by Lara Swann
“You might have been completely wrecked, but I can’t believe your friend didn’t think better of that.”
I could tell from his emphasis that he was giving most of the blame to Kaylee there, and I shrugged. I couldn’t really explain how we’d both been so stupid - looking back on it, I still didn’t know how it had happened.
“Kaylee…she’s used to me vetoing her insane plans. This time - she just didn’t realize I wasn’t in any state to do so.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his short hair, making me picture doing exactly the same thing. Without thinking, I stepped forward, my eyes lingering again on those hard pecs. My hand reached out to the black ink twisting there, the elegant eagles poised in flight - defiant and fierce with the Navy anchor behind them.
“This is a gorgeous tattoo, Seth.”
His voice was a deep rumble when he answered, his hand closing over mine as it traced the lines.
“You really shouldn’t have mentioned it last night.”
I flushed - that was one of the few flashes I’d remembered without Kaylee’s prompt. Not that she missed the opportunity to describe it in great detail anyway. My response was a murmur as I let myself get lost in his chest.
“I wasn’t exactly thinking at the time. I don’t think Kaylee noticed anything though - she was pretty drunk too.”
He looked dubious, and if I was honest, I was too.
“Besides, she was too busy thinking about jumping your bones.”
“Was she now?”
The considering tone made me slap my hand against his chest. I think the solid muscle fared better than my wrist - which he grabbed a moment later, catching it and then my eyes.
I took another step closer, breath coming harder as I crossed over the limits of polite distance.
“Ughh…don’t tell me you’re interested in her now? What is it about guys that makes them fall for that long-legged, blonde-haired beauty type all the god-damned time?
“I wouldn’t know…it’s not her I’m interested in.”
His eyes turned dangerous and my heart skipped a beat as I was suddenly there, pressed up against him. When his head tilted down to look at me, I couldn’t resist it any longer.
I kissed him.
Rough, passionate, intense. And so unbelievably belated.
Our arms came around each other at the same moment as our mouths capturing one another in an explosion of passion that had me moaning aloud.
Ohh god…
It was heavenly, overwhelming, powerful in a way I didn’t even have time to process. All I knew was that he felt perfect like that, his tongue strong in my mouth as he took it, claimed me in the way his eyes had promised so many times.
“Fuck, Seth…”
My voice was rough when I finally came up for air, still nibbling and kissing at his lips as his arms wrapped tighter around me, my body melting against his as I felt the full weight of his solid, hard form. Every muscle was outlined under my chest and my heart was running at double the rate as I looked up at him and all the objections that I’d clung to desperately died. There was simply no room for them anymore. Not against the insidious, unrelenting lust that every word, gesture and look he gave me created.
He chuckled, but it was a dangerous sound, tinged with the same need pounding in my veins.
“I’m nasty, babe. I thought women hated sweat and stuff.”
“You’ve been hanging out with the wrong women - I’ve heard the right ones are addicted to those pheromones…”
I leaned against him to prove my point, and I meant every word - his powerful male scent overwhelming me in the best way, stirring my blood as it reacted to the powerful, alpha guy right in front of me.
“But if you’re complaining?”
My voice was light, but I couldn’t keep it up for long as he growled and came down over me again, taking my mouth in his and leaving me breathless with passion and need. His hot tongue had my pussy clenching with need, picturing another kind of penetration entirely.
His arms swept around and lifted me as if I was nothing, my legs fitting around his firm waist and putting me right on top of the hardness I could already feel waiting for me there. I moaned again, running my hands across his light, short hair as I brought his head back to kiss and touch and taste.
It was too much. No way I could resist. I’d put up a valiant fight for a good couple of weeks, but fuck me, he was impossible.
He’d saved my life. Twice.
Once, I could deal with. But twice? How could any girl be expected to resist that?
And I didn’t. My body did nothing but bend to his will as he ravaged me with both mouth and hands, touching me everywhere that had been so desperate to feel him. My breasts were burning as he played and squeezed and caressed while his tongue still played with mine. Wetness soaked me as he kept me there, pressed against him and feeling hard muscle beneath every part of my body. The guy was a machine - I’d been impressed three years ago, but it had nothing on now. The powerful way he held me, moved us, his body supporting whatever he wanted to do without the slightest indication of strain. The washboard abs and tight, delicious pecs I’d feasted my eyes on earlier fueling even more of my senses now.
I was moaning helplessly, my pussy on fire with need, when he finally shifted me a little, reaching for his belt.
That did bring back some form of awareness and I looked up with a brief expression of alarm, glancing around at the dotted trees and the gardens I could just about make out behind them.
“There’s no one around, babe - I’d know. SEAL instincts are never wrong.”
The deep tone rumbled through me. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but after last night I figured it would be a while before I tried to question just what SEALs could or couldn’t do.
And besides that, I trusted him. Implicitly and to a level that scared me. He wouldn’t let anyone see us like this.
That thought was enough for me to nod, and with that I gave up any choice in the matter, the powerful need sparking through his eyes giving me all the assurance I could ask for about what was about to happen.
