Elite Metal-ARE-epub (35 page)

“I didn’t realize your legs were so long. As my granddad would say, you’ve got great gams, kid.”

She laughed and nudged him in the ribs with her shoulder. “You’re so weird.”

“Bad weird?”

“No.” Her smile softened, and his chest grew tight in response. “Good weird.”

He leaned against the doorjamb and strove for a casual tone of voice. “So, where’s Jason?”

“Where do you think?” She sighed and nodded over to the far corner of the room.

A beer bong had been set up and Jason was front and center, guzzling away like an empty fuel tanker. Cheering him on were his fellow teammates and a trio of girls from the Phi Beta house.

Ah, Scott realized as he noticed how the girls were dressed in their flirty skirts. Beth’s change of style was starting to make sense, especially when they all peppered Jason’s face with kisses after he drained the funnel.

God, if only he and Jason hadn’t been friends since birth, he’d have no qualms about making a play for Beth. She should never feel as if she had to change in order to keep his affections. If she were his girl…

Yeah. Stop right there. She wasn’t his girl, and to start down that train of thought wasn’t going to change anything. He knew that from experience.

“Where’s Katie?” Beth’s question brought him back from the impossible dream.

“Oh, we broke up.”

She gasped. “Oh no. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He shrugged. “We wanted different things and thought it was best to end it.”

Actually, it was more like she was starting to talk about marriage after they graduated, and he couldn’t stop wishing she was Beth. It wouldn’t have been right to let her go on and be a substitute for what he wanted. She deserved better.

“Well, I know how great of a catch you are. Your perfect girl will come around before you know it.”

“We’ll see.”

“Hey, you two.” Jason jumped between them with a shout. “Caught you under the kissing tree. Now you gotta smooch.”

“What?” Scott asked.

Jason pointed above their heads to where someone had duct taped mistletoe that had been hit with a can of pink spray paint and paper hearts.

“What the hell is that?”

“The kissing tree,” Jason answered. “If two people are caught standing underneath it, you gotta kiss.”

The thought of kissing Beth set his pulse racing. “But it’s Valentine’s Day, not Christmas.”

“Which means you have to make it extra-sexy.”

“I’m not going to kiss your girl, Jay. That wouldn’t be right.”

“Well, I’m telling you to kiss my girl. What are ya, a pansy? Kiss her.”

He shifted on his feet, acutely aware of the blush gracing Beth’s cheeks. “You’re such a dillhole,” he said. Before he had a second to chicken out, he bent and brushed a quick peck near the corner of her mouth. “Happy now?”

“No. That was the weakest-ass kiss I’ve ever seen. Do you practice on your grandmother? Come on. Kiss her good.”

“I’m not going to force myself on her.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Beth groused then grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

She barely gave him a chance to draw in a breath before her lips were against his. Soft, pliant, and completely in control as she tilted her head for a better fit. He melted in her warmth, allowing his body weight to rest against her curves as he supped from her mouth. A small groan slid from his throat as the blood pooled in his cock at the feel of her nails digging into his chest. At that moment, all was well in the world.

Until Jason slapped him on the back so hard, he smacked teeth with Beth.

They broke apart and she stared up at him with wide eyes and lips wet from his kiss. The muscles in his arms twitched, ready to scoop her up and steal another taste when Jason’s shout brought him back to reality.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about. Fuck, baby. That was hot. I didn’t know I’d get off watching you make out with another guy.” He drew Beth against his side and dropped a kiss on her still-surprised mouth. “Damn, that made me horny. Let’s steal a bed real quick. Thanks for warming her up for me, buddy.”

Scott fell back against the wall and watched as his best friend tossed the woman he loved over his shoulder like a caveman and bounded up the stairs.

The thought of Jason’s hands touching any part of Beth’s body made the beer swirl hard in his gut. He stumbled out of the frat house and back into the arms of his ex-girlfriend, desperate to replace the texture of Beth’s lips with another, but that plan hadn’t worked out. And when Jason announced his engagement to Beth a week later, Scott had joined the Marines the next day.

