Marooned with a Marine

by Maureen Child

  Enough, he told himself, and went up onto his knees. Reaching out, he pulled one of her earphones away from her head, and when she looked at him, surprised, he asked, “What’s got you twitching like you’re lying on a hot plate?”

  “I’m not twitching,” she said, then pulled in a long, deep breath. “Exactly.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said, his gaze slipping, sliding down to admire the curve of her breasts before lifting to her face again. “You’re making me twitch just watching you. Read me something,” he said softly, wanting to know what it was that made her skin flush and her eyes go soft.

  She looked at him for a long minute, then pulled off her headphones and set them aside. The whisper of jazz still echoed from them as she cleared her throat. “You asked for it,” she said, and started reading aloud.

  “Gavin reached for her and she took a step back. Not too far, but far enough to force him to come after her.”

  “Hmm…” It wasn’t the writer’s way with words that had him stifling a soft oath. It was Karen’s expression, her breathy voice that were doing him in. Sam watched her as she read and felt his insides tighten until he thought he just might explode. Then she continued.

  “‘I’ve waited long enough,’ he said,” Karen read, and her voice went deep and husky. “And pulling her close, he forced her head back and claimed her full, lush mouth with a kiss designed to breach the defenses she’d refused to lower.” Karen paused and took a breath. Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, she asked, “So. You want to hear more?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said, reaching out to stroke the flat of his hand along her thigh. She shivered, and that slight movement shook him to his soul.

  “Oh, my,” she whispered, letting her eyelids flutter close briefly. “Sam…”

  “Hey,” he said softly, “you can’t stop now. I’ve got to find out what happens next.”

  “Uh-huh,” she said, and a disbelieving smile curved her lips. “You’re interested in the story.”

  He stroked her thigh again. “You bet. It’s riveting.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, lifting the book and shifting her gaze back to its pages. Her tone raw, strained, she continued. “Katherine speared her fingers through Gavin’s hair, holding him, giving as well as taking. Her tongue met his in a frantic dance of need and the mounting passion within her weakened her knees.” Karen paused, swallowed hard and read, “He moved to cup her breast and she moaned, collapsing against him in a warm, liquid pool of desire.”

  Jeez, no wonder those books sold so well, Sam thought, noting his own escalating desire. He’d have bet money he couldn’t be more aroused…and he would have lost. Because now, as he looked at her, hearing her reading the words that seemed to hang low and desperate in the air around them, his nerves were strained to the snapping point and his self-control was ragged at the edges.

  “That’s some book,” he whispered, and she turned to look at him.

  Their gazes collided with the strength and raw power of a runaway freight train. He saw his own need reflected back at him from her wide blue eyes, and Sam reacted to it instinctively. Throwing reason out the window, he grabbed her hand, pulled her across the bed toward him, and she came willingly, eagerly, as if she’d been waiting for just this.

  “Let’s write our own love scene, huh?” he said on a groan before covering her mouth with his. He tasted her, capturing her breath and claiming it as his own. His tongue swept inside, reminding her of all they’d had, all they’d lost, and she responded with a burst of passion that nearly staggered him.

  Pulling her off the mattress to join him on the floor, he cradled her as he took her down. Her hands moved over his bare back and he felt the heat of her touch right down to his bones. This. This is what he’d needed. What he’d missed for too long.

  Desperately, he took her mouth, invading her warmth, demanding her passion. And she didn’t disappoint him. Clutching at him, moving with him, she rolled across the floor until they slammed into the wall.

  Frantic now to taste all of her, to touch and see and feel all he’d been denied these last two months, he groaned and tore his mouth from hers. She gasped as he turned his attention to her neck. His tongue drew a warm, damp line along her throat until he reached her pulse point, and there he paused, loving the wild thump of her heartbeat beneath his lips. Her nails scraped along his back as he swept one hand down to lift the hem of her T-shirt. Sliding his palm along her smooth, soft flesh, he relearned the feel of every curve and valley. Again and again, he touched her, exploring her, reclaiming her body, reminding her that what they had together was priceless.

