Breaking the Rules (50 page)

And then, in unspoken but mutual agreement, she helped him out of his uniform, even as he helped her out of her dress.

And, God, he was beautiful, with sun-kissed skin covering well-defined muscles. Yes, he was still a little too skinny, a by-product of his recent tour of duty and ensuing hospital stay, but she knew that would change as soon as he was cleared to start working out more strenuously.

It amazed her that he could look at her with the same ardent appreciation, but he did, and it wasn’t an act.

Please God, don’t let it be an act …

As Jenn fell back with him onto the bed, she pulled herself away from his kisses long enough to remind him, “I’m on top.”

“Works for me,” he said, kissing her again, even as he rolled himself onto his back.

Which left her straddling him, exactly where they both wanted her to be. He was hard, and she was ready—God, she was more than ready. It had been so long …

But she was also hyperaware of his bandaged leg, and she told him, “Don’t you dare let me hurt you.”

“You
could
give me a safe word,” he suggested, grinning up at her, even as he teased her with his body, sliding himself against her.

“I’m serious,” Jenn said, but kind of blew it by laughing, because it was impossible not to laugh when he was smiling at her like that.

“I can tell that you’re
very
serious,” he countered.

“I’m going to be mad if I have to rush you to the hospital after this. So slow and easy, okay? We’ve got all the time in the world to attempt to break the bed. Well, not this bed. But
our
bed.” God, they were going to have to go shopping for a bed.

Danny’s eyes were half closed, and he’d caught his lower lip between his perfect white teeth as he just kept that gentle motion going, sliding himself against her. “Slow and easy also works for me,” he told her. “Any other rules I need to know about, Mrs. Gillman, ma’am? Because I’m waiting on your green light …”

Jenni leaned over and kissed him, and he seemed to take that as the
go
he was waiting for, because as he kissed her back, he simultaneously reached between them and shifted his hips and—God!—pushed himself home.

She heard herself moan even as he did the same, and yes, God, yes, it felt so good, but he’d skipped a step.

“Condom,” she said, in between kissing him back, even as she moved on top of him, pushing him more deeply inside of her.

“Oh, yeah,” he breathed. “God, Jenni, that’s so good …”

He was caught up in the moment—she was, too. But she was also the one who could get pregnant, so she forced herself, if not to stop, then at least to reach over toward the box of condoms he’d tossed onto the bedside table.

But Danny knew what she was doing, and instead of helping, of shifting them closer, of pulling himself out and protecting her, he held her in place with one hand and grabbed her wrist with the other, stopping her.

“What if we don’t,” he breathed as he gazed up at her, and God, he was actually serious.

“I could get pregnant,” she told him, but despite her dire warning, she didn’t move, didn’t pull herself off of him.

“We’re married,” he said, as if that meant something.

Jenn shook her head. “Danny, I don’t—”

“I do,” he said. “I meant it when I said
I do.
”

She was astonished. “You
want
us to … have a … baby?”

He was nodding yes before she’d finished her question. “Someday. Yeah.”

She was staring down at him with her mouth open, but she managed to close it and ask, “Someday like in five years? Because that’s really different from someday like in nine very short months.”

“It’s Las Vegas,” Dan said, and at first his words seemed to be a non sequitur. But then he added, “Let’s gamble. Let’s make tonight special. And if we end up with a souvenir …”

“A
souvenir …
?” Jenn repeated with disbelief.

“That just means it’s meant to be. We’ll be ready if we need to. Jenni, I love you. Don’t you get it? I didn’t marry you because it’s convenient. I married you because I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

* * *

Dan’s very naked wife was looking down at him as if he’d just spoken to her in Hungarian or maybe Vietnamese.

