Embattled SEAL (10 page)

T
hey had a
quiet day, each occupied with their own thoughts. It was comforting being around each other. Just knowing that Harper was in the house was a huge present to Cat. Every time she thought about him being down the hallway or on the deck a little thrill went through her belly. Like Christmas was just around the corner. She basked in those warm feelings.

There was also a taunting thrill of desire. All day they were aware of each other—every little cough or move. At one point Harper stood looking out the living room’s huge bay window and Cat just had to stop and stare. The man was massive; broad shoulders cocked as he leaned against the window casement, tight waist leading to lean hips and long legs. He had one of the nicest asses she’d ever seen on a man. Cat had to force herself to turn away before she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around that lean waist, then tugged him into the bedroom.

Dinner was a quiet affair. Harper ate with an actual appetite, piling away the spaghetti and garlic bread like he used to do. Cat found herself watching him chew and swallow, heavy Adam’s apple bouncing. She could still see his chest bandage beneath the cotton of his t-shirt. They probably ought to look at it later to make sure everything was healing.

“Are you still designing?” he asked abruptly.

“I am. I brought my computer with me so I can work.”

A lot had changed in the eighteen months he’d been gone. She’d worked like a dog to make her business truly profitable enough that they didn’t need his income. If he decided to divorce her tomorrow she wouldn’t be left floundering for a way to take care of her kids. Was she making a lot of money? No. But enough that they could live on.

Right now the money he direct deposited into their joint account was used for incidentals. Kids’ clothes, extras. And her money was used to run the household. Inside she was incredibly proud of that fact. It was paying for their time here in the house.

When she and Harper had gotten together they’d clicked immediately. They’d been set up by one of her girlfriends who at the time had been dating one of Harper’s teammates. Harper had already graduated BUDs and been assigned to Team 8. Cat remembered seeing him walk into the restaurant in Norfolk, tall and imposing, naturally intimidating, and her heart had raced. She’d known that night that he was going to be the love of her life.

Harper had fallen fast too. When they’d first started dating he’d been brash and cocky, smiling all the time, but leery of her affections. As a child he’d been an afterthought. If his alcoholic parents were around they’d toss him something to eat, but for the most part he’d had to take care of himself. Cat had been brought up in a loving, accepting environment, totally different than his. They’d had some serious adjustments to make with each other, but it had worked out.

Within a few months they’d eloped. A few months later she was pregnant with Dillon and he was out of the country shooting bad guys. For probably seventy-five percent of their married life they had been apart.

Boy, that twenty-five percent really made up for the rest, though.

“I’m glad you didn’t give that up,” he told her softly. “It really seems to feed your soul.”

“It does,” she agreed.

Cat had always been artistic. She’d gone to college for design but once she’d married Harper her plans had changed. Drastically. When she’d gotten pregnant they had both agreed that it would be better for her to stay home while the baby was small. And she didn’t regret one minute of that time in her life.

Was it the third time he’d been deployed when she’d decided to go back to school and finish her degree? She couldn’t remember exactly. By the time Dillon was about five Cat was back in school part time. She’d started college at the same time her daughter had started preschool. Luckily, by that time they’d had a lot of support from the other team members’ wives and families. Cat had traded babysitting with a couple of the other mothers on base and it had worked out surprisingly well.

Now she ran her own business.

“It’s grown,” she told him. “I now have a handful of monthly customers and several on the schedule for the next year. You might be surprised how well I’m doing.”

Harper looked at her, brows raised. He let them drop almost immediately, though. It must have hurt. “That’s awesome, Cat. Really. I know I was gone a large part of our marriage and I worried about you getting bored.”

She frowned. “I didn’t get bored, necessarily. I had the kids. But I needed something to fulfill the creative side of me.”

Harper sat back in the chair and shifted his chest a little, looking like he was uncomfortable. “I always worried that you would find another man to take better care of you. You’re a good-looking woman and I wouldn’t have blamed you. The wife of a SEAL is not an easy job.”

The quiet words held brutal honesty.

“I wouldn’t have cheated on you. I had opportunities definitely, but that’s not the kind of person I am.”

