“You were small and tight when I slipped my fingers into you before. We’re going to take this easy, then.”
Her lips curved and she lifted the shirt up and over his head, taking pleasure in the dusting of dark hair across his chest. Dropping the shirt to the carpeted floor, she gently grazed the pink scar that had fully healed along his left side. She felt around for any swelling, gently palpating the region, seeing if he winced or tensed. He did not.
“Doc,” he growled, “I’m a hundred percent. Don’t be looking at my scar and deciding we can’t have any sex.”
“Just want to make sure.”
“I’m fine,” he ground out, slipping his hands beneath her tee. “You’re not wearing a bra, Sloan.”
She laughed, running her hands across his thick shoulders, feeling his strength and warmth beneath her fingertips. “You know I never wore one at Bagram. Why look so surprised about it now?”
“You know how to make a man hard in a split second. You always did. I will never get enough of you,” he rasped, sliding his hands around her warm breasts, hearing her moan, her fingers digging into his upper arms, telling him she welcomed his touch. The moment he moved his thumbs languidly across those hardened pink nipples, she nearly collapsed against him.
“You’re starving again, aren’t you, baby?” He licked her earlobe, hearing her gasp with delight. He could already smell her sex scent, knowing full well she was juicy, the rich, delicious honey aroma of her body spilling out of her entrance as he continued to lavish her nipples. Sloan’s eyes shuttered closed, and he heard that hum in her throat, telling him he was pleasing her. That made him feel so damn strong. His heart was in the mix because he didn’t want her to collapse on the floor if he teased her too much too soon. He wanted her in his bed with him.
CHAPTER 20
Slowly, moving through layers that reminded Sloan of scuba diving from a great depth and heading toward the surface above her, she floated toward the light. She stirred, feeling happiness threading through her heart. And then, she felt Dan’s lips caressing hers, his palm against her cheek, worshipping her awake. All her yearnings, all her dreams from years before, had dissolved in last night’s lovemaking. This was real. Dan was here with her. He held her against himself, his large, hard warm body cradling hers. She felt his cock stirring against her belly, and she languished in the emotional heat that he was sharing with her.
She smiled up at him, feeling drowsy and sated. Her body was humming with a level of pleasure she’d never experienced before. He smiled down at her, moving a few strands of hair away from her cheek, nestling them behind her ear. “Can I wake up like this with you every day?” she asked.
“I’m open to anything you want, Sloan.”
“From now on, I want to live with you, Dan. I want the right to know you in ways we’ve never had a chance to have. What do you want?”
Dan always admired Sloan’s fearlessness on any topic when she decided to confront something. As a special-ops soldier, she had done it all the time. Now, he was seeing all those years she spent as a medic and soldier flavoring their relationship once again. “I want you,” he growled, sliding his fingers across her cheek. He saw it was affecting her; her eyes half closed, arousal in them. Twisting his hips, he watched her lips part, a soft sound slipping between them.
“Mmmm, you really know how to make a girl feel good, Malloy.”
“I want the chance to make you feel good every day,” he growled, nipping her lower lip. “And I’m talking about more than just having sex with you. I want to be clear about that.”
She sighed and nuzzled into his neck, kissing him and then licking his salty flesh, feeling him tense, knowing he liked what she was doing to him. Lifting her head away just enough to catch his burning gaze, she whispered, “But we can still have as much sex as we want? Whenever we want?” She watched his grin deepen.
“Like I said, I want you in any way you’ll share with me. If you want sex three times a day, every day, it will be my duty and honor to provide it to you. Fair enough?”
Her brows moved upward, and she stretched languidly against him, her hips grinding suggestively into his, watching his expression grow primal. “There’s never been an argument about us being good in bed together.”
“Or,” he rasped, “anywhere else. We aren’t that vanilla.”
Moaning, her hips pressed against his, feeling his cock rub suggestively against the opening of her channel, she became lost in the heat he was building rapidly within her. “No, we’ve never been vanilla,” she agreed with a sigh.
“Okay,” she breathed, firmness in her tone, “we’re both too easily swayed by the great sex we share, Dan. I need to talk to you and not be so damned distracted.”
He propped himself up on one elbow, giving her a lazy look. “I kind of like the way we’re communicating with one another, baby.” He cupped her breast, stroking his thumb across her nipple, watching her react. “I could touch you all day, every day, Sloan. You’re that sexy to me.” He dropped his hand from her breast and slid it across her thigh. “Let’s live together. It’s a good place to start, don’t you think?”
She gave him a dark look, feeling his palm cup her cheek, moving his fingers beneath her thigh, his fingers so close to her wet entrance. Scooting away from him, she whispered, “This is serious, Dan.”
He stopped caressing her, seeing the frustration come to her expression. “I’m listening,” he told her patiently, absorbing her slender body, those pert breasts with pink, hard nipples.
“Our issues aren’t about sex, Dan. They’re about a lot of other things.”
“And I want to work on those with you, Sloan. I think you’ve seen me trying to make the changes you need.”
