The only sound was their breaths in the darkness. Chloe relaxed against him, her forehead dropping to his. Her naked body was warm, slightly damp. Her arms curled around him and he skimmed his fingers up her spine. Down again.
This was the moment when he usually thought about leaving. Sometimes he’d stay and do it all again, but sometimes he was done and he needed to go. He wasn’t thinking about leaving, though. He was thinking about sleeping with Chloe in his arms, waking up in a few hours and making her come again in the daylight when he could watch every expression as it crossed her face.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her, pushing a lock of her hair off her shoulder.
“I don’t know. You?”
She didn’t know? “Like I died and went to heaven.”
“I think I feel the same. I didn’t want to say it first though.”
“Why not?”
“Because I thought you’d think I was exaggerating.”
He snorted. “Honey, you can never exaggerate too much when saying nice things about a man’s performance. Best dick ever. Best orgasm I ever had. Magic tongue. We like those things.”
She caressed his cheek. “Well, it was all of those. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He ran his hands down her hips, her thighs. “I could stay like this all night, but I have to get rid of the condom.”
“Oh, of course.” She lifted herself off him, shifted to the side. He hated that they weren’t joined any longer but he stood and went into the small attached bath, took care of the condom and then washed his face and hands.
When he returned to the bedroom, she was on her belly, legs sprawled, arms wrapped around a pillow. He walked over to the bed and gazed down at her. Her eyes were closed.
“Chloe?”
“Mmm,” she said, but she didn’t open her eyes.
Ryan shook his head. Then he lay down beside her and gathered her close. She burrowed against him, sighing softly.
A few minutes later, he was out cold.
Chloe woke when the sunlight slanted across her eyes. She knew from experience that it was about seven a.m. The sun hit the blinds at just the correct angle then and light spilled over the bed.
It took her a moment to gather her wits. There was something solid at her back. Something warm. Hard. Masculine.
Oh wow. Chloe’s heartbeat kicked up. She’d gotten sexy with Ryan Callahan. Like, seriously sexy. Two weeks after he’d stood on his porch naked and said he’d move his truck, she’d gotten intimately acquainted with his beautiful body. That was a record for her. Two weeks.
Jeez. But she didn’t regret it. Not yet anyway.
Carefully, she slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom to pee and brush her teeth. Her reflection made her jaw drop open. Her hair was mussed and her lips were red and slightly swollen from all his kisses. She looked… satisfied.
Very satisfied.
Chloe ran her fingers down her body. Her skin was still so sensitive. She pinched her nipples, surprised at the answering ache deep inside. She shook her head and reached over to turn on the taps for the walk-in shower. As the water heated, she combed her hair so it wouldn’t tangle. Then she stepped inside, her mind still racing over everything she’d done with Ryan.
She’d texted him because she couldn’t sleep. They’d gone from flirty texts to almost phone-sex to actual sex in the space of a few minutes. What was it about him that made her throw caution to the wind that way?
The promise of a really good licking, Chloe.
She put her head under the spray. Yep, that had done it. The man swore he was dying to lick her pussy and her brain had short-circuited. Hard to regret it though because he’d delivered on that promise—and then some.
“Knock knock.” Ryan’s voice slid down her spine like hot honey.
“Morning,” she called out even while she blushed. Now what?
She could see him through the steamy shower door. He was a large, masculine shape. All one color, which meant he was naked. Rawr.
“You know, if you’d like to conserve water, we’ve got this new neighborhood program going on…” he began.
She smiled. “Oh really? Tell me more about it, sir.”
“Well, it works like this. You shower with a friend. He soaps your body, you soap his. Much more efficient.”
“Is it now? Doesn’t it take longer that way?”
“We’re still testing the program for flaws. But we’d love to have your input.”
“Then I guess you’d better get in here.”
“Oh, I didn’t say it was me who’d test it with you, ma’am. I’ll have to call a colleague. He’ll make an appointment when it’s convenient for you—”
Chloe shoved the shower door open and frowned at him. “It’s you or nobody, soldier.”
