The words came out in a strange blurt, and I could tell that she was more than a little unsure about her answer. Deciding to keep things light, I went back to her original question.
“Paulie’s sandwich shop,” I said. “That’s one of the things I miss most about Dallas. You know the place?”
“I don’t,” said Delaney, seeming relieved to have changed subjects. “But I’m intrigued.”
“It’s a place down in the West End. Best meatball sub you’ll ever have in your life. It’s kind of a ritual of mine to go there for my first meal when I get back into town.”
“That so?” asked Delaney, a bit of incredulity in her tone.
“That surprise you?” I asked.
“Maybe a little,” she said. “You don’t look like the kind of guy who eats too many meatball subs.”
“We all have our vices,” I said.
Delaney flashed me a coy look.
“I suppose we do,” she said, the hint of a sensual smile playing on her lovely lips.
I let the moment hang in the air, our eyes locked onto one another’s.
“And you?” I asked. “What do you miss about our humble home?”
“Warren Park,” she said, not missing a beat. “I go there all the time for walks, to clear my head.”
“Being in a place like this makes you appreciate having some green around,” I said.
“No kidding,” she said. “The drive up here was torture. I felt like I was driving through a wasteland.”
“Eight hours of nothing,” I said. “I’ve driven through Western Kansas, and the Northern Territory makes that state feel like I’m driving through a damn theme park.”
“I don’t know how they do it,” she said. “I’d go crazy in a town like this.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. “I need a little more action than a place with a population of less than a thousand can offer.”
“That’s right,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “A place with a little more…stimulation.”
I couldn’t help but let a smirk form on my lips—her insinuation was more than clear. And I couldn’t help but be pleased with the direction this evening was going.
“I think I need to use the little girl’s room,” she said. “Excuse me.”
She rose from her seat and headed off in the direction of the bathroom, and I couldn’t help but let my eyes linger on her rear as she walked.
Once she disappeared behind the door, I lifted my drink to my mouth and took a long sip. The day that I’d just had was fresh in my mind, and it played over in my head.
I wasn’t in town for any kind of logging operation, and I suspected that Delaney had picked up on how flimsy my story was. In reality, I’d come here to stop by the cemetery and finally pay my respects to my father.
The drive up to Longbridge had given me plenty of time to go over my reasons for being here. This place was the hometown of my father, who passed a year ago after a short and sudden illness. He’d come back to Longbridge after divorcing my mother and shacking up with the woman with whom he’d been cheating.
Earlier in the day, I’d found myself at the lonely grave in the dusty cemetery, a strange mixture of emotions in my heart as my eyes lingered on my father’s name on the small plaque. I knew that I needed to simply forget him and move on, to try to do what I could to keep his memory a fond one in my heart.
But I couldn’t. All I could think about was how devastated my mother had been when he left, how it didn’t seem as though he gave a good goddamn about anyone’s needs other than his. He dropped off the face of the earth when he moved back here to town, and the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if that was his goal—to forget about the life he’d led, to put my mother and me behind him and start fresh, away from his old obligations.
More than anything else, I wanted to sit him down and ask why, why he’d found it fitting and proper to simply leave, as though we’d been some mistake that he wanted to ignore, to pretend had never happened. For years I’d known that I needed to have this conversation, that I needed to come to Longbridge to sit down with my father and get some answers. But time flew by, and before I knew it, I’d received the news that he was in the final stages of a sudden and severe illness. Then he died, and that was that.
“Two more whiskeys,” I said to the bartender as he returned to his spot behind the bar.
He grunted and nodded before pouring the shots.
I suppose that at the very least, I could distract myself from these matters with some booze and a little romance—if that’s what one could call a quick fling.
“Say,” I said to the bartender, not able to resist. “You know John Gable?”
The bartender stopped in his tracks and looked away for a time.
“Why? You know him?” he asked.
“I do,” I said. “Kind of. We met through work a while back, and he told me to look him up if he was ever in Longbridge.”
A quizzical expression formed on the bartender’s face.
“Not sure what kind of work John did that had him working with Americans, but if you say so. Anyway, he passed about a year back.”
“Oh,” I said. “That’s too bad.”
“Yeah, sorry to be the one to break it to you.”
“And…what did he do in town?”
“Not sure,” the bartender said. “He lived mostly in Sydney. Only popped back into town now and then. Him and his woman.”
“And is she still in town?”
“Nah,” he said. “She took off after John died. Heard she went to live with her family in Perth. Could be wrong about that, though.”
Right at that moment, Delaney returned from the bathroom and plopped back into her chair. The bartender took that as his cue to leave and headed off.
“I see you went ahead and ordered us another round,” she said, her eyes on the two fresh shots of booze.
“I did,” I said. “Hope that wasn’t a little presumptuous of me.”
She flashed me another smile.
“Just presumptuous enough.”
