Holding Out For A Hero: SEALs, Soldiers, Spies, Cops, FBI Agents and Rangers (35 page)

His head lowered and she closed her eyes. His kiss was hard and possessive. His tongue danced across hers and demanded response until she became lost in a vortex of desire and need. Licking her lips, he ran his tongue down her neck, over her breast, stopping on one rosy nipple, then traveled down her torso to dip into her belly button. She arched helplessly and heard the front of her pants ripped to shreds as well. His roving tongue went lower, over skimpy panties, and tasted the soft, silky flesh between her thigh and her waiting, aroused sex, and she moved restlessly, letting him get rid of what was left of her pants from each leg.

“I’m going to eat you,” Nick promised, from between her legs and bit down on the soft flesh of her inner thigh. A soft wail erupted from her as he started to nibble the vulnerable flesh. His hand on her tummy held her down and nudging the panties aside, he began to do exactly as he promised. Unlike the night before, he wasn’t teasing or patient; this time, he was all conquering male, intent on taking what was his. Her breathing came out in gasps as she tried valiantly to hold onto some sort of control.

Shifting position, he put two hands on her last piece of protection and with a savage hiss, tore her wispy string bikini away like pieces of paper. A moment later, his weight was on her, and he held her face still between his large hands. Staring deeply into her eyes, he began to push inside her. He nudged her thighs higher, demanding more.

Control slipped away like the outgoing tide. Jaymee whimpered. He felt hard and immensely huge against her vulnerable flesh, and every one of her feminine muscles bucked inside with panic at the unfamiliar siege. Unfamiliar, because it had been eight, long years. Her muscles, taught to resist, fought to stop the invasion, tightening and pushing back.

“Relax, baby,” Nick said, sounding strained. “Let me in.”

But her body seemed to have a mind of its own, and was determined to forbid entry. He inched in, and despite her readiness, she groaned at the discomfort. A niggling doubt arose. Maybe there was something wrong with her. Maybe she just wasn’t good at this and was going to embarrass herself. Panicking, she started to push and fight him off.

Nick felt her growing alarm and looked down at her, her eyes so tightly shut, little drops of tears squeezed out at the corners. He immediately stopped pushing, kissing her eyes until she opened them again. He could feel every tremor of her body. His own was trembling too, desperate to have her. He’d never wanted—needed—a woman more in his life, and determined not to frighten her, he fought for every ounce of control that was left in him.

“Look at me, Jaymee.”

Her eyes brimmed with tears and her lips trembled. “I c...can’t do it, Nick. You’re too...big.”

Nick just smiled tenderly down at her and told her, “Yes, you can, darling. I forgot to go slow and easy, that’s all.”

Fiercely clamping down on his raging desire, he rained soft kisses on her face, until she started responding. He searched for a distraction and found her ear.

Jaymee jerked when his tongue slipped into the erogenous shell and helpless gurgled as it wickedly explored. All the blood in her brain seemed to disappear. She tried to squirm away, but it insistently plunged in and out until she melted into the pillows, moaning softly, incoherently. In the helpless throes of that clever tongue, her body let its guard down, and with one decisive thrust, Nick pushed inside her, filling her all the way. She gasped at the fullness of his possession. He pushed her thighs higher still and sank even deeper inside her.

Nick fought for control. God, she was tight, holding him as possessively as he wanted to take her. If he moved, it’d be all over. A roaring need blanketed everything else, and he groaned at the sheer agony of needing to thrust and yet not daring.

Jaymee couldn’t breathe, gasping for air, as his hard length continued to fill and stretch her. The discomfort disappeared as her body adjusted and accommodated to his size. Every nerve sang with anticipation. Why wasn’t he moving? She needed him.

“Please,” she moaned. “Please, pleasepleaseplease...”

Nick moved out, then slid back in. They both moaned in unison.

He moved slowly at first, carefully, as if he were afraid to hurt her. The pleasure from the tortuous slide of his thick length inside her was beyond anything she’d ever experienced. And each time he plunged deeply, she didn’t want him to leave her, and he returned, steady and sure, to take her even higher. She arched up, wanting more.

