Steamy: A Romance Anthology That Sizzles

by Johnson, Cat

  She raised her eyes to his. Their color reminded him of thunderheads on a hot summer day. In those stormy depths, emotions swirled, but they lacked one thing he was used to seeing—pity. She understood him.

  He was so screwed.

  The hum-thump of a runner on a treadmill and the piped in fast-tempo music all fell away as Landon leaned toward her, need surging in him.

  “Iris, phone call!”

  They froze for several seconds. She blew out a shaky breath and stood, her eyes averted. “I’m sorry. I need to go.”

  “Have dinner with me.” Way to stay away, buddy.

  Her eyes widened, and her lips parted. “Landon, I don’t know.”

  He gave her a crooked smile. “Since when do you turn down a free dinner with a friend?”

  She bit her lip to hold back a smile but failed. “I don’t think I’ve ever done it.”

  He put a hand over his heart in mock hurt. “And here I thought we were friends.”

  She laughed and shook her head at him. “Okay, I’ll have dinner with you. As friends.”

  He stood. “Meet me at The Silver Moon, tomorrow night at seven?” If he didn’t pick her up, it wasn’t a date, right?

  She nodded, biting her lip again. “Sure.”

  Landon left the gym with a feeling that had become foreign to him over the last year.

  Hope.

  4

  More than I Should Have

  When Iris pulled open the door to the Silver Moon Cafe, music and the sounds of people unwinding from the day greeted her. On tiptoes, she looked around, but when she didn’t see Landon, something in her gut twisted.

  “Hey, Iris!”

  Her eyes focused in on where her name was being called. Wyatt, the head bartender, waved at her from behind the bar. “Landon’s in the back-corner booth.” He gestured toward a darkened corner with his head.

  “Thanks.”

  “You ever get tired of waiting on Gray, let me know,” he said over the din of noise with a wink and a grin. Rumor had it, that grin kept his bed warm every night.

  “Not a chance, Davis.”

  Wyatt chuckled, setting up shots. “I’ll send over a round.”

  When she stopped at the table, Landon looked up from his phone and scooted out of the booth with a smile. “Hey, there.”

  He kept it friendly, but in dark jeans and a gray Henley that displayed those broad shoulders, her thoughts were more sinner than saint. “Hey.”

  As they sat, a waitress brought the round Wyatt promised. After she took their order, they chatted about the town—who’d left, who’d stayed, and how it had grown in Landon’s absence. The waitress dropped off their food, and the talk turned to more substantial topics.

  “I’m sorry about your mom,” he said, his voice solemn.

  “Thanks.” Her shoulders sagged a moment before she straightened them. “I lost my mom to vodka after my dad died, but it was Jason’s death that killed her. She never recovered from either of them dying in the line of duty.” She sighed. “I’m surprised she held on as long as she did.”

  Compassion filled his eyes, and the urge to curl up in his lap and let him comfort her was tangible. “I’m surprised you stayed in Madison Ridge.”

  Iris looked around the dimly lit bar she’d been to a thousand times, filled with people she knew, others she didn’t. She shrugged. “It’s home, you know? I don’t know any of my other family.” Her finger trailed the rim of her glass. “I’ve had offers to work at some gyms down in Atlanta. But I don’t know…” She trailed off and looked around. “I can’t imagine leaving.”

  “I understand.” He nodded and took a bite of his burger. After swallowing, he continued. “I missed this place.”

  “Your parents must be happy you’re here.”

  “Yeah.” But the frown on his face didn’t line up with his words.

  “Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound convincing.”

  “Neither one of them know how to act around me anymore. They walk on eggshells all the time.”

  She ached for the man with the easy smile and silly jokes. But war didn’t just change a man, it changed the family. “I’m sorry.”

  His eyes met hers. “Thanks.” He paused. “You’re the only one who treats me like Landon.”

  Inexplicably, her eyes filled with tears, and she looked down, blinking hard.

