Kyle almost grabbed Gunny by the shirt collar. He drank water and crunched on ice cubes instead.
“So Kyle, I gotta ask. Are you okay?” Fredo looked at him hard.
Not the question he wanted to hear. Were they feeling him starting to slip? Was he starting to slip? Was it wrong to want to feel the soft flesh of a woman next to his and not be able to get her out of his mind?
No, it wasn’t wrong. It was right. But it interfered with his mental clarity, and was so unfair to her.
“No worries, gentlemen. I’m right as rain. Got all the cum lovingly worked outta me real good last night. Now I’m ready for a fight.” Kyle hoped they believed him.
“Sounds like she didn’t get enough, though,” Fredo barked.
“Oh, yeah she did.” Kyle grinned. “She just wants more.”
Finally Fredo laughed and nodded his head. “Tell her I’m available.”
Kyle punched Fredo’s bicep, this time a little harder than usual.
Coop returned with the news he’d left a message for his DOJ friend in two places. “He’ll call me back, I hope tonight.”
“Okay, so now that we know Armando’s alive, we’re gonna only have one chance to break him out. I want this kept tight, just between us. And when we’re ready to roll, we go.”
The team nodded in agreement.
“Gentlemen, we got only three days to do this. Then I’ll go it alone,” Kyle said.
“The hell you will. I’m with you all the way,” Gunny said.
There was a pause as Gunny looked back into three cowed faces. Nothing more needed to be said. “Fuck it, fellas, I can drive a car, shoot a gun, I don’t wear glasses. And the ladies don’t distract me like some people sitting at this table.”
Everyone laughed, except Kyle. He was thinking of the way Christy’s breasts filled his palm, how she tasted under her ear, and how he’d tried to sleep with the largest boner he’d ever had just from the feel of her hair on his chest as he snuggled next to her in bed. The mere memory of her scent had kept him awake all night.
Gunny snapped his gnarled fingers in front of Kyle’s face. “You’ve got it bad, kid. That kind of a lapse in concentration can get you killed, you know.”
A harsh thing to say, but it was the truth. Kyle looked at the pockmarked and ruddy red complexion of one of the ugliest men he’d ever met and knew Gunny would give his life to protect him. Gunny had a heart the size of the Pacific Ocean and wanted to go out like a hero.
But Kyle hoped he wouldn’t have to.
Kyle decided to get a motel room and watch movies all night. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep. He couldn’t get drunk or go clubbing because he had to be able to hear his phone. There were some nights he couldn’t wait to press his body into a throng of strangers and dance to oblivion, but tonight wasn’t one of them. He knew what he wanted to do.
If you’re available, I’m available.
It wasn’t the right thing, but it was the only thing he could think about. How she whimpered under him, how he loved to watch her and feel her shuddering with climax. He loved watching how he made her feel.
A really good guy would stay away.
But I’m just a man. A dog.
So he turned around and headed off the island toward Old Town.
Christy heard a knock at her door. She’d fallen asleep and the bathtub water had turned ice cold. She got out of the tub and quickly dried off, her heart pounding in her throat. With hair still dripping wet around the sides of her face, she slipped on her flowered silk robe, headed down the hall, then viewed Kyle’s face in profile through the peephole of her front door.
She quickly ran to her bedroom and made her bed, throwing her clothes behind the closet door. She put on some hand cream and then wished she’d gotten her legs and feet as well. She applied cherry lip-gloss and a spritzer of L’Interdit.
He came back.
She slowly walked back to the front door, took a big gulp, and pulled the door open, raising her gaze from his beltline up the hard chest encased in a baby blue T-shirt, up the thick clean-shaven neck to a square jaw, to the full lips and two light blue eyes. He stared back at her like he had the first time they’d made love. His need came across stronger than his control, and seeing that, she felt hope.
In an instant, he’d moved through the doorway and had kicked the front door closed behind him. His hands were suddenly inside her robe, exploring her flesh and igniting her passion. She tugged at his pants, and then kneeled to unbutton his fly. He stripped off his T-shirt and removed his shoes. She kissed the head of his cock, and then took his full length into her mouth, peeling his jeans down his tight cheeks to his ankles. She sucked him hard as he pulled her robe away and threw it into the corner. He leaned over her kneeling form, running his hands down her spine, over her shoulders and under her chin as she worked her tongue over him.
He moaned something she couldn’t make out.
He withdrew and kneeled in front of her. She didn’t care that she showed him how much she’d missed him.
“I can’t seem to stay away, Christy. You ensnare me and I willingly go…” He stopped speaking to plunge his tongue into her mouth, seeking hers, commanding her heart, and pulling it out of her chest.
“I don’t want you to stay away, Kyle. I want…” She stopped before she said something she’d regret.
His hands grasped her jaw as he searched her eyes. Christy’s breasts rubbed against his hairless chest, nipples against nipples, and lazily moved one hand up and down his shaft while the other cupped his balls. His thumbs moved on her cheeks, then down to her lips as he bent and kissed her long and carefully, as if she were a China doll.
