by Elle James
He thrust inside her mouth and claimed her tongue in a long slow glide, twisting around and around until neither one of them could breathe, his plan to bring her to the edge, make love to her until she screamed out his name, and then leave her wanting more.
Revenge would be hot and sweet. This time when they parted, it would be on his terms, and he would never look back.
JENNA DRAGGED IN a lungful of air, her body on fire with desire. “Please, Dustin. Take me now. I need you inside me.”
“Not yet.” He brushed his lips across her chin in feather-soft kisses, tonguing, nipping and kissing his way along the curve of her neck and downward to take first one, then the other nipple into his mouth, laving the tips into tight little beads.
She threaded her fingers into his hair and held him close, encouraging him to take more. His warm, wet mouth on her made her writhe. “Please,” she moaned.
Dustin moved down her body, touching each of her ribs with his tongue, dipping into her belly button before blazing a path to the mound of curls over her sex.
She let her knees fall open, exposing her entrance. In a flash of sheer lust, she almost pointed and shouted, “There! That’s where I want it. Come on, baby!”
But she lay still, waiting for his next move.
And, oh, was it worth the wait.
Dustin parted her folds and blew a warm stream of air over the strip of flesh nestled between.
Nerves ignited and her belly clenched.
With the tip of his finger, he tapped her clit, sending blasts of electrical currents through her like bolts of lightning in a storm-filled sky. Her body jerked, and she pressed her heels into the mattress to lift her bottom. “Please,” she moaned, her voice tight, her control slipping.
His finger traced a path from the fleshy bundle of extremely excited nerves to her dripping entrance, more than ready to accommodate his steely shaft. Jenna cupped his hand and guided his fingers into her.
Dustin leaned over her mound again and spread her folds wide, then touched her there, lashing out with his tongue, flicking, licking and sucking her into his mouth.
“Oh, sweet heaven, take me now, before I come completely apart.”
“Almost there,” he said, his words stirring air across her heated core. He continued to flick and swirl, his fingers pumping in and out of her channel.
Just when Jenna didn’t think it could get better, the tingling took over, quickly escalating into spasms of sensation, rocketing through her, sending her flying over the edge of reason into the stratosphere.
“Dustin!” she cried aloud, grabbing him by the ears and holding on as she rode wave after wave of the most intense orgasm she’d ever experienced in her life.
As she drifted back to earth, she tugged on his ears. “Now? Please tell me you’ll finish what you started.”
He chuckled and rose up her body like a conquering hero. Poised over her, he kissed her, his mouth tasting like her sex, making her want him even more. Dustin rose, locking his elbows as she stared down at her. “Where did you say they were?”
She jerked her head toward the table beside the bed.
Dustin reached into the nightstand, found the condoms she’d purchased earlier that day, tore one open and rolled it quickly over himself. “Ready?”
“Hell, yeah!” She raised her legs, locking them behind his back and dug her heels into his buttocks.
Dustin thrust into her, hard, fast and all the way to the hilt. For a long moment, he remained still, his thick girth filling her, stretching her channel in a filling, delicious way. Then he pulled out, ever so slowly, taking her with him. In, then out, he moved, settling into a rhythm as old as time. Slowly at first, he built momentum until he hammered into her again and again.
Jenna rode with him until she reached her second orgasm. Her breath caught and held as her body erupted in a string of explosions, each more intense than the last.
Dustin thrust one last time, powering into her, burying himself deep, his cock throbbing against her channel. For a long, exquisite moment, they were connected, no words passing between them.
Then Dustin kissed her lips and dropped down, rolling her onto her side without pulling free.
Jenna nuzzled against his hard chest, inhaling the purely male scent of the man she still loved with all her heart. She thought she could go into this and perhaps get him out of her system once and for all, hoping and praying his skill at lovemaking had diminished over time.
Instead, he’d become more expert and knew exactly what it took to bring her to the edge and catapult her to the stars.
Based on Dustin’s initial promise that making love to her would change nothing, Jenna could only anticipate another end to their tempestuous relationship. When she’d been a young, naive nineteen-year-old, she’d done what she thought was best though it broke her heart. Now, as an older, wiser twenty-nine year old with her biological clock ticking loudly, she realized that not only was this effort doomed to failure, but it resurfaced all the longing she’d pushed to the back of her mind for ten years.
Dustin had been right. Nothing had changed. On her part. She wanted Dustin Ford as much now as before, maybe more. The problem was getting him to believe her.
Chapter Six
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DUSTIN WOKE BEFORE the sun edged above the horizon the next day. His internal clock out of whack, he couldn’t go back to sleep. He took the opportunity to gaze his fill of the beautiful, auburn-haired woman lying on the pillow beside him.
For a moment he could pretend they were a happily married couple, sleeping in the same bed like all was right with their worlds. He’d wake her up with the sun, kiss her and make love to her until the light filled the sky, and they were completely satiated.
Who was he kidding? He’d never get enough of making love with this woman. A lifetime wasn’t nearly enough. Sadly, he’d learned his lesson at a young age that Jenna wasn’t into long-term commitment. Though he could spend his life loving Jenna, she might get tired of him again and boot his ass out. He wasn’t certain he could leave quietly the next time. Better not to fall in love with her again.
