by Nina Bruhns
“No contact?”
“You sound like a parrot,” she murmured.
“No contact?”
“No,” she shouted. “That’s why I was so upset when that man – Pete—called and knew my name.”
“So it was all anonymous?”
“Yes.” Her voice softened. “I guess this means you’ve never used a phone sex service.”
“Well, no.” More sweat rolled down his back. Now she made him sound like a prude.
“You might like it,” Willow said, her tone a mixture of playfulness and anger.
Max swiped at his forehead. “This is not about me. It’s about you and the threats against you.”
Willow’s shoulders sagged. “I know, I thought the phone calls were innocent and secure though. I only agreed to do it so I wouldn’t have to rely on my father for money.”
The erotic words she’d spoken to the faceless stranger on the other end of the phone line echoed in his head. “I suppose you had no way of knowing that Pete would be devious enough to figure things out. Or that he’d use it against you.”
“Because I’m a fool,” Willow said in a self-deprecating voice.
Max frowned. “No, because you’re trusting. That’s not a bad quality to have, Willow.”
Willow raised a brow. “But you’re not trusting?”
Max shrugged. “War destroys innocence.” Especially when you see the soldiers beside you gunned down and blown to pieces. And then innocents, civilians caught in the crossfire.
Sympathy settled in Willow’s eyes. “You trust the men you work with.”
He nodded. “We have to. Our lives depend on each other.”
“Those nightmares you have,” Willow said. “Something bad happened.”
Max swallowed hard. How did the conversation get turned around to him? “Yes, we lost men. But I don’t want to talk about it.”
A tenderness flashed across her face. “You can’t forget it though. It haunts you.”
“Always,” Max admitted. “I…should have died that day, too.”
“No, it wasn’t your time.” Willow took his hand in hers and squeezed it. “You don’t have to feel guilty about surviving, Max.”
His heart thundered. “But I do. I…tried to save them, but I couldn’t. So their families had to bury them.”
“War is hard on families,” Willow agreed. “I was always afraid when my father went out on missions. Terrified he wouldn’t come home.” She shrugged. “That’s one reason I put up walls between us. The reason I never wanted to marry a military man. The idea of losing someone you love is too scary.”
Fear resonated in her voice and made her sound vulnerable. He wanted to assuage her worries so badly he ached. “Your father is safe, Willow.”
“I know, but you wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t in danger.”
“But I am here, and he has bodyguards to watch him, and the police to find this threat.” He couldn’t resist any longer.
The air between them was steeped in tension. He reached up and twirled a strand of her gorgeous hair around one finger.
Her breath whispered out, and made him yearn to draw her closer.
“And I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
A sensual longing flickered in her eyes, and she parted her lips on a breathy sigh. “I’m sorry you’re missing your furlough,” Willow said. “I know you’d rather be on a beach or a mountain relaxing than stuck here.”
Except that at that moment, he didn’t want to be anywhere but here -- with her.
Willow’s eyes met his then, the desire and hunger simmering between them so potent that he couldn’t help himself.
He pulled her to him, closed his mouth over hers and kissed her so deeply that hunger exploded inside him.
One Night to Kill: Chapter Thirteen
Willow curled into Max’s arms, her body quivering with the sensations pummeling her. Max’s kiss was nothing like she’d ever experienced.
It was riveting.
His lips settled over hers, his tongue probing her mouth open, and she succumbed to the intense need bubbling inside her. Men had touched her before with their hands and lips, but no man’s touch had ever elicited such passion inside her.
She wanted more. Wanted him naked and touching her everywhere.
He deepened the kiss, his tongue teasing her, and she moaned his name and threaded her fingers in his thick hair. He stroked her back with one hand while the other chased a path down her hip and pulled her closer.
He was hard and manly, all muscles from his abdomen to his thighs, to the rigid erection pressing against her stomach. Excited by the heat in his body as he rubbed against her, she tore her mouth from his and planted hungry, urgent kisses along his neck.
Max groaned and cupped her hips with his hands, holding her so his length pulsed in the vee of her thighs. She gyrated against him, wanting him closer.
Wanting him inside her.
Desperate for more, she wiggled to loosen his grip until her feet hit the floor.
She tugged him toward her bedroom, their bodies plastered together. But she stilled when her hand brushed the gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans.
As if Max read her mind, he removed the gun and placed in her bedside table.
Her breath rasped out as he reached for the bottom of her shirt. She lifted her arms, heat spiraling through her as he stripped her blouse. Cool air brushed her skin as he tossed the garment to the floor, and she slowly unbuttoned his shirt, teasing him with her tongue as she revealed bare skin inch by inch.
His chest rose and fell in a rapid rhythm, and his heart pounded beneath her ears as she teased him with her tongue.
“Willow,” he said in a coarse whisper. “We should stop.”
She licked a circle around his right nipple. “Why? I want you. We’re both adults.”
He gripped her head with both hands, his moan echoing in the room as she traced a path down his abdomen to his belt.
