Embattled SEAL (11 page)

Cat either blacked out or dozed off for a few minutes. When she woke her body still rippled with the occasional aftershock. Harper had propped himself over top of her, head resting against the mattress. Their breathing had begun to regulate but they were still sweaty. She dragged in oxygen, resting her hands on his flanks. Harper moved just enough to pull out of her and lay to her side. Cat rocked her head to look at him in the dimness of the room but he had already dozed off.

If the man hadn’t been shot ten days ago she probably would have been a little put out. They’d just had mind-blowing sex for the first time since their separation. She felt like they needed to celebrate.

But she would let him sleep.

Cat slipped out of the bed, moving stealthily enough to flip a sheet over Harper’s form curled on his side, snoring softly. Feeling daring, she ran her fingers through his short hair, covered his shoulder and headed to the shower.

It had been a long time since her body had felt this way. As she stepped under the water and lathered she took note of all the sensitive places. The stubble on his jaw had chafed her chin and cheeks, his hands had bruised her hips a bit. But it was all done in the heat of passion and love. She loved feeling like this. The other half of her heart was sleeping out there on the bed.

As she left the bathroom she took care to move quietly when she slipped between the sheets. It was still fairly early for her, but what the hell. It had been such a long time since she’d had the chance to sleep with her husband. Harper didn’t move. Feeling daring, Cat backed her ass into the curve of his lap. Immediately his heavy arm wrapped around her hips and pulled her back into him. Sighing, she savored the feel of his heat as long as she could before she let sleep overcome her.

H
arper woke stiff
all over and sore. Blinking, he reached up to rub the sleep from his eyes and cursed. Fuck, he’d forgotten. His right eye and the skin around it throbbed where he’d rubbed his hands. How could he have forgotten about it?

Cat shifted beside him, moaning as she rolled onto her back. The sheet slipped down and her breast peeked out. With a groan of appreciation he reached over and ran a fingertip over her nipple. The pain from rubbing his eye was almost immediately forgotten.

Before she even opened her eyes Cat smiled and stretched her arms above her head. Her second breast popped out from beneath the covers.

Harper groaned at the sight of her, flushed and swollen from sleep but so naturally sexy it made his mouth water. With no reservation she rolled toward him, gave him a big kiss then rolled out of bed to pad to the bathroom. Harper watched her go and was once again grateful for his single damn eye. The thought of never seeing her luscious ass and the long line of her back again devastated him.

When she came out of the bathroom, lean hips swaying and crawled across the bed to straddle his hips, Harper thought he’d died and gone to heaven. Though it hurt his face he grinned up at her. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” She leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips. “Did you have a good sleep?”

“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I did. I think I must have had sexy dreams though.”

He arched his hips up into her enough that she could feel the erection under the sheet at his waist.

Cat grinned and burrowed her hand beneath the sheet, wrapping her fingers around his dick. “Why yes, I believe you did. Lucky for you though, I did too. I planned on jumping your bones again whether you were awake or not.”

Harper laughed, loving her all the more for being playful. “Well, that’s a good way to wake me up.”

She nodded and wiggled an eyebrow. “I know. I remember, dear.”

Leaning away she tugged the sheet from his hips, exposing his erection to the cool of the room. Having her gaze on him hardened him even further, but before he could say anything she had lifted her hips and stood him straight up with her fingertips. Harper took a great breath of air as her wild heat settled down over top of him.

Cat swiveled her hips, snugging down tight. She was deliciously wet. That wetness was a woman’s proof of desire. The undeniable evidence that she wanted
him
.

He had dreamt of her, over and over again. Perhaps she had been dreaming about him as well.

Cat had a natural athleticism that kept her lean and flexible. Her thighs strained as she hovered over top of him and started to move up and down. Her pace wasn’t hurried and he had to laugh because it was a little obvious he was an afterthought. Cat knew how to pleasure herself and she made no bones about doing it now. Just as she had many times through the years they’d been married.

Bracing his hips up from the mattress, Harper encouraged her to move harder, the next level up in her search for release. Cat moaned and brought herself down on him more aggressively, faster, eyes closed, breasts bouncing.

Reaching up he tweaked her nipples, making her cry out. When she switched to doing a heavy grind Harper knew she was close. Cupping her hips in his palms he pulled her tighter against him, bracing himself up off the mattress. Cat started to pant. Her hands slapped onto his wrists, squeezing as her body started to tighten around his. Harper didn’t plan on coming with her but as she started to keen high in her throat and spasm around his cock, his body surged to join her.

Cat was beautiful in her orgasm, lean body flushed with color, clutching and releasing his. Harper enjoyed his orgasm as well, but there was something precious in just watching her. The way she moved brought back many nights of loving, and it brought home how many nights he had missed.

Cat melted to his chest, her breathing raspy. Though it hurt his chest a little to have her there, he refused to push her away. Instead he reached up and cradled her to him, pressing kisses to her brow. “You are stunning,” he whispered.

She shifted a little, enough to press a kiss to his chin. “You’re tasty. As soon as I saw you sleeping beside me I wanted you again.”

“Hm,” he agreed. “If I had seen you first we would still be in this position.”

