She certainly couldn’t deny herself kissing him now, though, and so she dissolved into parted lips and the feel of his fingers in her hair and his tongue paying a visit she more than welcomed and eagerly entertained.
Her arms went around him and one of his dropped to her back, where he performed a firm, sensual massage, rubbing in circles that made her feel increasingly pliable the longer it went on. That made her yearn to feel his touch everywhere.
But having his broad, strong back under her own palms was yet another thing to revel in—steely muscles and brawny power.
The longer they kissed, the more heat was generated between them, emboldening Kinsey and inspiring her to slip under that V-neck sweater.
She’d seen him and touched him therapeutically and yet still that initial feel of sleek skin at that moment was different. So sexy. So masculine. So nice.
Mindful of his injured shoulder, she avoided it, but pressed her fingers into him away from it. Working his back like clay, she traveled high, feeling his own tension dissolve under her hands.
She traveled low, to the small of his back, dipping a scant inch below his waistband to tantalize him before she retreated.
She traveled around, under his arms to only the outer sides of those pecs she knew were well defined and wonderful to look at. But she didn’t go farther than that, was unable to, given how tightly he was holding her against him as their kisses grew abandoned and all the more fevered. And then that hand at her back began a voyage of its own.
Different from hers, he disappointed her by not finding the hem of her sweater to slip underneath it. But his journey didn’t stop at her side when he came in that direction. Instead he brought it all the way around, finally putting space between them to cup her breast.
Oh, she wanted so much more than that!
But she knew he was testing the waters to see if she’d stop him there. And when she didn’t, when she swelled slightly into his hand, he got the idea.
There were only a few moments of greeting between hand and angora-covered breast before that hand went where they both wanted it—under her sweater and up to breasts that ached to be set free.
There was only tenderness in that powerful hand as he worked the contours, as he let her get accustomed to the feel of having him there before he slipped her breast out of the cup and gave her what she really wanted.
Her bare breast nestled in the palm of his hand was a match made in heaven and Kinsey barely managed to suppress the moan that was in her throat.
Mouths opened wider and tongues went wild, and when her hands dug into his back, his at her breast showed a little more force in answer.
Kneading and caressing, teasing her nipple with a soft twist of his fingertips, tormenting her with featherlight strokes round and round that same nipple, until Kinsey didn’t think it could get much better.
Which was when he deserted her mouth, braced her back with his other arm and dipped her over it to push her sweater up and replace his hand with his mouth while that hand gave some attention to her other breast.
That was better and worse.
Even better than his hand alone, his mouth was warm, velvety magic and his tongue was the magician that drove her to distraction.
But it only made her want even more—want her clothes to come completely off and their naked bodies to press together while hands explored every inch.
And yet in the back of her mind was the fact that his mother was just upstairs.
His mother who was her patient.
And even if it might feel like they were hormonal teenagers frantic for each other, they weren’t, and she knew this had to stop.
“We can’t...” she whispered in a sort of agony. “The colonel—”
Sutter tugged at her nipple with his teeth and made her lose complete track of everything but that for a split second before she could go on.
“We aren’t kids,” she reminded him.
He sighed but stopped.
“Too bad we aren’t,” he lamented.
But he brought them both to a straighter position, though when his gaze caught on her bare breast, he had to close his eyes and work to regain some control while Kinsey righted her clothes.
When she had, he grabbed her forcefully and kissed her again like there was no tomorrow, causing her to rethink her decision to stop this and actually begin to mentally search for somewhere they could go that would be more private.
But that was crazy and she knew it, so when that kiss ended she said a breathless, “We have to quit.”
He surrendered with his hands in the air and fell back against the couch cushions.
That was when he said, “Let’s skip dinner tomorrow night.”
He wanted to spend the evening with her—alone? The idea sent lightning sizzling through every nerve ending in her body.
“The Camdens’ dinner,” she said as if it needed clarification.
“I know, I know,” Sutter said. “But I swear I’ll get you another time with them—I’ll invite them to go out one night next week, dinner or clubbing or whatever it takes. But let’s let the colonel and Sol go alone tomorrow night and just have dinner on our own. A date.”
A date. For real. Where they would honestly be alone...
She wanted time with the Camdens and Sunday dinner was the prime opportunity for that.
But the chance to dress up and go out on a date with Sutter? How many chances would she have at that before he went away again?
Nothing about the Camdens’ Sunday dinner could compete with that. Or with how much she wanted it.
“You really will arrange something else to make up for it?” she asked.
“Something that’ll give you more contact—if we get all the cousins to a restaurant and we’re all sitting at one big table you won’t have them milling around and you won’t have to compete with other guests the way you do at Sunday dinner.”
She didn’t actually need to be sold on the idea but it helped her convince herself that she could miss the event without losing her chance to get to know her half siblings.
“Okay,” she agreed.