“But—”
“Don’t you want me?” Willow lowered one hand to cup his sex through his jeans. His cock hardened against her hand, bulging against his fly.
A long sigh filled with unspent passion. “Of course I want you.”
She lifted her head and kissed him on the lips again, this time foraging his mouth with her tongue. When she pulled away, both their breathing was erratic.
“Then make love to me, Max.”
He cradled her face between his hands and looked into her eyes. She had never seen such intense desire. Had never felt as if a man wanted her as much as Max.
“Tell me to walk away and I will.”
A slow smile tilted her mouth. Max was an honorable man. Protective, honest, caring, strong.
Tender.
She felt that in his touch, too.
“I don’t want you to walk away.” She led him to the bed and slowly unbuckled his belt. The rasp of his zipper as she removed his jeans sounded so erotic that titillating touches flooded her, sparking deep emotions that frightened her.
But not enough for her to stop.
Max lowered her to the bed and kissed her again, his hands inching down to pull at her clothes, and Willow closed her eyes and succumbed to the moment.
He would walk away when his assignment was over. And she would let him.
But for now she would savor his hands on her and the pleasure of being in his arms.
* * *
Max ordered himself to stop. To drag his roaming hands off of Willow.
But his hands and body refused to obey, and the soft sweet moans she emitted made his body burn with raw hunger.
He had never needed a woman before.
The idea scared him, but he’d never allowed fear to deter him from a mission or anything else he wanted.
And he wanted Willow.
But Teensy suddenly clawed at his leg. Dammit to hell! He yelped and jerked back, and Willow laughed softly.
“Teensy, I’m sorry, now don’t be jealous.” She scooped up th
e cat and put him in the living room then closed the bedroom door. Teensy scratched and meowed at the door in protest, but a feeling of victory swept over Max when she ignored the feline and threw her arms around him.
“Don’t think,” Willow whispered as she ran her foot up his thigh.
Her soft voice reminded him of the erotic things she’d murmured over the phone that first night, overriding his reservations, and he stripped the rest of her clothes and tossed them to the floor.
Her nipples budded to stiff peaks beneath the cool air, and he raked his fingers over them, drinking in her voluptuous naked body in all its glory.
He had never seen anything so beautiful as Willow’s riotous hair spread across the pillow around her heart-shaped face, her cheeks flushed, her eyes flickering with desire.
Her body begging him to take her.
He should have the willpower to walk away. But he was just a man.
And he was starved for this moment.
Besides, Willow wasn’t just any woman. She was smart and sensual and spirited, and so gorgeous that his cock was about to explode.
She pushed at his boxers, and he shrugged them off, freeing himself for her hands.
She dragged him toward her, raked her hands over his back, and the passion between them exploded into a frenzy of kisses and touches.
Lips fused, hands roved, and tongues danced, slick skin against slick skin as they made love. He kissed his way down her neck, cupped one breast in his hand while his tongue laved the other.
He drew her nipple into his mouth and suckled her, his heart pounding as she moved her hips beneath him, urging him to hurry. But he refused to rush.
He wanted to taste every inch of her.
And he did. From her neck to her toes, then he settled his mouth over her heat and drove her wild with his tongue. She dug her hands into his hair as her body quivered with sensations. Spurred by her orgasm, he flicked his tongue over her clit, sucking her gently until she cried out his name and her body rocked with pleasure.
“Max?”
Her throaty whisper almost sent him over the edge. She never called any of her phone sex lovers by name.
But she knew his name and by God, she would remember what it was like to be loved by him.
To have him inside her.
His body aching, he grabbed a condom from his jeans, rolled it on, then rose above her, and kneed her thighs apart.
“I want you, Max,” Willow murmured.
Max cradled her face in his hands and kissed her again. “I want you, too.” With a groan, he thrust inside her.
Willow threw her head back and moaned, the pleasure in her cry ripping through him. She tilted her hips and wrapped her legs around him, and he pulled out, then thrust into her again, filling her deeply.
They created a rhythm as he moved in and out, driving his cock so far inside her that she clawed at his back and shouted his name as another orgasm claimed her. His own pleasure spiraled out of control and he thrust into her once again, gripping her hips as he rode her.
His body vibrated with such pleasure that he lost all reason and buried his head against her, moaning her name as heat flooded him, and euphoria claimed them.
* * *
Willow closed her eyes and let the pleasure wash over her. Max had made her forget everything except his touches, and that lovemaking could be so powerful that it literally stole your breath and your sanity.
His breath bathed her neck as he lifted himself. “I’m crushing you.”
She didn’t care. She pulled him back on top her. She liked his weight on her, like the feel of his big muscles against her, of his legs wedged between her thighs, of his sex inside her.
His lips touched her neck again in a tender kiss, then he cradled her against him, and rolled them to the side. She buried her head into the crook of his shoulder and wound her leg over his, determined not to let him leave her.
Morning would come soon enough.
Tonight she wanted him to hold her and love her again. Over and over and over.