Wet and hot. Nick closed his eyes at the feel of her womanly softness. Home and paradise. Every stroke was bliss and agony, and with every thrust, he wanted to go deeper into the woman. Bury so deep, his thoughts would just fixate on this feeling of being taken and giving himself. So deep, like this. And this. Take this. He didn’t think he’d ever get deep enough.

There was taste and texture, as flesh slapped into flesh, as tongue tangled with tongue. Mindless pleasure built until each glide of his flesh was a mini orgasm, and she couldn’t see or hear anything but their beating hearts echoing each other. And then the world simply tilted off its axis and the universe was bright with exploding stars.

They shuddered against each other, still mating with tongue and flesh and soul, speaking a universal language as they strained and pressed again and again. At last, a warm, sweet darkness overtook their frenzied dance. Minutes, or forever—they couldn’t tell—went by. The rain still pattered on the rooftop. The room was dark and musky. In the shadows, still joined, they stared at each other, afraid that if they moved, the magic spell might be broken.

Jaymee searched for words, but none came. Never had she given herself like this to a man, so totally her body felt like it was no longer hers, her mind in a stupor from the experience. Whatever she’d felt before for Danny was some silly myth, compared to this churning maelstrom. Her heart rejoiced, but her mind mourned, because she knew she’d fallen in love. She loved him, and he’d told her he was leaving.

Nick stared down at the passionate woman under him. Did he think he could switch her on and off, give her what she wanted and needed, and somehow avoid any long-lasting effect on himself? He’d known from the very first she was different, that his feelings for her were more complex than mere attraction. What they just shared proved it—she belonged with him. He belonged with her, damn it. And there was nothing he could do to make it last. It was simply not possible. He couldn’t see her away from her business, plucked from her responsibilities she took so seriously.

Jaymee stirred under him. “I think I died,” she said, awe in her voice.

He smiled down at her. “Am I too heavy?” He shifted.

“No,” she immediately protested. “Don’t. Not yet.”

He understood. Like him, she didn’t want to disconnect yet. He was, to his amazement, still semi-aroused. Not possible, after the mind-blowing orgasm that had had him pounding into her like a wild animal, but the hard evidence was undeniable. He surged back in, and they both sighed with pleasure.

“I can keep going till the storm stops,” he offered.

Jaymee smiled in the darkness. “I don’t think it will ever abate,” she told him.

Her honesty touched him. She was a woman who didn’t play coy or hard to get. She had resisted out of fear, and once she’d discovered the fear was nothing, she’d given herself wholly, taking back ecstasy in equal measure. He loved her lack of pretense. He loved her passion, which she’d hidden behind her work.

He inhaled sharply. Did he just say he loved?

“Do you still want lunch?” she asked, her shyness interrupting the sudden earth-shattering disclosure.

“Hmmm?” he asked, still grappling with the truth.

“Food,” she repeated. “Sustenance.” Her stomach rumbled helpfully.

Nick laughed. “Woman, you’re bad for my ego. I kiss you, and you talk business with a contractor. I make love to you, and all you want afterwards is food.”

He pulled out of her, and she contracted, still reluctant about letting him go.

“I’m just fueling you up, that’s all. Can’t have you running on empty.” She laughed when he bit her shoulder menacingly.

“Later,” he promised, “but only after you tell me about your other job.”

Jaymee sighed. She’d forgotten about that memory of his. “See here,” she said, as she rolled off the bed, “there must be a fair exchange. I’ll tell you my secret, if you tell me yours.”

Leaning over the night table, she turned the light on, and they both blinked at the sudden brightness. She did it on purpose, wanting to look at him.

Nick lounged on his side lazily, watching her as she stood up. She was damned distracting, and she knew it, using her nakedness to try to get information from him. He grinned. If he didn’t know her, he’d have suspected her of being the enemy. His grin widened as she picked up the little rag pieces of what was left of her clothing, dangling it in front of her with bemusement, like she couldn’t believe those were once her clothes. So, the woman wanted to barter, did she? He wondered what she would say if he told her the truth.

“Every one of them?” He kept his voice light.

Jaymee heard the challenge. She had been around men long enough to recognize a retreating male when she saw one. Unaware of how she looked, she put her hands on her hips. “Scared? I’m not going to beg you to stay, Nicholas Langley.”