  Then he rolled away from the wall, taking her with him until she lay atop him, and he held her pressed tightly to him. Her hands cupped his face and she kissed him with all of the frantic need he felt pumping inside him. She scraped her hands across his chest and over his shoulders. He reached down, grabbed the edge of her shirt and tugged.

  She shifted, moving to straddle him, and lifting her arms, tore off her shirt and tossed it behind her. Then she lay down atop him again, flesh to flesh, soft to hard, smooth to rough. And the sensations rippled through him so quickly, he could barely register them all, and still it wasn’t enough.

  Rolling again, Sam cradled her head with one arm and skimmed his free hand across her breasts, cupping the full weight of first one, then the other. His thumb and forefinger tweaked her rigid nipples, and everything within him trembled when a soft moan slid from her throat.

  “Sam,” she whispered, licking her lips and clutching at his shoulders as she arched into him.

  “I know, baby,” he said, and let his hand sweep down, across her abdomen and down. “Man, I’ve missed you, Karen,” he muttered, dipping his head to take one of her nipples into his mouth. His tongue swirled around the tip, and his reward was the instinctive way she pushed herself into him, silently demanding more of the same. He ran the edges of his teeth across the hard, pebbly surface of her nipple, and her short fingernails dug into his back. He smiled against her, then lifted his head and let his hand sweep down to the elastic waist-band of her shorts.

  In one quick move, he had the shorts off and was throwing them across the room. He looked his fill of her, for the first time in too long. This was no dream. This was real. They were together again. A scrap of green lace was all that separated him from the warm, soft depths he’d dreamed of revisiting.

  She rocked her hips and pulled at the waistband of his shorts. “You,” she whispered brokenly. “I need you, Sam. Now.”

  “Me, too, honey.” He moved away from her only long enough to get rid of his shorts, and then he was back, beside her, holding her close, pressing her body along the length of his.

  She turned into him, running her hands up and down his back, as if she couldn’t touch him enough. As if she was as desperate for the feel of him as he was for her.

  Sam buried his face in the curve of her neck, inhaling her scent, taking it deep within him as if he were a drowning man breathing his last. And he was drowning, he thought wildly, losing himself in her as he had with no other woman before her.

  This magic, this amazing connection only existed with Karen, and having it back now was like being given a second chance at really living.

  Karen groaned and clutched at him as his hand swept down her body. His fingers slipped beneath the lacy band of her panties and she arched into him, wanting, needing to feel him there.

  She’d missed him so much. His touch electrified her, sent her blood boiling and her insides trembling. Her mind spun and her heart ached. Even as she held him, even as his fingers slid closer to the heart of her, some small, still-rational corner of her mind knew that she shouldn’t be doing this. Shouldn’t allow herself to feel what he made her feel. Shouldn’t glory in the sensation of his skin against hers.

  But she couldn’t stop it now. Wouldn’t have even if she could have found the strength to tell him no. She had to have him. Had to know at least one more time, the feel of him joining
his body to hers.

  And then his fingers dipped inside her and any hope of logical thought disappeared. She moved against him, holding on to him as tightly as if he were the only thing keeping her from falling off the edge of the earth. And in that wild, amazing moment, he was.

  Sam bent his head and took one of her nipples into his mouth again and she moaned, unable to keep the sound from sliding from her throat. She grabbed at him, her nails digging into his muscled flesh. Karen’s mind whirled and her vision clouded with a rainbow of colors as sensation after sensation poured over her.

  The window rattled as wind and rain pummeled against it. Outside, the world was wild and un-tamed as the storm raged on. And inside, she realized, that same wildness was claiming them.

  Her hips rocked in a rhythm with Sam’s touch and she was only partly aware of it when he snagged her panties and tugged them down and off in one practiced move. But then, she recalled, he’d always been clever with his hands.

