“Fuck me,” he hissed and could swear his eyes crossed when she palmed him, thumb sweeping over the tip of his dick.
“God, I hope so,” she said on a ragged laugh. Rolling up, she fastened her mouth on his jawline to whisper, “Baby, you gotta move things along before you leave me behind.”
“No fucking chance.” He yanked her pants down to her ankles, coming up out of the squat to lift her up and out of them and over his shoulder. She shrieked and then cackled with glee and grabbed hold of the back of his jeans as he quickly strode through the villa to the bedroom.
He tossed her on the big bed and stood at the foot to strip off his jeans and briefs, snatching the condom from his pocket while she watched propped up on her elbows, eyes gobbling him up, greedy and appreciative. Naked and gloved up, he yanked her panties down and off, Skye raising her hips to help him while reaching behind her to unclasp her bra and toss it off the side of the bed.
He prowled up her body, inch by inch, mouth hovering right above her flesh as he marked his pathway up her legs to her plush thighs and the damp flesh between them dusted with light hair, up over her round belly and breasts that bobbed up and down under her quick breaths, stopping when he was once again right above her plump mouth.
He lowered on top of her, letting her take his weight. She wrapped him up, arms tight around his shoulders, pulling him into her, legs stretching wide so he slipped right between them, cock rubbing between the lips of her sex. He reached down to position the tip against her swollen nub of a clit. As he thrust back and forth against it, Grant watched her pupils blow out with incandescent lust.
Her mouth was swollen from his kisses, and he couldn’t wait to see it swollen for other reasons. But this first time was for her. He wanted to make it good for her, show her how much she meant to him, how much she should expect from the man in her bed.
He planned to fuck her brains out till he was imprinted on every inch of her in a way she’d never come back from.
He nipped her bottom lip, lifting one hand to pinch a nipple.
“God, yes. Do that, baby.”
“You like it like that.” It wasn’t a question, not when he rolled the nipple between two fingers, pinching it tight every time, and she writhed beneath him.
“Yessssss,” she managed to reply, squirming for more. She tilted her hips into his thrust, rubbing against his cock, making those noises of need in her throat that made his balls draw up tight.
Fuck, he had to get inside her before, for the first time in his life, he blew right past her and ruined all his plans for her delectable body.
He shifted down and plunged inside Skye.
God, she was tight. Wet and so slick, he slid home in a swift second. She was tight the last time too, he remembered, though relaxed and nimble from the booze. This time, her body gave one hard wince. Grant waited, gritting his teeth to beat back the need to take her fast and hard before she was ready.
She caught his gaze with hers and in hers was a vulnerable apology.
“You okay?” he asked, voice hoarse with bated desire. Holy shit, he needed to fuck this woman, and now, but he would be god damned if he rutted on her like a mindless beast while she flinched and winced beneath him.
She nodded and hummed, “Mmm hmm,” while lacing her fingers through his hair. Her other hand clutched his shoulder, holding on. “This is probably where I should tell you I’ve slept with no one since you too.”
His cock swelled inside her at the words but Grant didn’t look too closely at the emotion that shot through him. Skye shifted beneath him, in search of a more comfortable angle. Grant eased out, tilted his pelvis and thrust back inside her. This time her eyes went wide and she lifted up into his thrust as he hit the right spot.
“There it is,” he groaned, pulling out and doing it again.
“God, yes, there,” she moaned, and that was all the permission he needed.
Throwing himself into the rhythm, Grant leaned up enough that he could look down at where they connected, see his cock go in and out of her as he felt the build of pleasure tickle the base of his spine.
Her legs came up high at his waist and swung in so he felt her heels hit the top of his ass. She used them for leverage and lifted into his thrusts, breasts bouncing, mouth open. Her hands grabbed either side of his neck. “Come back to me,” she urged.
Grant was feeling too much, in his dick, in his chest, his eyes burning into hers as he covered her until his mouth hovered over hers, not kissing, barely touching. He felt her slick pussy get even tighter and knew she was close. “Go over, baby,” he grunted. “Wanna watch it happen.”
“Honey,” she whispered and then she was bearing down on him, clutching him tight with all her limbs, her sex strangling his dick as she claimed her pleasure, body locked tight. He ducked his head to suck her breast in his mouth as he pounded into her in his rush to the edge, growling deep in his chest as he went over it and shot deep.
He collapsed on her, head pillowed on her chest, lungs heaving as he caught his breath.
“I can’t breathe,” she gasped into his hair. Immediately, he shifted to her side, bringing her around with him to keep them connected face to face. He figured she wanted that too when she hitched her leg on his hip and kept their torsos pressed close.
“Holy cats,” she finally managed. “I don’t remember it being like that.”
He grinned from behind closed eyes. “Well, you were drunk.”
“Not that drunk. Jack Sparrow isn’t drunk enough to forget something so…wow.”
“Wow, huh.”
“Stop looking so pleased with yourself,” but the chiding lack heat especially when she snuggled into his chest and tucked her head under his chin.
“Hey, if you’re gonna give me an after-action report, wanna make sure I get all the details.”
