Fall for a SEAL (33 page)

His skin prickled with discomfort. He wanted to leap
up from the table and run far away, but he’d started the conversation and she wasn’t wrong.

“I’m sorry. Now’s not the time.” She squeezed his fingers and let go, pointing at the tacos. “These look amazing.”

“They do.” Fresh white fish, bright cabbage, and the best salsa on the island—this had been the right call for where to go, and he told Gaby as much. She winked at him and told him to dig
in.

They took their time over a shared dish of ice cream, and by the time they were walking back to her place in the unseasonably warm spring night, his tension had eased.

It threatened to come slamming back when she unlocked her apartment door and music greeted them on the other side.

“Ah, Lila’s home,” Gaby murmured. He couldn’t see her face, but her back pulled up a little straighter than
usual.
 

He moved closer, wrapping his arm around her waist. Leaning in, he brushed his lips against the curve of her ear. “Do you want to meet me over at my place?”

She shook her head, then twisted and kissed his jaw. “Come on.”

Holding hands, they walked into the living room. Gaby’s roommate was sitting on the floor, CDs spread all around her. She glanced up for half a second, smiled, then
returned her attention to the case in her hand. “How was dinner?”

“Great,” Gaby said. “Are you sorting or hunting for a specific album?”

“Hunting. I can’t find the Jamiroquai CD, and I’m heading out to Kyra’s place soon. But it’s sort of turned into alphabetizing. Sorry. I’ll be cleared out of here in a few minutes.”

Trick wasn’t sure how that was possible. Plastic cases littered the room,
stacked on every available surface.
 

Gaby glanced up at him, then started laughing.

“What?”

“You don’t think she can tidy all of this up in a flash?”

Had his doubt been that obvious? He smiled down at Gaby. “It’s just that…” He shook his head at her. “You know what? I know better than to argue with the woman I’m sleeping with.”

It was like he’d pressed a button and frozen time. Gaby blinked
silently up at him for a moment, and then Lila started coughing and couldn’t stop. Trick could feel himself turning bright read. Jesus. He’d stepped right into that one.

“Uhhhh…” He shut his mouth, because all he had were incomprehensible noises.

Gaby’s eyes crinkled. She turned to her roommate. “Are you okay?”

The blonde wiped at the corners of her eyes. “Oh yeah.”

Gaby turned back to him.
“Are you okay?”

“Really not sure,” he muttered. “Are you going to kick me out?”

She laughed. “Oh, hell no.” She turned him and pointed him down the hall. “Night, Lila!” she called as she pressed her small hands into his back. “This way, Mr. Cool.”

He vaguely remembered this hallway. Two bedrooms, the doors slightly offset. He’d already been in the one on the left, so the one on the right must
be Gaby’s.

She steered him into the dark, then flicked a switch which controlled the two lamps on either side of the bed.

“Nice room.” Filler comment, but it was true. Dark furniture, red decorations. Not quite sleek, not quite funky, just modern and perfectly Gaby.

“Nice cover.” He turned and found her smirking at him, arms crossed. The door clicked shut behind her.

“Hey, I wasn’t even thinking
about that.”

“I know.” She trailed her gaze down his body and back up again. “You only had eyes for me out there.”

“I only ever have eyes for you.” He swallowed hard. “I’m sorry that was awkward.”

She shook her head. “I’m not. That was, like, the best kind of awkward. Embarrassing. Funny. And now it’s done.”

Huh. How about that. She looked him up and down again, and Trick finally clued in.
Notching his thumbs in his belt, he rocked on his heels. She could look her fill. He was hers to consume, with her eyes and her hands and her mouth, as much as she wanted.

She sat on the edge of the bed and took off her shoes, then moved slowly around him to put them in the closet. He watched over his shoulder as she approached him, touching his waist, then his arm, her fingertips cool like marbles
as she trailed them over his skin.

Stopping in front of him again, barefoot in that pretty dress, she looked small but mighty. And never more beautiful.

