“That’ll be for security,” Kiki said, glancing at Sam. “Surely you can work with whatever you get, right?”
And bless Sam, he simply said, “We’ll see,” once again, leaving the power in her hands, doing exactly the opposite of what she’d wrongly assumed he would do. She wanted to crawl into his lap and kiss him. Though she was pretty sure, he could tick her off right now, and she’d still want him just as much.
* * *
MEAGAN SOON STOOD ON the back deck of the extra house, hands on a balcony railing overlooking the dark beach. Unseen waves were crashing on the shoreline and Sam was by her side. Kiki, thankfully, was off somewhere on her cell phone.
“It works for you?” she asked him.
“I’d say the setup is about as perfect as you can get on such short notice, with such a small timeframe to move in and start filming.”
A soft purr—or more like a meow—sounded close by. “Did I just hear a cat?” Another meow, muffled but nearby. She pushed off the railing, trying to figure out where it was coming from, and Sam did the same. “Could it be trapped, Sam? Here kitty, kitty. Here kitty.” More meowing.
Sam walked down the steps that led to the beach, making a motion with his hands for her to keep calling the cat. Meagan followed him, and the sound. “Here kitty, kitty. Here kitty.”
Sam kneeled down at the bottom step, and the next thing she knew, he was holding a kitten.
Meagan rushed forward. A cute little ball of white fur in Sam’s hands. “Is it okay?”
“Let’s go up to the porch where the light is better and check it out.”
Meagan rushed up the stairs. Sam’s big hand was like a hammock cradling the kitten. “Oh, how sweet,” she said, as it curled on top of Sam’s palm. “Oh, no.” She shifted the animal a bit. “There’s a cut, Sam. It looks bad. It’s deep.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “She needs a vet as soon as possible before infection sets in.”
Meagan glanced at him, surprised. “You’d be okay with that? With us taking it to the vet on the way back to the hotel?”
“Oh, my God!” Kiki said. “Is that a rat?”
“It’s not a rat.” Meagan grimaced. “A kitten, Kiki.”
“Well, keep it away from me,” she said. “I’m allergic.”
The look on Sam’s face said he’d had all of Kiki he could take for one night. “We should be leaving anyway,” he said. “We all have an early morning, and we need to take the cat by a vet.” The kitten meowed loudly, as if in agreement.
“That thing can’t ride with us,” Kiki said. “Seriously. I’m allergic.”
A muscle in Sam’s jaw tensed, and he spoke directly to Meagan. “How do you feel about walking back to the truck? It’s not quite a mile down the beach. The owner has beach lights we can turn on here and turn off at the other house.”
“I don’t mind walking at all.”
They wrapped the kitten in a jacket that Josh had stashed in his SUV and started toward the first house, the breeze off the ocean chilling the air. “I feel like I keep saying this tonight, but thank you for this, Sam.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I would have taken the kitten to the vet, with or without you.”
Her chest tightened with yet another unfamiliar emotion. “You keep surprising me, Sam.”
He stopped abruptly, and faced her. “What...you thought I was mean to children, elderly people and animals?”
“No!” she quickly said. “No, it’s just that—”
He started walking again. She trailed after him. “Sam.”
“We need to get to the vet,” he said. “And we both know that you made a ton of assumptions about me.” He cut her a sideways glance. “Bet you didn’t realize that Special Forces are also focused on humanitarian missions, did you? That we spend a huge portion of our careers helping people, and yes, animals, who can’t help themselves.”
Guilt slid into her gut. “No. I thought soldiers were soldiers. They fought wars.”
“Unfortunately, we often have to fight to give the aid to those who need it. But there is nothing like seeing hope in the face of someone who—regardless of age, race, sex, religion or nationality—thought the world had forgotten them. It’s something worth getting up for every day.”
An injury had stolen that from him. More guilt filled her. “I guess there’s a lot I didn’t know.”
“And a lot you assumed.”
“Yes.”