He grinned. “Now that’s the right answer. Oh, and it’s sailor,” he said as he stepped into the shower with her and tugged the door closed.
He dropped something on the shower floor but Chloe was stuck feasting her eyes on his naked body. She’d seen him on his porch but hadn’t really looked at him. She’d seen him in the moonlight last night. Now? Oh wow, now was the best yet. He was tall, muscled, tattooed, and defined. His muscles had muscles, and she could see every ridge and bump. In short, he was utterly beautiful.
It took her a minute to process what he’d said. “Sailor?”
He stuck his head under the spray for a second. Wiped his hand down his face in the sexiest gesture since gestures were invented. His dark eyes fixed on hers. “I’m in the Navy. We’re sailors. Soldiers are in the Army.”
“Oh. So what about the Air Force?”
“Airmen.”
“The Marines?”
“Marines.” He raked his wet hair from his face and reached for the bottle of body wash. “Do you really want to talk about the military? Or should we talk about how filthy you are right now?”
She dropped her gaze to his dick. It jutted out from his body and she wrapped her hand around it. “I’m filthy? I’d say you’re filthy. Who knows where you’ve had this thing.”
She squeezed and he groaned. “I’d like to put it back in the same place I had it before.”
“Would you now?”
“Chloe. Stop squeezing it or this is going to end quicker than we both want.”
She put her hands on his chest, stepped into him as the hot water ran down her back. He was so tall she had to tip her head back to look up at him. Her chin came to the middle of his torso. He made her feel safe. Cherished. An odd thought for a hookup, but there it was.
Their mouths fused together and Chloe’s belly flipped. Good God the man could kiss. He dropped the bottle of body wash. His tongue stroked into her mouth, eliciting a fresh flood of arousal between her legs. Eventually he sank to his knees and hooked one of her legs over his shoulder, exposing her. Chloe held onto him for dear life as he tongued her aching clit, two fingers sliding into her body and setting up a rhythm. It didn’t take long for her to tumble over the edge. After she’d shuddered hard and begged him to stop because she was so sensitive, he rose in one fluid movement, a condom wrapper in his hand.
So that’s what he’d dropped.
He tore it open and sheathed himself, then lifted her until she could wrap her legs around his waist. He fucked her like that, her back against the wall, his thrusts hard and deep and so delicious, until she shattered apart again with a sharp cry. He groaned soon after, his cheek pressed to hers, his voice rough in her ear. She could feel his cock pulsing with release and she bore down with her inner muscles so that he groaned even harder.
“Damn, Chloe. Holy hell,” he rasped. “You’re so fucking gorgeous. So perfect.”
Happiness suffused her, making her glow from the inside out. She hadn’t felt that emotion in so long that it stunned her for a moment. Then she sighed and pressed her lips to his ear.
“For the record, showering with a friend doesn’t appear to save time or water. But I’d say there’s mer
it to the program. I’ll need to test it a few more times before I give my official report.”
Ryan’s laugh was raspy. “Then I guess I’d better pencil you into the calendar.”
“You do that, sailor.”
“What on earth is that look all about?” Avery asked.
Chloe blinked. “What look?”
“You were in outer space just now. Smiling and blushing to yourself. Is it that sexy Navy SEAL neighbor?”
Busted. “Um, maybe.”
“Maybe? What does that mean? Did you go out with him again? Kiss him? What?”
JoJo walked into the break room just then. It was lunch time and they usually ate together. Sometimes one of them had a client and they kept working, but they tried to schedule forty-five minutes to eat and talk together on most days. One of the things Chloe loved about working at Hair Affair.
“Kiss who?” JoJo asked as she grabbed her takeout container of sweet and sour chicken.
Avery arched an eyebrow. “The Navy SEAL. I think Chloe must have kissed him. She’s been in outer space all morning.”