So Dan backpedaled. “It’s okay if you don’t want to,” he told her. “I was just … I don’t know, I guess I got a little drunk on the … romance of it all. Our wedding, and then, making love to you after all this time of not being able to …? But I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. I really don’t, and okay, shit, I’m lying. I’m, like, ten seconds from coming because you’re so goddamn beautiful, and Christ, this feels so good—”

She leaned down and kissed him, which was close to the opposite of what he’d expected, which was for her to pull herself off of him so she could hand him an apology and a condom.

Instead, she kissed him, and while she kissed him she moved, pushing him even more deeply inside of her, which wasn’t just close to it, it
was
the opposite of what he’d expected.

And Danny stopped kissing her long enough to breathe, “Ah, God, baby, are you sure …?” Because although his estimate of ten seconds had been an exaggeration, it hadn’t been
that
big of an exaggeration.

And Jenn
wasn’t
sure—he knew that, because he knew her—but she didn’t say it. She only said, “I’ve never done this before. Not ever,” as she kept that movement going. Languorously slowly, she lifted herself off of him, then pushed him deeply home. Again. And again.

“Me neither,” he gasped. He’d never,
ever
wanted to gamble before this—not when it came to sex without birth control. And it sort of made sense, because he’d also never before made love to a woman who was his wife.

“Never?” Jenn asked him. “No temptation?”

“None.” Jesus, she was beautiful, and she was
his
, and he pushed himself up to meet her as she lowered herself down. And even though she was a big woman, he was even bigger, and it made her close her eyes and moan and—Christ, yes—grind herself against him, which pushed him still even more deeply inside of her. It was an unbelievable
turn-on, especially when she looked down at him with such sheer desire in her beautiful eyes.

“So good …” she breathed as she pulled herself up and then started the whole long, slow slide back down, all over again.

“Jenni,” he gasped, it was all he could manage, but she somehow knew that he was trying to tell her that, God, he was going to come, and that the idea of his doing so without a barrier between them was going to blow his mind, because if he
did
get her pregnant, it
was
for-freaking-ever. And he wanted that, more than he’d ever wanted anything or anyone, and Jesus, he wanted to roll her over onto her back and slam himself into her, because he knew that she loved it hard and she loved it ferocious and physical, same way he did, because she was his perfect match in every way and she was
his
. And yeah, slow was nice, he definitely liked slow, too, but it had been
so long
 …

She somehow knew at least
some
of that, and she moved faster and harder, with short, deep strokes that were pretty damn close to exactly what he wanted, especially when he pushed himself up to meet her with enough force to make her gasp.

And Jenni came first, and she came with such abandon, it was beautiful to watch, and he tried to hold on, because he wanted it to last forever.

But he couldn’t do it, because she started to laugh—it was
that
good—and when she smiled down at him with such love and trust in her eyes, he knew once again that he’d finally found what he’d spent his entire life searching for. And he felt such a fierce and joyful rush of possession—
mine!
—he let go.

And it was crazy how primal it felt, as if he were claiming her, marking her, and waves of emotion filled him as he felt his release surge inside of her again and again and again, as she gripped him and clung to him and sighed her pleasure.

And then it was over, but it wasn’t over, not really. It was just beginning—their wonderful, crazy life together.

And the magnitude of what he’d just done—what
they’d
just
done—settled gently down around him as he held her tightly, as they both caught their breath.

And it didn’t freak him out, didn’t frighten him, didn’t provide even the slightest sliver of doubt.

On the contrary.

He was awed by the strength of his feelings—by her feelings, too, and by the knowledge that she’d already sacrificed so much just to help him, just to be with him, to be part of his life.

She’d given up her job, her home, put her career ambitions on hold …

And Dan knew, right then and there, that she was
not
going to be the only one to make sacrifices for their impromptu little family—or, after tonight, maybe their
not
so impromptu slightly bigger family.

“I love you,” he whispered, and he felt her sigh and smile, her face still pressed against his neck.

“I believe you,” she said. She lifted her head to look at him and he saw an echo of her words in her gorgeous eyes. “And I love you, too. It feels pretty miraculous, doesn’t it? I wish I could go back and hear you say
I do
again. I think I didn’t quite believe it at the time.”