He glanced her way. “And?”
“And what?”
“And you know exactly what.”
“Fine. I’m sorry. But don’t tell me you didn’t make assumptions about me.”
“You’re right,” he agreed. “I did.”
“And?” she prodded right back, seeking her apology. They stopped a few feet from the truck.
“And I’m not apologizing because so far I’ve been right about every assumption I’ve made. You’re stubborn, controlling—”
“I am not controlling!”
“Determined, hardworking and a great kisser.” He handed her the bundle in his arms. “Hold on to her so I can turn off the beach lights and unlock the truck.”
“Her?”
“Yeah. Her.”
A female. She liked that. “Then I think I’ll call her Samantha, because she’s so sweet and cuddly—just like you.” She snorted. He arched a brow, but didn’t comment.
Instead he clicked the lock on the truck and opened the door. Meagan slid inside, careful with the meowing kitten that she stroked and talked to.
Then, to her surprise, Sam leaned into the truck and laid a sexy, hot kiss on her, his tongue delving past her lips for a slow, sensual exploration before he said, “We both know that not only am I not sweet and cuddly, you like that about me.” And then he was gone, shutting the door behind him.
He was right—he wasn’t sweet and cuddly. He was a big, sexy alpha lion, and she couldn’t wait to see if she could make him purr for her. And there it was. For the first time in a long, long time, a man was a challenge. It excited her. He excited her.
* * *
IT WAS AFTER MIDNIGHT when Sam stepped off the elevator with Meagan by his side, and headed along the hotel floor, toward her room. Samantha’s cut hadn’t been nearly as bad as they’d thought, and she’d received a thumbs-up and a follow-up appointment from the vet.
Sam carried several overstuffed bags filled with an assortment of feline supplies, including a pink bed to match the pink bag in which Meagan was carrying Samantha. Long before the trip to the 24-hour Walmart, where she’d purchased half the pet-supplies department and declared Samantha the show’s new “good luck charm,” he’d known that she was going to be heartbroken if an owner showed up to claim the tiny fur ball. While at the vet, they’d had time to talk, and they’d decided they’d fight for the property, and Sam had promised to investigate where the kitten might have come from.
They stopped at her room door and their eyes met, instant electricity crackling between them, as it had so many times tonight—and well before tonight, too.
Samantha made a soft meow, and Meagan jerked her gaze from Sam’s, swiping at the door with the plastic key she’d pulled from her pocket. She held the door open and went inside. He didn’t. Several eternal seconds passed before Meagan grabbed his arm and tugged him forward.
“Sam, damn it, hurry up, before someone sees you.” She shut the door behind him and locked it—assuming he would stay.
“I wasn’t aware I was invited in.”
She ignored the comment and sat down on the floor to let a meowing Samantha out of her bag. Sam laughed as the animal rubbed against her leg and purred up a storm.
Meagan and Sam squatted by the pink bed, where Samantha proceeded to plop down next to the catnip-enhanced stuffed animal that Meagan had bought for her, and go to sleep.
Both Sam and Meagan laughed. “She’s so cute, Sam. I hope we don’t find an owner. I want to keep her.”
Their eyes locked and the air around them
seemed to thicken and capture them.
“I know you do,” he said softly. She’d told him about the pets she’d had growing up. There was something about Meagan. Something about the vulnerability beneath the guard she erected to protect herself, that spoke to him well beyond the desire he had for her. It made him prod her for pieces of her life, to understand her.
“I worked so many crazy hours in the newsroom that I didn’t feel I could have a pet,” Meagan said, stroking the kitten’s back.
“How does dance and the newsroom fit together?” he asked. “I haven’t quite figured out the connection.”
Her lashes lowered and he could feel the sudden tension in her. “One of my teachers in high school once worked at Julliard before she had a car accident and a back injury she never fully recovered from. Her family owned some property in our community so she took a job teaching English, which was her second major. Anyway, she found out how intrigued I was by ballerinas and she secretly started teaching me to dance.”
