“You’ll let me know when you trust me, right?” he said, and she blinked.
How could the man read her like that? It was irritating and a little comforting. “Yes, I will.” At least he’d accepted the fact that right now, she was borderline.
Jack took several measured steps toward her, watching her eyes flare as he approached. He grabbed her close and kissed her, leaving nothing hidden, nothing undone. And she came apart in his arms, her fingers driving into his hair, her body meshed with his and yielding for him.
“Marry me, Melanie.”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“Just so you know,” he said against her mouth, “I plan to be a husband in every way.”
Her heart skipped to her throat. “Oh, goody.”
He laughed and kissed her again, and his hands found their way beneath her blouse, to her skin. She flinched with the sweet contact. She could barely stand when he touched her, and he dropped into a padded chair, pulling her onto his lap.
He spent several minutes working his magic on her, and when her hand slid down to the bulge in his jeans, Jack groaned and set her on her feet.
She blinked, breathing hard.
He strained as he stood. “I need to call someone.”
“Excuse me?”
He smiled patiently and cupped her face in his palms. “I told you, baby, when I made love to you again there would be vows between us.”
She slid her hands up his chest, smoothing her thumbs over his nipples and listening to his breath hiss out through his teeth. “Get a move on it, sailor.”
Two days later, with Lisa at her side, Melanie promised herself to Lt. Jack Singer. He’d managed miracles for this moment. The small chapel was filled with flowers, a couple of his teammates were sitting in the pews, and her parents, much to her surprise, were there. While Melanie’s mother sobbed quietly, Jack’s mother sat with Lisa’s husband, Brian, all three grinning foolishly. Beside Jack, SEAL team leader Lt. Commander Reese Logan stood as Jack’s best man, not showing a shred of emotion. It made Melanie see the differences between Jack and his teammates. They were reclusive and almost cold, especially Reese. But Jack, she thought, was an entirely different man. And right now, he couldn’t stop smiling.
In dress whites, he listened to the chaplain, but his eyes were on her. She felt them coat her like warm syrup, touch her in places she didn’t know still had life. And when Jack said “I do” and slid the most incredible ring on her finger, Melanie struggled to breathe. Then she gaped at the diamonds.
“This is forever,” he whispered. “All of this.” And at the chaplain’s command, he kissed her.
Married.
Melanie expected her head to scream What have you done? yet her heart was shouting Oh, yes as Jack dipped her back and kissed her like a lusty groom.
They parted, smiling at each other until his teammates muscled their way between them to slap Jack on the back and offer congratulations. Melanie hugged her parents, yet her gaze stayed on Jack. Despite the small crowd around him, he was also looking at her, and she felt cherished and desired. It made her heart stumble, yet she didn’t have time to think as his teammates converged on her. It had to be illegal to have so many good-looking men in one place, she thought, as a SEAL hugged her.
Jack stood back as his teammates kissed his wife, glaring at the youngest member who took full liberty and a little too long in letting Melanie go.
Reese was at his side. “She’s beautiful, Jack.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Does she know what she’s getting into being married to one of the teams?”
Jack frowned, then smiled. “She married me, Reese, not the SEALs.”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Yes, I do. And Melanie’s been doing fine on her own, so she can handle military life.” Jack glanced at his buddy. “Is that why you’ve never taken the plunge? Because you don’t think there’s a woman out there who can handle the need-to-know factor?”
“It has its drawbacks,” was all Reese would say.
Jack knew there was more behind that statement, but he wasn’t going to pry right now.
“Well, not every service member is single, Reese. Think about it,” Jack said, then headed toward his wife.
Wife.
It stopped him in his tracks, and he was filled with waves of pride and something else he wasn’t ready to name. Melanie was leaning down to comfort her mother, who couldn’t seem to stop crying with happiness. Jack’s gaze slid over his bride, her lush body wrapped in a slim-fitting satin gown of the palest lavender. While the top portion was a simple tank style with thin beaded straps, the skirt hit the floor and fishtailed in the back. It was the sexiest wedding dress he’d ever seen, and it showed off her curves to maximum effect. All he wanted to do was push everyone aside and explore each of those curves.
Being in a chapel and surrounded by friends quashed that idea, and he moved up beside her, wrapping his arm around her.
Melanie stiffened for a second, unaccustomed to him touching her so freely after keeping him mostly at arm’s length for the past weeks. As if he sensed it, he rubbed her spine and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Come on, let’s feed these people, get them all drunk and slip away.”
She tipped her head to look at him, her lips twitching. “Sir Galahad, you’ve planned for everything.”
He grinned. “Just looking out for every contingency.” She smiled and he whispered for her ears alone, “You look more beautiful than I’ve ever seen you, Mel.”
“I feel that way.” She touched the side of his face, ignoring the camera flashes and the people around them. “Thank you for all this.”
His gaze raked her ruthlessly. “I won’t let you down.”
“I know.”
The two words were the start of the trust Jack needed, and he kissed her gently.
But it wasn’t him she was worried about, she thought as they left the chapel and headed to the officers’ club. What if she let him down?
