“Hey,” she said softly, smiling at him. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been shot a few times,” he joked.
The light in her eyes faded, her lips turning downward at the corners. He would have to remember not to joke about that.
“Come here.”
She did, taking small, tentative steps.
“Sit, please.” He patted the bed beside him.
When she sat down gently on the edge of the bed, he lifted his good arm and stroked tenderly over the left side of her face where a dark purple bruise was already forming. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner.”
Her eyes softened and filled with tears. “I’m just glad you came.”
He pulled her close. “I’ll always come for you, Sam. Always.”
The events of the last few days finally caught up to her, and she broke down. Steve held her in his arms while she sobbed, then continued to hold her when she finally fell into an exhausted sleep.
* * *
Sam paused in the doorway, taking a moment to enjoy the view. The bathroom door was open, and Steve was shaving. A white towel was slung low over his lean hips, revealing a lovely masculine terrain of ridges and valleys, hard curves, and stark angles. His dark hair was shaggy, towel dried but uncombed. She licked her lips as he lifted his chin and drew the razor upward in smooth, practiced strokes.
Other than the small, waterproof patch on his shoulder, there was no other visible indication that he had been shot only a few days earlier.
“See something you like, Sam?”
His deep voice drew her eyes upward to meet his in the mirror. While she had been ogling, he had finished and was now drying his smooth, clean-shaven jaw with a small hand towel.
Heat rushed into her cheeks, but she held her ground. “Maybe.”
He grinned, and just like that, the blossoming heat between her legs flared.
“I just came to see if you were hungry,” she said, wishing she didn’t sound so breathless.
He turned just enough to drop his gaze in a slow, suggestive perusal, then back up to meet her eyes. “Yeah, I could eat.”
That slow burn, the same one that had been growing over the last few days, flared once again.
He had asked her to stay with him each night, saying he slept better knowing she was nearby. Considering the man got shot twice while rescuing her, it was the least she could do.
Not that she didn’t want to. She slept better knowing he was right there, too.
Their cuddling thus far had been done clothed and PG-rated. She didn’t count the time she woke up with his large palm cupping her ass, or the also large, stiff part of him that poked her backside when she snuggled against him. He had been asleep those times, and it wasn’t like she had really minded. Just as she hoped he wouldn’t have minded had he woken up to find her arm wrapped around him and her thigh hitched up over his hip.
But now … Now they were both awake, and there was no mistaking the blatant desire in his eyes.
Just like that, her nipples pebbled beneath the thin cotton tee, hard enough to make themselves known. His eyes flicked down, lingered for a moment, then back up again. Her eyes flicked downward, too, but at her angle, she couldn’t tell if he was in the midst of experiencing a similar reaction.
Part of her urged her to move forward and find out, preferably on her knees. Another part warned against it. Not because she thought he would refuse, but because she didn’t want to become any more attached to him than she already was. It had hit her that first night as she remained awake, watching over him as he slept under the powerful painkillers, ones he had needed because of her, that somewhere along the line, she had started falling in love with him.
“Well,” she said, clearing her throat softly, “I’ll go and order us something.”
She turned, but before she could take two steps, he was there, his hands on her upper arms, his heat at her back.
“Sam.”
She closed her eyes, soaking in the moment. “Yes?”
“Look at me.”
She didn’t want to. If he looked in her eyes now, he would see everything.
With strong hands, he gently coaxed her around to face him. “Sam. Open those pretty eyes and look at me.”
She did.
His eyes were so intense. Questioning. And there was something else there that she hadn’t seen before—uncertainty. Could he possibly be feeling the same things she was?
“I want you, Sam.”
“I want you, too.” She whispered the words. “But …”
“No buts,” he told her, bringing his hands up to cup her face. “Not tonight. I almost lost you, Sam. I almost lost you before I …”
“Before you what?”
“Before I had a chance to do this.” Steve lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers once, twice, before pressing more firmly.
Just that quickly, any resistance she’d had melted away, along with the rest of the world.
She kissed him back, parting her lips to taste him. He groaned softly in the back of his throat, pulling her closer and eliminating any doubts she might have had about him being as aroused as she was.
She moved her hand between them, tugging on the towel to release him. He made another sound, this time more of a warning growl. She registered it, then ignored it, encircling his hard length and moving up and down, imagining what it would feel like inside of her. Velvety smooth and hot, textured just enough for maximum pleasure. Broad head, thick root, and—she reached between his legs and cupped him—full and tight.
This man was perfect. And those erotic fantasies she had privately entertained? They didn’t hold a candle to the real thing.
“Sam.”
A shiver of feminine pleasure ran through her at the husky tone of his voice. She had done that.
Tomorrow no longer mattered. He wanted her, right here, right now, just as much as she wanted him.
She ran her thumb over the wet tip, her mouth watering for a taste. Then, before she lost her nerve, she went down on her knees and gave him an open-mouthed kiss.