“Secretly?” he asked, sensing there was a whole lot of pain behind this story, and wanting to understand it, to understand her.
“My parents wouldn’t have approved,” she said. “When I told you the town I grew up in was like the town in the movie Footloose, I wasn’t joking. When I started dancing in college my parents were sure the devil had stolen their only child’s soul to test their faith. It was...difficult.” She waved a hand as if to wave away the problem. “Long story short, when a television station came to a career day at my college, I hit it off with one of their recruiters, and they offered me a job. It wasn’t dancing, but the production end of things really struck a chord with me. I like making things come together.”
“It seems pretty darn stressful.”
“It is, although that only makes it all the more rewarding when everything does come together.” The kitten meowed and the shadows in Meagan’s eyes disappeared. “She’s just too cute. I think I’m in love.”
In love. The words hit him hard. He’d never been in love. He’d never before even said the word in the same sentence as he had a woman’s name. But Meagan...there was something about her. She made him feel things he’d never felt. One night. Right. That had been a joke. There was no way one night would ever be enough with this woman. These past few hours had proven that to him.
Sam watched her playing with the kitten, digesting what she’d told him, wanting to press for more. And there was more. He knew there was, but he forced himself to take things slow, not to pressure her. He got why this show meant so much to her now though. She has a passion for dance that she’d had to walk away from, and now had a chance to experience again in some way.
“I think your new cat needs a dog pal,” Sam said.
“A Lab, right?” she asked. “A cat and a Lab, like you said you had on the military base.”
He liked her reference to what he’d shared with her during the vet visit. “Exactly.”
“Well, then,” she said. “If the show gets renewed for a second season, I’ll get Sam a Lab to celebrate.”
“Sam? As in me or the cat?”
“I guess you could share.” She looked away, as if she realized she’d inferred he’d still be around then, involved in her life. And if she didn’t, he sure did.
Sam slid a finger under her chin, lifting her gaze to his. “That sounds like a deal to me.”
Suddenly, they both moved into each other’s arms and were kissing wildly, passionately, hands roaming, tongues teasing.
“Either tell me to leave now, Meagan,” he rasped near her ear, “or tell me to stay and make love to you.”
Her fingers stabbed into his short hair, shoving his head back so she could search his face. “I know I should tell you to go. I do. Every piece of me says that work and pleasure are a bad combination but—”
“Stay or go, sweetheart.”
Seconds ticked by like hours before she whispered, “Stay, Sam. I want you to stay.”
11
SAM CONFUSED HER. He seduced her. And with his big body pressed to hers, her skirt up to her hips, his hot mouth devouring hers, he consumed her. She didn’t want to be consumed by Sam, but at the same time, it was all she wanted—and she wanted it so badly, wanted him so badly, the mere existence of clothing between them was like sandpaper against her skin.
“One night,” Meagan panted against his lips. “We do what you said in the restaurant. We get this thing between us out of our systems.” But even as she made the declaration, she doubted that possibility. There was something about this man that drew her, that reached insider her and spoke to her.
“We can try,” he replied, and before she could question his answer, his mouth slanted over hers. Meagan’s resistance to that kiss lasted all of a second. She’d fought this attraction to Sam for so very long, and she had no more fight in her, not where he was concerned.
His tongue caressing hers, and she could taste the hot coffee they’d drank at the vet clinic. It reminded her of how he’d been there for her, both when Kiki jabbed at her, and when she’d wanted to help the kitten.
Meagan didn’t resist as Sam pulled her to her feet and picked her up. He was big and strong, and it felt good to just be with him. To just forget everything except for what was happening right now.
They went down on the bed together, him on top of her, the weight of him, the feel of him, as erotic as anything she’d ever felt. As right as anything she’d ever felt. Again she thought of him by her side tonight, facing challenges with her, and it had been good. Too good. It scared her. He scared her. She’d never had anyone create this kind of feeling in her. She could lose herself to this man, her identify, and just then, she didn’t care.