Harper smiled and looked down at his lap.

“What?” she asked.

His hard silver-grey eyes flicked up to her face, seeming to glow. “Is it wrong that I like knowing men wanted you?”

Cat shook her head, laughing. “Really? I profess my commitment to our marriage and you get jacked knowing men were after me?”

Harper made a face, looking sheepish. “What can I say? You’ve always turned me on but there’s something about having what another man wants that satisfies the competitive caveman in me.”

By the pleasure curling in her stomach it apparently satisfied something in her as well. The desire she had banked all day returned.

Cat played with her half empty water glass, swirling the base in the moisture on the table. “It always made me excited when I saw women looking at you as well,” she admitted. “But I worried when you weren’t around.”

Harper narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, invading her personal space. “I never cheated. Ever. Were there opportunities? Of course. But I was never tempted. Most of the women that hit on me I couldn’t even stand to listen to.”

Some knot of tangled emotion eased in her chest. Harper was a virile man. He had a healthy sex drive. When they’d been together they’d loved almost every day. But in the back of her mind had been the fear that he’d sated those drives with someone else. Tears smarted her eyes as the relief flowed through her. She looked down at her plate, unwilling to let him see.

Hard fingers tilted her face up. Anger sparked in his silver eyes. “I would never cheat on you. I take my marriage vows seriously. I always have.”

She nodded and a tear dripped down her cheek. “I know you have but a year and a half is a really long time. Longer than any of your deployments. I guess I kind of expected…well, I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had.”

“But I would have blamed me and that’s not something I need on my conscience, not along with everything else,” he told her firmly. “Besides, I’ve never been drawn to anyone else since I met you. Did I tell you you look beautiful today? Because you do.”

With that massive, easy strength of his he reached for the base of her chair and slid her around the table until she sat directly in front of him. Then, cupping her face, he kissed her.

This time there was no awkwardness. Just calm, steady, sweet affection like they used to have. Cat wrapped her arms around his neck, one hand brushing the stubbly hair on the back of his head. With a little urging from his fingers she shifted into his lap, even as their lips stayed fused.

Cat knew that sleeping with her husband right now could potentially muddy the situation they were in, but her body refused to listen. It had been so long since she’d been loved. So long since she’d been held. Her body ached with need for him.

Harper stood with her in his arms, then set her on her feet. With one hand he tugged her along behind him to the bedroom she was using. Harper urged her down onto the bed but immediately covered her body with his own. There was a twinge on his face as he braced his body over top of hers until he shifted most of his weight to the right arm, smiling down at her. “You have about three seconds to tell me how bad of an idea this is, then I’m going to fuck you like I’ve been dreaming of for the past year and a half.”

Cat’s eyes fluttered shut as a rolling wave of arousal moved through her body. He was right. She
should
say something, but her mind was completely blank. Shaking her head, she cupped his face in her hands again, tilting her mouth up to his. Harper accommodated her immediately, pressing his mouth into hers so hard she knew her lips would be bruised later. But she didn’t care. Her warrior was finally back in her arms.

Harper ground his hips into her pelvis, erection straining. Cat widened her knees and arched upward. He growled in her ear, pressing hard, nibbling kisses down the length of her neck. Goosebumps erupted all over her skin.

He pulled away enough to stand beside the bed. Cat heard the zipper of his jeans rasp down, then the shuffle of pants dropped to the floor. The window blinds above the bed were wide open letting in the evening light and for the first time in too long, she got to see him fully naked. God, he was gorgeous. Even after being bedbound for the past week and a half his tan skin glowed with vitality. Black and gray tattoos decorated his heavy shoulders and forearms. The design on his right pectoral of the
loyalty and courage
tattoo stirred nostalgia. It had been one of the first he’d gotten and she had helped design it. She ran her fingers over it as he came over top of her again, wondering if he’d ever regretted getting it done.

The left side of his chest was clear of ink. “It’s a good thing you didn’t have anything put here.” She brushed her fingers over the bright white bandage covering his gunshot wound.