“Gaby…” He settled his hands on her waist. He wanted to pick her up and toss her on the bed. Show her how much he wanted her, but she was doing something here and he had to be patient.

“We’ve been silly, Patrick.” She tipped her head to the
side and gave him a look he couldn’t quite figure out. “Or maybe just me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’ve been so, so silly.”

“Never, pretty girl.”

“All that fear. All that noise. When you came to see me today…it all just fell away.” She ran her hands up his chest and around his neck, tugging his head down so she could kiss him. “I want you, Trick.”

“You’ve got me.”

She smiled against
his lips. “No, I mean, I
want
you. Inside me.”

— —
 

Trick had been holding himself back, Gaby knew that, and she knew telling him she was ready for sex would get a reaction.

She hadn’t prepared herself for how much of a reaction.

The second her words processed through his brain, he took command of their kiss. Holding her face, he tugged her lower lip between his teeth, his tongue tracing
the softness just inside her mouth as he moved her backward to the bed.
 

Deepening the kiss, he simultaneously worked her skirt up to her waist and got her sitting on the bed, all without taking a breath. He didn’t break their embrace until he dropped to his knees, whipping off his boots and shirt before sliding his hands up her thighs and tugging her panties low on her hips.

“Up,” he ordered,
and she fell back, lifting her hips as ordered.

As soon as they were both partially naked, he slowed down, crawling on top of her to kiss her senseless again. He carefully worked the row of buttons down the front of her dress, revealing the extra-pretty bra she’d changed into before dinner. The matching panties were now tossed on the floor somewhere, but it didn’t matter—she hadn’t needed to
put on anything fancy.

He still gazed down at her like she was everything he’d ever wanted, just like this—rough and raw and real. She didn’t need to excuse herself to put on something staged. He wanted
her
.

Her breath caught in her throat as he ever so slowly worked her breasts out of the lace cups. He circled his fingertip around one nipple, then the other, before dipping his head and suckling
on her.

Her hips arched off the bed as flames of desire shot through her body, straight from his tongue to her soaking wet sex.

“Please, Patrick. Please.” She wasn’t above begging.

“Do you have condoms? I was tested after we started dating, but…”

“In the drawer.” She was on the pill, but she’d never been tested, and fair was fair. There’d be time for that when they weren’t hazy with lust.

He leaned over and grabbed one, then paused and grabbed two more. When she squeaked, he pounced back on top of her. “I’ve been waiting for
months
for this, Gaby. Once is not going to be enough.”

“It hasn’t been months,” she protested, her voice eager and breathy.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re right. I’ve been waiting for you for years. I just didn’t know it.”

“Trick—” He cut her off
with a hard kiss, all tongue and teeth and firm, strong lips that zinged her all over. Damn him, not giving her a chance to tell him she felt the same way.

But she could show him.

She wiggled her arms between them, working at his belt and his fly until she had enough play to shove his jeans down his hips. She had to reach to grab his ass, but as soon as she had a handful of him, she yanked them
together.

He groaned as she rolled against him, showing him how wet she was, and for a second she thought he’d just slide right inside—and oh, how she wanted that. She wanted him to take her and make her his. He was already branded on her heart, might as well make it official.

But while he tightened his hold on her and rocked against her, he was more in control than she was. “Need this,” he
ground out, ripping the wrapper open.

Once sheathed, he pressed up on his elbows, watching between them as he slowly pressed his erection between the lips of her swollen, aching sex. She rocked her hips up to welcome him inside her body, but he wouldn’t be hurried, and as he pressed, then pulled back before slowly thrusting again, she understood why.

She hadn’t been thinking about how big he
was.

“Oh my God,” she whispered as he stretched her. She’d never felt so full in her life. Full to the aching point.

But she wanted even more.

On his next thrust, she tipped her hips again, and he stroked against something inside her, that same place he’d already found with his fingers, and she felt herself grow even more slick around his shaft.

He growled at the easier slide and picked up
the pace, rocking in and out of her in ways that made her eyes roll back in her head and her nipples tighten to sharp little points.

