by Em Petrova
Desire flooded in.
“I don’t believe in holding back what I feel, and I’ve been dying to do this since I set eyes on you at the park.” He kissed her, a soft caress that seemed at odds with such a large and dangerous-looking man.
The instant she tasted him, man and toothpaste and coffee, she let out a moan.
She looped her arms around his neck, and he pulled her onto tiptoe so she was able to feel his big, hard, muscled chest for the first time.
He gathered her up, mouth pressing more insistently over hers, and she deepened the caress by parting her lips for him.
“Hell,” he grated out a split second before sweeping his tongue inside. She gulped back another stifled moan and closed her eyes on the feel of his tongue moving across hers and the pressure building in her core.
A voice in the back of her head told her to stop, to find someplace that wasn’t on a street on a Sunday morning.
She pressed on his chest, and he came to his wits, lifting his mouth away. “Not here,” he said before she could speak the words.
She nodded.
Without a word between them about the plan, she moved on unsteady legs to her car parked a short distance away. She climbed behind the wheel. He slipped into the passenger’s seat, and his door barely closed before he was reaching for her.
She moved toward him, and he yanked her halfway across the console so she was in his arms once more.
Since losing Darren, she hadn’t thought much about her needs. She’d been so focused on just putting one foot in front of the other and keeping busy and healing that she hadn’t let the feminine desires take hold.
Now, Cav had unlocked a door and a floodtide came rushing out. She wiggled closer. He dragged her the rest of the way into his arms. The street wasn’t very busy yet, thankfully, and she hoped nobody noticed a respectable teacher with her car windows steamed up.
She pulled away. “Cav, I can’t do this here.”
He searched her eyes, but the glint of passion in his didn’t cool one bit. “Then drive. Your place?” He shook himself. “No, I don’t have much time, I am goddamn sorry to say.”
A thrill passed through her at the note of frustration in his voice.
“The park will be abandoned at this time of day. I’d never take you in a park, baby. But I don’t want to stop kissing you either.”
Her pulse raced. Her mind raced. Her body was a knot of hot, slick nerves.
He cupped her cheek with so much tenderness that her pulse pounded harder. “Maybe we should stop, though. Last thing I want to do is leave things unfinished, and I don’t have long before I need to get to work.”
Trembling slightly, she didn’t even hesitate to drop back into the driver’s seat and start the car. She’d made her choice, and it was to have more of Cav’s kisses.
This was insane. She wasn’t making sense, even to herself. But the need to feel Cav’s lips on hers and her body pressed tight to him overruled anything else.
When she reached the park and stopped the car under a big shade tree, she threw him a look.
A growl rumbled his chest, and he leaned across the console to kiss her again. This time, the kiss was deeper, harder, more full of need. She felt his restraint and wanted to break through that barrier, whatever it was.
This wasn’t even like her. She didn’t think this way, not ever.
Maybe behind these stolen moments were years of pent-up desire.
Maybe… maybe it was Cav.
He cradled her jaw with as much tenderness as he’d hold a baby bird or fine spun glass as he slid his tongue over hers again and again. When he threaded his fingers into her hair and tugged lightly, a moan left her.
He wrapped her hair more tightly around his fist and drew her head back. Her neck arched.
“You like that, baby?”
The jitters claimed her body like she’d put the old vibrator she hadn’t used forever on the ultra-high setting.
Her pulse raced. “I do.” Her mouth was dry, and she licked her lips.
“God, you’re beautiful.” He raked his gaze over her face and neck, to the tops of her breasts in her modest top. His grip on her hair loosened, but she let her head fall into his big palm. “I want those drinks I promised you tomorrow night more than anything. But I’m going to have to postpone it.”
His words careened through her like a reckless driver.
“For work?” She could barely recall anything that had happened between primping in the mirror at home and having his tongue in her mouth.
“Yeah, that call… something came up. But I can’t leave you this way. I can see the need burning in your eyes.” He skated a hand across her side, brushing over her breast and then down her hip. When he moved down her outer thigh to her knee, liquid heat pooled low in her belly.
“Cav…” His name came out as a breath.
His stare drilled into her, pinning her to the seat. He ran his callused fingertips over her bare knee, then higher, fanning over her thigh. And inching upward rapidly.
Her head fell back into his hand. Her knees fell apart. He moved his fingers higher up her leg, hiking her skirt up enough to gain access to her panties. Tremors of desire shook her.
“Kiss me,” she murmured, leaning in at the same moment he bent to claim her lips.
As he slipped a fingertip under the leg of her panties and breached the bare flesh of her pussy, she cried out. Her stomach tightened, and warmth flooded his finger. He groaned out, and she swallowed the sound with her kiss.
He eased his fingertip up her slit to find her nubbin, hard and aching and on fire for his touch. It had been so long, and she’d forgotten all about this. About how a man could make her feel. Even as the thought struck, she knew she wouldn’t feel this way about just any man. It was Cav.
He circled her clit, and she stiffened. A few more strokes and it would be all over—she’d be a puddle of pulsating passion in the seat.
“You’re already clenching at my touch,” he said against her lips. “You haven’t been loved in a long time.”