Melanie sipped champagne and stared out over the wide river. She was amazingly content. Though this was the first time she’d been parted from her child overnight, her parents were having fun with their grandchild, and Jack’s mother was planning to join them in the morning for an outing. Yet with the knowledge that she wasn’t alone anymore, the anxiety she’d carried for some time slipped off her in waves with each passing moment. Somewhere behind her in the suite, Jack was tipping the bellman for room service. She’d known he’d go all out. The ceremony spoke for itself, and she didn’t question how he managed to get all those people together so quickly. That was Jack. He made things happen. She smiled to herself and took another sip of champagne. The slap of water against the seawall seemed to match the occasional glitter and pulse of the stars in the blanket of night. She pulled the combs from her hair and shook it out, tossing the combs aside and letting the warm breeze sweep over her.
She felt Jack come up behind her, her senses tuning into him like radar. She leaned on the balcony rail. “I’d forgotten how beautiful it was in this town.”
“For the first time since I arrived you look peaceful.”
She glanced at him as he moved up beside her, his uniform jacket already discarded somewhere in the suite. The white T-shirt stretched tight over his muscles.
“I am.” She stared at her goblet for a moment, then looked out over the moonlit water. The trees sighed with the breeze, Spanish moss dancing like a lacy hem beneath a skirt of branches.
“I’m a little relieved, too.”
“How so?” He sipped his drink, then put it aside, resting his forearms on the rail and folding his hands—mostly to keep them off her when he wanted badly to touch her.
“I didn’t really want to be a single mom, Jack.”
His brows shot up.
“I thought I did. But when you showed up and bullied your way into my house—” he smiled at that “—I realized how much Juliana was missing. How much
my life was a bit—” she shrugged “—empty.”
Her confession fueled the idea that she’d done this for more than their daughter. “It looked pretty busy to me,” Jack said.
Melanie ran her finger around the rim of the goblet. “I want you to know that if you find someone else and want out, I’ll understand.”
“I won’t.”
“Excuse me?”
He grinned, took the glass from her and, setting it aside, drew her into his arms. “I thought I was keeping you from finding someone else, too, but I don’t want you looking elsewhere.”
She wouldn’t. She knew that in her heart that very second. “Demands already?”
“I have what I want,” he murmured, his gaze lowering to her mouth. “Can you say you’re satisfied?”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Ask me in the morning.”
His smile grew wider by the second. “That’s what I love about you, Melanie—you never say what I expect.”
“What are you expecting? And if you say nothing, I’ll know you’re fibbing.”
He met her gaze steadily. “Fidelity, honesty and your trust.”
Both realized he didn’t say love, yet neither acknowledged it.
“Two out of three?”
He settled his arms more comfortably around her. “I know you trust me. You just don’t want to admit it.”
Cocky, isn’t he, she thought. “How would you know?”
“You wouldn’t have married me if you didn’t trust me a little. And I know you wouldn’t have let me get this close to you again, either,” he said, and laid his mouth over hers.
Melanie felt something inside her unwind, go loose and languid, then wrap around him. Ribbons of desire slid along her body with every second he kissed her. It was slow and tender at first. He molded and toyed, nipped and licked, playful and patient, and when she thought she couldn’t draw in air fast enough, he moved to her throat. He kissed the base of her throat, slid his tongue lower, and she felt the sudden exquisite rush he gave her splinter over her. Her arms slipped from his neck and she palmed his chest, wanting his hold to tighten, to be stronger. Because she’d been alone for so long. Because she’d missed this man. Only this man. It was like finding safety and contentment in his arms, as if it had been stripped from her when he left that day, and only now was she allowed to let the feelings back into her heart.
His touch weakened her and she loved it. The strap slid off her shoulder, and her zipper was slowly undone, the snug bodice easing from her.
“It’s been eating at me all night.”
“Oh, yeah, what’s that?” She tipped her head back as his mouth made a damp path over the swells of her breasts.
“Wondering what you’ve got under this gown.”
“Not much.”
He groaned. “Every time I saw you go to work, I knew there was something completely feminine underneath your business suits.”
She laughed. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, my imagination would be a good weapon of torture.” Jack leaned back, anticipation rocketing through him and making his fingers ache. The bodice gaped and Melanie wiggled. The satin fabric whispered down her body to her ankles.
Jack swallowed. “My imagination didn’t come close.”
She smiled, lifting the gown from the balcony floor and tossing it onto a lounge chair. There was something decadent about being on a balcony in nothing but her lingerie, she thought.
And even more decadent with Jack eating her alive with his eyes.
“Man, oh man.” His hand coasted up her side, over her iridescent lavender stockings, the thin strap of her thong. Her breasts were cupped in the sheerest fabric edged in lace. He met her gaze. “I’m done for.”
“Liar, you never give up. And is that any way for a SEAL to behave?” she said, tugging his T-shirt from his trousers and backing him into the room. She peeled his shirt off over his head, flinging it aside with a smile too seductive for words.
Jack’s mouth went dry. He’d wanted her for so long, had wanted her nightly for a year and a half. The last person he’d made love to was Melanie. The last person she’d touched like this was him. And until he died she would be the only woman he would love. Jack stilled and looked into her eyes.