“Fuck, Sam.” Those big hands burrowed into her hair. For a moment, she thought he was going to attempt to pull her away, but then he curled his fingers and held on, the slight pull ramping up her own desire.
She licked, she tongued, she sucked and fondled, using the sounds he made and the way his muscles tensed to guide her.
“Sam, baby, you have to stop.”
“Why?”
“Because I want the first time to be inside you.”
The first time, suggesting there would be others. She liked the sound of that.
Releasing him, she kissed her way over his hip, along his abs, detouring slightly to tongue each nipple before meeting his lips again.
“Bed. Now.”
She grinned, the realization that she had reduced him to single word commands, a heady one.
In her fantasies, she had allowed him to undress her, but she was too revved up for that now. One step, and she was lifting her top over her head. At the fourth step, her thumbs hooked into the waistband of her yoga pants and pushed downward, allowing her to walk right out of them. By the time she had reached the bed, she was naked, her clothes like a trail of breadcrumbs behind her.
Before she could turn, a large palm landed on her flank, not painful, but erotic. “Your turn,” he said.
“No,” she refuted when he started to get on his knees. “It’ll be better for your leg if you lie down.”
He grinned wolfishly and spread himself out on the bed, a feast for her eyes. “Come over here, woman, and straddle my face.”
The pure carnality of his words ratcheted her arousal another notch. This was a new experience for her. She had always been too shy, too embarrassed to allow such a thing. But, with Steve, self-consciousness took a back seat to need. She wanted to feel his lips between her legs. She wanted to feel his tongue gliding along her slick folds.
He gripped her hi
ps, looking at her with reverence. Surely, he could see how wet she was for him. How she ached.
“So pretty,” he crooned, guiding her closer.
The first touch of his tongue was gentle, yet enough to make her cry out. The second, even better. The man clearly had skills, flattening his tongue one moment then spearing her the next. It felt amazing, so amazing that her hips started moving right along with him.
Soon, a thick finger circled her entrance, teasing, stretching, before gliding inside. He moved it in and out several times, bringing her to the brink. Then he wrapped those firm male lips around the center of the most intense sensations and sucked. She shattered, losing herself in a maelstrom of feeling until her body shook.
“You’re stunning when you come,” he told her. “I need to see it again.”
She opened her eyes and looked down to find him with the smug expression of a man who knew he had done an exemplary job. There was something else in his eyes, too. Something warm that would have made her go all gooey inside if she hadn’t already melted.
As anxious as she was to feel him inside, they had to be careful, for both their sakes. Apparently, he was thinking along the same lines, because he said, “Check the bag.”
She left the bed only long enough to open the zippered black duffel and peer inside. Her eyes grew wide when she pulled out an entire box of condoms. In bright, bold letters the label proclaimed: “For Her Pleasure Variety Pack.” She held them up for Steve to see.
“Fucking Heff,” he said on a chuckle. “But, right now, I’m feeling pretty thankful for his foresight. Come back up here, woman, and keep that box in reach.”
His injuries meant they had to get creative, but Sam would have dangled from the ceiling to have this man if she had to. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that, and with a few mindful choices, she got her wish.
She sank down slowly, working her way down in small increments until he was seated fully inside her.
“A perfect fit,” he murmured, his body tense with desire. Sam had to agree.
She rode him slowly, rocking her hips and squeezing, taking him with her as they climbed new heights. Making love with him was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She had never felt as close to anyone as she did in those moments. There was passion, yes, but it went far beyond a physical thing. When Steve was inside her, she felt him in her heart and soul as much as her body.
All too soon they reached their peaks, and looking into each other’s eyes, stepped off the edge together.
“That was incredible,” he said as he pulled her close, holding her through the aftershocks.
It was incredible. The best experience she had ever had. So, why did part of her feel like crying?
“Okay, now I’m hungry,” he teased.
“Good thing I already ordered room service, then. Though it’s probably cold by now.”
“It was worth it.”
Was it? she wondered. Because now she wasn’t sure they could go back to just being friends.
And watching him walk away would hurt even more.
Chapter Sixteen
Sam knew their idyllic time together was coming to an end when Church and Cage came by and told them everything had been taken care of. The fire in Miner’s Hollow had been discovered, but only after it was too late to do anything about it. According to official reports, the fire had been blamed as a suicide attempt of an unidentified person, the only known victim of the blaze.
Anthony was dead, killed by his precious fire.
She had asked Cage to let her read the file he had created on Anthony before he destroyed it. Anthony’s early years hadn’t been easy. When his mom had gotten pregnant at the age of fifteen, her parents hadn’t handled it well and made life hell for her and Anthony until she finally saved up enough money from working odd jobs to move away. Some of the doctors at the facility where he had been placed later theorized that abuse by his grandfather might have altered an otherwise highly intelligent boy.