Chapter 4
Justin
“And there I was, in some tiny town in the middle of Siberia, my translator missing in action, and a group of the roughest-looking Russians I’d ever seen eyeing me up like a piece of meat.”
I sat back with my drink in hand and a pleasant buzz in my head as Delaney continued with another one of her tales of globe-trotting.
“You should’ve just tried to talk to them,” I said. “Russians are known for their level-headed, diplomatic nature, right?”
She gave me a “come on” expression before taking another sip of her drink. “I don’t know what Russians you’re used to dealing with, but these guys didn’t seem all that keen on doing anything other than beating the hell out of each other until only one of them was left standing to carry me out of there over his shoulder like a damn caveman.”
“And then what did you do?”
“What could I do?” she said. “I was there as a company rep, and these guys were my clients. I’d been speaking with them through email for weeks, and I figured they were professionals. So I went through the rest of my spiel when the translator finally came back, letting them know just how much money they stood to make if they signed over drilling rights.”
She took another sip and went on.
“So I had to just keep a straight face during this whole thing, pretending that I didn’t know exactly what was on each and every one of these guy’s minds. Anyway, we finished up and got the hell out of there as fast as possible. They signed and evidently decided to celebrate their newfound fortunes by beating the hell out of each other as soon as I left. I guess me being back at my hotel didn’t stop them from fighting it out over me.”
“Pretty impressive,” I said. “Must be quite the ego boost to know that you can inspire a bunch of Russians to knock each other out over you.”
“Please,” she said. “At some of these places that I go to, I’m the fir
st woman they’ve seen in months. I could look like a lunch lady, and they’d still be beating the hell out of each other just to get a good look at me.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” I said with a smile.
“Aren’t you a charmer,” she said, returning my grin.
“What about you?” she asked. “Your logging company take you anywhere more exciting than rural Australia?”
Shit, I thought. Time for some more lies.
I wasn’t sure just how confident Delaney was about seeing through my flimsy lie about working for some Dallas logging company. I could’ve told her about how my job had brought me to Russia more than once, and while I hadn’t inspired rough Russian guys to beat each other up, I’d actually been part of the fights themselves.
But she didn’t need to know any of that. Besides, as I glanced down, I saw that our bodies had grown very, very close over the course of the last drink. The alcohol and our mutual attraction had been pushing us closer and closer together, and I was much more interested in where that was going to lead than in going on about the details of my job, even if I was at liberty to discuss them.
“Nah, nothing too thrilling,” I said. “Alice Springs is about as exotic as it’s gotten lately.”
“Now,” she said. “I can’t help but be a little curious about your reasons for coming here.”
“That so?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “Not sure what a logging company would want you to do in Longbridge. I haven’t seen a damn tree since I got here.”
I had to give her something to throw her off the scent. But I didn’t want to give her my whole life story.
“I actually had some family here,” I said.
“That so?”
“Yeah,” I said. “But he passed a while back—an uncle of mine. Just wanted to pop in and see if I could learn anything about him. Figured there probably wasn’t going to be another time that I’d be anywhere near Longbridge.”
“Sorry to hear that,” she said. “You learn anything interesting?”
“Not so much.”
As soon as the words slipped past my lips, I realized that I didn’t want to go into the matter. A beautiful girl was sitting right next to me, after all, and that was far, far more interesting to me at that moment.
A quizzical expression played on Delaney’s lovely features.
“Something on your mind?” I asked.
“Nothing. I mean, I’m thinking about how strange it is that we’re just now meeting for the first time. I mean, I’ve got contacts in the logging industry in Dallas that I go way back with. But you’re not familiar in the slightest.”
I couldn’t tell if she was sure that I was lying, or just suspecting. Either way, I needed to throw her off the trail. And I knew just how to do it.
“Doesn’t really matter,” I said, leaning in close and placing my hand on her knee. “We know each other now, and that’s what I’m more interested in.”
“That so?” she asked, a sexy smile forming on her lips as she saw that I was touching her. “I guess we’ll have to make up for lost time.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
With that, I leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips.
The sensation was…like no kiss that I could remember. There was an instant magnetism, an immediate spark of electricity that started from my lips and spread all throughout my body. Blood pumped hard in my veins, and my hands moved slowly up Delaney’s curves, her flesh soft and supple through the thin fabric of her shirt.
I opened my mouth slightly, my tongue moving past my lips and touching hers, the taste beyond words. The world seemed to fall away around us. It was just Delaney and me, kissing like a couple of teenagers.
“I’m thinking we ought to go somewhere more private,” I said, taking my lips from hers just long enough to speak.
“And I’m thinking that you and I are on the exact same page.”
We were all over each other from the instant we threw open the door to Delaney’s hotel room.
“Nice place,” I said, glancing around at the quaint, French-style interior.
“Oh,” she asked, a coy smile on her lips. “And you’ve got a room at the Hilton, I suppose?”
