother introduced us just like you are now. All attention on me. Your gaze locked on mine seeing all the way through to me.” She eased her hand over his heart before adding, “Seeing through to my heart and soul.” His silence said everything she wanted to hear. Kind of funny how at that moment the man’s strong suit for being silent gave his emotions away.
“I might not have understood all the whys behind what made me crazy for you, but there’s no denying everything about you called to me. Still does,” she added, as the last of her pent-up breath eased out. All the hurt and fear of rejection now replaced with acceptance. She loved him, too. No amount of time or distance would change the fact.
This close, he couldn’t hide behind the wall he kept around his emotions. His pupils dilated, and the tic in his jaw kicked up a notch from the normal rhythm he kept when something bothered him.
Amazed she managed to crack his hard exterior to expose the softer inside, Isabella pushed her luck further. “You felt it then, too, didn’t you, Blake? We connected that day in a way neither of us expected. And my brother stepped in, as always.”
“Your brother meant well. Don’t blame the man for caring for his only sister.” He stepped back and angled himself to face the window. He held on to her hand, lightly stroking her palm with his thumb.
In a gruffer voice edged with thick emotions he continued. “Hell, you were his only family outside the uniform.”
She parted her lips to tell him exactly what she thought of all the macho caveman bullshit, but he placed a finger over her lips before she could utter the unsavory words on the tip of her tongue. “You were too damn young for me.” He paused again, his eyes now dull with a pain she wished she could kiss away. “I wasn’t going to be around much. A chance I wouldn’t come back at all. Adrian knew it. Hell, I knew it and neither of us wanted that kind of life for you.”
He turned her hand, placing a kiss on the tender skin of her wrist. Conflicting emotions played across his face, at odds with his rough exterior. “If it wasn’t for your brother, it would have been me dead out on the desert floor that day, and Adrian here with you.” She didn’t need to see the guilt in his eyes. His words dripped with the poison consuming him heart and soul.
She eased him the best way she could, with a gentle hand over his. “Or you could have both been killed.” That was the harsh reality of it all. Couldn’t he see that?
“Blake, you stepped in and made sure I was safe in a world where I would have been completely alone. You made sure I had a place here with your father’s company. And don’t think I don’t know about your phone calls with him every week or so. You looked after me. Now it’s time to listen to your heart, and do what will make you happy.”
He refused to meet her gaze.
“Mira mè. Blake, look at me. You’ve buried yourself so damn deep behind your wall of guilt that you don’t see what Adrian left behind.”
“Don’t see it? Woman. I look at you, and it rips me to fucking shreds. Adrian and my damn promise. And to add fucking salt to the wound, he stuck me with you. Always within grasp, but so far out of reach. I’m tired of it, Bella.” He slashed a hand through the space separating them.
Shock hit first then hurt as his last words cut to the bone. Then it struck her. She finally saw the plan her brother set in motion. She had been blinded by her own fears and stubbornness.
“Stuck with me? Is that how you see this, Blake? An obligation you would much rather get rid of than face head-on? Are you so blind that you can’t see how Adrian brought us together even in death? How he corrected his mistake and placed us on each other’s path?”
“What? Bella...Ahh…what a clusterfuck!” he ground out.
“It’s never black and white, Blake. There is an area of gray that most live in. If you want me—us—you’ll have to find a way to meet me where the colors blend.”Already dying a little on the inside, she lowered herself off the table and turned to the nearest door before the first of her tears fell.
“Is
abella.” Her name came out as a command. One that would have had her stripping and posing for him just a moment ago. Now it grated against her nerves. He could shove his military-issued bark up his ass.
“Bella, stop.” This time it came out as a plea mixed with something stronger. Still, she was done with living in the past and with the pain. She crossed back through the small hallway, ready to put tonight behind her.
“The world might be painted in gray, but in my world gray means death. Following the rules has kept me alive so that means only black and white for me, sweetheart.”
His words brought her to a halt, her hand on the knob and ready to turn. “I understand.” Her voice barely above a whisper.
“Isabella Marie, will you marry me?”
She froze. What? Her emotions waged a war between her head and her heart. Two feet either forward or backward of the door would seal her fate for better or worse. Only she couldn’t decide which was which. Did she turn around and fling herself into his arms? Or keep walking? What he deserved was a good slap—how long had she waited to hear those words from him?
Her shoulders slumped from the weight, and her knees shook, ready to buckle.
Strong arms slowly embraced her from behind. She tried to pull away, but if she wanted to be honest with herself—it just felt right. This moment. This man. His light aftershave enveloped her like a balm to her wounds. She leaned back and let out a sigh. Just make the ache go away.
“Do you remember what I said to you the day we first met?” His words played in the hair against her neck while he settled his hand on her stomach. Chills tickled down the length of her spine in anticipation of the pleasure his tone promised.
She nodded once. “That when you close your eyes at night all you’ll see are my emerald eyes looking at you.” Her voice cracked on the last note. He ran his fingers up and down her arms while the one on her stomach pulled her snug against him.
His By Sunrise: A Military Erotic Romance (Sexy Siesta Series Book 1) Page 3
