Stirring Attraction

by Sara Jane Stone

  “I’m not running away from you.” He moved closer and raised his arm. He placed his hand above hers on the door.

  “Not tonight you aren’t.” She stepped back and tugged on the top of the white towel, pulling it free. It fell, forming a pool at her feet. “Would you like to come in, Dominic?”

  Desire roared through him. But he held on to the damn door. When he let it go, when he unleashed his need to take her, claim her, make her his again, hell, he hoped this house could take it.

  He let himself look at her, really look, now before he pulled her close. He remembered her soft curves, the feel of her skin. The four-­inch line on her right side—­that was new. And while it was healing like the others, it had cut deeper.

  He moved on, taking in the swell of her hips, the blond curls he’d explored earlier, her thighs—­

  “Dominic?” she asked softly as she shifted her weight and raised her arms, crossing them in front of her naked chest. “I know I’m not the same—­”

  “I love how every inch of you looks and I always have.” He walked in, slamming the door behind him. He placed his hands on her hips and kept moving, backing her up against the wall. The archway leading to the living room stood to his left. The couch. The coffee table. But he couldn’t wait. He wanted her here. Now.

  He ran his hand down over her hips. “I’m crazy about your curves. Always have been.”

  His palms glided over her ass to her thighs. He lifted her up and her limbs obeyed, wrapping around him like they belonged right there clinging to him. He pressed her back against the bare surface, pinning her there as he slipped one hand down and withdrew the condom he’d slipped into his pocket earlier. He tore the packet open with his teeth. Then he reached down between them, freed his aching dick from his shorts, and covered himself.

  “I love you just like this.” He ran his thumb over her clit, down lower. One swift stroke. And then he thrust into her. He gave her a second to adjust. But he couldn’t wait. Her legs tightened around him and he began to thrust.

  “Just.” He pressed deeper. “Like.” He withdrew an inch and then another. “This.” And he flexed his hips. “Lily.”

  HE CAME BACK.

  Lily squeezed her thighs and dug her heels into the back of his shorts, still covering his ass. Her hand clawed at his T-­shirt. If she’d known, if she’d suspected they’d end up here, she would have demanded that he strip on the porch. She didn’t care if the neighbors saw. They probably already hated her for leaving the floodlights on.

  But she’d started to wonder if he’d left already. It was only a matter of time . . .

  He thrust harder, faster, and the wall at her back trembled. She tried to focus on the slide of his cock, the feel of his hands holding her legs as if it was nothing. Head back, eyes closed, she tried to hold tight to the moment.

  But his desire roared like a beast that had burst in determined to awaken her own need.

  “Do me a favor,” he growled. “Hold your breasts.”

  He drew back and watched as she raised her hands to her chest and cupped the bouncing flesh. Her palms brushed her nipples as he pressed his cock home.

  If only he considered this home, the place he belonged. . .

  “That’s it,” he murmured as he reached between them.

  His other hand still supported her bottom. And his body pinned her to the wall, rocking back and forth, but never leaving her room to fall. She heard a wine bottle tumble off the rack that shared this stretch of wall in the living room.

  “We’re making a mess,” she whispered.

  “Honey, in a second you won’t give a damn,” he promised. His fingers found her clit, rubbing back and forth. “I can’t hold out much longer. It’s been . . . too . . . long.”

  He groaned as he pushed harder, taking more from her, sinking deeper.

  “Oh wow.” Her fingers pressed into her breasts. The sensations—­from her chest, to the thumb dancing over her clit, to his cock pulsing inside her—­spiraled together, pushing her closer. “Oh, Dominic!”

  Her head thumped against the wall and she let go, trusting him to hold her, to keep her safe, while she drifted away into a place where pleasure dominated. Each moment tried to surpass the last, offering more, more, more . . .

  And then she felt the descent take hold, drawing her back to the panting man holding her against the wall. She opened her eyes and met his gaze.

  “I’m going to let you down,” he said. “But don’t for a second think that I’m done with you.”

  He gently lowered her legs and stepped back. And she obeyed. She remained rooted to the floor, her back leaning against the wall. “I need you to . . .” she began, panting through words.

  “Anything,” he said as he disposed of the condom.

  “I need you to take off your clothes.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Fair is fair and all that?”

  She shook her head from side to side as he reached back and pulled off his T-­shirt. “I love your curves too. The shape of your biceps, the way your waistline tapers down. The lines of your muscles disappearing beneath your pants.”

  “Careful, you’ll make me blush.”

  “Turn around and let me admire your backside,” she said. He obeyed, planting his feet hip-­width apart and letting her look her fill. Her gaze touched on the place where a bullet had slipped out after nicking one of his major arteries. But she didn’t linger there. As far as she was concerned, the proof that he’d risked his life for his country only added to the perfection of his muscular back. And his ass . . . she could stare at his butt forever.

  “Looked your fill?” he asked without moving one perfect muscle.

  “Are you blushing yet?” she teased.

  “Yeah, but I know a good place to hide my face until I recover.”

  He turned around and walked over to her. Then he sank to his knees. She gasped as his hand touched the back of her thigh, her nerves still clinging to her last orgasm, unwilling to part with the pleasure just yet.