  He shifted position, trailing his lips and tongue down, along her body, across her abdomen, to the tops of her thighs. The rough, callused palms of his hands scraped across her body, touching, smoothing, stroking until she lay twisting and writhing beneath him. He moved then, to kneel between her updrawn knees, and with the tips of his fingers, caressed the insides of her thighs until her body quivered with every breath she labored to take.

  Looking up at him, Karen saw the raw need shimmering in his eyes and felt an answering call rise up inside her. Tension coiled low and tight within her. Her blood pulsed and her body throbbed with an urgent need that demanded satisfaction. Enough teasing, she thought, lifting her arms to reach out for him. She wanted him inside her. Now. “I need you, Sam,” she whispered, and licked dry lips before adding, “I didn’t want to, but I need you so badly right now.”

  “No more than I need you, honey,” he said tightly, and smoothed one finger along her inner flesh, smiling when she trembled. He dipped first one finger and then two deep inside her, exploring her body’s intimate curves, and she wanted to weep at the rightness of it. At the incredible gentleness of his touch. At the surge of desire that licked at the edges of her soul. And still it wasn’t enough. Karen lifted her hips in welcome and he leaned over her, paused for a long, heart-stopping moment, and then pushed his body into hers with one deep, hard thrust.

  She gasped, tipping her head back against the wadded-up sleeping bag beneath her. Her hips arched as she took him inside. He filled her completely. His body a part of hers. His soul touching hers. Her body welcomed him home. Karen wiggled her hips, adjusting to the feel of him, creating a delicious friction that had her groaning with a renewed sense of need. Then she lifted her legs, wrapped them around his middle and locked him deep within her, holding him to her as though afraid he might change his mind and try to escape.

  Planting his hands at either side of her head, he loomed over her, staring down into her eyes, demanding that she look back. She saw more than she wanted to see in those pale gold depths, and later she’d probably worry about that. But at the moment, all Karen could think about, all she could concentrate on was the incredible feeling of having him inside her again.

  Then he moved and fireworks exploded in her bloodstream, sizzling and popping and snapping along her veins. She felt more alive, more vital than she had in the two months since they’d been apart.

  And for now, that was enough.

  He moved, rocking in and out of her warmth in an ancient dance that always seemed new with him. Every time was like the first time, and she knew she would never find with anyone else what she’d found with him.

  Again and again, he pushed her higher, faster, farther. Air struggled in and out of her lungs. Her mind shut down. Her body quickened, tightened, preparing for the final explosion that would, she knew, shatter her.

  “Come with me, Karen,” he whispered into her ear, his breath warm on her skin, his words a hushed invitation to a world he’d taken her to so many times before.

  And she wanted it again. Wanted it all. Right now, right here, she wanted Sam and all he could give her. She wanted to experience the magic she’d missed for so long. If regrets came, they would come in their own time. And tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with them. In this moment, nothing was more important than Sam.

  “Yes,” she said, holding on to him, dragging his mouth to hers, claiming a kiss that seared them both as the world splintered into a thousand brilliant colors.

  Six

  When his head cleared, Sam rolled to one side of her, disengaging their bodies but keeping as closely linked to her as possible. He couldn’t bring himself to let her go. Not yet. Not when it had been so long. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her pressed to his chest and dragged air into heaving lungs. She nestled against him and he felt her heart pounding in tandem with his own. He stroked her back with long, leisurely caresses, as though soothing a wild creature, and slowly he sensed a calmness settling over her.

  It had always been like that between them, he thought, staring vacantly up at the ceiling. A flash fire of passion and want followed by the gentle quiet of two hearts beating as one. He’d missed this closeness with her as much as he’d missed her passion, her laughter, her temper.

  Damn, the last two months had been the hardest of his life.

  She squirmed against him, pushing away slightly, and murmured, “Oh, Sam…”

  His throat tightened and an invisible band of iron squeezed his chest until his heart ached. Already? In less than five minutes she’d already formed regrets? No, damn it.