Nodding, her expression softened. “It’s like a day and night difference, Dan.”
“I think,” he rasped, laying his hand on her knee, stroking it gently, “that nearly dying did it.”
“I think almost dying has reset you. I’ve never been so thoroughly loved by you before. I always knew that man was in you, but I never saw it, or experienced it, until now.” She saw his brows dip, the building heat in his eyes, replaced with sadness.
Dan sighed and sat up. “Come here, we do need a serious talk right now.” Sloan came and sat on his lap, nestling beneath his right arm, laying her head on his shoulder, her hand slowly grazing his chest. This felt so damned good to him, so right that his throat tightened.
“Sloan, I need you like I need oxygen to breathe when I’m scuba diving. I want you in my life. I want to live with you. I want to fight with you. I want to make up with you. I want to have damn good sex with you. I never realized how important you were to me until I left you. I’ve had four long years to think about what I’ve done.” He moved his hand across her shoulder, cupping her arm, holding her upturned gaze. “I told you before, I don’t know what love is. Maybe you can teach me what it is, over time. I care for you, Sloan, more than any person on this earth. Earlier, I tried to tell you how much I cared by how I had sex with you.”
“You did. I felt and saw the difference, Dan. And it was wonderful. You were sharing emotionally with me this time, not just taking something away from me as you did before.”
“Good,” he rasped, relieved. “I told you before, I’m going to make hellacious mistakes with you, but it’s not from lack of trying to be the man you really deserve.”
Sighing, she nuzzled his jaw, caressing his broad shoulder. “You were brought up without much love, Dan. No one taught you or gave you those tools, or showed you what love, affection, and care were all about.”
“Can I get them, Sloan? Is it possible?”
Her heart wrenched because she heard the concern, the worry in his voice that he was somehow lacking. “It’s entirely possible,” she promised, her voice catching as she fought back tears. In her mind, she could see that little boy abandoned by his mother.
“You don’t lack anything. You have a heart that can be taught love in every re
spect. You have to give yourself time. I know how much of a Type-A competitor you are, and you aren’t good at patience.” She smiled and kissed his jaw. “No one taught you that, did they?”
He shook his head. “No…”
“Well, there’s a part of us that automatically knows what someone else needs. It’s called having a heart. Compassion. And love is part of that, too.” She searched his eyes, seeing relief come to them. She could feel how desperate he was to convince her that he loved her but he didn’t see it in himself. Most men did not. If Sloan hadn’t taught herself to be self-aware, to watch how she dealt with herself and the world around her, she would have never grown out of the unhealthy relationship she’d originally agreed to with Dan in the first place. Those four years had opened her eyes, and she’d seen her shortcomings, her unhealthy shadow of herself. And she’d fixed it. As soon as she felt good about overcoming that hurdle, Dan walked back into her life. She knew a test when it happened, and there was no mistake in them crossing paths again. Dan didn’t see it this way, but that was all right.
“So? Will you be patient with me, Sloan?”
“I would give anything to share time and space with you. Yes, I’ll be patient because you know what? When you love someone, you stay patient because you know they’re trying the best they can.”
“I won’t be perfect. I worry about disappointing you again.”
Laying her head on his shoulder, she caressed his neck and whispered, “There will be times I’ll disappoint you, too, Dan. It happens in a relationship where two people’s hearts are invested in one another.”
“That will never happen,” Dan growled. “You complete me, baby. I realized that about a year after I left you.”
“We’re like two lost puzzle pieces trying to find one another again,” she agreed, closing her eyes, feeling incredibly loved by him.
“Then, I’m glad we’re going to live together. Eat together. Have sex when we feel like it.”
She managed a soft laugh, caressing his cheek. “You’ve come so far already, Dan. If you’re like this with me the rest of our lives, I’m satisfied.”
“I hope someday I can know what love is so you can be the first person I love.”
“Care is a really good start,” she offered. “It’s good enough, Dan. And if I’m okay with it, you should be too. Care is fine,” she repeated firmly, giving him a confident look she hoped he’d absorb. “As long as you let me tell you that I love you, I’m fine with you telling me you care for me. Okay?”
“Okay, baby, that’s doable. I like when you tell me you love me because I know you know what love is. Coming from you, I feel it in my heart, and it makes me damn near giddy when you share it with me.”
“We’re a work in progress, Dan. We need to give the other person a lot of room to run around, that’s all.”
“How about a shower together?”
She opened her eyes, seeing that feral gleam in them. “Oh, she murmured playfully, “I don’t think it’s because you want to get clean.”
“Caught me dead to rights.”
She smiled. “Come on, let’s celebrate our new life together.”
Dan felt all his worries melt away. He had a real chance with Sloan. “Yeah, let’s swim together in the shower,” he grunted, opening his arms, allowing her to slide off his lap. As he slid off the bed, and she walked around it, he captured her hand, drawing her against him. He kissed her with everything he had, his heart exploding with such joy, he didn’t know what to call it. Dan would continue to show Sloan how he felt toward her. He was much better at physical show-and-tell than words. And he saw joy in her eyes. It was enough. More than enough.