  “Iris? You okay?”

  A laugh escaped her, and she brushed at her eyes before looking up again. “I just really missed you, Landon. More than I should have.”

  “I missed you more than I should have too. A lot more.”

  She smiled. “Do you remember the date we never had?”

  His grin was quick, and a glimpse of the boy she’d once known showed up. “Not a day goes by I don’t wonder ‘what if.’”

  “Me too.” Her skin flushed under the clothes she’d agonized over for thirty minutes.

  Desire darkened his eyes and made her thighs clench. It was wrong to want him. He would break her heart, just like all the other men she’d loved with their hero complexes. He wouldn’t mean it, but it would happen anyway. It always did.

  But if she was going down, she’d go down in flames, taking him with her. “Want to head to my place? Show me how you imagined that date ending?”

  His grin spoke of dirty promises. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  5

  Don’t be Gentle

  “This is it,” Iris said, as she opened the door to her apartment and flipped on a light. “Home sweet home.”

  Landon’s gaze landed on various aspects about the living room he walked into, noting it looked homey and stylish at the same time. A fleece throw on the sofa, an e-reader left on the edge of the coffee table, pictures of her in various places with different people on the mantle. “It’s nice.”

  She tossed her purse on a small dining table and walked into the galley kitchen that opened to the living area. “Want a drink?”

  “Sure, whatever you’re drinking.”

  With two beers in her hand, she walked toward him as he stood in the middle of the living room. She handed him one and clinked them together. “Cheers.” They drank, eyes on each other.

  How the fuck was he going to get out of this intact? Iris stood before him looking like she’d stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine. In her painted-on jeans and a nearly see-through black top, she was every fantasy come true.

  Lust stormed her eyes, making them a deep purple. She licked her lips after she swallowed, drawing his stare to them. His cock strained against his zipper, and his breath backed up in his lungs. She was a siren he couldn’t resist the call of, even though his head told him to ignore the noise. Could he do this?

  Are you trying to be celibate? I’m dying here. Damn, that little fucker in his jeans was demanding.

  Iris shifted closer to him until there was nothing but her heat and the quiet of the apartment surrounding him. She took his beer and set both bottles on the coffee table. “What happens next in your fantasy, Landon?”

  Desire flared in his gut, and he fisted his hands at his sides. “Iris…” Her name was a whispered prayer, a plea.

  She lifted a hand and ran her fingertips over his cheek, her touch smooth and soft. An involuntary shiver went through him. “Shhh…I want this.”

  “This will change things.” Another link of the leash snapped.

  “Maybe I want things to change.” Her gaze dropped to his chest where she popped a button on his shirt. She lifted her eyes back to his. “Did you ever wonder about me? What it would be like between us?”

  “Every day since I was sixteen.”

  Her eyes widened slightly before her lips curved into a feline smile. “Me too. Don’t you think we’ve waited long enough?”

  Snap.

  He tried once more, but his hands uncurled and landed on her hips. “This is really what you want? To cross that line?”

  There was no hesitation. “Yes.”

  He moved one hand up and wrap
ped her dark hair loosely in a fist, pulling back gently so her eyes met his, their mouths a breath apart. “I can’t promise I’ll be gentle.”

  Her body vibrated against his. “Don’t be gentle,” she whispered.

  His mouth met hers in a burst of need, the beast off its leash that wanted nothing more than to consume her. She met his demands with her own, taking all he gave. It was a kiss with nearly fifteen years of desire fueling it. Her tongue was hot sliding against his and spurring him on.

  Damn, the woman could kiss.

  “Bedroom?” he murmured against her lips. There was no way he was going to fuck her for the first time on the floor or up against the wall. Maybe the second or third.

  “Door behind you.”

  He palmed her ass and she jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his head. When she took his mouth again, he reconsidered the up against the wall idea.

  In her room, clothing hit the floor in record time. It was a surreal feeling having her body wrapped around his with nothing between them.

