Needing to taste her, he lowered his head and traced her softness with the tip of his tongue. Darci bucked beneath him, gasped and dug her nails into his shoulders. He delved deeper, losing himself in her exquisiteness.
He never wanted to leave.
*
Oh, God, what Jack did with his tongue should be illegal. She wanted to explode. The first time he’d kissed her she thought she’d go up in flames. She barely hung on by a thread. She’d never felt this out of control and reckless. A heady sensation she would never forget.
Jack brought her to the edge once again and just when she started to go over, he backed off and denied her. Her passion blinded her.
“Jack…” she pleaded, tugging on his biceps. “Now. Please.”
Obliging her, he moved and covered her with his strong, hard body. Her hero. So brave, so strong. She wanted him like no other and she feared that once she had him she would never let him go.
Somehow he’d managed to slip out of his boxers. The feel of him against her tantalized. Time’s up, Jack Taggart. She brought her legs up to circle his waist. Jack groaned and brought his lips down on hers. With a small shimmy, she positioned herself just right and watched Jack’s pupils dilate. But she underestimated the power she had when he suddenly pulled her up into a sitting position. She straddled his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed. She didn’t know when he’d retrieved his wallet or the condom inside, but she was glad he had. She couldn’t wait any longer.
Then, as he looked her in the eye, he began to torture her, slowly entering her inch by inch until she pleaded with him to give her what she wanted. But every time she started to move her hips and take him in, he tightened his grip on her shoulders and stilled her movements. He took his own sweet time, drawing out the pleasure and driving her crazy. She wanted it hard and fast and now. They could go slow later, when she wasn’t so hot for him.
His hand cupped the back of her neck while he slowly moved inside her.
“Jack…” she moaned. “Hurry. Slow…later.”
Jack groaned and claimed her lips while he thrust inside her with one powerful stroke. She gasped in pleasure and threw her head back, letting him hold her up while she enjoyed the sensation of having him fully inside her. She had never been filled so completely. Where had Jack been all her life? She’d had no idea making love could feel this good.
She’d found the half she never knew she was missing.
*
Heaven. No other way to describe what it felt like to be fully sheathed inside Darci. Like she’d been made for him, she fit so well. He held onto her, moving in slow circles until they were both breathing hard. He wanted to drive into her with the force pounding through his veins, but he didn’t want to hurt her, so he kept it slow and easy, sweat breaking out on his brow from effort.
“Jack,” Darci said, meeting his thrust. “I can’t take much more of this. Hard and fast is good for me. Now. Please.”
Jack carefully maneuvered them onto the bed so she lay beneath him. He hadn’t planned on letting go of that last thread of restraint, but when Darci bit down on his shoulder and wrapped her legs around his waist, he couldn’t hold back. He let out a ragged groan and thrust deep inside her. She gasped and cried out in pleasure.
His restraint snapped. He increased the tempo with Darci rocking against him, her soft moans driving him into oblivion. Hot and wet, her body wrapped around him. He couldn’t take much more. His body tightened with need. When Darci cried out and constricted around him, he let go and thrust deep, driving them both over the edge. She convulsed around him, drawing him deeper, her nails scoring his back as she cried his name. His body clenched, he threw back his head and drove one last time into her softness, her name escaping his lips in a raw shout as little gray dots blurred his vision.
Spent, he collapsed on top of her, supporting his weight on his elbows with his forehead resting against hers. They were both breathing heavily. When he finally lifted his head he saw Darci smiling like the cat that drank the cream. He’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life. Her hair spread out in a wild mass of curls across the pillow, her cheeks flushed and lips swollen from his kisses. She looked sated and sexy.
Her fingers lightly stroked his back, careful to avoid his wound. He caressed her cheek with the pad of his thumb.
“That,” Darci said, “was incredible.”
Jack grinned, swallowing a surge of male pride.
“Did you feel it too?” she asked, kissing his neck.
Instead of admitting he felt something he couldn’t explain, he captured her lips for a long, breathless kiss that left them both panting. Something had happened when they made love. He couldn’t explain it, but he’d sensed it and so did Darci. Neither of them wanted to analyze it and spoil the mood. There would be time for that later.
Was he ready for that change?
Darci saved him from having to look any deeper into his feelings when she slid out from beneath him and rolled on top of him. Her eyes sparkled as she stared down at him. Her eyes widened when she felt him growing inside her.
“Again?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
Jack grinned. “Honey, that was only the appetizer. We have six courses to go.”
She laughed and they started on the first course while another storm built outside their doors.
*
Darci opened her eyes slowly, stretching and smiling as she rolled onto her back. She’d never felt this sated in her life, nor had she ever spent the entire day in bed. Jack hadn’t been kidding when he said the first time would be an appetizer. After an emergency trip to the store for condoms, he had made love to her three more times and each time had been different. Slow and lazy, fast and furious, and something in between and each time had been in a different place. They’d made love on the bed, counter and against the wall. One of her personal favorites.
If she’d thought she’d fallen for Jack before, it didn’t compare to now. She felt like a princess, well-loved and happy.