He smiled. “Good,” he said before he pulled her down on top of him to kiss her once more.
That kiss went on long enough for her nipples to turn into solid little stones she could feel digging into his chest. Long enough for his hands to go from where he’d grasped her arms to the sides of both breasts again.
When his tongue did some enticing to go along with it, Kinsey knew she was going to have to be the one of them with willpower, so she ended the kiss and sat up straight.
“I’m going,” she warned him.
He sighed but got up and offered her a hand to help her stand, too.
He didn’t let go of it when she got to her feet, but held it all the way to the entryway where he helped her on with her coat. Then he took her hand again to walk her to her car.
But even with the driver’s door unlocked and opened, Kinsey still didn’t make it inside because he wrapped her in his arms, pivoted around to lean on her rear door and held her so her body ran the full length of his before he kissed her once more.
“You are not making this easy,” she said when she ended the kiss, but he went on holding her close.
“I’m just having a hell of a time thinking about going back in that house without you...”
The colonel’s oxygen machine did make a lot of noise...
But despite that fleeting thought that tempted her to let him take her up to his bedroom, Kinsey escaped those arms she had no desire whatsoever to leave and got behind the wheel.
“You’ll be gone when I get here tomorrow, won’t you,” she reminded them both.
“The Broncos game,” Sutter verified. “I’ll make sure the colonel knows about dinner and I’ll
arrange for Sol to drive them. So once the colonel is ready to go out, you can leave. Then I’ll pick you up at your place for our dinner—at seven?”
“Seven,” Kinsey repeated as he stepped up to close her door.
“Seven,” he said once more.
The sound of his voice, the way he’d said it, stayed with her while she backed out of the driveway.
And despite the fact that it was nothing more than the agreed-upon time for the next night, she couldn’t help feeling as if there had been a world of promise for what was to come in that word.
Chapter Nine
The gruff, pragmatic colonel had a completely out-of-character surprise for Kinsey when Kinsey arrived at the Knightlinger home on Sunday.
She explained that two houses down the street was a hairstylist named Bernadette who had turned her garage into a salon decades ago. The colonel had gone to Bernadette whenever she was in Denver over the years and since retiring had become one of Bernadette’s regulars. Bernadette had called the colonel this morning to ask how she was doing and the colonel had persuaded the stylist to open on Sunday solely for Kinsey and the colonel.
“I knew Bernie’s husband would be glued to the television for that football game Sutter went to and Bernie hates football. So I asked if she’d like to make a little money this afternoon and open up just for you and me,” the colonel informed Kinsey. “I’m having her give me a haircut and a manicure and pedicure. And she’ll do whatever you want to your hair, too, if you’re willing.”
Kinsey wasn’t altogether willing.
She liked—and more importantly trusted—her own hairstylist and didn’t want to take any chances with someone new. Especially not today of all days, when she was going out with Sutter that evening.
She thought a manicure and pedicure were harmless enough, though, and agreed to have those done.
So after fixing the colonel’s lunch, she and the colonel made a slow trek two doors down the street to Bernadette’s garage salon where they spent the afternoon.
And to Kinsey’s astonishment, it was a lot of fun. The colonel had a ribald sense of humor that came out with the stylist, who clearly knew her well and was comfortable with it. And although it turned into a somewhat raucous three hours, it was a good time that left Kinsey liking the colonel all the more.
It also left her hair an inch shorter because she gave in and let the stylist give her a trim in addition to fire-engine red fingernails and toenails.
Back at the Knightlingers’ house again when they were finished, Kinsey helped the colonel dress for the Camdens’ Sunday dinner. As she did, the fact that Sutter and Kinsey weren’t attending it finally came up.
“So you and my son are ditching Sol and me with the Camdens tonight.”
“Ditching you? No—”
“Uh-huh...” the colonel muttered dubiously. “He said he wanted to thank you for the extras you’ve done—with Jack and cooking last night and the rest that doesn’t count as my care. But I know what’s up with him.”
Kinsey had a moment of panic. Had the colonel seen them on the couch last night?
Then the older woman went on. “It’s all right. I’m sure Sutter needs proof that I’ll go on socializing even when he isn’t around. So I’m showing him that I will.”
Kinsey breathed a silent sigh of relief. “And will you, even after he actually leaves?” she asked, curious.
“Yes, yes, whatever it takes to keep him where he needs to be.”
“And you don’t hate it,” Kinsey challenged.
The colonel didn’t immediately concede to that, but with some reluctance she did finally say, “No, I don’t hate it. Before I retired there were always dinners and functions I had to attend. Some socializing Amos arranged for us. But now, between the bother of nonmilitary events and the idea of going without Amos...”
It was the first Kinsey had seen of just how much the colonel really was grieving the loss of her husband because her voice cracked and her eyes welled up.
