by Zoe York
She followed him, twisting as she went.
Off the back of the house hung a white bed sheet.
Sean slung his arm over her shoulders and gave her a light squeeze. “We’re having a movie night.”
“Oh, wow.” She bit her lip as she fought not to cry. It was perfect. “I love this.”
“Good.” He turned his head and looked down at her, his expression heated.
She swallowed hard and tried to tell herself he wasn’t thinking about seducing her, but the way he dragged his gaze slowly over her face, lingering on her lips, that made it hard.
He leaned in, and her breath caught in her throat.
“Sean…” She wanted to warn him not to play with her. Not to push her into wanting more than he could give.
“I know. It’s okay. Just kiss me.”
Just. There was no just kissing him. There were head-first dives into dark, unknown waters. There was swirling chaos that felt better than any drug imaginable.
There were memories so painful they felt like blades against her chest. She blamed the country music that morning, and a week of long drives where she had nothing to do but think about how much she wanted him.
None of that stopped her from lifting her face and closing the gap between them, because no matter the cost, she would always kiss him.
She’d lost this once. She’d never take it for granted again.
He licked along her lower lip before sliding his tongue inside a little, teasing her. She pushed up on her toes, chasing the kiss. He squeezed her shoulders, holding her in place—and that was different. In Spain, he’d never needed to control anything between them.
But it wasn’t helpful to compare anything to Spain.
That was in the past.
That was done.
And if he needed to be in control here, she could give him that. She stood as still as could be and let him kiss her. When he pulled back, his gaze was a little glassy—and she could feel a similar lusty haze falling over herself too.
“Wow,” she said.
“I should have kissed you that first night in Urfa,” he said roughly. “I wanted to, but we weren’t alone.”
They weren’t necessarily alone now, either. It made her unexpectedly happy that he didn’t care.
Because she was his wife, and if he wanted to kiss her in their backyard, he could.
Sultry backyard kisses could be added to the texts about oranges and mowed lawn.
“Can I interest you in another viewing of Jurassic Park?”
And movie traditions.
She was blessed. She needed to remember that. “Yes, please.”
He gestured for her to sit on the rug.
“This is really nice. Where did you get it?”
“I sent it home from the base. There were some vendors there, and I liked this particular pattern. It reminded me…” He ran his hand over the pale red, yellow, and cream pattern. “I thought you would like it.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “When did you buy it?”
He lifted his gaze to hers, and there was no disguising the tortured look in his eyes. “After I returned to the base. After saying goodbye to you.”
“Where has it been?”
“Wrapped up. I’d forgotten about it.” He grimaced. “Maybe suppressed is more like it. I found it earlier today when I was over at Dean’s.”
“Did he help you move stuff back here?”
Sean shook his head. “I drove myself.”
“What?”
“Don’t look so surprised,” he said gruffly.
“I’m…happy. I just thought you didn’t want to even try.”
He leaned in and kissed her lightly. “There are a lot of things I need to start trying again. No more fear.”
But fear was healthy. Fear kept ridiculous hopes and dreams in check.
Fear helped her put the brakes on. “So…a picnic, eh?”
“Popcorn, of course. And apples.”
She held up the orange. “I’m sensing a theme.”
“Have a seat.”
She settled in the empty space behind the food, facing the make-shift screen, and Sean opened a thermos.
“Turkish coffee?”
“Oh, fancy.”
“Not sure if I made it quite right…”
She tasted it. Strong and thick and sweet. “It’s good.”
It wasn’t quite the same, but it still brought her right back to that first night they’d met, and she sighed happily as she took a second long, slow sip. Her time in Turkey had been rocky, but she missed the new experiences. And the coffee.
“Do you miss it?”
Her eyes flew to his face. “I was just thinking that. How did you know?”
He grinned and leaned in, brushing his fingers over the corner of her mouth. “You make the sweetest sounds of appreciation when you get something you haven’t had in a long time. That apple, for example.” His gaze was tangled up around her lips, and she felt a deep, yearning tug inside her. “When we met over breakfast…”
“I remember,” she whispered. Of course, after all they’d been through, they knew each other. “What else do we have?”