She giggled. “Those damn sexy dreams. Sent to bedevil us.” She gasped with laughter. “Oh, wait. Not bedeviled. Maybe pickled.”

Harper laughed out loud. “You got pickled and I’m being bedeviled.”

He danced his fingers up her sides, sending her into even more laughter.

It was so nostalgic, loving and laughing together. His throat tightened with emotion as he watched her wipe tears from her eyes.

Cat seemed to sense the shift in him to serious because she slid from his chest to sit beside him. Harper folded an arm beneath his head and looked up at her, trying to memorize her face. It was a useless exercise though because he already had. All her emotions, the way her right eyebrow had a little point of hair in the middle, the way she gasped when she was truly enjoying herself. There was no way he could escape the memory of any of it. And he certainly didn’t want to.

But was he open to accepting her into his life again?

“You slept like a rock last night.”

Harper blinked. That hadn’t been what he’d been expecting. “Did you drug me?”

Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open with indignation. “No, I didn’t drug you! I slept with you. And you,” she paused to point a finger in his direction, “didn’t dream. I woke several times and you were still sleeping like a rock. No moaning, no shouting, no jumping out of bed to attack shadows or pace. No reaching out to stroke your gun on the bedside table.”

Harper frowned at her description of how he used to be. “I think I’m still recovering.”

She lifted a brow at the sidestep. “So, you’re telling me you’re just as bad as you used to be?”

He looked up at the ceiling. “No, I’m not as bad as when I first left the Team, but I still have the nagging worries and dreams.”

“Night terrors or dreams?”

Rolling up in bed he swung his legs to the side, planting his feet. “I still have occasional night terrors but not like I used to. Duncan makes a counselor available to us and I’ve gone to her several times,” he admitted. “For the past year, actually.”

Cat didn’t say anything so he glanced over his shoulder at her. She sat naked and open with tears glittering in her eyes. “I wanted you to go to counseling when you left the house but you said you didn’t need it.”

Harper hated to see the hurt in her expression. She
had
urged him to go to the counselors but it hadn’t been until his life had fallen apart and he’d had to leave his family that he’d realized how critical it was. “I know.” Reaching out with his good arm, he tugged her around to face him. “But it wasn’t until I was faced with the possibility of never seeing you again that I realized I had to make some changes. And it’s not something a guy like me wanted to admit, you know?”

She swiped her fingers under her eyes, catching tears before they fell. “I’m very happy that you stepped up like that.”

“Once I got to hanging with the rest of the guys at LNF and they started to talk about their own counseling it became easier for me to think about doing it.”

“You’re not less of a man because of it,” she told him firmly. “The exact opposite, actually. I think you’re more of a man for doing it.”

Harper didn’t say anything, just wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her head.

After a few minutes Cat pulled back enough to look up at him. “I’m going to go shower again. Would you like to join me?”

Nodding, he helped her untangle herself from the sheets and followed along as she walked into the bathroom.

“I want to
go for a hike.”

Harper gave her a frown but didn’t try to argue with her. “Where to?”

Cat motioned toward the back yard. “There’s a path that climbs the ridge. I’d like to head in that direction. Do you feel up to it?”

Harper nodded and Cat knew he wouldn’t have dared give her any other answer. He was too hard-headed to tell her he wasn’t up to it.

She had to admit, though, he was getting stronger. Out of the hospital for four days now his strength had definitely begun to return. He ate everything she cooked and snacked in between if he wanted to. The dizzy spell he’d had the second day hadn’t bothered him again.

Cat grabbed a light jacket to stave off the chill of the morning and let herself out the door to the back deck. Harper followed right behind her, latching the door closed behind him. The house was now locked up tight and she had the key in her pocket.

As she stepped down onto the frosty ground she tried not to watch Harper too closely. If he wavered or stumbled she could slip in beside him and wrap her arm around his waist.

“Quit worrying, Cat.”

Clenching her jaw, she marched forward and up through the slight border of brush around the yard. Little scrub trees crowded around her legs, but she aimed for the trail she could see winding up the incline. A rabbit darted a little ways away and she felt Harper jerk behind her. “Just a rabbit.”

“I know,” he grumbled. “It was on my right though and I didn’t see it right away.”

Frowning, she didn’t say anything, but she felt like crap. If she could help him get used to being sightless on that side she absolutely would.

They tromped up the hill for the better part of thirty minutes and finally drew up on the crest of the ridge. Sighing, Cat found a rocky outcropping to sit on to gaze at the view. “Wow,” she sighed. Shifting over, she made sure Harper had a place to sit as well.

The ridge they had just climbed was small compared to the one in front of them. If they continued east the trail snaked its way to the top of that ridge as well, with the Rocky Mountains beyond, but Cat had no intentions of going any farther. Though he hadn’t said a word she knew Harper had to be worn out. She handed him a bottle of water from the little shoulder sack she wore. Twisting off the cap, he chugged most of it down.

They were in a bit of a strange place emotionally. Though they’d made love—or was it sex?—they were each still too protected to reach out and be like they used to be. Cat knew she didn’t want her heart broken again, so she was a little scared to hope. They hadn’t talked about what was going to happen when their two weeks were up. That was another cliff they were dancing the edge of, unsure which way to go. Cat loved her husband but they needed to get some things settled.