Despite everything, she couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for the man he might have been under different circumstances. Living with misunderstood mental illness was something Sam was all too familiar with. Her mother had battled a severe bipolar disorder and hadn’t gotten the treatment she needed because Sam’s grandparents had refused to recognize it as a “real” problem until it was too late. Something else her mother and Anthony had in common—they had both died at their own hands when they couldn’t see another way out.
The formal charges against Steve had been dropped after a few discreet phone calls. A thorough inspection proved that his brake lines had been tampered with, negating claims that he had deliberately and willfully led police on a high-speed car chase, endangering the lives of the officers and innocent civilians in the process.
Subduing two local cops and absconding with their cruiser was more difficult to explain away, but somehow, those charges were dropped, too. Officers Joe and Lenny reportedly weren’t too happy about it, but the directive had come from pretty high up. Sam didn’t ask too many questions, figuring men who had been SEALs for as long as they had, had earned a few markers to cash in when the need arose.
Cage had already managed to exonerate her for the fire at the coffee shop by obtaining security camera footage from one of the adjacent businesses, something the police should have done. The video clearly showed an “unidentified male” breaking into the back entrance of the shop and leaving again moments before the fire.
Neither Chief Freed nor Chief Petraski seemed pleased by that. Sam had a feeling they would much rather have continued to cast suspicion her way. Well, that was too bad for them. She hadn’t done anything wrong, and she refused to be bullied by them or their small-town, small-minded mentality.
She did ask about Mr. Santori. Despite everything that had happened, she felt a pang of sympathy for him. Cage assured her that as soon as the official investigation wrapped up, the old man would be collecting a tidy sum in insurance money and have no trouble moving forward with his retirement plans.
What had happened at the apartment complex was a bit trickier. According to Church, both the fire chief and the police chief wanted to question Sam about the fire and her whereabouts that night. Steve wasn’t happy about that. He wanted Cage to do something, but she had told him she wanted to handle it on her own.
She couldn’t tell them the truth about everything that had happened that night, not without raising even more questions and prompting an official investigation. That meant revealing the parts Steve, Church, and the rest of them had played, and there was no way she was going to do that, not when they had gone to such lengths for her.
In the end, the apartment fire was ruled an accident, and charges were not filed. She agreed to give up her security deposit to pay for a professional cleaning service to come in and take care of the smoke damage.
With everything taken care of, reality crashed back into her life with a vengeance. She was unemployed, essentially homeless, and her tiny nest egg was dwindling quickly.
As wonderful as her time with Steve had been, it couldn’t last forever. She had known that and had been trying to prepare herself. She had to salvage what she could and move on. She wasn’t sure where she was going to go. She just knew there wasn’t much left in Sumneyville for her any longer. Her dreams of owning the coffee shop were gone, and while she had officially been cleared of any wrongdoing, the people there would always look upon her with suspicion.
She and Steve hadn’t really talked much about what would happen next. They hadn’t really talked about much of anything. He, like she, seemed content to make the most of the time they had together.
Their futures, though, couldn’t have been more different. He had a job and a place waiting for him. She had overheard Church tell him that they had been working double-time on getting a small cabin habitable for him at the resort and it was almost finished. Sam was happy for him. She really was. He had his team and a purpose. He was a good man, and he deserved nothing
less.
Her? Well, she would do what she always did. She would find a way to deal with what life handed her and move on. This wasn’t the first time in her life she’d had to start over. She just had to convince herself that this was a new opportunity. When one door closed, another opened, right?
Leaving Steve and Church to talk, she made a cup of tea and went into the bedroom to pack.
* * *
“What’s up with Sam?” Church asked once the bedroom door closed behind her. “She’s not happy with the offer?”
Steve shook his head. “I haven’t told her yet.”
Church lifted a brow. “Why the hell not?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit.”
Church was right. It was bullshit. Steve knew exactly why he hadn’t said anything to Sam about Church’s idea for her to move up to the resort—he wasn’t sure she would say yes.
He didn’t know how she would feel about essentially moving in with him. Sure, the last few days had been amazing, but just because he was ready for the next step, didn’t mean she was.
He had always gone with his gut, and lately, it had been screaming for him to grab her with both hands and never let go. She made him feel things no other woman ever had, and when he thought about what might have happened if they hadn’t found her in time, well, he didn’t like to think about that.
He wasn’t the easiest guy to get along with. He was still dealing with his demons, though admittedly, that had become a lot easier with Sam around. When he had woken up in the grips of a panic attack, it was to find her stroking his back and whispering calming words.
It wasn’t like he had a lot to offer her, either. Asking her to move into a cabin with him wasn’t exactly wine and roses. They wouldn’t have a lot of luxuries, and the next year or so would be a lot of hard work. Even the promise of giving her free rein over the new kitchen and eating area to create her own place might not be enough.
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Sam (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 12