She stirred and turned on her side, nuzzling his chest with her cheek.
God, he wanted to hold her forever and never let her go. But Jenna was an independent woman with her own idea of how she wanted to live. He couldn’t hold her any more than he could hold a wild animal in captivity. She’d break free and fly away the first chance she got.
His chest tightened at the thought of leaving at the end of the week. He’d been balls-to-the-walls busy for the past ten years. As a Navy SEAL, he was on call every hour of every day, at the whim of the DEVGRU command. If a crisis came up, they were called to neutralize the threat. Most of his team had shied away from commitment until recently. The divorce rate was high among SEALs because they were gone most of the year, either fighting dangerous missions or training. What woman wanted a man who was never around to help out?
Yet Tuck, Caesar, Remy and others had found strong women who knew what they were getting into, and accepted their relationships for what they were—intense and passionate, if somewhat sporadic. They had lives of their own, some in dangerous occupations, perhaps as dangerous as that of SEALs.
Careful not to wake Jenna, Dustin slid his arm from beneath her neck and rolled out of the bed onto his feet. He’d come home to be with his family, not with his ex-fiancé. Leaving the bedroom, he pulled the door closed behind him to keep from disturbing Jenna’s sleep. As the sun filtered through the blinds, he pulled on his jeans, T-shirt and shoes. He reached for his duffle bag, hesitated and left it lying where he’d dropped it the night before, removing only his toothbrush and toothpaste. In the guest bathroom, he washed his face and brushed his teeth.
Yes, he was insane to think he could stay the week with Jenna and come out of it unscathed, but he couldn’t resist spending time with her, especially after proving they still connected on a physical level. The sex was great, if not better than he remembered.
As he walked out the door, he reminded himself not to get emotionally attached. Their reunion would be short-lived.
At the hospital, he found his mother pacing in the room with his father.
She went to him, wrapping her arms around him. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He held her for a moment, then pushed her to arm’s length, glancing over her shoulder at his father. “Has he come to yet?”
She shook her head, her eyes glistening with tears. Her face was pale and shadows had taken up residence beneath her eyes. It was as if she’d aged ten years in the time he’d been gone. He hugged her again. “You want to take a break and get something to eat?”
She shook her head. “I promised him I’d be here when he woke up.” With a weak smile, she met his gaze. “Although, I could sure use a cup of coffee.”
“I smelled some brewing when I passed the waiting room. Do you want me to get some for you?”
“No, I need a walk.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll yell down the hall if he wakes up.”
She patted his cheek. “It means a lot to us that you boys made it back for his surgery. Your father said he didn’t want to worry you, but he was worried himself. Until he wakes up, I won’t stop worrying.”
“I know.” He glanced at his father, connected to tubes and wires. “That man won’t go down without a fight. He’s too stubborn.”
“That’s where you boys get your drive and determination.” His mother smiled. “I’ll be right back.”
Left alone in the room, Dustin stepped up to his father’s bedside. He’d been at the bedside of some of his friends when they’d been severely wounded, and the doctors didn’t give them much of a chance to pull through. He’d seen how talking to them when they were unconscious somehow helped.
“Hey, Dad. You could have asked us to come home for a visit. You didn’t have to go to all this trouble to get your boys home all at once.” He tucked his thumbs in his belt loops and studied the monitor with the line and spikes measuring each heartbeat. His father’s blood pressure seemed normal, and his heart was beating a strong, steady rhythm. So why wasn’t he awake and badgering the nurses?
“Sun’s up, Dad. Houston and Adam are helping Carson feed the animals. Are you going to sleep in while others are up and about?”
His father’s eyelid twitched.
Dustin leaned forward, hope blooming in his chest. “You can hear me, can’t you?”
Both eyes twitched this time.
“Have I ever told you how glad I am that you taught me how to shoot a gun?” Dustin chuckled. “Or how much I appreciate that you made us boys work hard on the ranch? I might have complained at the time, but it taught me hard work does pay off, and anything I set my mind to I can accomplish.” Except when he set his mind to marrying Jenna. Everything else he’d attempted, he’d accomplished. You can’t win ’em all. “Mom’s worried about you. It would make her happy if you’d check in for a few minutes. Then you can go back to sleep.”
His father’s eyelids fluttered and opened.
A gasp behind Dustin alerted him to someone in the doorway. He turned to see his mother standing there with two cups of coffee. A smile spread across her face, making her appear ten years younger.
He turned back to his father and grinned. “Hey, Dad, I think there’s someone here you’d like to see.” Dustin took the coffee cups from her hands and set them on a nearby table.
“Hi, darlin’,” his father lifted the hand with the IV tube taped to the back.
His mother curled her fingers around his and squeezed gently. “About time you woke up. I thought you might sleep through the day.”
“Not a chance with Dustin yammerin’ about work to be done on the ranch.”
“Don’t you worry about the ranch,” she assured him. “It’ll be there when you get home.”
“Makes a man want to go back to sleep.” His eyelids slipped over his eyes, but a smile tugged at his dry, cracked lips.