“I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you,” he whispered, his lips by her ear, his hand sliding through her hair, down her shoulder, over her breast. “Do you remember when that was?”
“Yes,” she said, barely finding her voice as he pressed kisses along her jaw. She could feel his arousal, thick and hard between her legs. She could feel herself shaking with desire. She couldn’t believe she was here, like this, with Sam. “You tried to take the Dr. Pepper I’d paid for, that had gotten lodged in the machine.”
His eyes found hers. “I paid, too. You knew that. You just wanted to fight with me.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, a smile tugging at her lips. “Maybe.”
His lips brushed hers. “Why?”
“Why do you like to fight with me?”
“Call me a sadist, but it turns me on when you throw darts at me with your eyes.”
She laughed and said his name, simply because it felt right on her tongue. “Sam.”
The mood shifted with that one whispered word. Gone was the playful banter. Sam leaned in and kissed her, a soft, gentle kiss, a short slice of his tongue teasing hers. So light, so simple, but so intense, so completely overwhelming. And when he pulled back to look at her, to study her, his blue eyes simmered like crystals in the sunlight, desire burning deep in their depths. But there was more in his expression, so much more. There was tenderness, and it was so unexpected, it stole her breath away. His fingers teased her breast. Her skin burned wherever his fingers touched, and goose bumps chased the heat.
He reached up and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it aside. She traced the rippling muscle of his shoulders, his arms. He was beautiful, the kind of man that was sculpted from hard work and sweat, but in his case, from honor and bravery, from serving his country.
He worked the buttons on her blouse, struggling to unhook them. She did it for him, and she didn’t shy away when his gaze held hers, and that act held meaning. She wanted him to know that she was willingly undressing for him, not doing it in a moment of complete abandon like in the truck. This was a choice, and one she wasn’t going to let herself regret.
They didn’t speak, as if they were both afraid some magical spell would be lifted and this would end before it ever began. Once the buttons were unhooked, his
lips kissed her collar bone, his fingers traced the top of her black bra, shoving down the silk to tease her nipples. Meagan moaned at the intimate exploration, her thighs aching, her body hot with need that only Sam could answer.
When finally her blouse was off and her bra, too, Sam worked her skirt down her hips, taking the slash of black panties down with it. She’d barely kicked away her shoes before he tugged her to the end of the mattress, and went down on his knees between her legs. He caressed her then, and she trembled with anticipation.
“Just so you know,” he said. “I’m going to do everything to make sure one night isn’t enough for you.” His lips pressed to her stomach, his fingers sliding into the wet heat of her body.
No. One night wasn’t enough. Right now, it felt like too much. Too much pleasure, too much desire, too much yearning. But no. Not enough of Sam.
* * *
SAM TOOK HIS TIME with Meagan, savoring every blissful second with her. How he’d ever thought sex would work Meagan out of his system, he didn’t know. His lips traveled the dip of her flat stomach, the curve of her hip. His nostrils flared with the soft feminine scent of her perfumed skin. He moved lower down her body. His breath teased her clit, and she arched into him, silently asking for more. Her sex tightened around the two fingers inside her, telling him he was pleasing her. And pleasing her was exactly what he burned to do.
Sam’s cock thickened, his body pulsing with the need to be inside her, reacting to how readily she responded to him. With any other woman her willingness to give herself to him wouldn’t have impacted him with such force. But with Meagan, it did. It did because he knew she didn’t give herself easily. It mattered because she meant something to him, because what she felt and needed and wanted mattered to him in a way it had never mattered before.
Sam lapped at the swollen nub, his fingers gently massaging the tight wet heat of her body. Her soft moans driving him crazy, pressing him onward to hear another and another. He lifted her leg over his shoulder, licked her and teased her until he felt her body clench and begin to spasm. Slowly, delicately, he suckled her, easing her through her release.
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