My skirt was hitched up around his waist, covering us a little, and as he pushed his shorts down he shifted us so that I felt the head of his thick cock pressing up against my wet panties. That was enough to have me taking his mouth again, insistent with my own need as his hands at my waist slowly started lifting me up and down, his hips thrusting so that his cock rubbed up against me, again and again. It drove constant sparks of desire through me, winding us both up to a level where I was sure we’d both explode if we didn’t get more right that instant.
He answered the need almost the moment I thought it, reaching down and ripping my panties from me with one sharp movement. I stared at him in shock at that, but then the power of it washed through me and I found myself even more desperate. He pushed me back against a tree, arms behind me protecting my back from the rough bark, but using that leverage to hold me right above the beautiful, steel promise of his aching cock. I felt it against my waiting entrance and whimpered with lust, nuzzling at his head as my hands clung to him, nails gripping hard into those powerful shoulders.
He hesitated just one moment, fighting against every instinct riding him as he looked at me, suddenly uncertain. I read the question in his eyes.
“It’s alright - I’m on the pill. And I’m safe.”
“Me too, but…”
“Fuck it, Seth. I trust you.”
I didn’t care if he’d been with a hundred damned girls. If he told me it was safe, I didn’t need proof.
And I wasn’t waiting a god-damned moment longer.
My mouth closed over his and his concerns disappeared as he pushed up into me with a strength that rocked my entire world.
“Fuuuuck.”
I couldn’t hold it back, cursing as everything inside me exploded at that full, intimate feeling. He felt bigger than I remembered, stretching me to my limit as he moved slowly within me, giving me a
chance to adjust.
It felt fucking fantastic, everything I’d pictured and imagined and kept myself awake at night dreaming about. My pussy shuddered around him as if it had been waiting for this for the last three years and I couldn’t help whimpering against his mouth, driven by the raw need and desire I’d spent so long suppressing.
Those few, careful movements ended a moment later as I felt his body coiling against me, his eyes hot with a stormy passion that was ready to sweep me away completely.
Where the first time all those years ago had been sweet and gentle, this was not. There was too much between us, years of waiting, endless unspoken things - frustration and need and anger. As his body took mine and our hands and mouths scrabbled over each other, this was a rough expression of everything there. Our bodies working out what our minds and words couldn’t.
He cradled me against him, protecting me from the rugged surroundings, but that was the only consideration as he left me completely defenseless to anything and everything he did instead.
I was gasping at him, nails biting into him now, scratching down his solid back as I pressed myself into him - wanting more, harder and faster as everything inside me gave into the passionate fury building between us. I wanted to curse at him, and cry, and laugh, and every confused feeling came out in that hot, intense joining between our bodies.
We were both muttering incoherent things to each other, cursing the wait, the desire, this stupid need that had screwed us both up so much.
It was rough, and harsh, and so completely perfect I never wanted it to end.
My body was on fire with every stroke, every movement and touch of his perfect body, and it just kept building. The need and the urge growing within me until I felt close to a breaking point. Every part of me was pounding, moving to the same rhythm he set with a relentless determination. Every nerve ready to explode as he drove me higher and higher.
“God, Seth…I…”
He grunted against me, his thick need inside me throbbing as he had me sinking down onto it again and again, faster as my breath came in short gasps. I felt it twitching inside me as he drew closer to his own edge, burying his head between my breasts and ravishing them as I cried out helplessly. I had a brief moment to hope to god he was right about there being no one around, and then he moved - taking us down to the ground and letting me land on top of him, driving himself harder and faster inside of me as his arms cradled me close.
Like this, our eyes met with a painful intensity, the passion there hard to see as our bodies moved together with a wild beauty that I couldn’t resist.
He smiled at me in some brief moment of calm, his hand running through my hair with a casual affection that took my breath.
“Fuck, Bella. Belle. Fuck, you’re so hot like this.”
I went crazy with need, the nickname that had once meant so much driving me insane as his eyes met mine.
Then his hands tightened on me, his body coiled with intent, and he drove us over the edge that had been waiting there for so damned long.
Everything exploded within me, pleasure and pain and need and hurt coming at me with a power I couldn’t resist as my climax rushed over me. I let it sweep me under, taking me deep as I let go of everything I’d held so tightly under control.
Stars shattered across my closed vision and my body vibrated with a hum of pleasure as I collapsed on top of Seth’s warm, powerful body.
Chapter Fourteen
Bella
After that, it was pretty much official - we were screwing. Or unofficial, I guess, since we were sneaking around trying not to get caught.
It was insane. Crazy hot lust. All the time. Everywhere. Once we’d started, we couldn’t stop ourselves - all that pent up need forcing itself out at every opportunity until I wondered whether we’d ever satisfy the demands of our bodies.
I’d messed around with guys at University, but it was nothing like this - like Seth. Maybe after him the first time, I hadn’t wanted anyone that there was a risk of me really liking. Or maybe there just isn’t anyone like my infuriating, badass Navy SEAL.