  Landon lay next to her, the heat from her body burning him from the inside out. Holding her head in place, he made love to her mouth with his tongue. He teased, gave, and took until she was a writhing mess beneath him.

  He lifted his head and looked down at her. "I just want to look at you for a minute," he whispered, drinking in the curves of her face. “Iris, you're stunning.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, her voice a wisp of breath.

  She swallowed, her eyes dark with lust matching his own. Holding her gaze, his hands cruised over lush, satiny curves he’d never get enough of. She spread her legs without hesitation, moaning slightly as his fingers dipped into her wet heat. “You like that?”

  “Yes, oh God, yes.” Her words came out in breathless, husky tones. She canted her hips up, searching for connection.

  In the dim lighting of the room, she was all shadows and secrets. A sight to behold, Iris was a dark angel sent to make him forget everything holding him back. The nightmares, the uncertainty of what’s next. He branded her lips with a kiss that was hot, desperate, and consuming. Her hand came up, gripping the back of his neck, her fingernails leaving pinpricks on his skin. He curled his finger inside her, her pussy clenching around it.

  “Oh, God!” Iris dropped her head against the pillow. “I want to feel you inside me.”

  His cock was so hard it ached. “Condom?”

  Her hair rustled against the pillow when she nodded. “Nightstand.”

  Seconds later, he was sheathed and poised at her entrance. Her eyes turned the color of storm clouds as he rocked against her, teasing and torturing. She planted her feet on the mattress and lifted her hips, seeking connection.

  “Please, Landon.” Iris panted, arching against him.

  Unable to hold out any longer, he sank into her with one solid thrust. They moaned in unison, their hands joined on either side of her head. The intensity of her muscles surrounding his cock overwhelmed him. “You’re better than any fantasy I had.”

  “I’ve waited so long to feel you inside me,” she gasped out.

  He set a slow, torturous rhythm at first. Every nerve ending in his body was sensitive to every move made, every breath taken. Tension coiled in his balls each time he pushed back inside her wet heat. With each long stroke, the sense of urgency built, both desperate to consume the other. Rearing up, he pushed back her knees, changing the angle, where he was so deep he didn’t know where he ended and Iris began. The feeling of being one with her was too much.

  She lifted her arms and wrapped her hands around the slats of the headboard, leaving her body exposed to his intense gaze. Her tits bounced, her hips meeting his with each thrust. Landon’s control slipped a little further. Where their bodies joined, the heat burned like an inferno. A deep wave of lust uncurled, boiling in his blood, threatening to pull him under.

  “I’m going to—” She broke off and cried out incoherently, her hands white-knuckled around the slats.

  Landon filled her with one last stroke and stilled. The tingles in his spine flashed hot, and he fell headlong into an orgasm so intense he didn’t think he’d ever stop coming.

  And he was pretty sure he’d fried a few circuits in his brain.

  He buried his face in her neck and inhaled the scent that was uniquely Iris. They were silent for several minutes, panting as though they'd run a marathon. When Landon tried to roll away from her, Iris protested. “Don’t move just yet.”

  Landon pushed up on his elbows and looked down at her. They studied each other as his thumbs grazed her cheekbones. “I feel it too.”

  She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand beside her face. Her eyes opened a moment later, a soft smile on her lips. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” His voice didn’t sound like his own.

  Landon’s gut told him once with Iris would never be enough.

  6

  Broken People

  Iris came awake in stages. There was an unfamiliar warmth surrounding her she wanted to burrow into. Disoriented, she shifted and found a solid wall of muscle against her back. Her lips curved and she sighed.

  Last night had been worth the wait. Her skin flushed when she thought about all the ways they’d made up for lost time. Landon had been everything she’d ever wanted in a lover. At times tender and loving, other times intense with a dark edginess that pushed her boundaries. She loved every minute of it.