He picked her up with one arm under her knees and the other behind her shoulders. She buried her head in his neck, kissing him, biting him there. He placed her on the bed, then moved up to spread her legs and put his lips on her sex in one fluid movement. She offered no resistance, wanting him there. Her fingers dug into his thick brown hair and then moved behind his ears as his tongue pleasured her, licking her folds and sucking on her bud.
She asked to be found, and he found her, right there, between her legs, breathing life into her soul with his tongue and his hot breath.
Bending one knee and slipping her thigh in front of her, she turned to her belly to let him lap at her sex from the side and then behind. He placed two fingers deep inside her. She clutched the pillow and groaned into the fresh lavender linen, knowing he could see her face in profile. With her sighs and moans, Christy told him of her need and how beautifully he satisfied it.
She forced her rear up in the air, begging for penetration, and he pressed the crown of his cock at her opening. He slid inside her slowly so her body stretched and accepted his wide girth.
Bracing her arms in front of her, she placed her thighs outside his and arched her back up, then down as she impaled herself on him and ground into his groin He encased her back with his chest, whispering something in her ear and holding her breasts with his palms, letting the pillows of her flesh overflow between his fingers.
“I love making love to you, Christy.”
Not exactly what she hoped to hear, but close. “Yes, Kyle. Oh…”
“Not possible”—he said between thrusts—“to stay away. Not possible.”
She shuddered and exploded in a warm, fluttering orgasm that shook every cell in her body. At the same time, his spasms filled her in more ways than one.
Only a few minutes had passed, and Kyle was still embedded inside her where they’d collapsed on the bed.
“Thank you,” Christy said as she turned to touch the side of his face with one hand, then trace over his lips. He bent and kissed her shoulder.
“I’m sorry I sent you away. I am so sorry.”
Christy snuggled against his chest, her fingers lacing over his lips. “I’m glad you came back.” Her hand reached down below and she found him nearly hard again.
“Oh, my,” she whispered to his belly button.
Christy had fallen into a deep sleep, which surprised him. He loved the feel of her inhale and exhale, craved the sound of her gentle reverie. He drifted off, thinking about his other teammates.
Praise the Lord, Cooper would say. He smiled as he recalled the time when Cooper had told him how hot it made women when he read them the Love Chapter from Psalms.
He’d asked the guys to call him when they heard back from Cooper’s friend. Then he pictured Armando’s house and hoped it was not part of a crime scene investigation. He wondered what the intruders were after.
Probably guns.
He was the only one who knew about the hiding place in the corner of Armando’s bedroom—enough guns to start a small war. There’d be time to get his friend’s gear out of there later. This break-in meant Armando hadn’t given them what they wanted, unless they’d just found the guns. But Christy didn’t say anything about the floor being ripped up, so hopefully Armando still lived. And Mia as well.
Christy had cuddled herself under his chin. She awoke and stretched, then began stroking his chest with those nails of hers, tracing over a few scars, most of them from surfing. A few jagged ridges were from knife wounds due to close encounters with some pretty sorry-assed bad guys, not all of whom had lived to tell their side of things.
He knew she waited for him to say something. Like it or not, she was involved, wanted to be involved. He hoped like hell she knew what she was doing. He sure didn’t. He’d never felt this way about a new relationship.
“Thank you, Christy.”
“For what?” She turned and gave him a crooked, wide-eyed smile.
“Thanks for the intel,” he whispered to the top of her head. He got back the warm scent of lavender.
“Oh.” She giggled. “No problem, sir. Anything else I can do for you?” She gripped his thigh between her legs.
A damned comedian, funny as hell. Is this how life with her would be? He studied her face, tilting up her chin, losing himself in the sparkle of her deep brown eyes. “No. I think you’ve done quite enough.” He saw the beginnings of a lusty smile form on her lips and knew it wouldn’t take long before he felt his own need growing. Again.
“Can I ask you what the message means? Or will I have to torture you to find out?” She kissed his left nipple and then licked it, swirling her tongue.
“Ah, not fair. Not sure this is in keeping with the Geneva Convention.”
“Shall I beg?”
“Please, no! I’m not sure I can get it up any more. I mean, my mind’s willing, but my body…”
She continued stroking him. “Please.”
With those eyes of hers, who would be able to deny her?
Hell, what would it hurt? He’d be telling her all sorts of things in a minute if he weren’t careful. “He said…” Kyle’s voice grew husky and ragged, but he continued, “He was trying to tell me he’s okay for now. But he’s heavily guarded, and whoever has him doesn’t mess around.”
She tensed, and he knew he’d lost her again. He read her fear. She was afraid something would happen to him.
Do I want to know this?
“There are things you just should not know about. This is what my work is all about, Christy. All the time.”
“Yes. I understand.”
But did she, really?
“So you forgive me for breaking into your friend’s house and listening to his personal messages?” she teased.
He chuckled, grateful for her humor. “No, I didn’t say that.” He paddled her rear in a mock spanking. “I’ll have to punish you further, and…” He scanned her face again. “Make you tell me all your secrets.” He kissed her wanton lips, murmuring to them, “And extracting how you cleverly wound me around your little finger so easily.”