We told each other that it was just a bit of fun, the spark of the forbidden, the thrill of not getting caught. That we’d be over it soon. I didn’t believe a word of it - but for once in my life, I didn’t care. I might not be able to have an apartment in San Francisco without getting mugged, or pursue the things I’d always dreamed of, but I was going to have Seth. I wanted him - more than I could remember wanting anything in my life. And for once, I was damning the consequences of that to hell.
It couldn’t work. It couldn’t last. We knew that, but it didn’t matter. Right now, it was perfect.
Everything else could wait.
The spate of organization and chaos ramped up around us, as the house was taken over by various wedding cake designers, flower arrangers, invitation writers and on and on, in an endless coming-and-going that made my head spin. Add to that the simultaneous planning of the military gala and everyone was far too busy to notice us disappearing every so often, when the heat of our glances and the not-so-casual grazing touches became too much and we needed a respite to sate the burning lust that lingered under every waking moment. And most of the sleeping ones too.
Seth was spending more time up at the house now - a state I vastly preferred to him avoiding it - taking the excuse of helping out with wedding and gala and pleasantly surprising his mother, who gushed on and on about how much she appreciated it, how helpful he was, and what a wonderful change this made. Forget the fact that it was my experience they were both drawing upon, and Seth spent far more of his time diverting my energies than helping. Not that I was exactly complaining about that.
He made a face at me every time she started on, and I’d roll my eyes until by the end of it we were both trying not to laugh.
My father, of course, was notably absent - work taking him away from the necessities of planning and organizing.
Cora didn’t seem quite as capable as either she or my father had made out, either, and I worried occasionally when she seemed disturbed by my father’s lack of involvement. Seth brought it up at one point, with an unnecessary caution that made me grin.
“Is your father always this, err…unhelpful?”
I’d laughed at him, stepping into his arms and leaning up to kiss him yet again. I thought I’d never get tired of the way his arms closed around me, the light touch of his stubble which was starting to make me paranoid about an obvious redness appearing around my mouth.
“Yeah, he doesn’t do planning stuff. He’s hard figures, big decisions, strategic visioning - not operational affairs.”
I repeated the oft-quoted words as Seth shook his head in amusement.
“Still, Cora should be able to pick up some of that slack - I know dad’s really happy about having someone to rely on now. Wouldn’t hurt for me to get a break either…particularly now that I have so many ways to use that break…”
He took the eager invitation of my hips grinding against his, reaching down to cup my ass and pull me into him before murmuring softly against my lips.
“Yeah, good luck with that. Until this month, I’ve never seen her sort anything. Dinner was always whatever random objects took her eye on the few occasions she bothered shopping.”
The stark words drew me out of the familiar desire that had been coiling around me, and I frowned up at him, confused.
“What? Dad’s talked about her home-made meals more than once…”
His bitter laugh cut me off, and suddenly the mood for sex died.
“Yeah, Mom’s reinvented herself real well - don’t remember any of that crap growing up.”
I bit my lip as sudden awareness flickered through me, looking up at the harsh set of his face. I hadn’t known much about his life when we’d been chasing each other back in school, but I’d heard the rumors - and they weren’t good. Pity flashed before I could stop it, and I saw the exact moment he noticed - stiffening under me as his ironic expression turned
to swift anger. His grip tightened almost painfully as I sensed that barely controlled violence under the surface of his gaze.
“Don’t you dare - that stuff doesn’t matter. Hasn’t mattered for years. She can do what the hell she wants now - if she’s worked her shit out, I’m glad for it, but it’s none of my concern. I’m past it.”
“I…”
I didn’t have any words. I’d wanted to express my sympathy, my concern, but he couldn’t take it. Seth wasn’t a vulnerable kind of guy, and I’d known instantly my reaction had been the wrong one. But something inside me hurt at the thought of him growing up like that.
“Don’t.”
He kissed me instead, and I stopped trying. His mouth was alternately soft and hard, the passion and need there unchanged but with a tinge of power held closely in check that both scared and excited me. I gave back as good as I got and after a few moments, he softened a little, letting his firm, powerful body against me take away any thought that he was anything other than the hot alpha male intent on pleasure.
It was a kiss to remember, but for once we didn’t go further than that. And afterward, he disappeared for a few days.
It drove me close to crazy, that sudden withdrawal with no warning, no explanation, no idea if he’d ever be back. It also tugged at my heart and made me realize just how dangerous this game that we were playing was. I knew the effect he had on me - knew there was no fighting it, especially not now. But when it was ripped loose, I wasn’t quite sure how I’d deal with it.
When he came back though, he was the cocky, arrogant bastard he’d always been, and we came together again like nothing had happened. I didn’t say anything about it - whatever it was that we were doing, it was unspoken. There was no arrangement between us. No commitment. No guarantee or expectation that he’d be there the next day.
But for the moment, I ignored that. He was here now.
And in the chaos my father had made of my life, having him now was all that mattered.
* * *