If the colonel had been a different kind of person, Kinsey would have given her a hug or at least a squeeze of the arm or a pat to comfort her. But she was a little afraid that would offend her.
The show of emotion was fleeting before the elderly woman fought it back and continued in a strong voice. “Without Amos, I just didn’t feel like seeing people. But I know my Amos wouldn’t have wanted me to sit locked in this house any more than Sutter does, that he would have dragged me kicking and screaming out of it. So for the two of them, I won’t do what I was doing.”
Kinsey considered pointing out that the colonel should be going out into the world and interacting with people for her own sake, too, but decided that the important thing was that she do what she needed to do, regardless of the reason.
So Kinsey only said, “Good.”
“Given any more thought to my son?” the older woman inquired openly then.
I certainly haven’t given him any less thought, that’s for sure...
Kinsey didn’t voice what ran through her head and only said, “More thought to what?”
“To changing his mind about that marriage nonsense he holds on to.”
Ah, what the colonel had said after Veterans Day.
“No,” Kinsey answered honestly because she didn’t ever think about attempting to change Sutter’s mind. Nothing changed any of her brothers’ minds or Trevor’s, so she knew just how futile an endeavor that was.
And she wasn’t changing her own mind, either. So even if Sutter decided he could be married to the military and to a woman at the same time, she wasn’t that woman.
“I think that thank-you business is only an excuse to get some time alone with you,” the colonel added.
Kinsey smiled and joked, “You don’t think he really appreciates the things I’ve done?”
“Oh, we both do,” the colonel said grumpily, as if she shouldn’t have to say something so obvious. “But I still think he wants to get you alone. I know my boy—he likes you. And you could do worse.”
“And I have,” Kinsey joked again.
“Just so you know, you’d have my seal of approval. I don’t mind when you come around every day.”
Kinsey was touched and amused at the same time. She knew this was the tough commander’s way of telling her she liked her and honestly did appreciate what Kinsey had done for her. But it was such a brusque, backhanded endorsement that it was funny.
She didn’t dare laugh, though. The most she showed was a smile when she said, “Thank you. But that same little, tiny streak of stubbornness you have is alive and well in your son, too.”
“Whoever said I was stubborn?” the colonel demanded with a facetious grin that showed her pride in that stubborn streak.
“No one. Not a soul,” Kinsey continued the jest.
“Still, stubborn or not, my Amos changed my mind on a lot of things. Sutter might surprise you if you gave it a try.”
“I think people have to come to things on their own.”
“Well go home and put on something short and see if that might help him come to it on his own.”
Kinsey did laugh at that. “Yes, ma’am,” she said as if accepting an order.
“But put our Jack here in his crate first, will you? I haven’t learned how to get him to go in there yet.”
“I will. But getting Jack in the crate isn’t hard—you just toss a treat to the back of it and he goes right in,” Kinsey explained, also pleased to hear the older woman refer to the puppy more fondly and possessively. Between that and the fact that the colonel had allowed the terrier to sleep on her bed all night, it seemed as if she was finally accepting the dog intended to be her companion.
But still, for her own reassurance, Kinsey asked. “So, is Jack out of the woods? You aren’t going to send him back to the bree
der?”
“I suppose not,” the colonel grumbled as if she were making a great concession.
The doorbell rang just then, making Sol right on time to pick up the colonel.
Since she was ready to go, both she and Kinsey went downstairs to open the door to the neighbor.
After exchanging greetings, the colonel announced she was all set and Kinsey handed her off to the elderly man.
“Have a nice dinner,” she said to them as the colonel accepted Sol’s help getting down the landing.
“You, too,” the colonel said pointedly.
* * *
Kinsey was more excited dressing for her date with Sutter when she returned to her apartment than she’d been dressing for her prom in high school.
After a quick shower and shampoo, she let her hair air dry because that was the best way for its natural waves to set in. Then she worked on her face—mainly eyes that she shadowed and lightly lined and mascaraed. Then she dusted on a little blush and topped it with highlighter.
Next came clothes. First a pair of tiny red lace bikini panties and a matching lace demi-cup strapless bra. Then the dress.
She’d bought it—and the underwear—on a whim to cheer herself up after ending things with Trevor. But she’d never worn any of it because once she’d gotten it all home, there hadn’t been an occasion to justify it. So the underwear had stayed in a drawer and the dress had gone to the back of the closet.
It was bright red—matching her nail polish—strapless with a sweetheart neck that dipped just enough to show a hint of cleavage, and it hugged every one of her curves. And yes, it was short. Midthigh short.
When her hair dried she brushed it, parted it to the side and let it fall into those waves she’d carefully cultivated. Then she put only bare necessities into a small beaded clutch and took it and a pair of strappy four-inch heels to set near the door so she didn’t have to put on the not-so-comfortable shoes until the last minute.
The Marine Makes His Match Page 15