“You’d make me?”
“I could. I’m very good at interrogation,” he whispered in her ear. He followed up with a kiss below her earlobe and felt the rumble of her moan.
“How would you get information from me? How would you make me tell you?”
“I’d improvise. Think of something.” He rubbed his lips against hers, biting her lower lip.
“Improvise?” She arched to press her breasts against him.
“Use things at hand.”
“How would you use these things?”
Kyle smiled. Her naïveté to the ways of the warrior community thrilled him. He stared into her lusty eyes. He wasn’t quite sure what to say.
“I might have to use pantyhose,” he said to her lips.
Christy’s eyes drew wide and she arched again into him, rubbing her sex against his thigh. “You’d tie me up?” she said breathlessly.
Kyle started. Was she asking for this?
She sighed and whispered, “I want you to improvise. On my body. Make me tell you something.”
“Ah.” Kyle searched her face and then decided. He glanced at the floor beside the bed, reached over, and picked up the silk sash from her robe. He drew both her arms above her head while he kissed her underneath her jaw. Holding her wrists together with one hand, he wound the sash around them, binding them gently. Her lidded eyes told him of her pleasure. He wanted to kiss her all over her body.
He could feel her heart beating against him. He felt her moist arousal as he lazily fingered her bud and she moaned into his ear.
“Tell me, or I won’t let you go,” he said.
“I don’t want to go.”
“Yes you do. You want to squeeze your breasts. You want to pull me into you again,” Kyle answered. He avoided her mound searching for his groin.
She started to move her arms down to encircle his neck and he stopped her.
“Bad girl. Tell me how you managed to capture my heart?”
“My name is Christy Nelson. I am a Realtor. That’s all I’m going to reveal at this time.”
“I think you’ll reveal more,” he said as he inserted two fingers into her wet sex.
“Ahh.” She opened her eyes. “No. I won’t tell.” Her breathing was ragged. It looked like she was suppressing a smile.
“You must tell me.” He pushed the head of his cock into the soft folds of her opening.
“Take me, Kyle. I am yours. All of me.”
God, I wish I could have you totally, Christy. What would that be like? He realized he lived and died in her eyes. Could he have this forever?
“Tell me, Christy. Be a good girl and tell me how you manage to bewitch me so that all I think about is making love to you.”
Had he ever said something even close to this before? Holy…
“I think of your hard places. I think of how I can wrap my softness against your hard body and make you need me. I try to get under your skin.”
When he looked her in the eyes, tears had pooled there. If he put himself inside her, he would be lost forever. And that’s what he wanted. He pressed his hand over her bound wrists and plunged into her.
“You have captured me again,” he said as he stroked her insides. Her face was urgent. Her fingers curled into his and squeezed.
“You’re a willing victim.”
She sighed and gripped his thighs tighter with her knees, then opened herself wide again and let him plunge deeper.
“Yes, I am. Indeed, I am.”
Kyle basked in the scent of her spent body. Her breathing had calmed. Was she asleep?
Would it always be like this? With her the world was righted. He knew there wasn’t anything this perfect in reality. But in the fantasy, everything seemed as it should be between them, which thrilled him.
And was so damned overdue.
And now so dangerous, because he’d formed another reason to live. Something he feared losing, like everything else in his life that meant anything.
Something had been lurking outside his consciousness, waiting for a dark moment to rush in. What?
And there it was again.
Life isn’t this perfect. Nothing lasts forever. He remembered being a young boy of fourteen, like it was this morning. All the pain and uncertainty came flooding in.
What have I done?
Christy heard Kyle’s heavy breathing and was thankful he’d fallen asleep. He tossed about, talking in his sleep. No sweet erotic dreams, like the ones she’d been having. His forehead creased and his lips pursed.
Maybe he’s just not used to sleeping with a woman. She remembered the first few times she’d spent the night in a strange bed, in the arms of a lover. Every touch of Kyle’s body heightened her hunger for him. This strong man with arms and shoulders that could hold the whole world, cared for her. Quiet and strong. Ever the gentleman, until she got him into bed, and then he consumed her. She’d never known a man who needed so much passion. He demanded her body perform for him and she would do it. Loved doing it. She even loved letting him bind her hands above her head while he pumped her silly.
Last time, he’d brought her to the brink of ecstasy so many times, then had held her still, only to fall into the crest of the wave of her passion. He rode that wave with her. Watching her. Attentive, but unyielding. She doubted she would ever be able to make love to a man again and not think of Kyle.
God, she hoped she didn’t have to try.
She found the warm place beneath his chin and buried herself. Inhaled his musky scent and drifted off to oblivion. Tomorrow she’d worry about the future. Right now, her future lay in the warm body of this man, the one with whom she could easily spend the rest of her life.
Chapter 11
Kyle woke up with a start and couldn’t get back to sleep. He sat in Christy’s living room as the dark night became early morning. He usually loved this time of day. Everything was so quiet, peaceful. He could think better when it was like this.
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