  “Lift your leg, Lily. Rest it on my shoulder.”

  “Dominic—­”

  “Shh.” His lips brushed the place he had teased earlier as his hands explored her backside. “It’s my turn to make your cheeks turn pink.”

  WRAPPED AGAIN IN her towel, Lily sank down onto the couch, holding a glass of red wine from the bottle they’d knocked to the floor earlier. Her partner in orgasms and destruction had retrieved his boxer briefs but left the rest of his clothes in the hallway. While she’d opened the wine, he’d grabbed the cocktail shaker she’d sent flying off the top shelf of the bar when he’d tried his best to make her blush, and mixed a drink.

  “No coffee tonight?” she asked.

  “No. I caught enough sleep earlier to skip the caffeine for a few hours.” He raised the martini to his lips.

  “May I have a sip?” she asked and he obliged. One taste was enough to confirm her suspicions. “You make a much better martini. The customers at Big Buck’s would love this. And I bet you know how to pour a beer and change a keg.”

  “Trying to talk me into a job at Noah’s?” he asked mildly. “I thought he’d already taken in his share of strays.”

  “With the baby, I’m sure he could use another bartender.” She ran her finger over the rim of her wine glass and tried not to build a fantasy future in her head. “I’m only filling in. But even when she’s in town April is only part-­time.”

  “He could always train my sister to bartend. She’s been waiting tables there long enough.”

  She shook her head. “Josie wants to focus on her assistant manager role when she’s not with Isabelle.”

  “Lily, are you trying to talk me into a job working for my sister?”

  “Just while you’re in town,” she said. “I know you’re still planning to go back.”

  He nodded.
/>
  “Why?” she blurted out.

  She’d held this question back since he had first walked into the bar. She’d asked others. Would he stay? Why had he come back? But she’d been too afraid to hear the answer to this one. When he’d first come home, she’d told herself that she’d moved on—­with Ted. But even before Mr. Good Guy had handed her flowers and an apology, she’d known she was lying to herself. She didn’t love Ted and she probably never would, not the way she’d once loved the man sipping a martini on her couch.

  So she needed to summon her courage. “If there someone waiting for you? Back in Georgia? After I walked away, after you got out of hospital—­”

  “No.” His eyes widened. “After what we just did? In your hall? And you think . . . Jesus, Lily. No, there’s no one waiting for me.”

  But she kept going, spelling out her fears that had nothing to do with dark corners. “After I left, did you fall in love with someone else? Is that why you didn’t come back even after you’d healed? After you received an honorable discharged. Did you finally find someone worth staying for?”

  “I swear there’s no one else, Lily. There never was.” He let out a low, bitter bark of laughter as he raised his good hand to his hair. “I tried once. I picked up a woman in a bar a few months ago. But I couldn’t . . . she wasn’t you.”

  “One woman in all those years?” she asked, allowing her disbelief to slip into her tone. “All those deployments?”

  She’d remained faithful to him. Even when he broke up with her after Ranger School, claiming the long distance wouldn’t work due to his deployments and her mother’s constant need for care. But she’d always wondered if he’d taken advantage of their time apart. But to wait until after he’d sent her away for the last time? After he’d been discharged and her mother had succumbed to her illness?

  “One,” he said. “All it took was a single kiss and I sent her home.”

  “You never slept with anyone else?”

  “Only you.”

  She wanted to believe him. But she’d felt his hunger for pleasure. Tonight, against the entryway wall, he’d made love to her as if his desire ruled him, not the other way around. How could he have pushed all that need aside for so long, not knowing if they would ever find a way to make it work?

  The stark truth stared back at her. They’d only made love a handful of times in the past five years. And he’d never turned to anyone else?

  “Only me,” she said. “For all those years? All the ups and downs?”

  His green eyes narrowed. “If you don’t believe me, why did you make love to me?”

  “That wasn’t—­”

  “Why did you let me fuck you in the hall?” he demanded. “Why did you get down on your knees in the bar earlier? Why, Lily?”

  She stared at the hard lines of his face. Even now, his frustration and anger rising up, the answer was clear. “Because I’m safe with you. I can stop looking over my shoulder. I can feel something other than fear when I’m with you. I can escape with you for a little while.”

  “Until I leave and head back to Georgia?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  DOMINIC STARED AT the woman he’d loved since he was in high school. He could still smell her, and taste her. Even the feel of her clit lingered on his tongue. He’d explored the most intimate parts of her.

  But he was nothing more than a stopgap. He was comfortable, like a teddy bear. Familiar. Safe. And heading out of town as soon as her life went back to normal. She didn’t have to worry about falling for him all over again, or awakening dormant feelings.

  And he didn’t either.

  Because he still loved her.

  Back in Georgia, holed up in his room with his feet on a damn box, he could pretend he’d loved her in another lifetime. But his heart had always belonged to her. He’d spent most of his life trying to be a better man for her. He’d wanted to give her a future she could trust. She’d grown up with an alcoholic who’d spent more time bouncing from rehab to drunk than he ever spent at a job. Dominic had wanted to give her the best of himself.