Her brows knitted ever so slightly, her gaze probing. Suddenly he cupped her face in his palms and kissed her, long and leisurely. Melanie felt it, the tender mercy of it, the electricity they’d always shared tempered with something new.
“Jack.”
“You’re mine, Melanie. Mine.”
There was something in the way he said those words, something so possessive, so certain that it left her shaking. Then she realized he was trembling a little.
“I want you,” he said. “All night, all day, forever.”
Melanie swallowed thickly, feeling confused and cherished and needed all in the same breath. She could feel his heart beat, hear his erratic breathing that matched her own and knew this moment had changed something in him.
Jack reached to pull her close, but she batted his hands aside and tugged at his belt buckle. Her smile was feline wicked and her gaze never left his as she opened the buckle slowly, kissing his mouth, his throat, bending a bit to lave his nipple. The air hissed out of him between clenched teeth.
Then her hand dipped inside his trousers, closing over him. He growled, his fingertips digging into her waist, his body aching for her in every cell, every pore.
Melanie watched the play of emotions skip over his features, felt his shuddering breath vibrate down to the floor. His hands were busy, drawing her against him, forcing her to release him and hold on. He cupped her breast and she moaned in response, touching him everywhere. He bent and hooked a finger in the cup of her bra, pulling the sheer fabric down. Her nipple spilled into the heat of his mouth, and he bent her back over his arm. He suckled warmly, his touch growing stronger, then easing, stronger, then delicate.
It drove her wild and she plowed her fingers into his hair, crying out, holding him close. “Oh, Jack.”
He cupped her buttocks, pulling her against his heat, then his fingers slipped beneath the band of the thong, following the line of it curving her hip and lower, then pushing it aside. He slipped a finger between her legs and she gasped over and over.
He absorbed each sound, his groin tightening. She mewed softly and he kept stroking her as he laid her on the bed, hovering over her.
Melanie felt everything in her yank and twist, the pulse hot and quick with lush desire. “Oh, Jack, not yet.”
“Look at me,” he growled, and she did. “We’re just starting. Don’t you remember, baby? We were never done when I had to leave last time.” His motions quickened and he watched her eyes flare, her body erupt with her climax. Her muscles flexed and clawed and a little shriek escaped her as she bowed back, rocked against his hand and took her pleasure. She cried out his name again and again, and it made him smile.
He kissed her gently and she sank into the bed boneless. “Catch your breath fast, baby. I mean to have more of you.”
She managed to lift her head off the bed and look at him, but he was already in command. He hooked her panties and pulled them off, mapping the contours of her legs with his lips and teeth, gently nipping at her calf, her thigh and higher. He rolled the stockings down, tasting each inch of flesh revealed, then with her leg propped on his shoulder, he stripped off his trousers.
Melanie let her gaze lower over him as he kicked the white slacks aside. He was a wall of muscle, a warrior, his waist lean, his abs rippled with definition. Just to look at him made her body quiver with want. To touch, to taste.
Jack watched her look and felt himself harden to near painful proportions. She was open to him, bare and uninhibited. She had no fears, only need in her green eyes, and when she clapped her legs around his waist and drew him down, he wanted only to give her pleasure, to make her as delirious as she was making him.
His arousal brushed her center and she arched, the move hun
gry with demand. But he didn’t give her what she craved, and laid a moist path over her mouth, her cheek, down her throat.
“I want you now,” she moaned.
“Did I ever tell you that in training we have to stand in the water for twelve hours in the dark?” he said casually, then his lips closed over her nipple and he drew it deeply into his mouth.
“No. Ahh, Jack.”
“I love it when you say my name like that.” He tasted her other nipple, feeling her writhe with each pass of his tongue. “We learned patience.” He slid lower, taking his time tasting her soft, smooth skin. “No food, no water, but we can see it. It’s on the shore. It makes the need worse. To see it, smell it and not be able to have it. So your patience has to be greater than your need.”
“Yeah, I…oh, yes…”
He kissed her belly, then slid lower. Running his hands under her spine, down her buttocks, the backs of her thighs, he nipped and licked, his mouth circling her abdomen, yet never touching where she craved. “The feast is in plain sight and we can’t have it.”
“Uh-huh.” She knew she should be paying attention, but it was useless. Her thoughts were swimming in pleasure, her nerves and body tingling with anticipation. His mouth passed over her skin, leaving a burning trail of want, for more, much more. She could scarcely breathe. And why was he even talking?
He smiled, knowing she wasn’t listening and wondering how he could get the words out when his need to feel her body trap his had his blood pounding like an engine. Her fingers balled in the bedspread, and her hips rose in invitation.
“Well.” The heat of his words breezed over her liquid center. “I was never very good at it,” he said, then tasted her.
She came unglued for him. It was what he adored about her. She never held back. He laved and stroked her, his movements languid and succulent. She gasped his name over and over, told him how good she felt, that she wanted him inside her, and her erotic words nearly undid him.
He pushed her thigh farther over his shoulder and drove deeper, letting her come to the edge of rapture, then slowing and taking her up the peak again.
“Jack,” she screamed, and he rose up.
The SEAL’s Surprise Baby Page 10