Don’t miss Lindsay McKenna’s next book,
Redemption
Available from Blue Turtle Publishing!
Turn the page for a sneak peek of Redemption.
Excerpt from
Redemption
Sloan Kennedy entered her condo in Alexandria, Virginia. Dan Malloy was wearing a green apron around his waist as he worked at the kitchen counter. He turned, giving her a look that made her whole body hum with need for him. He called what they had, sex. To her? It was making love. The difference between a woman’s view of that wonderful interlude versus how many men saw it, was poles apart. Her heart turned with love for him because she knew he was trying to change for her. And if he didn’t really love her, despite him walking around that word like it was going to give him the Plague, he wouldn’t be living with her. A person didn’t put this kind of effort into something they didn’t care deeply about it.
“Hey,” she called, shrugging out of her denim jacket and bright red knit scarf, “that smells good. What are you cooking?” She hung her coat in the nearby closet and dropped the scarf over a wooden peg.
“Figured we could use a New Year’s Eve dinner that would reflect our hopes for the coming year,” he said.
Sloan smiled and sauntered over, sliding her arms around his narrow waist, resting her cheek against his wide, lean back. She inhaled. “You smell kinda good to me,” she said, moving her hips suggestively against that tight butt of his beneath the form fitting jeans he wore.
“Yeah?” he teased, putting the bowl and whisk aside, turning, looping his arms around her. “Isn’t what I’m making smell good too?” and he gave her a wicked look, moving his hands knowingly up and down the back of her angora sweater.
Her flesh tightened beneath is fingers and she allowed her hips to fall against his, feeling his erection grow beneath the jeans. Her lower body went from simmer to boil as she read the hunger in his eyes for her. Dan was six-foot-tall and she was two inches shorter. He had a broad set of shoulders as she’d seen so often with pilots. Maybe body type went with helo pilots? She’d have to ponder that later because she could feel her juices gathering, that gnawing feeling beginning in her channel, enjoying the sensations of slowly rubbing herself against him. She watched his blue eyes darken upon her and she grinned mischievously, humming with satisfaction. “That does smell good. But you know what?”
“What?” he growled, sliding his hands over her hips, capturing her cheeks beneath his large hands, moving his pelvis suggestively against her. Dan watched her lids shutter closed as he moved his thigh between her legs, rubbing that sweet area, watching her expression change, her lips part, that happy sound caught in her throat.
“Mmmm, don’t stop,” she gasped, a need for release soaring like an out of control fire up and into her needy body. His hands were strong, guiding, and she felt her juices flowing hotly, spilling out of her entrance, the fluid rapidly eaten up by the fabric between her thighs.
“I have about an hour before I have to finish things up for our meal tonight,” he told her gruffly, watching the pleasure in her face, seeing her cheeks flame a deep pink, knowing she was ready to have sex with him. They couldn’t be around one another very long because they were like North and South Pole magnets, burning and attracted to one another. Dan had never known such powerful need with a woman other than Sloan. She did something to him and whatever it was, he was glad. They might have had nearly six years of on again-off again relationship but one place they both agreed was having hot, satisfying sex with one another.
Sighing, Sloan barely opened her eyes, the throbbing increasing within her. Dan knew how to hold her, use his strength to firmly bring her down on his proffered thigh, knew just the amount of pressure to drag her slowly forward and back, exciting her, making her ready for him. “I like that idea, Malloy,” she whispered, smiling into his eyes that burned with hunger for her. “Dessert before dinner. My kind of guy.”
The Books of Delos
Title: Last Chance (Prologue)
Publish Date: July 15, 2015
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/last-chance
Title: Nowhere to Hide
Publish Date: October 13, 2015
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/nowhere-to-hide
Title: Tangled Pursuit
Publish Dat
e: November 11, 2015
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/tangled-pursuit
Title: Forged in Fire
Publish Date: December 3, 2015
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/forged-in-fire
Title: Broken Dreams
Publish Date: January 2, 2016
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/broken-dreams
Title: Blind Sided
Publish Date: June 5, 2016
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/blind-sided
Title: Secret Dream
Publish Date: July 25, 2016
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/secret-dream
Title: Hold On
Publish Date: August 3, 2016
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/hold-on
Title: Hold Me
Publish Date: August 11, 2016
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/hold-me
Title: Unbound Pursuit
Publish Date: September 29, 2016
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/unbound-pursuit
Title: Secrets
Publish Date: November 21, 2016
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/secrets
Title: Snowflake’s Gift
Publish Date: February 4, 2017
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/snowflakes-gift
Title: Never Enough
Publish Date: March 1, 2017
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/never-enough
Title: Dream of Me
Publish Date: May 23, 2017
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/dream-of-me
Title: Trapped
Publish Date: July 17, 2017
Learn more at: delos.lindsaymckenna.com/trapped
Dangerous: Delos Series, Book 10 Page 19