  And he’d found that with the army. Then it had been blown away. Maybe he could find it again. He hadn’t yet. But it was time to start looking.

  “Have you changed your mind?” she asked. “Are you thinking about staying? Asking Noah for that job?”

  Hell, maybe it was the alcohol or the fact that he’d finally gotten some sleep. Or maybe his mind was playing tricks on him, but he swore she sounded hopeful. And he wanted to say yes.

  But barely six weeks had passed since her attack. And now that they’d caught the guy, her fear would start to fade. Or what if it didn’t? What if her fear held tight and he stayed, never knowing if she loved him or simply wanted a security guard who made her come so hard the walls and tables shook?

  “We need to make sure they have the right guy first,” he said. “Then I’ll decide.”

  She nodded. “Did you bring the arrest details?”

  “They’re in the car.” He set his martini on the coffee table. He’d lost his taste for it now. “I’ll go get the file.”

  “No, let it wait until morning,” she said. She set her wine glass on the table and stood. With one hand on her towel, she extended the other. “Come to bed with me.”

  “I slept most of the day,” he said, ignoring her outstretched hand. “I’ll be fine on the couch. I can keep watch tonight. Make you feel safe.”

  Fulfill my role as your bodyguard and try to remember I’m not your boyfriend anymore.

  “You can keep watch while you hold me,” she said. “Please. Lying in your arms—­that’s the safest place in the world.”

  What the hell could he say to that? He wanted to be her sanctuary, the person she ran to when she needed help. But he wanted to be so much more.

  Maybe Lily saw the truth. He wasn’t ready to love her the way she deserved to be loved. She should have a man in her life that could give the best version of himself to her—­in bed and out. Dominic could fuck her against a wall and watch her back. Beyond that?

  Hell, he didn’t have clue what the best version of himself was anymore.

  But he stood and followed her down the hall. He checked behind the door and scanned the bathroom for her before she went in to brush her teeth. Then, he stripped off his boxer briefs as she dropped her towel, and climbed into bed with her.

  She rolled onto her side, facing the window. The curtains were drawn tonight, he noted as he moved behind her. He wrapped his right arm around her and pulled her back until her backside pressed up against his dick.

  And while the rest of him couldn’t hide from the fact that he’d bared his heart and soul tonight and she’d challenged him, unable to believe he’d never wanted anyone else, his dick rose to attention at the contact. But he ignored his physical response to having the woman he loved in his arms. Because not once had she said the words he needed to hear.

  “Dominic?”

  “Yeah?” His lips brushed her bare shoulder.

  “There was never anyone else for me either,” she whispered.

  Those words. I needed to hear you say those words.

  “I tried with Ted,” she continued.

  His muscles contracted, drawing her closer to him, as if trying to pull her away from the past and Ted, who sure as shit didn’t have any business being in bed with them.

  “But there was never anyone else. Not while you were in training or deployed. It wasn’t until you had the chance to come home and didn’t . . .”

  “I wasn’t ready.” He pressed his lips to her shoulder. Hell, he still didn’t know if he was.

  “I know,” she said. “But, Dominic, I can’t wait anymore. I want to have a family and build a future. So if you decide to stay, if you tell me you will, I . . . I need you to mean it.”

  “I won’t lie to you.” He ra
n his hand down her body, caressing her curves and drawing her back. “If nothing else, you can trust me.”

  She reached up, wrapping her arms around her neck. Her body stretched out before him, granting him access. Her legs parted and he slipped his hand between them, touching and stroking.

  “I know I can,” she said dreamily as her hips rose up to his touch. “I think you were the only person who believed me when I was convinced the man who attacked me knew me and wanted to strike again.”

  His hand stilled. Shit, he’d already lied to her. Earlier, when she’d asked him if they had the right guy, he’d said yes. But he knew there were inconsistencies. Still, he’d let her believe she was safe. In the end, she would know when she saw the file waiting in his car. She’d be able to judge for herself. She was the only one who could make that call.

  “Dominic?” she asked.

  Damn, he’d messed this up. He’d let his need drive him. He’d nearly kicked down her door tonight. And he hadn’t been hell-­bent on handing over the file. He’d wanted to sink into her, claim her, fuck her.

  God, he was an ass.

  “You don’t have to stop touching me,” she said, still looking up at him as if he was a good guy. “I have a box of condoms in my nightstand.”

  “You do?” And yeah, that pulled his attention away from the fact that he wasn’t anywhere close to a perfect score when it came to being the guy for her. “How old are they?”

  “They’re new. I bought them in case—­”

  He cut her off with a kiss. Her lips parted beneath his, granting him access and kissing him back. Slowly, once he felt he’d proven his point—­they weren’t going to say Ted’s name again while lying naked together—­he drew back and reached for the nightstand.

  He reached into the drawer and pulled out papers, a book, and finally the sealed box of condoms. He ripped it open and tore off a packet. He was tempted to use every damn one in the box tonight. So she never got the chance to with Ted or anyone else.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” she murmured as he covered himself and turned to her. “You want to use them all tonight.”