His Last Defense

by Karen Rock

  She bit the edge of his bottom lip, sucking it into her mouth before soothing the ache with her tongue. Meeting him thrust for thrust, she lifted her hips to take more of him. All of him.

  His thrusts quickened, deepened, each one propelling him closer to the edge. Nolee’s nails grazed his back and her breathy moans filled his ears. She wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him deeper, countering each thrust, her fingers digging into his tense shoulders.

  They stayed that way, both straining for the unbelievable edge, pumping, pulling, chasing each other closer.

  With a keening cry of satisfaction, Nolee dropped her head against the pillows, her dark hair ballooning into a soft, disheveled cloud around her beautiful face.

  The orgasm ripped through her body—he could feel it, see it, practically taste the sweetness of it on his tongue. He enjoyed watching her shudder with the sensations, enjoyed knowing he was the source of her pleasure.

  He knew he could make her happy.

  This was just the start of it.

  The muscles of her inner walls contracted around his sex in the most delicious way possible. Only when she’d finally stilled beneath him did he let himself go, burying his face in the soft curve of her neck and pouring himself into her, each hot pulse of pleasure ripping a harsh breath from his throat.

  When his heart rate returned to something resembling normal, he kissed the soft skin behind her ear, then lifted his head. She slowly blinked, and he looked into the most beautiful eyes he knew he’d ever see.

  “Hello,” he said, running one hand up her torso to palm her breast and brush his thumb over the velvety tip.

  “Oh,” she gasped, breathy, shooting him a mock surprised look. “Are you still here?”

  “Yep. You’re stuck with me.” He smiled into her shining eyes.

  “Good,” she sighed and angled up to brush his jaw with a feathery kiss before dropping down again, her heavy-lidded eyes fluttering, her lips curving into a smile. “I don’t ever want to be apart.”

  “We won’t be.” Because they would find a way to make this work. They cared about each other too much not to.

  When he took her out tomorrow, he’d do everything he could to convince her to leave Kodiak with him and start over. He rolled onto his side and gathered her in his arms, drifting toward sleep.

  He’d keep her safe. She wouldn’t spend another moment of her life feeling like she needed to prove anything.

  Dylan would make sure of it.

  15

  NINE HOURS AND two condom wrappers later, Nolee twisted beneath the shower’s pelting warm water, her muscles sore, her skin deliciously tender and raw. She rinsed the shampoo from her hair. The coconut scent revived her, despite the scant sleep she’d gotten after marathon sex with Dylan.

  What an incredible night.

  Fire fanned in her belly as she recalled Dylan’s scorching touch. No one had ever brought her such exquisite satisfaction, such mind-blowing release, the way he did. For those hours, he’d tantalized and tormented her until she’d forgotten her anguish over her dreaded meeting with her Dunham Seafoods bosses tomorrow. Instead, she’d simply existed on a cloud of physical and emotional bliss.

  Her heart swelled as she recalled Dylan’s pledge to work things out and stay together. Once she convinced her employers to keep her on as captain, she’d have everything she ever wanted. Career and a committed relationship. Independence and love.

  Could she have it all?

  She grabbed a loofah sponge and squeezed bodywash onto it. It seemed too good to be true, but Dylan had helped her realize that she needed to stop questioning herself. She wouldn’t give in to self-doubt again. Her father’s abandonment didn’t define her. In fact, now that she looked at it more closely, in some ways, his rejection had made her stronger, a woman who no longer chased after accolades and approval from strangers. A strong, independent woman who was capable of accomplishing anything she set her mind to achieving.

  It was as if Dylan had flipped the lens through which she viewed herself. The new filter gave her a deeper perspective and peace with her life and, now, her future with Dylan.

  A large, male body slipped into the tiled cubicle and turned her in the small space, breaking her from her thoughts.

  “Dylan!”

  He swooped down and captured her lips in a heart-melting kiss before pulling back, his handsome mouth curved in a sexy smile. Her body shivered and tensed as it remembered his, responding to him on contact.

  “Morning, beautiful,” he rumbled, his voice deep and rough, as he brushed back a wet lock of her hair. Spraying water plastered his curls to his head and his eyes darkened to the color of a deep pine forest beneath his long, spiked lashes.

  “Morning,” she breathed, feeling slightly dizzy with so much hard muscle all around her. She ate him up with her eyes. Droplets sluiced down his skin, finding secret paths along the hard ridges she ached to touch, to trace with her tongue.

  His abs tightened as she skimmed her fingertips along the muscled crests and valleys, tracing the water-slick, chiseled six-pack of his torso and the ropy lengths of muscle in his arms. Her mouth watered as her eyes roved over him, heat flaring between her thighs at the way his pelvic muscles cut down in a sharp V that framed his long, thick arousal.

  “Let me,” he whispered in her ear, his voice gravelly with the same need that gripped her. Dylan plucked the loofah from her hand and her heart pounded a fervent acquiescence to his potent demand.

  He slid the rough sponge over her stomach in lazy circles that set her skin ablaze. She groaned at the teasing, sensual brushes against her quivering flesh.