“Oh, did you?” JoJo’s face lit up like she was hoping for something really good.
Chloe dropped her gaze to her chicken and broccoli. She pushed the pieces around with her chopsticks, wanting to tell them and wanting to keep it to herself too. It was still so new that she felt like talking about it might jinx it.
“You are totally blushing,” JoJo said. “Must have been one hell of a kiss—or did you jump him?”
Avery gasped. “Oh my goodness, did you?”
Chloe lifted her head. Stared at them both evenly. Happiness was a bubble inside her. A bubble that demanded escape. “He spent the night last night.”
JoJo and Avery exchanged a look. “On the couch?”
“No.”
JoJo made a noise. She put her hand over her heart. “Oh girl, I want to know everything.”
Chloe laughed. “I’m not going into details. It’s personal. But he knows how to use what God gave him—all of it.”
“The sacred trinity,” JoJo breathed.
Chloe and Avery laughed. “What?” Avery asked. “Girl, you’re nuts.”
JoJo shook her head. “I’m not. Fingers, tongue, dick. The trinity. If a man gets all those right, he’s probably a keeper. I mean you can live with one of them if you have to, but two is better. Three is best.”
“Oh lord, where do you come up with this stuff?” Chloe asked, still laughing.
“Experience,” JoJo said. “Trust me, if he can’t get even one of those right, then he’s got to go. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
Avery was shaking her head. “I don’t know where you’re meeting these guys, Jo, but it sounds to me like you need a better hunting ground.”
JoJo shrugged. “Probably true. Maybe I should go hang out at Chloe’s house.”
“Or try Buddy’s Bar & Grill,” Chloe said.
JoJo frowned. “Isn’t that a dive bar?”
“I thought so, but no. And even if it was, it’s packed full of military guys most nights.”
“Oooh, now you’re talking.”
“Back to your SEAL,” Avery said pointedly. “Ryan, right?”
“Yes. We were texting, and then he came over and, uh, things happened.” She didn’t want to tell them about the message someone had left in her mailbox. It put a cloud over everything.
“How do you feel about that?” Avery asked.
Chloe dragged in a breath. “I feel like it happened fast, but I also feel like it was right. I mean he’s really sweet. And sexy.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’ll turn out to be a mistake, but right now it doesn’t feel like it.”
Avery reached over and patted her arm. “Good for you, girl. Sometimes you have to seize the bull by the horns.”
“Or the SEAL by the balls,” JoJo added, waggling her eyebrows.
Avery rolled her eyes. “Lord have mercy.” The bell for the shop tinkled just then. Avery glanced at her watch. “Oops, that’ll be Mrs. Clifton. I still have to mix her color.” She stood up and tossed her empty container in the trash before heading out to greet the client.
Chloe hurried to finish her own food before her next client arrived. Avery walked back into the break room, frowning. She held out an envelope.
“It wasn’t Mrs. Clifton. A man dropped this off for you.”
Chloe’s heart thumped. “For me? What did he look like?”
“Tall, skinny, cowboy boots. Scruffy. Definitely not a SEAL.”
“I don’t know anyone like that.” She eyed the envelope Avery held out. Then she took it because she couldn’t let Avery hold it forever.
It was white, smudged with dirt at one end, and had her name scrawled on the front. Just her first name. She turned it over and stared for a long moment before she ripped it open. A single sheet of paper was folded into thirds. She unfolded it.
Her heart squeezed hard. Sweat popped up all over her body. A single word stared back at her.
Whore.
Twelve
“We’ve got nothing on Travis James,” Viking said. “He has credit cards, but he hasn’t used them in about six days. The last place he charged anything was a gas station in Cedarville nine days ago.”
“Does he have a job?”
“Doesn’t need one. His parents sold land to a developer about ten years ago. Got paid a huge sum. They were killed in a single-engine plane crash about eight years ago and Travis inherited everything. He bought two-hundred acres near Cedarville and he’s been living there since.”
“So he’s rich?”