“What if,” Adamantium whispered and smoothed his hand down Beth’s spine. “There are few moments I ask myself that question, but when it comes to you, Beth, I think about it all of the time.”

“Scott?” she gasped, but he saw a light in her eyes that said she had an idea of what he was thinking.

“What if I did what my mind, body and soul screamed at me to do that night all those years ago? Haunts me every day. But no more.”

Chapter Five

There were too many regrets in his life. He wasn’t going to add to them anymore.

Ant lowered his head and captured Beth’s lips in a kiss born from years of frustration. It was hard, heated and not nearly passionate enough to convey what had simmered in his heart since the moment he had seen her.

She tasted just as he remembered. Like daydreams and ever afters. Sunshine and spice. The bite of her nails into his pectorals fanned the flames of his lust, and the glide of her tongue against his was the stuff dreams were made of.

He couldn’t get enough as he plundered her mouth over and over until his lungs screamed for air and he had to pull away or risk passing out.

For several long moments they stared at each other, their chests heaving and eyes blinking in shock. Beth’s lips were swollen and wet from his kiss,
his
kiss, and the sight made him hard and hungry for more.

“Scott?” she whispered.

“God, Beth.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “When Jason took you away from me that night at the frat house, all I wanted was to snatch you back and carry you away. I wanted to be the one to kiss you, to love you. I’ve driven myself crazy thinking about what might have been had I acted. I loved you so much.”

“I didn’t know. I swear, Scott, I didn’t know.”

“And I didn’t want you to know. But I should have. I should have told you every day and fought for you. Taken that risk and said fuck it to Jason and our so-called friendship. But I didn’t, and it cost me, cost us, more than anyone should have to pay.”

Beth blinked as if she were waking from a dream. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’ll give me a chance. Let me love you, Beth. Please,” he whispered against her lips and sighed when she returned the pressure.

When the tip of his tongue teased the seam of her lips, they parted with ease and allowed him to taste his fill. Together they fell back onto the mattress, and he gathered her in his arms, his hands smoothing along her spine and down over the swell of her buttocks as he filled his palms with her flesh.

He loved the scrape of her nails against his scalp as he placed open-mouthed kisses down her neck to where her shirt stopped his progression. He gripped the cotton in his fist, ready to rip the damned thing off her, when her gasp stopped him cold.

When was the last time someone had touched her with kindness and not selfish lust? When was the last time someone loved her properly? Too long, he suspected. Probably well before her husband had died.

God, she deserved so much more, and he refused to be another in the long line of losers she’d had to deal with over the last few years. Somehow, he was going to have to control his hungers and take her gently.

He sat up then reached out with a shaking hand to smooth the hair off her cheek. “I want to see you. I want to feel you naked against me. Is that all right?”

She chuckled and her brow crinkled as if she were confused. “Yeah, that’s all right.” She sat up and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Do I get to see you naked too?”

“Damn straight, sugar.” He jumped to his feet and whipped his shirt over his head with a pop of the stitching. Hey, he promised to take it slow with her. His own clothes he didn’t give a rat’s ass about.

“Oh my God,” Beth gasped then covered her mouth with both hands. Over the tops of her fingers her eyes widened with concern as her gaze took in the wide expanse of his chest. “Oh, Scott.”

He looked down and saw the scars that must have spawned her horror. “Don’t look so sad, sunshine. They don’t bother me none.”

“Are they all from being a Marine?”

“Not all.” He ran his finger along the jagged line that scored his ribs. “Remember this one? This was from the bonfire after homecoming and you left your favorite jacket on the bus. I climbed the fence to the bus yard to get it and got hung up on the barbed wire.”

“I thought you said you had tripped and fallen into a fence stumbling around in the dark and that’s when you found my jacket. You never said anything about breaking into the bus yard. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Of course I did. It was your favorite jacket.”

“Oh,” was all she said before she gave him “the look.”

Fuck yeah. That look. That right there was the look he’d been waiting for his entire life. The look that said he was her hero and the be all and end all of mankind ten times over.