Dustin’s mother leaned over and kissed his forehead. “What are you smiling about?”
His father whispered, “I woke up.”
His heart pinching hard in his chest, Dustin looked on as his mother brushed the scruffy gray hair off his father’s forehead and kissed him again, tears falling from her eyes to land on his cheek.
“Hey.” His father opened his eyes again. “What’s with the tears? I ain’t dead.”
“Exactly.” She kissed him again and laid her cheek against his. “And I’m truly grateful for that.”
Dustin backed out of the room to give his parents some privacy and almost ran into Adam and Houston.
Adam looked over Dustin’s shoulder. “What’s happening?”
“Is Dad…” Houston’s face blanched.
“He’s fine.” Dustin nodded toward the room. “Go see for yourself. He’s even grumpy.”
Both of his brothers expelled the air from their lungs.
“Thank God.” Adam shoved a hand through his dark hair, standing it on end. “I’ll just see for myself.” He entered the room to stand beside his mother, resting a hand on her shoulder.
She beamed up at him. “He woke up.”
“Damn right, I woke up,” his father’s weak voice barely carried out into the hallway. “Feel like an old mule sat on my chest.”
Houston chuckled. “And it begins.”
“He’ll give the nurses hell.” Dustin grinned, a weight of worry lifting from his shoulders. “Say hello to Dad. He’ll be happy to see you. In his own way.”
Adam backed out of the room and let Houston show his face. “He looks like hell, but if he’s got the energy to be grumpy, he’ll be going home sooner than the doctor predicted.”
“Come on, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee in the waiting room.” Dustin led the way to the room down the hall and poured coffee into two paper cups. He handed one to Adam.
Houston wasn’t far behind. “He’s going back to sleep. Mom opted to stay with him.”
Dustin handed him the other cup and poured a third.
“So what’s next?” Houston asked.
“We make sure Mom gets some rest and help out until we have to leave.” Dustin sipped the hot liquid, grimacing at the bitterness.
“Carson had everything under control at the ranch,” Adam reported. “Houston and I fed the animals while Carson went out to ride the fences and make sure the bull wasn’t visiting the neighbor’s herd.”
Houston stretched and yawned. “I slept like a baby in my old bed. It was a nice change from sleeping on the hard ground.”
“Have you considered getting out of the Army?” Dustin asked his younger brother.
Houston shook his head. “Sometimes I think it would be nice to have time off occasionally, maybe even get a girlfriend.”
Adam snorted, nearly spewing coffee. He set his cup down and coughed until he cleared the fluid from his throat. “You make it sound as if you could go to a store and buy a woman.”
“Sometimes I wish it were that simple.” Houston crossed to a window and stared out. “Not all of us have real jobs and stay in one location where we could meet a girl the regular way, take the time to woo her and fall in love. I rarely get to a second date, because it seems I’m deployed before I can call one back.”
“Speaking of dates…” Adam cornered Dustin. “How’d it go with the news reporter last night?”
“Yeah,” Houston grinned. “Did you make headlines?”
Dustin didn’t want to talk about it, but his brothers wouldn’t let him off the hook lightly. “It was all right.”
“What? Just all right? You didn’t get to her with the Ford Charm?”
Adam shook his head. “You didn’t come back to the ranch, so either she didn’t kick you out or you went to a hotel. Which was it?”
Dustin glared at his brothers. “None of your business.”
Houston gave Adam a knowing look. “As grumpy as he is, I’d say he spent the night in a hotel room.”
�
��What does it matter where I spent the night? Things between me and Jenna aren’t going to amount to anything,” Dustin insisted. “Like Houston said, what woman will put up with a man who’s gone ninety-nine percent of the time and is being shot at or having rockets fired at him while he’s hovering helplessly above the ground in a tin can?”
“A strong woman who cares enough about the man to be there when he gets back.” Dustin’s mother’s voice sounded behind him.
He spun to face her. “Mom, it’s not worth trying. It won’t work.”
“What did you say before?” She tapped her finger to her chin. “Ah, yes. You can do anything you set your mind to.”
“Except make someone love you enough to be there when you get back.” Dustin’s lips twisted. “Hell, she didn’t even wait until I left to ditch me last time. She dumped me before I left.”
“Did you ask her why?” his mother demanded.
What was with his mother’s relentless determination to dig into his past? “She told me she didn’t want to be tied down.”
Her eyes narrowed. “She didn’t want to be tied down, or she didn’t want you to be tied down?”
Dustin shrugged. “It’s the same thing.”
His mother crossed her arms. “Would you have gone on to become a SEAL if she hadn’t told you it was over?”
“Hell, no. I’d have married her and we’d have a couple kids by now.”
His mother’s lips curved into a gentle smile. “You dreamed about being a SEAL from the moment you watched a show about them on television when you were only six years old. When the Navy made the offer for you to enlist and go straight into the SEAL training program, you were beyond excited.”
“Because it got me away from here. Away from Jenna.”
“If I recall, you got that offer after you proposed to Jenna, and before she broke it off.” His mother rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you question the timing? I’ll lay you odds, Jenna knew you were selected for SEAL training when she broke your engagement. Are you sure she doesn’t love you?”