“He has money. I don’t know about rich. He’s been withdrawing money for years, fortifying his land and buying weapons. At least that’s what the police reports about him say.”
Ryan raked a hand through his hair. “Great. So he could come looking for Chloe but we don’t know if he has or not.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Well, hell. That’s not what I wanted to tell her.”
Viking leaned back in his chair. “She seems nice. Ivy liked her.”
“She is nice.” And sexy and sweet and hot—not that he was telling Viking any of that. His mind wandered back to this morning in the shower. Holy fucking hell, that had been hot. Last night had been hot too. When she’d sank onto his cock and rode him, it had taken everything he had to hold on until she came first.
This morning he’d been more in control of himself, but even that had been a close thing once he’d gotten inside her. It hadn’t been that damned long since he’d had sex, but maybe Chloe was just more exciting than the last few women he’d been with.
Viking picked up a stress ball and threw it back and forth between his hands. “It could be Darrell Pruitt. He’s been working at a retail distribution center since the second day after he quit the moving company job. He’s in a warehouse, loading pallets. Working the night shift.”
“It seems like a lot of hassle, doesn’t it? I mean one text, sure. But leaving a note in her mailbox? One that said die? It’s kind of extreme, even for an idiot like Pruitt.”
“Yeah, but he’s been violent with women before. They tended to be girlfriends, but if he were angry enough, who knows? It doesn’t have to make sense to us.”
Ryan didn’t like that some asshole was threatening Chloe. He liked it even less that they didn’t have a lock on who it was. “That’s true. But my money’s on James. He’s the one with wounded pride. She left him in the middle of the night with a truckload of household goods. Had to piss him off when he figured it out, especially since he’s the controlling type.”
He hadn’t told Viking that Travis James hit Chloe. He’d mention it if it mattered to finding James, but it didn’t. Not yet.
Viking was frowning. “I’m not disagreeing with you. Travis James has enough money and enough time to track Chloe down if he’s the resentful type. And it sounds like he probably is. Did she say if he threatened her before?”
“I take it he wasn’t exactly a nice
guy when they were dating.”
“Physical abuse?”
Damn it, leave it to Viking to read between the lines. It was Chloe’s story to tell, but Ryan wasn’t going to lie to his team leader. “I don’t know the extent of it, but yeah. I’d appreciate it if you don’t mention that to anyone else.”
Viking’s lips thinned. “I won’t. But fuck, I really don’t like Travis James. I kinda hope it is him threatening her and that we catch him in the act. Because I’d love to kick his ass.”
“He’s mine,” Ryan growled. “All mine.”
Viking studied him. “All right, Dirty. You get him first if we catch him.”
“We’ll catch him.”
The rest of the day passed quickly with training and reports. There was a briefing about a possible mission to South America. A drug lord was rumored to be taking over a region that had an American worker population. There’d been no incursions into the American areas, but if it exploded into violence, HOT had to be ready to go.
For once, Ryan prayed it wasn’t the SEALs who went. Let one of the other squads handle this one. He wanted to be here for Chloe in case she needed him. If he left town for a few days or weeks, what might happen if he hadn’t yet discovered who was threatening her?
By the time Ryan got into his truck to head home, the anticipation of seeing Chloe had built to a fever pitch. They were having dinner together tonight—she was cooking for him. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, greens, biscuits, and something called strawberry pretzel salad. She said it was a dessert but he wasn’t so sure. It didn’t sound like anything he would like, but she swore it was the best thing in the world. And she said it with such conviction that he wasn’t about to disappoint her by hinting he was worried about it. Hell, even if it tasted like ass, he wasn’t admitting he didn’t like it. He’d eat every single bite if it meant he got more time in her bed.
He felt kind of guilty that he’d told Neo not to come over for dinner, but his roomie had only shaken his head and laughed. “Fine, but you’re gonna owe me one.”
HOT SEAL Hero: HOT SEAL Team - Book 7 Page 10