She climbed onto her knees and smoothed her hands down his torso before she leaned over and pressed a kiss to the puckered line. Damn, he wanted those lips all over his body. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“It was my pleasure,” he rasped out of his tight throat.

“What about this one here?” She kissed a starburst-shaped scar on his biceps.

“Gunfire in Afghanistan.”

“And this one here?” She ran the tip of her tongue across another pink line.

He trembled under her tender touch. “Bayonet in the Ukraine.”

She smiled and licked his tattoo that looked like three talons ripped into his pectoral. “What about this?

“That was me trying to be a badass.”

“And this?” With her fingertip, she traced the wrinkled outline of the three-inch wide burn mark that ran down his side and disappeared into the waistband of his jeans.

“The mission that fucked everything to hell.”

“But you survived. You’re here.”

He snatched up her hands and dropped a kiss into each palm. “Damn straight. And I’m not going anywhere else without you.”

Between heated kisses, he separated from her just long enough to pull her shirt up and over her head, then one more time for her sports bra while her dainty fingers tugged his belt free and attacked the fly of his jeans.

The cool, air-conditioned air hit his hot cock a second before her warm palm wrapped around the shaft and squeezed.

“Jesus,” he groaned and his head tipped back to savor her touch. “That feels so damn good.” He allowed himself one more selfish second before he held onto her wrist. “I could let you do that all day, but this is not about me. Lie back, sunshine.”

A siren’s smile flirted with her lips as she lay back on the bed. He stripped her pants and underwear off in one motion and tossed them across the room.

“Holy hell,” he breathed. “You’re beautiful.”

She was a peaches and cream buffet laid out before him with her pebbled pink nipples as the cherries on top. The sight of her waiting for his touch made his mouth water and his hands itch with indecision. Where the hell did he start?

He crawled up her body and settled himself along her side. He brushed his fingertips across her collarbone and down her sternum to swirl around the soft mounds of her breasts over and over again. Man, he wanted to dive into her cleavage and ravage her breasts like a beast, but he held himself in check and tried to keep his touch gentle to the point that his hands shook as if he were holding on to a live wire.

“Touch me, Scott. Please.” She lifted her chest in a plea for more.

“Like this?” He cupped her left breast and began a gentle massage.

“Yes,” she hissed.

“You’re a dream come true, Beth.” He finally gave in and took a pink tip into his mouth and rolled the nub with his tongue.

“I think you’re the dream.” She stroked her fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe you’re here. We’re here.”

“Believe me, this is better than a dream.” He switched to her other breast and feasted. Back and forth he made love to her breasts as she wiggled and squirmed against him.

Not to leave the rest of her untouched, he trailed kisses down her belly and along the curve of her hip. Her thighs parted with the tiniest of nudges and his fingers found the folds of her sex wet and swollen.

“Damn, baby. You drive me crazy. I’m trying to make this last, but all you have to do is breathe and I’m ready to come.”

“Oh, yeah?” She giggled and reached for his cock. She spread the drop of cum clinging to the head around the crown with her thumb. “What about now?”

“Fuck. Give me your mouth.”

He drank from her lips as her hand worked his cock, tugging and squeezing with the perfect amount of pressure, stoking the fire higher and higher until he pulled away with a curse.

“I can’t wait any longer.” He leapt from the bed and strode over to his overnight bag. Actually, Cobalt’s overnight bag. Please let the skirt-chasing bastard be as prepared as Ant hoped he was.

Yes!
The inside pocket held a nice little collection of condoms for just such an emergency.

“Um, should I be concerned that you have condoms stashed next to your weapons?” Beth asked.

“This belongs to my teammate Cobalt. I didn’t want to alert anyone I was going to be gone for a while and take my own bag. Remind me to thank him later.” He ripped the packet open and rolled the latex down his straining length. “Now, where were we?”

He grabbed on to her ankle and drew circles up the inside of her leg with his fingers, followed by his lips. The soft skin of her inner thigh brushed his cheeks as he took a moment to press kisses on the floral tattoo near her sex.

“What’s this? Blueberry branch?”