  “Tell me how much you like this.” His lips moved beside her ear, her body tightening in response to his whispered words. His ardent gaze made her feel beautiful.

  “Don’t stop,” she panted then arched, thrusting her breasts against his sensually exploring hands as he whisked the sudsy pad up and across her aching peaks, rubbing gently, driving her wild. The hard length of his cock pressed against her stomach and she savored the feel of dark desire that wound together with the deep joy Dylan alone could give her.

  She wanted him with a need that left her breathless, and yet the wanting was almost as delicious as knowing she’d have him. Soon. That state of delayed fulfillment stirred a hot tension inside her, a pleasurable ache.

  Better still, she’d never have to stop wanting him because today was the first day of the rest of their lives together. Dylan had vowed that they’d make things work and she believed him with every bit of her heart. Trusted him completely. Her days of expecting disappointment, of guarding herself against vulnerability were over. With nothing left to fear, she could fully surrender her heart to the man who’d held it all along.

  Dylan.

  “So you like that?” he teased, his light tone at odds with the achingly serious, tender light in his eyes. His hand shook lightly and it moved her to see how she affected him. They’d crossed into deeper emotional waters and there was no going back.

  “Yes. Oh, yes,” she whimpered, needing him to cease his wicked torment, the tension building inside making her squirm. Her body trembled as she lifted herself on her toes to fit her curves to his hard flesh for one long, drawn-out moment, a backbone-melting experience.

  Dylan’s jaw turned to granite. His eyes flared, pupils dilated as he dropped the sponge and claimed her mouth again. His hot lips skated over hers, more demanding now than they’d been moments before, as droplets rained all around them.

  Tongues dueled, lips sucked and short breaths wound together. The growling noise he made in his throat reverberated through the kiss as his tongue stroked over hers and their wet bodies slid over one another. Her elbow banged against the faucet as he pivoted her to the opposite wall. His bent head brushed against the shower dome.

  None of it mat
tered.

  At the delicious press of him against her, the crush of hard muscle against willing flesh, shivers chased each other up and down her spine. Her knees wobbled, leaving her no choice but to wrap her arms around his neck and hold on tight. He fingered a taut nipple. Her fingers explored the curls at the base of his scalp.

  He tweaked the crest between his thumb and forefinger at the same time he nipped her lower lip and she practically convulsed with the sharp contraction of her feminine muscles.

  She lifted one leg high alongside his, her knee parallel to his waist in a gesture that opened her to his straining erection. Heat burned in her, scorched through her veins, her limbs, her core.

  And still his toe-curling kiss went on. She clutched at his shoulders, silently begging for him to join himself to her...the part of herself she now knew had been missing all along. Without him, she would never again feel complete.

  “Condom. Sink.”

  It took her a moment to process the gasped words while he bent to kiss his way down her neck and into the V of her cleavage. He circled one nipple with his tongue while she reached outside the pounding water to find the foil packet he’d thoughtfully remembered to bring with him.

  Jackpot.

  She tore a strip of foil from the top of the wrapper and freed the condom. Her heart hammered in her chest, her erratic pulse a result of her smoldering hunger for Dylan and for all the things he could do to her.

  He released her breast to look her in the eye for one passionate second, his emotion-filled gaze raking over her with intensity. In its depths, she glimpsed the same raw feeling that gripped her, a thrilling, gleeful, shout-at-the-top-of-your-lungs recognition that everything she felt, he felt, too.

  She loved him and he loved her.

  Words would come later. For now, they spoke with their hands. Their lips. Their bodies.

  His cock was smooth and hot to touch as she eased the condom over his ridged length with some difficulty, since the head of him bobbed and strained closer to her thighs. When she had him fully sheathed, he kissed her again, covering her lips with his the way she wanted him to cover the rest of her.

  She teased his outer thigh with a shift of her leg against his and he answered by raising her leg higher. The move made her very aware of her vulnerability to him, the knowledge sending a fresh twinge between her legs.

  She wanted him so badly she writhed against him, desperate for the feel of his cock against her. He trapped her hands in his against the shower wall, holding her perfectly still as he kissed her. Only then did he allow the tip of him to brush her clit. That small contact incited a strangled cry in her throat, a mewling yelp that bore no resemblance to her speaking voice.

  If she’d had her hands free, she would have used them to help guide him inside her, but instead he kissed and teased her, tormenting them both with glancing touches that built mutual anticipation to a perilous level. Nolee’s whole body shook, her every breath focused on the exquisite pleasure of almost-touches that never gave her the full measure of the man she wanted.

  The man she loved.

  The scent of skin and sex and ocean permeated the fogging shower while the pelting water muffled the sounds of their quickening breaths. She longed and wanted, hungered and cried out for him, until finally he released her hands to take hold of her legs. He fit them both around his waist, holding her up with his strength and the leverage of the shower. Stretching his hands across her upper thighs, he opened her wider, splaying her sex to his erection for a pulse-pounding moment before he positioned himself to enter her.

  She tilted her hips to receive him, trusting him to hold on to her even if she didn’t make it easy. Never before had she felt this exposed, this vulnerable, this ready to open herself up, body, heart and soul, to a man she knew would never let her down.