  “Don’t, Karen,” he said, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “Don’t say you’re sorry this happened.”

  “No, I—”

  “I mean it,” he interrupted her, and moved until he could look down into her pale blue eyes, still hazy with the aftereffects of spent desire. “I don’t want to hear regrets. Not now.”

  “Sam,” she said with a frown as she scooted a bit farther away again.

  “Blast it, Karen,” he muttered. “Don’t pull away from me.”

  “I’m not trying to,” she said finally. “It’s just that the zipper on your sleeping bag is digging into my back.”

  “Oh.” He chuckled and sat up, drawing her up with him. “Sorry about that.”

  She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and admitted, “It was worth it.”

  “Yeah,” he said, leaning in for a kiss, “it was.”

  She drew her head back, avoiding the kiss, and said softly, “But—”

  Impatience scattered through him like buckshot. Here it came, he thought. The backing up. The pulling away. And this time, he wasn’t going to let her get away with it. Whatever she might say, he’d just experienced the truth of what she felt. No one could fake that kind of passion. She’d wanted him every bit as much as he had her. Even if she couldn’t—or wouldn’t admit it.

  He lifted one hand to brush her hair back from her face, and he paused briefly to enjoy the silken feel of soft blond hair sifting through his fingers. Then he took her hand and stood, drawing her up with him, pulling her close, aligning her body along his.

  She shook her head and opened her mouth to speak. But Sam lifted one hand and covered her mouth with the tips of his fingers. His gaze locked with hers, he slid one hand down her back to the curve of her bottom and took heart when her eyes closed briefly as she sighed. “Tonight, Karen,” he whispered, “there’s no past. No future. There’s only now. Here. The two of us.”

  “This won’t solve anything, Sam.”

  “Maybe it doesn’t have to,” he suggested, his gaze moving over her features like a loving touch. “Maybe it’s enough all on its own.”

  “But—”

  “No buts,” he said, and bent for a brief kiss, and this time she didn’t avoid it, didn’t turn her head.

  When he pulled his head back to look at her again, she met his gaze and whispered, “No past. No future. Just tonight.”

  Then she went up on her toes, wra
pped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard and long and deep. She parted her lips for him, pressed her body tightly to his and rubbed her breasts against his chest, stirring still-smoldering embers into a living flame again.

  And he was lost.

  Easing them both down onto the bed, Sam silently vowed to go slowly this time. To torture them both with the wanting. To enjoy this time, this moment, when the outside world remained a separate thing and only the two of them existed.

  Cool sheets enveloped them, and the old bed creaked as he moved, easing her into the middle of the mattress before stretching out beside her. Here, in this, it had always been good between them. And he wanted to remind her of that. Remind her of all they’d lost when she’d turned him aside.

  In the dim glow of the bedside lamp, Sam studied her, allowing his gaze to slide across her body. He took in every inch of her and burned the memory into his brain so that whatever else happened when this night was over, he would always have this image of her with him. Whether that would turn out to be comfort or torture, he couldn’t say.

  “Sam,” she whispered, and lifted one hand to stroke his chest. He felt the power of that simple touch all the way to his heart. “What are we doing?”

  He met her gaze. “What we were born to do, Karen,” he said softly, sliding the palm of his hand along the curve of her hip and down the outside of her thigh.

  Her teeth bit into her bottom lip and she turned toward him, moving into his touch. “We were born to hurt each other,” she whispered.

  “Not tonight,” he told her.

  “No,” she said, and swallowed hard. “Not tonight.”

  Then he bent low to take one of her nipples into his mouth. His tongue swirled across the pebbly tip before his lips closed around it. He suckled her, and everything inside him tightened when she groaned and pushed herself into his mouth.

  Karen twisted and squirmed beneath him, reacting to the sensations hurtling through her. Impossible, she thought wildly. How could her body burn so completely again? Only moments before she’d experienced a crashing climax that had left her trembling and sated. And now the fires within were blazing even higher than before.