“After-action report,” she muttered, voice lazy. “My, you soldiers do know how to flatter a lady. Such sexy phrases you use.”
Christ, she was cute. “Gotta let go so I can get rid of the condom and come back to you.”
“Okay.”
“You’re not going to disappear on me in the two point five minutes it takes me to do that, right?”
She lifted her head to meet his eyes, all easy humor gone. “No. Promise.”
“Good.” He kissed her lightly and eased free, enjoying her sharp intake of breath when he slid out of her. He pulled back, bending low to press a kiss between her breasts before rolling out of bed for the bathroom.
By his count, it took him less than two minutes to do the deed and return to her. He didn’t like the faint alarm he felt with her out of sight, or the relief that came when he re-entered the bedroom and found her exactly as he’d left her, but for the sheet she’d modestly pulled up over her breasts.
He climbed back in next to her and resumed their former position. She slid into his arms with ease, like she belonged there. Dimly, he heard the music from the living room as Tony Bennett’s baritone came faintly through the walls.
“Why the pool?” he asked after a few quiet minutes (except for Tony).
“Mmm?”
“You swim well. Noticed that last night. But you said last night was the first time since the wedding and I got the feeling that night you hadn’t done it for a while.”
“Not for years,” she replied.
“What changed your mind?”
She went quiet, but her muscles locked tight as if bracing before she answered. He kept his hand running lightly over her skin, teasing them both, fanning their banked flames while he waited her out. Then she released a breath and her shoulders relaxed into his touch.
“Swimming was something I did with my mother,” she said. “Until she left my father and me with him. After that, I didn’t swim anymore. There was no pleasure to be had there. My grandmother didn’t try to take her place, but she was the only maternal figure I had after that. Her and the nannies. And Grandmother did not swim.”
She snuggled closer and Gr
ant wrapped both arms around her, happy to let her use him as a buffer against the memories. “The wedding was my breaking point, I guess. I couldn’t understand why I’d denied myself for so long. Something so simple that was mine. Mine and Mom’s but what did that matter when my fiancé was marrying my sister?”
He could see her point there. “And last night?”
“I found out about Grandmother’s funeral by reading it in the newspaper one of the guests left behind. It’s my own fault too, not knowing that is. I’m the one who left without telling anyone where I was going. I’m the one who walked away from her life and family, changed my looks, and took a job as a maid. Hid myself away here.
“I’m left to wonder how she died, whether she was in pain…if she was alone. Did she think of me? Did she know I loved her?
“The grief—I can feel it, like a living thing in my gut, crawling up my throat when I least expect it. Strangling me with—desolation. I want to scream and yell and beat someone up, because I can’t just sit in my room and cry all the time. It won’t change anything. The world isn’t going to stop turning just because I can’t fathom one without her in it. She’ll still be dead, and I’ll be left wheezing with a foggy head and a crying hangover that even tequila can’t make better.
“I feel so powerless. All my life, I’ve had control over so little, and now this. Death, the ultimate power stripper. There’s no going back to fix things now, nothing left but to live through it breath by agonizing breath.”
Her fingers curled into his chest as her whole body trembled. “Sometimes, I don’t think I’ll survive the sadness.”
He squeezed her tight. “Baby.”
“That’s what I was thinking last night. Or not thinking. Maybe merely feeling. It was all too much. It felt…too big to contain. And there was the pool and I wondered what my mom would say and what she was doing. Maybe she was dead too and no one ever thought to tell me. And I wondered why I let her do that, why I let her take the water from me when she left. I gave her that power and I couldn’t remember why.
“I couldn’t go back in time and go to my grandmother’s funeral or be by her side as she passed and I couldn’t miraculously reproduce my mother in my life or erase the fact that my fiancé married my pregnant sister.
“But I could take the water back.
“So, I did.”
His throat burned. He wanted to wrap her up and keep anyone from ever hurting her again. He wanted to find her father and smack him for neglecting the treasure he’d been given. He wanted to beat the holy shit out of her ex-fiancé.
God, he wanted.
Worse was the sharp pain of frustration, the unwelcome envy he felt when he realized she’d accomplished where he continued to struggle.
She’d faced her demons.
He could barely acknowledge his.
Grant locked it down.
“You humble me.”
“Nonsense,” she huffed.
He squeezed her again, a warning this time that he then verbalized. “Listen to me. I’ve fought beside men who don’t have half your strength, Skye. Mean motherfuckers who could hump fifty plus pound packs and ordinance. Brave men who go into combat armed to the teeth and with brothers-in-arms at their side.
“You can’t aim a gun at your troubles and take them out. You can’t leave them behind on a battlefield and go home to the thing or the person who makes it all worth it. Yeah, okay, you ran away, but Jesus Skye, look what you endured first! Look at what it took to make you say enough. Those mean motherfuckers would never have lasted as long as you did. They would’ve said ‘fuck it’ and bailed long before that.”