Nobody had ever spoken to her this way, stating facts that happened to be the hottest words she’d ever heard.
“Let go, baby. I’ve got you. Trust me. Just let go and let me hear how good you feel.” He swooped in to kiss her again, plunging his tongue deep as he pressed on her clit and toggled the bundle of nerves back and forth. Juices poured from her, and she cried out as the pending orgasm rushed up too fast.
It hit like a bolt of lightning. She lost track of time, space and even forgot her own name, but Cav’s was on her lips as she came apart for him.
* * * * *
Fucking hell, the one time he didn’t want to walk away from a woman and he was forced to. He glared out the window of the Ranger Ops SUV, still pissed that he’d been yanked away from Arielle.
All that sweetness, the look in her eyes as she came for him… He clenched a fist on his knee.
Next to him, Jess drawled, “Who is she this time?”
“What?” His head snapped around.
“What woman’s got you so knotted up? I haven’t seen you this strung out since… what was her name? Kira?”
“I was never that into Kira,” he muttered, turning his face aside to look out the window again. The highways all looked the same to him, but he knew they were headed south this time. Last night, it’d been east.
What crime lord were they facing this time? The previous evening after leaving the pizza joint and Arielle, he’d been immediately summoned to bring in a couple assholes in the wind with two-million dollars’ worth of cocaine and half a dozen trafficked women. Few teams tracked better than the Ranger Ops, and the fight had been over almost before it began. Sure, he’d taken a hit by one’s rifle stock, but the man hadn’t even formed a full smile at what he’d done before Cav shot him dead.
They’d wrapped up the party quickly and he’d arrived home in time to get into his truck and head to meet Arielle for coffee. No time to change or ice his b
ruised cheek, and he’d prayed she wouldn’t ask many questions.
He lost himself for a full minute, hearing once again her soft mewls of pleasure and the way she responded to his touch. His gut still clenched with blind need to take her.
Now, he was on his way to look at a bomb that was purported to have similarities to the one he’d failed to disarm. His guess was that this city’s bomb squad didn’t know what they were lookin’ at—but maybe that was just him being pissed off at being called away right when things had gotten good with Arielle.
Goddammit, she’d come apart for him, and the sound she’d made at the end…
“Who was the girl who had you going back for seconds?” Jess pressed on.
“Never been one.”
Cav was the last Ranger Ops member who wasn’t either married or deep in a serious relationship. His image of playboy must be upheld. Besides, he didn’t know what Arielle was to him yet. So far, he’d looked at her ass, shared dinner and coffee and acted on a come-hither vibe from her, which had ended with him fingering her in the car.
“Did you take her?” Jess’s crass question raised a growl in his chest, which he did not release. Everyone listened to the conversation.
His response was a single grunt.
Jess clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s my man.”
Even if Cav tried to set him straight, the whole encounter with Arielle was unusual. He’d never not fucked a woman he was interested in.
His mind returned to the heart-pounding moments after her orgasm.
Fuck, she’d said his name. His fucking name.
After more breathless kisses, he’d gruffly promised to call her as soon as he was back in town, brushed yet another tender kiss to her lips and let her drop him off at his truck in front of the coffee shop, where they’d shared an even sweeter kiss of goodbye.
Damn, this was all so different for him—a departure from his past dates, where after dinner, the girl would ask him up to her apartment and an hour later, he’d walk out and never look back.
With Arielle, he knew if he had her in his bed, he wouldn’t want to leave anytime soon. He’d want to take his time with her, give her several screaming orgasms and share those mythical moments where lovers laid in each other’s arms and talked.
Hell, he wanted to watch the sun’s rays creep over her beautiful, sleeping face as he held her.
Having the memory of her throaty feminine cries at the last would have to be enough for now.
* * * * *
Jesus Christ. What a waste of time. It wasn’t the same bomb structure. Hell, it wasn’t even the same type of explosive material. They’d only followed another dead end into a bog of more frustration. Cav was no closer to understanding what had happened back near Rose Middle School now than he’d been that day.
He raked his fingers through his hair and stared out the side window. In front of him, Linc twisted in his seat, a bag of peanut M&Ms in his palm. “Want some?”
“I’m good.”
“Jess?”
Jess snatched the bag and emptied at least half into his cupped hand, which would double as a soup bowl in a pinch. “Don’t tell Avery I had candy. She’s been on this no-sugar health kick.”
Linc laughed. “What the hell? She’s the fittest cop in the state.”
“Yeah, all that kickboxing she does keeps her ass tight and toned, and man, you don’t wanna know what I did to that ass last night when I got home.”
“No, we don’t.” Linc and Lennon were both chuckling, and in the front, Sully and Woody were grinning as well.
Jess looked to Cav, and he shook his head that he didn’t want to know either.
The mood in the SUV was a good one. Better than the death pall that came over them all when shit went sideways. But Cav wasn’t feeling great about being called out for an alarm the city’s bomb squad could have handled. What it came down to was, everyone was jittery after the Rose bomb had been found. Every squad from here to the Mighty Mississippi had been informed about the strange setup of that bomb, which Cav had flunked the test on.