Reaching out a hand, she patted Jack’s side of the bed only to find it empty and cool to her touch. He had been gone for a while. Sitting up, she glanced out the balcony doors. Night had fallen and a warm, humid tropical breeze blew gently inside the room. A nice room with its white walls and blue hues. They hadn’t been too choosy when they picked one.
She slipped out of bed and wandered toward the bathroom, wondering where Jack had gone, and groaning as muscles protested. She had never had sore muscles after sex. A reminder of her skillful lover.
Her bag sat inside the door. She’d forgotten all about it. But her flowers were gone. She mentally berated herself for dropping them in the street, but she’d been so consumed by Jack she’d lost all ability to think clearly.
With a smile she remembered he hadn’t been thinking too clearly either when they got all hot and bothered the second time, only to discover he only had one condom in his wallet. He’d had to make a mad dash for the store and almost ran out of the room in his boxers and with his shirt inside out.
A loud crack of thunder followed her into the shower. A moment of panic skittered down her spine. Sounded like the storm had moved in sooner than they expected. She’d check it out after her shower.
Letting the shower pulse away her soreness, Darci used the time to freshen up. Her stomach rumbled as she got out, reminding her she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She quickly dried her hair, slipped into the white robe hanging on a hook beside the shower and pushed through the doors onto the balcony.
Two white Adirondack chairs sat side by side, but instead of sitting down she walked to the railing. A strong breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders. Storm had definitely picked up since her shower. The humidity made her lungs hurt. The beach stretched in front of her with a turbulent Caribbean Sea behind it. She could see waves crashing onto the beach.
The door opened and she turned to see Jack walk into the room, arms loaded with bags. He spotted her immediately and grinned, holding up two of
the sacks.
“Hungry?”
Smiling, Darci closed the balcony doors. “Is the storm moving in sooner than expected? Should I be worried?” She met him on the bed, where they set out the smorgasbord of food. Her mouth watered as she looked at all Jack had bought. It covered half of the bed and ranged from cucumber soup and garden salad to curried chicken and shrimp.
“I didn’t know what you liked.” Jack set the bags on the floor. “And, yes, the storm is only a few miles off shore.”
Not what she wanted to hear. “Well, this is perfect. Thank you.” She handed him a plate and plastic silverware and started heaping food on her plate.
Jack must have realized she didn’t want to talk about it. “The cop recommended this restaurant, said it was the best in town.”
Darci popped a piece of shrimp into her mouth. “He’s right.” She picked up her fork and scooped a bit of rice. “You sure know how to spoil a girl.”
Jack grinned. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Darci met the smoldering heat in his eyes and swallowed hard. The man was going to kill her. But at least she would die happy.
They polished off almost all of the food, leaving only a few pieces of chicken and a half bowl of soup. Jack waited until they had cleaned up the mess to bring out the big guns: coconut cream pie with real cream and fresh toasted coconut.
“Oh, this is good. Fresh coconut on top of real cream. Yum.”
Beside her Jack groaned as he took the bite that had been suspended midair.
She glanced over to see his eyes dark with hunger. Her stomach tightened when he set his pie aside, then hers.
Jack pulled her flush with his body and cupped her cheek. “I want to taste you,” he murmured and brought his lips down on hers. Every kiss with Jack was like the first, magical, heady and toe-curling. It made her knees weak and dissolved her fears, allowing her a respite from her thoughts.
“Mmm, coconut,” Jack said against her lips, lightly licking the corners.
Darci wrapped her arms around his neck. “My turn.” She kissed him so he had no doubt about what she wanted.
Jack guided her down on the bed and for the next few hours proceeded to make her forget about the impending storm.
*
Not many things in this world scared Jack, but his feelings right at this moment did. They scared the hell out of him.
He stared down at the woman sleeping next to him with her hand resting over his heart. Her cheeks were still flushed from their lovemaking, her hair falling in tangles down her back. More than once during the last couple hours, he had wrapped the silky strands around his hand and held tight as they made love.
One of her legs crooked over his. A tiny smile played on her lips. The closer he got to her the more he wanted to know. Silly things like her favorite food, and did she always paint her toenails to match her fingernails?
Jack ran a hand down his face, feeling the scratch of stubble. Had he actually made love to Darci with this bristle? He must have abraded her soft skin. Damn, he hadn’t meant for that to happen. Why hadn’t she complained or made him shave? He knew why, because Darci hadn’t complained once during this whole ordeal. He doubted she ever would. Not her style—only one of the things he liked about her.
One of the things. Hell, there were too many things he liked about this woman. Too many for his comfort.
The woman he’d really begun to like sighed softly in her sleep and snuggled closer. Jack readjusted his position to make her more comfortable and caught himself pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. Ah, damn, he was in trouble here. The kind of trouble a man like him couldn’t afford. Not in his line of work.
Many on the teams had done the marriage thing and many had ended up divorced. The odds were against them. Darci deserved more than what he could give her. A lifetime of loneliness, wondering where he was, when he’d be home. Being left in the dark about what he did while away. Not a life fit for a woman who deserved a man who could give her everything she’d ever want or need. He wasn’t that man.