* * *
Max’s body still burned from the hot night in bed with Willow. He’d lost count of the number of times they’d made love. But he wasn’t complaining.
Willow was the most giving, attentive lover he’d ever had. She’d even wanted to experiment with positions he’d never explored, positions that proved that lovemaking with her would never be boring.
She raked her hand down his chest. Even in her sleep, she excited him to the point of making him forget his job here.
And that her father would kill him if he knew Max was in his daughter’s bed.
Willow’s phone had buzzed a half dozen times during their steamy encounter, and so had his.
But they’d been too engrossed in each other to answer phones or stop their sultry touches.
He wanted her again.
She curled up against him, and he brushed her hair with his lips and held her tight, his body already hardening again with the need to be inside her.
He never wanted to let her go. She had erased the nightmares that had haunted him and made him feel whole again. As if he deserved to be loved and to be happy.
As if he deserved to live.
She whispered his name in a breathy moan that made his heart stutter. Dammit, he was falling in love with her.
That was dangerous. She’d already admitted that her father’s military missions terrified her, that she worried about him not coming home at night when she was a child.
The military was his life. Even if he wanted a long-term relationship—his heart hammered at the thought—he couldn’t ask Willow to sacrifice for him.
His missions were top secret. He couldn’t discuss them with her or anyone else. And how could a relationship work if he couldn’t be honest with her?
He tensed, silently cursing. Maybe that mission had messed with his head more than he’d realized.
Willow was the general’s daughter. He owed everything to the man.
General Woods would view sleeping with his daughter as a betrayal.
Disgusted with himself, he extracted himself from her arms and slid from bed.
Willow rolled sideways and hugged his pillow to her, and he groaned. God, he wanted to crawl back in bed with her.
His phone buzzed again, and he read the text.
911. General is missing.
Fear seized Max. Had the person threatening the general gotten to him?
* * *
The pounding on the door woke Willow. She jerked her eyes open and reached for Max, but he was pacing by the window with his phone pressed to his ear.
He’d yanked on his jeans, but hadn’t fastened them, giving her another peak at the sensual trail of hair that led down to his sex. She wanted to rip off those pants, climb on top of him again and do all the wicked things they’d done to each other during the night.
But Max’s deep frown suggested something was wrong. He reached for the gun he’d stowed in her bedside table, and her pulse clamored.
The pounding grew louder. Maybe it was Ms. Dora or one of the girls wanting to talk about Pete.
She jumped from bed and grabbed her robe, pulled it on, and checked the wall clock as she entered the living room.
Good gracious, it was only six a.m.
Teensy hissed from the couch as Max followed on her heels. “Behave, Teensy,” Willow said, irritated. She’d never seen her cat act like this.
Max caught the door with his hand before she opened it. “Willow, let me. I just got a text saying that your father is missing.”
Willow’s knees buckled. “What?”
Max squeezed her arm. “Hang in there. We’ll find him.”
The pounding grew louder. Max eased her aside, holding his gun at the ready by his side as he unlocked the door.
Suddenly the door burst open, and the general stormed in. His face was red with rage, his eyes bulging, his body braced to fight.
“Dad?” Willow gasped.
“What
in damnation is going on? I’ve been calling all night and no one answered.”
Willow tightened the belt on her robe, and Max froze. The general’s disapproving scowl raked over their partially undressed state.
Max lowered his gun. “Sir, I just received word you were missing.”
“I’m not missing,” he bellowed. “I came here to see if my daughter had been kidnapped. When neither one of you answered, I thought someone had her.”
Max worked his mouth side to side, fighting an explanation.
But the situation was obviously exactly what it seemed.
“Why would you think I’d been kidnapped?” Willow asked.
His voice literally boomed off the walls. “Because I received a phone call saying you had!”
His jowls bulged as he turned his wrath on Max. “I gave you orders to protect my daughter and instead you take advantage of her!”
“He didn’t take advantage of me,” Willow argued. “I wanted – ”
“Don’t say it,” her father snapped.
Max opened his mouth to apologize, but the general’s glare stopped him cold. “Get out of here, Sergeant Murdock.”
Shame and regret filled Max. He’d not only sabotaged his career, but he’d betrayed the only man in the world who’d ever given him a break.
He addressed the general. “Sir, I apologize, but I respectfully request permission to stay until the threat to you is resolved.”
“It’s a little late to be respectful.” General Woods gestured toward the door. “And to think, I handpicked you because I trusted you.”
“Dad, please calm down,” Willow pleaded.
Max cleared his throat, well aware he was walking the line. But he didn’t want to leave the two of them unguarded. “If someone called you and claimed Willow had been kidnapped, we need to find out who made that call.”
“My men are on top of it.” His cheeks puffed out as he addressed Willow. “And I will calm down when Sergeant Murdock gets out of my sight.” He swung a finger toward Max. “You are dismissed. That is an order, Sergeant.”
Max knew it was no use in arguing. He couldn’t defy the general’s orders. So he saluted him. “Sir, yes, sir.”