Now, he’d spent hours on the scene of another threat, and the explosive couldn’t teach him a damn thing about the last one.
Plus, he’d left Arielle half-satisfied for nothing.
“C’mon, Cav, lighten up, man. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t take a hot ass if it was jacked up in the air for ya when you stepped through the door.”
Visions of Arielle in such a position washed through his mind, and he had to lean back in his seat to take some of the pressure off his very full balls.
“I can’t believe your cop girlfriend would let you at her ass without kicking yours,” Woody said from the passenger’s seat.
“Speaking of having someone by the balls, Woody here’s got something to ask everyone.” Sully’s announcement had everyone sitting up straighter.
“You’re an asshole, man. But yeah, I do have a favor to ask of y’all.” Woody turned to look back at them.
“We got you, whatever it is. Guts and glory,” Lennon said.
“This ain’t about glory, but it might take guts. I’m supposed to invite you all to our baby shower.”
Silence crashed over the team.
“Excuse me?” Linc spoke up at last.
“Atalee’s baby shower. You know, for the kid we’re expecting?” The second in two years.
“But… dude, baby showers are for chicks,” Lennon said.
“Not this time. Apparently all of your damn wives and girlfriends convinced mine that men come to the showers these days so we can be part of everything from the beginning and there’s no ‘women’s work.’”
Sully reached over and patted Woody’s shoulder. “It just means we get to carry all the big, heavy presents to the truck and then into the house.”
Woody’s brow pinched. “Really?”
“Yeah, it’s what happened when I was dragged into attending mine. Don’t worry about it—I’ll stop and get a case of beer before I come so we’ve got something to do besides watch those stupid baby games.”
“Man, that one where you inspect the poop smears in the diapers is fuckin’ gross,” Linc said.
“How the hell do you know about it?” Lennon swayed his stare to his twin.
“Nealy showed me a video of one of her friend’s baby showers.”
“It’s just chocolate in the diapers and you’re supposed to guess what kind,” Sully said.
Cav couldn’t hold back in adding his input. “The fact that Sully, our big, badass captain, knows this is disturbing on so many levels.”
The guys cracked up, and about five solid minutes of razzing took place, where they took turns insulting each other about how unmanly it was to cater to the women in their lives, when it was clear each of them worshipped the ground they walked on.
Cav wasn’t looking to get hooked up the same way they all were. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Arielle either. Was this how it had begun for them? Infatuation quickly morphed into attending their wives’ baby showers, identifying what brand of chocolate bar was smeared in the bottom of a diaper?
Did Cav fucking want that for himself?
The answer to that was a swift hell no. But hearing the guys joke about the sappy shit going on in their own lives didn’t make that lifestyle sound so bad. Because at the end of the day, they went home to a warm, soft woman who shared their beds rather than a new stranger every time.
Years ago, he might not have thought twice about rolling over and not being able to recall the name of the woman next to him. But that shit was getting old.
A vision of Arielle’s face when he’d told her to use her excess energy on making out with him loomed in his mind. Dammit, she was the most stunning woman he’d set eyes on in forever. But maybe it was more than her cute hair or great ass or even her beautiful eyes he could melt into.
She had depth to her, something going on behind those baby browns besides just wanting to sleep with a big guy like him. The years had ta
ught him that his looks made women flock to him like bees to honey, but he was tired of those types. He wanted someone who could hold a conversation with him, who had goals.
As awful as it was, he was even grateful that she’d known loss. His work shit didn’t come close to her losing her husband—it was much worse to lose someone you loved. But he’d lost plenty too, if he counted hikers who got blown up after his mistake.
Sunday night, a school night for her. She’d need her rest to deal with hundreds of pubescent teens Monday morning, but that didn’t stop him from thinking about calling her the first chance he got. She didn’t even have to answer. He only needed her voicemail to record his message that he wanted to see her again—couldn’t wait, in fact.
And that he could still smell her on him and wanted more.
* * * * *
Arielle lowered the phone from her ear, heart pounding, her face and fingers numb at the voicemail she’d just picked up.
Hey, Arielle, it’s me. I just wanted you to know that I haven’t quit thinking about you all day. I’m home now, and—
The rest of his sentence had been an invitation to have those drinks tomorrow evening. But it was all lost in what she heard in the background.
Men’s voices.
Guts and glory. Till next time, one had said.
She’d listened to the voicemail a second time—then a third—just to be sure.
It was true… the signs she’d been ignoring since the moment she’d set eyes on Cav back in the park. The small scars that were pale against his tanned skin were battle wounds.
And yesterday, when he’d shown up in black cargo pants and the black T-shirt. Darren had worn the olive drab variety and cammies, but now she could see without lust-tinted glasses.
All those muscles filling out Cav’s clothes were another indicator. Lastly, and the one moment she’d been trying to shove down so deep that it lost all meaning, was the call he’d gotten at the coffee shop.
He was a military man. And the last damn thing Arielle wanted in her life was another military man.
She never wanted to return to the waiting, the missed birthdays and holidays… the fear.