He speared fingers in her hair tilting her head back to catch her eyes. Tears spilled from the edges of her eyes to drop on his hands. Almost reverently, he brushed them away with his thumbs. “You came here and worked hard at something I’m guessing you had zero experience with. You found people who like you for you, because you’re sweet and amazing and so fucking brave. Last night, you took back what was yours. You didn’t let those assholes win. And tomorrow, you’re going back in to that viper’s pit you call a family because you believe it’s the right thing to do. Easy is staying here and hiding with me under the covers, which, for the record, I fully endorse as a strategy. But you took the time you needed and now you’re doing what you believe needs to be done, even if it means returning to the same assholes who so royally fucked you over in the first place.
“That’s humbling, lovely.”
She managed a tremulous hint of a smile. “Means a lot. Especially coming from a badass SEAL.”
Grant was in no mood to be teased. He leaned down to brush her mouth with his. “For what it’s worth, this badass SEAL is seriously fucking proud of you, babe.”
Her eyes fluttered close. “Worth a lot,” she whispered against his lips. “To me.”
Okay.
All right.
That was enough.
That was about all he could handle right now.
He tucked her back under his chin and held her close, letting the emotional fallout weave through them in silence.
When he felt more settled, he spoke again. “You awake?”
“Mmm hmm,” was her faint answer.
“Wanna go for a swim?”
For a second, she was motionless and Grant wondered if he’d pushed too far too quickly. Then she pulled back enough for him to sketch her shadowed features in the faint light. Her face was soft and welcoming and filled with a warmth that heated him to the core.
“I don’t have a suit,” she reminded him.
“Lovely,” and it was his turn to tease. “When have you ever needed one?”
Skye cut through the water like a torpedo on target, straight and true. She barrel-rolled underneath and broke the surface laughing. She felt free, for the moment unburdened. She couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t felt the heavy weight of being a Thornquist on her shoulders. A weight that’d grown heavier with guilt during her sojourn in Barefoot Bay.
A weight that, while not disappearing completely, suddenly felt far less burdensome.
Shared.
An easy breaststroke brought her to the pool’s edge in time to see Grant dive in on the far end, his body a lean arrow that hovered for a second in the air before he cleaved the surface.
So much had happened in the last few hours. Not only the amazing sex (and holy cats, had it been that) but being able to talk to someone about all the stuff swirling in her brain. Like earlier with the girls in the spa, it’d been a relief to share that with Grant. Difficult, far more difficult than she might’ve expected. Getting those first words out had cost her, but then they were like an avalanche tumbling from her mouth with too much speed and fury to be checked or edited.
Which, turned out, was a good thing.
Grant popped up beside her, showering her with droplets. She sputtered and wiped pool water from her eyes. “Gee, thanks for that.”
He stood and shook like a dog, dousing her again. “Grant!” she yelled. “I’m already wet!”
“’Bout to get wetter,” he promised with a comic leer.
“Oooh big talk from the big man.” She glanced pointedly at exactly which big part of him she meant. The shallow water cut off at the tops of his thighs, exposing the luscious V formed by cut hipbones that funneled into his more than generous sized penis. Cock. She could call it that, now she had it inside her body, right? The word was so…earthy, but lacked the more juvenile associations of “dick”.
There was nothing ladylike about it.
She kinda liked that.
Proudly displayed, his cock visibly began to notice and appreciate her nudity. Grant’s eyes stayed on her while he slicked the hair back from his face. She watched his cock lengthen and grow hard under her gaze. Giving in to the need, she swished through the water until she reached Grant and held his erection between her hands.
Air hissed from between his teeth. “Careful, lovely. You’re fondling a loaded weapon th
ere.”
“So clichéd,” she scolded lightly. The skin was warm from the heated pool and from being Grant. She’d noticed he tended to run hot, like fuel ran through his veins instead of blood. She took him in her palm, fingers wrapping around the pleasant girth, and stroked once. “How do you guys managed to run around with this thing between your legs? It’s got to get in the way of basic day to day living.”
“Well,” he said, voice hoarse, “we don’t really know anything different.”
“I can’t imagine a woman having her genitals hanging loose and low. So inconvenient and cumbersome. Must be so awkward. I’m serious!” she added when he chuckled.
“Baby, you’re holding my dick and talking about genitals. If I don’t laugh, I’m gonna cry.”
“Fine,” she snapped, letting go.
Instantly he grabbed her hand. “Now why’d you go and do that?”
“You’re annoying.”
“You’ve said so before.” He tugged her into his arms before kicking off the bottom of the pool to propel them back into the deep end. “You swim well, nymph.”
She relaxed against his chest, breasts pleasantly crushed against his hard pecs. “You’ve said so before.” Her arms slipped up around his neck as his wrapped around her waist, holding her head above the water line, legs easily treading water beneath the surface.
She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed. Her breath ghosted in the cooler air around them. “This is nice,” she murmured. She liked feeling his strength cocooning her. Protecting her.
“Yeah.” His hands tightened briefly on her hips. “Don’t drift off on me,” he ordered in a soft voice. “I’ve got plans to fuck you again in a few minutes. Prefer you awake for it.”
His words shot a lurid thrill through her groin. “Yes, I can see how that would be helpful.” She turned her head enough to press her lips to his neck. “Think you can keep us from drowning while you do?”
Barefoot Bay: SEALed With a Twist (Kindle Worlds) Page 18