He grinned down at her. “I had an appointment set up for three days ago to get a piece put there.”

Cat laughed and pressed a kiss to his strong chin. “It always works out the way it needs to, huh? That would have been a mess to try to fix. You need to quit getting shot.”

Harper nodded and kissed her again, grinding his pelvis into her. Cat huffed out a breath, knowing that their coming together was a done thing now. They’d always laughed and loved, moving seamlessly from one emotion to the next. Ebbing and flowing like the tide. “I’ve missed this, Harper.”

He nuzzled her ear, going still as he inhaled against her. “I have too. More than you could possibly know.”

Emotion choked her, making her hands tremble as they wrapped around his shoulders. Many, many nights she had cradled him in her arms just like this. In the dark of the night when he didn’t have to put on a front for the world, he would let her be the strong one, protecting him from the unrelenting memories. Though he hadn’t told her a great deal, Cat knew that as a sniper for the SEALs he had done brutal things. Things that would rock her core as a person, but that he had been charged to do as a weapon for the US government.

She’d seen the haunted look in his eyes when he looked at the kids sometimes, as if he wanted to hold them against the world forever. There were a couple of times she’d felt like that as well, but for completely different reasons. Her kids were growing so fast. If they didn’t straighten out their home lives now they would have severe issues when they were grown.

None of that mattered though as she ran her hands up his arms and across his massive shoulders. Harper had always been a big, strapping man, but he had bulked up since she’d seen him last. His biceps strained as he loomed over her but there was no quiver. His strength had begun to return.

Harper pulled back enough to strip off her jeans and the string bikinis. Cat removed her own t-shirt and bra, flinging them to the side of the bed. Fresh moisture flooded her as she took in the masculine strength of him. Even as she watched Harper fisted himself and pumped, then crawled over top of her again. Cat’s eyes burned from not blinking, but she didn’t want to miss—or forget—anything that was about to happen.

The head of his cock rested against the opening to her body but didn’t penetrate. Instead Harper worked himself up and down, from the wellspring of her body to the trigger of her release. Cat jerked as he rocked over her clit, shifting him to the side that she liked. As she looked down the long line of his torso, down the dark trail of hair leading to his groin to watch the length of him about to slide into her, she shuddered. It was too much to bear.

Then, with one long surge, he sank into her.

Cat moaned at being fulfilled for the first time in so long. Breathing deeply, she waited for her body to remember Harper. He seemed to be absorbing the feel of them together again as well. Faint tremors shook his body, as if he were already too close to the edge.

“Are you okay?” she whispered, concerned that it was going to be too much for his injuries.

In answer he pressed a kiss to her temple. “I am. Just trying not to come. It’s been a long time for me.”

Cat grinned up at him and he leaned in for another kiss. “It’s been a long time for both of us.”

She rocked up into him to encourage him to move. Groaning, he pushed in, then for the barest minute stilled again, but the compulsion to move proved to be too strong. Harper began picking up the pace.

Cat gasped at the feeling of his body plunging deep into hers. He was much larger than average and it had taken a long time to get used to the feel of him pounding into her. The advantage to that size was that he rubbed against her G-spot constantly. She was so sexed up for him that it was only a few heavy strokes before she was dancing on the edge of bliss. Harper felt and recognized her quivers because he paused to let them catch a breath. Cat wanted to weep with frustration. Holding him in her arms was so emotional for her; then he wrung out her emotions even harder by denying her release.

Harper kissed her, arching into her in a single stroke, just enough to take her back to that edge. Then he paused to let her tumble back down from that point.

Tears were dripping down the corners of her eyes and into her hair by the time he began to move steadily inside her, building momentum. But the release he had denied her was that much sharper when she did reach it. Cat screamed as one of the most cataclysmic orgasms she’d ever felt crashed over her, sending her body thrashing, trying to get away from the relentless power stroking between her thighs. But Harper was a man possessed. As she arched beneath him he seized his own release, hard hands gripping her hips to take every bit of him. His movements suddenly stalled out and his face darkened with furious, jaw-slackening pleasure. With a series of furious, sharp thrusts he cried out his release.