Whispers in the Dark (23 page)

Oh hell. A warm, lush, naked woman coming on to him? Nothing in the military had prepared him for an onslaught like this. The never-surrender thing went right out the window, and he started waving the white flag like a dog wagging his tail.

Her back bowed inward as she pressed her breasts forward until his chin was buried in the valley. Her fingers trailed through his hair and then she pulled him upward to meet her lips once more.

Damn it, he was trying to do the right thing here.

He reached up to catch her hands. “Shea, baby, I need to bandage those cuts. Put some antibiotic ointment on them or something.”

She pulled away from him and stared down with eyes drenched in emotion. Need. Pulling at him until it was impossible to deny her anything at all.

“I need
you
,” she whispered. “I was so scared today, Nathan. I’m still scared. I’m sick with worry. Right now I need you to love me. I need you to touch me so I’ll feel safe again. Being with you eases me in a way I can’t explain.”

He was at a loss to describe how affected he was by her words. She needed him. Yes, she needed protection. Someone to help her, to care about her. But it was more than that. She looked at him like he was the only man she saw, as if there was no one else who could do for her what she wanted and needed.

Scarred, worn, his sanity questionable, and she wanted him still.

He pulled her against him, enjoying the sensation of her bare flesh against him. He loved her smell. How silky her skin felt against his fingers. How she was plump in all the right places. He loved every curve and swell. How delicate she appeared and yet she was a force to be reckoned with.

The perfect package. Far too perfect for someone as damaged as he was. Even as he recognized the disparity between them, he wanted her. He had to have her. She completed him in a way no one ever had or would, and so he held on to her, because the thought of being without her was another kind of hell. Worse than being held captive and tortured.

He rubbed his cheek along the top of her breast, before nuzzling down to her nipple. He tugged it between his teeth and gently sucked until it formed a turgid point on his tongue.

He
loved
the way she melted into his body. Loved the way she fit him. She made the most beautiful, erotic sounds. Every little gasp and moan had him so hard that he could barely breathe. Hell, he’d give up breathing if she would keep making those sweet sounds of contentment.

She ran her hands over his shoulders and then gently pulled away. Her nipple slipped from his mouth, wet and glistening, puckered and straining forward, a temptation for him to latch back on.

“Undress for me,” she said, her voice as silky as her skin. “I want to see you. You have such a beautiful body.”

He shook as he stood. He’d never felt so unsteady on his feet. Her words soaked into the darkest parts of his soul, bringing light that chased the shadows away.

He’d come home feeling ugly. Tarnished. Not the same man who’d left. He felt…dirty. Unworthy. Not just on the surface. The scars were the tangible results of his shame. But deeper, below those scars, lay the self-loathing and doubt. But with Shea, he felt…whole. He didn’t feel the shame that so frequently pulled at him. Or the frustration over the anxiety and panic that still plagued him at the most unexpected times.

With her, he felt like he was on top of the fucking world. Like he was her damn hero. Like he mattered.

He loved her for that. God, yes, he loved her, and if that didn’t fuck everything up, he didn’t know what did.

“What are you thinking?” she asked quietly.

He caught her gaze, saw that she was staring up at him intently. It puzzled him because she always seemed so in tune with his thoughts. She resided in his mind as well as his heart, and yet she stared at him as if she truly didn’t know the direction of his thoughts. Hell, maybe they were too scattered for even her to sort out.

“I…” No, he couldn’t tell her that yet. He’d sound as crazy as everyone thought he was.

He could think it. He could act on it. But saying it aloud made him feel so goddamn vulnerable. Shaken. And scared. Hell yes, scared. Not things he wanted to experience again.

Instead he began to undress, his gaze holding hers. He may not be able to say the words, but he could tell her with his eyes. His hands. His mouth and his body. He wasn’t worth a damn with words anyway. He much preferred action.

He pulled his shirt off first and tossed it across the room. He fumbled with his fly next, his fingers clumsily glancing off the button. He bent as he rolled the denim down and picked up one leg and then the other to kick out of the jeans.

When he straightened, the hunger in her gaze gave him a jolt. She boldly stared, caressing as though she were physically touching him. No inch of his body was spared her scrutiny, but this time he didn’t shy away. He didn’t try to hide from her.

There was no revulsion in her eyes, only lust. Desire. And something deeper that he didn’t dare speculate on.

She stepped closer so their bodies touched. Then she placed her palms over his chest and rubbed lightly up to his shoulders and then down his arms, her fingers glancing over the ridges of his muscles.

She took another step, forcing him to back up until he bumped the edge of the bed. She put her hand in the center of his chest and pushed him just hard enough that he fell back on the bed, his hands going behind him to brace himself so that he sat half reclined, his legs hanging off the mattress.

Her lips quirked up into a tiny smile that sent shivers racing down his spine. And then she crawled onto the bed like a feline on the prowl, straddling his hips in all her naked glory.

“I had in mind for you to touch me. For you to comfort me. To make me feel safe. I was going to make you do all the work. But I’ve changed my mind.”

His eyebrows went up at that.

She crawled up over his body until her weight forced his hands away and he fell back onto the bed so that he lay flat on his back.

“I’ve decided that I’m going to do the touching. And the comforting. I’m going to make love to
you
, Nathan. Any objections?”

“Oh, hell no,” he breathed.

She leaned down and kissed the hollow of his chest. Her tongue swept out and then traced a path up to his neck. She nibbled and nipped, her teeth grazing where his pulse was about to pop right out of his neck. Then she moved up to suck gently at his ear.

He was already leaking. He could feel the sticky dampness on his cock. This woman just did it for him. All she had to do was look at him and he was a goner. And now she was seducing him with words and that wicked mouth of hers. How the hell was he supposed to withstand such delicious, delicious torture?