“I do,” he told her, putting all of his conviction into the words.

She smiled and kissed him and whispered, “I do, too.”

“Hmm,” he said, “does this mean we also get to do a replay of the consummating of our vows?”

Jenni laughed at that, pushing his hair back from his forehead as she gazed down at him. “Are you
trying
to get me pregnant?”

“I might be,” he admitted, pulling her down to kiss her again.

She laughed as she kissed him back, because, yes, he was starting to get hard again, and she felt it because he was still inside of her.

“I was thinking,” he said quietly, “that it’s time for me to leave the teams. Maybe go to work full-time for Tommy Paoletti. For Troubleshooters Incorporated—you know, his personal security team?”

He’d surprised her again. Completely.

“That way I wouldn’t be gone all the time,” he continued. “And we
wouldn’t have to wait five years. We could go for it, knowing I’d be around when little Phil or Jill was born.”

Jenn laughed. “Phil and Jill Gillman?”

“Kids love it when their names rhyme,” he told her, unable to keep a straight face, which gave away the fact that he was kidding. At least about the names he’d chosen for their unborn children.

He pulled her down to kiss her again, even as he shifted his hips, pushing himself more deeply inside of her. Another few minutes, and he was going to be fully ready for round two.

“What do you say, Gillman?” he asked her when he let her up for air.

And she smiled at his use of her new last name. But her smile faded as she got serious. “I think,” she said, “that you are an extremely romantic and passionate man. And I also think you should sit with this idea, and see how you feel about it in a few days or weeks. And I also think,” she added quickly before he could protest, “that I’ll support you, completely, whatever choice you make. But I went into this relationship with my eyes wide open. I know what it means to be married to a Navy SEAL, and I’m prepared for that. So make sure your decisions are for the right reasons, okay?”

Danny nodded. “I really—”

“Shh.” She cut him off with a kiss. “We’ll have a lot of time to talk about this tomorrow. Right now? I’m pretty sure you can’t get me any
more
pregnant than you may well have already gotten me, so … If you’re still thinking what I’m thinking, and I’m pretty sure you are”—she moved against him, and smiled—“Yes, I do believe I can read your mind …”

He laughed and kissed her. And he knew without a doubt that meeting and falling for Jennilyn was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

N
eesha had learned her lesson and was back to erring even further on the side of caution.

She hid in the shadows, in the courtyard of the apartment building where Ben’s sister lived, just watching and waiting in the still of the night, while nothing moved.

In all of the hours that she’d been there, she’d watched plenty of people come and go. All had been in a hurry. But then the foot traffic slowed and lights went off all over the compound.

To her dismay, she’d fallen asleep at some point, and she jerked awake, her heart pounding, as a man and a woman came into the courtyard, arguing loudly. As they went into their first-floor dwelling, Neesha realized that the light was on in Eden’s apartment. The bedroom window, which looked out over the courtyard, was aglow. But then, as she watched, the light went off and the window went dark.

She almost stood up, almost crept to the stairs so she could climb up them and scratch at the door before they fell asleep, praying that she was right and that they were on her side and would help her.

Instead, some instinct made her wait. Something—the whisper of footsteps, a shift in the air as large bodies moved in the darkness—made her curl even more tightly into herself.

And she caught her breath as her blood froze in her veins because it was the two men from the mall—the bald man named Jake and the
man with the hat—and God save her, they were with Todd, whom Mr. Nelson had sent to kill her.

They didn’t see her. They didn’t even think to look around—believing that they were alone in the deserted garden.

One of them—Jake—spoke. His voice was low, but it carried clearly to Neesha. “The older brother and the husband are military, so shoot to kill. But we want both the kid and his bitch of a sister alive. Are we clear?”

The other two men nodded, and Todd, always eager, started for the stairs. But Jake stopped him.

“Masks,” he said. “We want them to think we’re going to let them go after they give us what we want.”