“So tight.” He stared down at her, his eyelids heavy and his lips wet. She reached up and wrapped her hand around his neck, holding his gaze as he thrust deep again, his eyelids fluttering almost shut. “So good.”

“So good,” she repeated, her breath hitching as
he moved inside her. They didn’t even have their clothes off, and it was off-the-charts amazing.

He shifted his weight to his right arm, sliding his left hand down her side, rumpling her dress into a narrow band of fabric around her waist. He slid his hand under her, lifting her bottom as he picked up his pace, fucking her harder and faster.

She wasn’t sure what was going to happen first—orgasm
or spontaneous combustion. She was okay with the latter if she got the former first. She’d never wanted that explosive release more.
 

“Do you need to touch yourself? Want me to—”

“No,” she gasped, dragging breath into her lungs. She was so close. “That’s perfect, just like that.”

He surged into her again, rolling against her clit as he bottomed out, and she cried out for him to do it again.

He did, his muscles bunching under her hands as he worked hard to get them both to that blissful peak.
 

“Gaby…” He groaned her name, dropping his face into her neck as she locked her legs around his waist, trembling as she started to clench around him on the inside as well. “My pretty girl,” he whispered, his breath coming hard and fast as he jerked roughly above her, finishing nearly at the same
time.

They clung to each other, breathing hard, until Trick angled out of her and rolled to the side to ditch the condom. Then he shoved his pants all the way off and pulled her against him.

“Best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he whispered.

She kissed his chest, then pressed her cheek to the same spot. “You really are my superhero, you know that?”

He huffed and settled his hand on her
hair.
 

I love you
, she thought. It was blinding, the truth of her feelings now that all the boundaries had fallen away. She burrowed closer. She’d show him, again and again with her body, then hold him so he could sleep.

And hopefully one day soon he’d be ready to hear the words themselves.
 

He deserved them so much.

— ELEVEN —

Two days later—the first Thursday night Gaby hadn’t had to work in three months—she was heading home and the sun was still up, but she was already thinking about crawl into a bed with her boyfriend at the end of the day.
 

Her
boyfriend
. They’d made love twice more Tuesday night, as Trick had promised, and when he’d crept out at dark o’clock for work, he’d kissed her and promised
to text.

His first one had come forty-five minutes later.

By the end of the day, she’d been grinning from ear to ear, and when she left the school, he’d been waiting for her with a single red rose, leaning against her car.

She’d driven them back to his place where he’d fucked her senseless in the shower, then on his bed, and they’d eaten pizza naked when they needed fuel.

Early this morning
she’d gone back to her place to get changed and pack a bag just in case tonight was a repeat at his place, but she hadn’t heard from him all day.

He’s only a US Navy SEAL. Jeez
. Not like he might be busy or something.

She smiled as she passed the shawarma shop, then she spun around at the next intersection and double-backed.

She should surprise him with a dinner that would remind him of their
first date. Or pre-date, depending on whose definition they were working under.
 

Twenty minutes later, she pulled up at his apartment. She didn’t bother to text him. If he wasn’t home, she’d call him and find out where he was, but a surprise would be fun.

She knocked playfully, wondering if there was a way to sexily present shawarma. Probably not.

When the door swung open, though, Trick had
a very unsexy frown on his face. “Oh, Gaby.”

“Hey!”
 

Instead of stepping back and letting her in, he just stood there staring at her. An uneasy worry slithered into her gut.
 

She gripped the bag, trying to hold at bay the frown of her own that wanted to settle between her eyebrows. “I brought some food…”

“Patrick?” a man’s voice called from inside the apartment. “Who is it?”

Trick shook his
head and blinked at her. “I’m sorry. Come in. It’s just…my parents are here.”

“Oh.” She smiled. “Okay, well, no worries.”

“No, I want you to come in. It’s…I was just surprised. Come in.”

He stepped to the side and gestured for her to enter.

She tried to think of everything he’d said about his parents. They lived in Orange County. His mom bought stuff for his apartment. His dad was an investment
adviser. Not a lot to go on.