  Beneath her, Dylan whispered her name. He angled and bent his body against hers to fine-tune the thrust, stretching her. She reveled in the near discomfort of his size. No one else made her feel so much.

  Physically and emotionally. He cupped her butt cheeks in his hands, shifting his position while he held her steady. Her breasts flattened against his chest, her slick body curving and softening to accommodate his hard angles and masculine strength.

  His thrusts grew deeper and harder in the steam-filled shower. The sounds of their lovemaking—the touch of skin on skin, the tender words and soft encouragements—filled her ears.

  Tension built inside her, the slow windup to a climax still taking her by surprise though he’d delivered that same powerful jolt to her body the night before. Dylan knew her better than she knew herself. He understood what she needed, gave more than what she would have imagined asking.

  She clawed at his shoulders, needing to anchor herself before the bottom fell out of her world. Finding some purchase in his biceps, she held on as pleasure rushed at her and then over her, shattering her with such brutal efficiency that she collapsed against him, bucking and shaking with the force of her fulfillment. She covered his face with kisses and cries of completion, the bliss so enormous, she had to share it.

  Dylan’s body froze the next moment, a paralyzed second as he found his own fulfillment, while her reward went on and on. Dylan’s guttural shout mingled with her screams as Nolee slumped in the circle of his arms, unable to think or move or speak for the next few minutes. She barely managed to breathe in and breathe out, the rhythmic motion and jetting shower eventually forcing her heart rate to slow.

  And even after the shudders ceased and their breathing quieted, they remained there, lulled by each other’s heartbeats. When full awareness returned, she peeled herself off the shower wall while Dylan straightened, flicked off the tap, then wrapped her carefully in a towel, the tender gesture touching her. Surely he must love her the way she loved him.

  She couldn’t wait to tell him. Couldn’t wait to hear him say it back. Once she had convinced her bosses to keep her on as captain, she hoped to begin her new life, Dylan by her side.

  Several hours later, Nolee sat across from Dylan in the very restaurant he’d taken her to the night of their prom. Little had changed, she mused, taking in the elegant table linens and crystal glasses, the strong feel of his fingers twined with hers, the tender, loving expression on his face.

  Only now they’d matured. Had had life experiences apart from one another that’d led them right back to this moment...this second chance.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, turning her hands in his, rubbing his thumbs across her palms.

  “How happy I am.”

  His warm eyes crinkled at her. “Me, too. And I’ve got news I hope will make us both even happier.”

  “You do?” She blinked at him a moment, processing.

  “The Coast Guard air station we’ll be transferred to. My commander phoned this morning. One of their rescue swimmers is getting promoted and they have an opening if I want it.”

  Throat dry, she lifted her water glass and downed a quick gulp. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears. “We’ll be transferred?”

  He leaned forward and squeezed her numb fingers. “That was a crass way to say it. I’m sorry, Nolee. What I meant is, will you come to Cape Cod with me?”

  Dismay rose, wet and cold, a dark arctic tide that froze her heart solid. She yanked her hands from his. Clasped them, twisting, on her lap as she trembled at the sudden chasm-opening revelation.

  “You’re still transferring? I thought...since you hadn’t mentioned it in so long...”

  Dylan’s eyebrows crowded each other over the bridge of his nose. “There was a delay in approval because my commander had to complete an audit. Plus, since this is an out-of-rotation-year assignment request, we had to wait until a spot opened up.”

  She sat very still, as if somehow she could turn herself to stone. Not feel any of this. “So, you just thought I’d go
with you?” she asked through numb, stiff lips.

  He stared at her, unblinking for a moment, then shook his head. “I thought, after last night...” He cleared his throat. Began again. “We talked about it...”

  She raised a shaking finger. Pointed. “You said you wouldn’t leave me. That we’d work things out.”

  Betrayal forked inside her. Flash-white lightning in a black sky.

  “I’m not, and we will. I’m taking you with me.” He released a quick breath. “I mean, we’re going together. I hope,” he ended, belatedly.

  Somewhere in the room a group began singing a discordant, joyful rendition of the Happy Birthday song.

  “No. We’re not.”

  The color drained from Dylan’s face. “But I thought you’d want to leave, since you didn’t make your quota.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  He stared at her, stunned. Silence sliced the air between them. When he began again, his words emerged slowly, halting, as if they had a bad taste.

  “You needed to reach your numbers for Dunham Seafoods to keep you on and the chances of another offer aren’t great. You’re an incredible captain, but this is a tough business, especially at your age, and after losing a boat...”

  Each word stabbed straight through her, as if puncturing a lung. She struggled to drag in air. Her chest burned, afire. Raucous applause rose from the partying group and forks clanged on glasses.

  Once the noise quieted, she countered, “I don’t know that. Not until I talk to my bosses. Do you think I’d quit without trying?”

  “It’s not giving up...it’s being realistic. In Cape Cod, you can start over. Get a small boat and be your own captain. Fish for lobster or stay home. No matter what, I’ll take care of you. Make you happy. Keep you safe,” he insisted, his eyes earnest. Concerned. Sincere.