I matched her smile and went right back to kissing. With a swift movement of my foot, I knocked the door shut as my hands moved all over her body. My fingertips traced the outline of her bra through her shirt, and my thoughts went wild as I imagined the gorgeous body that I was on the verge of seeing.
One by one, I undid the buttons of her blouse, exposing more and more of her creamy-white skin. Delaney tossed her hair aside as I moved further and further down, her eyes flashing with anticipation. And I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t just as eager to get her into the bed behind us.
Once the buttons were undone, I slipped her shirt off, exposing her slim shoulders and a very red, very lacy bra.
“That’s pretty fancy for a drive across Australia,” I said, moving my hands along the cool slopes of her hips.
“Good for meetings,” she said. “Gives me confidence.”
It was certainly giving me something. Delaney’s full breasts looked about on the verge of bursting out of her bra, and with a quick flick of my fingers on the back straps, I sent them tumbling out. Her nipples were small and pink, and I did my best not to let my jaw hang open slack at the sight of them.
Delaney didn’t waste any time getting me out of my own clothing. She slipped her hands under my suit jacket and slid it off, tossing it into the corner of the room. There was a look in her eyes, one very different than that of the professional, composed woman whom I was speaking to at the bar. The look was one of hunger, of barely restrained passion. I knew at that moment that she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her.
“Mmm,” she said once my shirt was off, her hands moving over the solid squares of my pecs and down to the muscular plane of my abs. “I have to say I’m very impressed.”
She leaned down and kissed my nipples, the sensation of her lips on the sensitive skin sending waves of chill throughout my body. Once she’d had her fun, she stood back up straight and kissed me hard on the mouth.
“Glad to know I meet your approval,” I said, my voice coming out in a low purr.
“Though,” she said. “I have to admit that you’re the most in-shape logging rep I’ve ever met. Usually, your type is a little more…soft around the midsection.”
I smirked.
“Happy to defy your expectations.”
“I’d love to make you even happier,” she said, her voice dripping with erotic intent as her hand moved lower, lower down my body.
“You’ll have to get me out of the rest of these clothes first,” I said.
“I’d love to.”
I stepped closer to Delaney, her breasts now pressing against my body. I reached down and undid her zipper, pulling her pants down to her knees. Delaney did the rest, shimmying them down her long, lovely legs and stepping out of them once they were pooled on the floor. Now she was in nothing but a red thong that matched her bra, and in the reflection of the mirror behind her, I could see that her rear end was as shapely and luscious as I’d imagined it to be.
“Planning on just staring all night?” Delaney asked, her mouth in a smirk and one eyebrow raised.
“When you see a body like this, you have to take a moment to appreciate it,” I said, running my hands over her ripe ass.
“I’m not sure if I have the patience for that,” she said. “Much more fun things I’d rather you do with this body. Let me show you…”
With that, Delaney undid my belt and zipper, pulling my pants and boxer-briefs down, my stone-solid member springing out. Her eyes opened wide enough to make it clear that she was very impressed with what she saw. And she did more than just look—she wrapped her hands around me, a shudder of pleasure bursting through my body at the sensation of her touch.
“Come over this way,” she said, moving her hand slowly up and down my length as s
he stepped backward.
“Not much of a choice when you’ve got me in your hand like that.”
“So much the better.”
Still stroking me, Delaney sat back on the edge of the bed. Then, flashing me one more sensual look, she leaned forward and took me into her mouth. Soon, the sounds of her lips on my most sensitive area filled the air. I put my hands on my hips as I eagerly watched her work. Delaney knew just how to please, using expert skill with both her lips and her tongue. And when her mouth was full of me, she’d look up, a little smile in her eyes.
I couldn’t take anymore; I needed her right then and there.
I bent down a bit and slipped my hands under her arms, my erection leaving her mouth with a soft “pop.” Gently yet firmly, I laid Delaney back on the bed, her hair splaying out around her head. I looked down at her beautiful body laid out before me, her legs crossed one over the other, exposing just barely the thatch of dark brown pubic hair above her womanhood.
“Come take me,” she moaned, rocking her hips from one side to the other. “I know you can’t wait any longer.”
She was right about that.
With a smooth, fluid movement I positioned my body above hers, propping myself up on my arms. I felt the tip of my member graze against her, and I could tell by how wet she was that Delaney was more than ready for me. And if that wasn’t already abundantly clear, she wrapped her legs around my hips and brought me even closer to her.
“Someone’s eager,” I said.
“To put it mildly.”
I lowered my head and took her nipples into my mouth, one then the other. Delaney let out a moan. Reaching down, I took my member into my hand and positioned it at the entrance to her sex. Then, with a slow descent, I entered her.
“Oh, God,” said Delaney, her nails digging into the muscles of my back as I slid into her like liquid.
She felt like heaven, like the softest silk. It took all the restraint I had not to lose control the moment I entered her.
“How’s that?” I asked, despite the look of ecstasy on her face making it very, very clear what the answer was.
Hot Pursuit - A Marooned with the SEAL Romance Page 3