She was magnificent, her hair thick and unruly, teasing her breasts, which peeked temptingly at him between the dark auburn curls. In the lit room, her eyes glowed deep green. He wanted to give her everything she wanted, and more, but since he couldn’t, he would give her honesty, or as close to it as he could.

“Secrets can be dangerous,” he warned.

Jaymee just smiled, climbing back into bed. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t need to know your secrets to see you’re dangerous to me, Nick. I know you’re going to leave me, and I know it’ll be soon. Just let me at least know why, even if you have to lie.”

“I’ve never lied to you.” Withheld information, perhaps, but never lied. However, he’d deceived her, and he knew she hated deception, above all else.

“You don’t trust me,” she stated, her eyes downcast.

“No,” he denied. “It’s not that. We’ll eat, wait out the storm, and we’ll talk. With our clothes on.” He cupped her breast. “If we stay in this bed any longer, we won’t be talking for a long time.”

He put her hand back on his aroused state. Jaymee blushed. She still wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy. Looking down, she unconsciously licked her lips and heard him groan. She looked questioningly at him.

“Don’t, darling,” he said, amusement and exasperation in his voice. “That look ought to be banned for indecency.”

“I beg your pardon,” she said, huffily.

“Lustful. Simply sinfully indecent.” He kissed her long and thoroughly, then reluctantly got off her. “I need some dry clothes, after the way you tore mine off.”

Jaymee stared at him incredulously. “Why you—” He was already walking away, and she got up and went after him. “Tore your clothes off you! Of all the twisted, chauvinistic—”

His laughter drowned out her accusations as she beat on his back all the way to the bathroom.

***

Nick liked her company. The release of their pent-up tension put them at ease. They were relaxed and talking comfortably. She was surprisingly well-informed about current affairs, and her interests covered a variety of subjects which had nothing to do with construction and business. They conversed like old lovers, sometimes touching, sometimes kissing, in between jokes and discussion.

The mood remained light and companionable as they ate and waited for the rain to stop, until Jaymee’s father returned some time later. He scowled at the sight of them lounging on the sofa.

Nick studied him for a few seconds. For once the old guy wasn’t drunk.

“You lost the Excel contract,” Bob said, not even stopping to greet either of them.

Jaymee sipped her coffee, not moving from the curled up position against Nick’s hard frame. “Word gets around fast,” she observed, as she stirred the hot liquid with a spoon, “or did you just get your gossip straight from your good friends Chuck and Rich?”

“They tell me the inspector’s got a complaint about you,” Bob accused. He came closer and stood behind an armchair. His face was red with anger, as he glared down at them. “You were cheating on the job, they said, and got caught.”

Nick put down his cup on the coffee table and sat up straighter. Jaymee didn’t even stir, sliding comfortably against his arm as he shifted positions. He couldn’t get over how cool she always was when it came to handling her father.

“Is that so?” Bob continued his tirade against his daughter. “Did you ask them to undernail the shingles?”

“If I told you I didn’t, would you believe me?” she quietly countered.

“Excel fired you. Obviously, you did something wrong. Look at you, sitting on your butt on a work day. I wouldn’t have done anything like that in the old days, but since you took over, everything’s gone wrong.”

Jaymee was used to these accusations, but she wasn’t going to allow her father to spoil today. Not today. Without answering, she drained the rest of the coffee, took Nick’s cup from the table, and got up to go to the kitchen, leaving her father alone with Nick.

That didn’t stop Bob at all. Without bothering to lower his voice, he turned on Nick. “It’s you, isn’t it? She’s got her mind on you and not on what she’s supposed to do. Instead of taking care of the business, she’s sitting here and telling the men to cut corners.”

“She has never told us to undernail or cut corners,” Nick said quietly.

“How would you know?” the old man sneered. “You just hang around her, and probably couldn’t tell a nail from a staple.”

Nick stood up, towering over the other man. “I know your daughter would never do anything that’s dishonest. I can tell you just like to stand around and point a finger at everything, yet you don’t bother to help her at all. Why don’t you stop tossing down that alcohol and see the world clearly for once?”

“I can see all right. I can see she lost a good account and Gregg’s got it. It’s clear she doesn’t care such bad news gets across town quickly.”