  She twisted around and faced him, palming one side of her head. God, he was gorgeous. All rugged planes and hard lines. The dark stubble gave him a dangerous edge, and the things he could do with that mouth? Her clit was still vibrating. He was sex on a stick and if he knew it, he never let on. She’d seen the looks women gave him last night. Landon Gray was six feet two of sin and she was the lucky bitch whose bed he was in.

  She planned to keep him there for as long as she could.

  His eyes fluttered open, sleep clouding his amber eyes for a moment. A slow smile touched his lips. “Morning.” That husky voice did nothing to douse the fire between her legs.

  “Good morning.”

  He rubbed a hand over his chin, a rasping sound against his palm. “What time is it?”

  “Almost six.”

  “Six? Huh. I’m usually already up.”

  “So what you’re saying is you’re an early bird.”

  “More like a never-sleep bird.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, they were troubled. “I don’t sleep more than four hours or so.”

  “You slept like the dead last night.” She bit her lip, running a finger over his bare shoulder. “Must have been all that exercise.”

  He chuckled and looked over at her. “Probably.”

  “Did the doctors give you something for it?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t take it.”

  She frowned. “Why not?”

  “I just don’t.” Landon shifted away and grabbed his jeans off the floor. She lifted up on her elbow, panic in her veins, as he pulled them on with jerky motions before stalking into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

  What the hell had just happened? She looked around the room as if it held the answers to her questions. Several moments later, he came out and walked back to the bed, his gait slower this time.

  “Iris…” The bed dipped when he lowered himself to it. “I’m sorry. I just…fuck,” he muttered under his breath, rubbing the back of his neck. His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed before looking over at her, his eyes shadowed with pain. “In order to make you understand, I need to tell you what happened.”

  “Okay.” She shifted and sat back against the headboard, pulling the sheet up over her nakedness.

  He blew out a breath and began to tell her how his squad had been heading back to camp after a field exercise and had been ambushed. In the midst of it all, one of his men stepped on an IED, triggering an explosion, and it went downhill from there.

  “I don’t remember much. I remember smoke
, sand, heat, the smell of blood. Screaming. I rescued as many men as I could, but it wasn’t nearly enough. It should have been all of them.” He looked down and fisted his hand. “I woke up in a military hospital bandaged up like a mummy. Shrapnel had done a number on my leg.”

  He looked over at her. “After they released me, I visited the graves of every man in my unit. I owed them that much. I hoped it would ease the guilt. But it eats at me every day like a cancer. I don’t want to sleep because every time I close my eyes, I relive it. It’s been nearly two years, and the nightmares are as fresh as the day it happened. Last night was the first night I didn’t wake up in a pool of sweat.”

  Nothing she could say would make him feel better. So she stayed still, even though she wanted to cry and hug him. But she didn’t. “Give me space” vibes rolled off him in waves.

  Landon looked away for a few moments, the muscle in his cheek ticking. Finally, he held out a hand. “Come here, beautiful.”

  Iris took his hand and joined him on the edge of the bed, wrapped in the sheet. In one hand, he held hers, tracing the length of her fingers. They sat like that for a few moments before his stare met hers, his eyes full of love but clouded by sorrow.

  “Iris, I love you. I’ve always loved you. And not just as a best friend. I love you in the make-you-my-wife, let’s-have-a-family, until-death-do-us-part kind of way. I don’t just love you, I’m in love with you. And I have been since I was old enough to know the difference.”

  Joy leapt in her chest, but it was tempered by foreboding. Instinct told her he wasn’t done, and she wasn’t going to like it.

  “But I’m not the same guy I was before. That guy, the old me, was capable of loving you the way you should be loved. The biggest mistake of my life was leaving and not telling you I loved you back when I had something to offer you.”

  He looked down at their joined hands. “I quit writing because I wanted you to forget me.”

  Iris scoffed. “Forget you? Lack of communication doesn’t wipe you from my memory.” With her free hand, she cupped his cheek. “I’m in love with you too, Landon. Always have been.”