Her mouth found his. Hot. Wanton. Swollen. Their tongues tangled. Breathless. Her taste on his tongue. And then she was gone again, sliding down his body with tantalizing slowness as she licked her way over his chest, to the sensitive flesh of his belly and lower.

The little vixen sank her teeth into the inside of his thigh and he damn near came on the spot. He was breathing so hard that he was starting to see spots dance in his vision and his lungs felt like someone was squeezing them with both fists.

His balls ached. His dick was screaming for mercy and twitching uncontrollably. He’d never been so hard in his life.

And then she pressed the tip of her tongue to the base of his cock, just above his sac, where the thick vein began its upward trek up the tender, supersensitive back of his erection.

Slowly she slid her tongue upward, taking her time as she teased and nibbled ever so lightly. By the time she made it to the tip, he’d lost any vestige of control he thought he had.

The first spurt of semen shot onto her cheek, and he groaned partly in dismay, partly in pleasure. He was too far gone. He couldn’t stop the inevitable.

Undaunted, she closed her mouth over him and sucked him deep as he continued to come in hard, rapid, seemingly never-ending streams.

He dragged his fingers through her hair, stroking, holding her, pulling at her. His movements were frantic and unschooled. It shamed him that he had so little control and no finesse where she was concerned. And yet nothing in her demeanor suggested that she was in any way disappointed.

She stroked him lovingly with her mouth and her hands. She touched him with gentleness that he felt in the deepest parts of his heart.

After a moment, she laid her cheek over the top of his thigh and continued to work him down from his orgasm with her hand.

“Shea, I’m so damn sorry,” he said when he finally got control of his tongue.

She raised her head, her brows furrowed in confusion. “What are you apologizing for?”

His cheeks heated and he prayed she couldn’t see him actually blushing. “I think that might give new meaning to the word
premature
.”

She smiled then, dazzling him, warming him like a ray of sunshine. She crawled up his body and snuggled into the crook of his arm. She laid her head on his chest and rubbed her hand up and down his side.

“Tonight was all for you, Nathan. I love that you want me so much. That I can drive you crazy. I wanted it to last but only because I wanted to give you more pleasure. You didn’t disappoint me and you have no reason to be embarrassed.”

He pulled her up and rolled until they faced each other. “You did give me pleasure. So much that I can’t even feel my feet. ‘Thank you’ sounds so lame. I don’t even have the words to tell you what you mean to me.”

She smiled again, this time a shy, adorable smile as she ducked her head self-consciously. It delighted him that she could be so bold and wanton one minute and adorably shy the next.

He leaned in to kiss her because he couldn’t stand not to. Just as their lips met, a knock sounded at the door.

CHAPTER 24

 
SHEA
stiffened, her eyes growing wide with apprehension. Nathan scrambled out of bed and motioned her toward the bathroom as he yanked his clothing on.

“Get the pistol. Then go into the bathroom and get dressed. Hurry. Don’t come out until I tell you. Understand? And if anyone but me comes through that door, you shoot.”

She nodded and quickly did as he directed.

He grabbed one of the rifles, made sure the other was within easy reach, and then he eased over to the door. There was no way to know who was out there. It might just be the manager. But Nathan wasn’t taking any chances.

Jamming the rifle to his shoulder, he threw open the door and to his shock came face-to-face with Donovan. And he didn’t look pleased to be greeted with the barrel of a rifle.

Nathan eased the rifle down, even more surprised as he saw Ethan and Swanny standing on either side of Donovan.

Donovan looked pointedly at the gun. “Planning to shoot us?”

Nathan gestured for them to hurry in and he shut the door behind them. “How the fuck did you get here so fast? I just spoke to Sam an hour or so ago.”

“We might have already been in the neighborhood,” Ethan said.

“You didn’t exactly cover your tracks that well,” Donovan pointed out. “We trailed you to Crescent City. We were there when Sam called us and told us you were here. We grabbed a faster gear and hauled ass up here.”

Swanny hung back, his silent gaze taking in his surroundings. While Ethan and Donovan were focused on Nathan, Swanny was checking out the rest of the room. Almost as though he were looking for someone. Shea?

What was Swanny doing here anyway?

When Nathan asked just that question, Swanny finally turned his stare to him.

“You didn’t expect me to just leave you in whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into. If you did, fuck you.”

Nathan let out a sharp chuckle. “No, I guess I didn’t. I should have expected this. The real question is how you got these hard-asses to agree to let you come.”

Ethan and Donovan exchanged raised eyebrow glances.

“Hard-asses? He’s calling us hard-asses?” Donovan asked in mock incredulity.

“So where’s Shea?” Ethan demanded.

“In the bathroom,” Nathan said in a tight voice. “I’ll go get her.”

The moment Shea was mentioned, Swanny looked uneasy. He turned his face away so that the side that wasn’t scarred was facing the rest of them.

Nathan went to the bathroom door and knocked softly. “Shea? You can come out. My brothers are here.”

The door opened and she stood there, clutching the Glock, looking nervous as hell and so uncertain that he softened from head to toe. He reached in to take her hand and then pulled her to him, uncaring of whether his brothers could see or not.

“You have nothing to worry about,” he murmured.

“But they know about me,” she whispered back. “They’ll think I’m crazy.”

He pulled her back so he could look down at her. “Then I’m as crazy as you are. Swanny’s here too.”

“Swanny?”

She pushed Nathan aside and strode into the room, staring at the three men assembled.

Ethan and Donovan stared at her with open curiosity while Swanny kept his face averted. Donovan’s eyes widened when he caught sight of the Glock that Shea was holding.

“Swanny,” she whispered. She thrust the gun at Nathan and then hurried over to Swanny.

He wore a look of panic as she turned him to face her. She grasped his hands and stared up at him with soft wonder.