Jack closed his eyes. The fact that he even thought about things like this scared him. Give him a terrorist with an AK-47 and he’d know exactly what to do, but put him up against his feelings for Darci and he was clueless. He didn’t want to feel whatever he felt, easier to put it that way instead of saying the L word.
He wasn’t his father, but part of him had always wondered if someday he too would turn into a manipulative, overbearing sonofabitch like his old man. According to his mother, James Taggart has been charming and debonair when they met in college, but the stress of working his way up the corporate ladder and starting a family too soon changed him. Jack didn’t remember his father as being anything but a volcano, simmering all the time and always on the verge of blowing. And when he blew, you got the hell out of Dodge.
Not a violent man, his father had never used his fists. He’d used his words to inflict pain and after so many years of the abuse, his mother had thrown in the towel. A day Jack would never forget. His father hadn’t tried to stop them, simply sat in his chair and stared at the wall as his wife and son walked out the door.
To Jack it had made his father a weak man. What kind of man would let his family walk out without a fight? It only proved that James Taggart hadn’t cared about his wife or son. Jack didn’t want to end up like that. He never saw his father again, but knew he still worked for the same law firm and had made partner a few years ago. That was the extent of what Jack knew about his father post-divorce and he had never sought out a relationship with him. He was content to keep things the way they were.
And it had been a long time since he’d thought about his father. Now seemed an unusual time to be thinking about the past and it had everything to do with the woman sleeping soundly in his arms. A woman he hesitated to distance himself from. But it was necessary for both their sakes.
Thunder boomed, followed by a flash of lightning. Darci jumped in her sleep. Jack stretched out next to her, wrapping her in his arms. For tonight, he would stay right here. Tomorrow he would separate himself from her and try not to wonder why the thought made his chest ache.
*
He’d left her alone again. In bed, anyway. Darci sat up in the empty bed and wrapped the sheet around her. Wind whistled through the crack in the balcony doors, the sky almost black.
She heard the shower running. She tried not to think about the fact that she’d woken up alone both times after she and Jack had made love. It would be easy to read too much into it and she didn’t usually speculate. She liked cold, hard facts. Life was too short for beating around the bush. So why not push through the door right this minute and demand to know why Jack refused to stay with her?
With a sigh, she answered her own question. She stayed put because she knew as well as he did that this thing between them couldn’t last forever. She was a singer, she traveled all the time and spent the rest of it in the studio. And when she wasn’t doing that, she played pubs and wrote songs. She didn’t have time for a relationship. Besides that, Jack lived on the opposite coast, and long distance relationships never worked.
So why did she wish they did? Her heart answered, because you fell in love with him.
“Oh, boy.” Darci swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Not good. She couldn’t be in love. She didn’t want to be in love. She still had places to go and things to do. Being strapped down to a relationship wasn’t part of the deal.
The bathroom door opened and Jack came out wearing a pair of shorts and a loose, unbuttoned shirt he’d picked up in the market. Darci felt a stab of desire at the sight of his bare chest.
But she didn’t give in to the craving. Instead she looked away, knowing it was for the best but feeling the disappointment clear to her toes. Jack deserved someone who would be content to stay home and play housewife. Someone who knew how to cook and bake cookies instead of a woman who still suffered a bit of wanderlust and didn’t plan to settle down any time soon. Jack deserved more than
what she could give him, so she rose from the bed, taking the sheet with her.
“My turn.” She brushed past him without meeting his eyes. She wasn’t normally a coward, but she feared he would read the truth. She couldn’t face that right now.
After she closed the door, she leaned against it and squeezed her eyes shut. This was what she wanted, what Jack deserved. Why did her heart feel broken in two?
Chapter Ten
‡
Jack heard the bathroom door close quietly, and rubbed a hand down his face. So Darci wasn’t good with the morning after either. He’d seen the look on her face and knew what he would have read in her eyes if she had looked at him: regret. It didn’t settle well, but what could he do? If they distanced themselves from each other right now, walking away would be a piece of cake.
Yeah, and he’d been born yesterday.
Not wanting to think about it, he walked over to the television and turned it on to the Weather Channel. What he saw there didn’t make him happy and made the whole distance thing virtually impossible.
He picked up the phone and called down to the front desk to make arrangements to keep the room for a few more days. They weren’t going anywhere. Until then he’d keep things light and easy, pretend last night had never happened. For Darci’s sake. If she had regrets, then he was just the one to put them out of her mind.
*
Darci walked out of the bathroom into the empty room. She hadn’t heard Jack leave, but that didn’t surprise her. The man moved around on clouds.
She dressed in shorts and tank top from the market, pulled her hair back into a clip and decided to wait for Jack to return. As she lounged in one of the big chairs in the corner where the storm didn’t seem so loud, she pondered how to hide her feelings from him. She didn’t want him to know she’d fallen in love with him, since it could never be.
Maybe she would write a song. Making love to him had opened up creative channels and her fingers were itching for a notebook and pen. It would be a song about two lovers tossed together by fate, they could never be one, and how they would spend their days trying to fill that void.
SEALs of Summer: Military Romance Superbundle - Navy SEAL Style Page 110