He broke his attention away and showed her the rest of the food. Meatballs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and cheese, neatly cubed for easy picnic-style eating.
“Shall we start the movie while we eat?” He leaned over and pressed play on a laptop hooked up to a projector.
“Where did you find that?”
“Put the call out.” He winked at her. “The projector belongs to the library. Chloe loaned it to us for the night.”
Her sneaky friends.
She watched Sean’s profile as he looked at the screen, adjusting the picture clarity. Her sneaky husband.
They ate slowly, picking at things here and there as they watched the movie.
All the memories from Urfa washed over her as the film progressed. The moment when she’d leaned into Sean, the way his body had felt. Warm and strong and welcoming.
He was right next to her tonight too and the offer was clear. She shifted her weight and slid her head onto his shoulder. He squeezed his arm around her.
“How long did I last the first time before falling asleep?”
“About half the movie,” he murmured. “You were pretty worn out. But beautiful. That’s what I remember the most. Thinking that I was the luckiest man in the world to have your head on my shoulder. Just like this.”
A lump lodged in her throat.
“I’m not going to fall asleep tonight. I don’t want to miss a second of the movie, or the company.” She turned her head and kissed his shoulder. “Now pass me the popcorn.”
They held the bowl between them, their fingers brushing when they reached into it at the same time. A few times, Jenna swore Sean did it on purpose, the same way his gaze kept travelling down her body to her bare legs beneath the light, floaty sundress she’d put on that morning. By the end of the movie, she was totally distracted with wondering where he was planning on this night ending up.
She shifted onto her knees and leaned in to kiss him. “That was magical.”
He caught her lips with his and deepened the kiss for a few seconds before breaking away to turn off the projector. It was all-the-way dark now, and she shivered. Not because it was cold, but because she didn’t know what came next.
It was hard not to want everything to come next.
But she would be over the moon thrilled about just a little more. To have something more, and even that felt like a dangerous thing to hope.
“I’ll, uh…take the fruit in.” They’d shared one of the apples. She picked up the remaining one, and her untouched orange, and balanced them in one hand while she grabbed the popcorn bowl with the other.
Behind her, she heard the clatter and ting of metal dishes being stacked neatly.
Sean caught up to her as she tried to open the door, and he leaned his cane against the back of the house, freeing his hand. “Let me.”
/> Her insides rioted at the warm, intimate words. Oh, she’d let him do whatever he wanted, and really he was just getting the door for her, and flicking on the dim lights that ran beneath the upper cabinets.
Of course she read that as mood lighting.
She was hopeless.
Her hands shook as she set the fruit in the bowl on the counter then dumped the remaining popcorn kernels into the rubbish bin. Sean set his bowls in the sink, and she did the same with the popcorn bowl.
“I’ll go back and get the—” She cut herself off as she turned around just in time to see Sean grip his t-shirt behind his neck and pull it off in one smooth motion.
Her mouth went dry.
His frame had filled out in the last two months, but it wasn’t the same body she’d memorized in Spain. This body had scars and dents, was leaner in some places and bulkier in others.
She loved this new body.
And she wanted this new body with a fierceness that took her by surprise.
“The rug can wait a few minutes,” Sean said quietly, his voice rough around the edges.
She knew the feeling. Her edges were a bit frayed, too.
He rolled his shoulders, making his muscles flex beneath his skin, but his gaze didn’t waver as he looked at her—like he was trying to really, really see her. “I’ve been thinking a lot this week,” he finally said. “About where we’re at. About what I told you last weekend, how you were in my heart, constantly, when I went back to Iraq. Jenna, you still are, even though I’ve made a hack of our relationship. And I know it’s going to take some time for you to fall back in love with me, but—”
“Fall back…” She stared at him, dumbly trying to catch up with what he was saying. “Sean, I never stopped loving you.”
“You said…” He searched her face. “You said you liked this new me. And I knew you…I know you love me, but maybe the in-love-with-me part has faded. I’m good with taking things slow, you know? But I want you to know I love you. I still love you. I never stopped, even when I was deep in the middle of…all of that…” He waved his hand, his mouth tightening.
“I don’t need time. And nothing has faded.” How had she managed to give him that impression? “Not for a second. I’m in love with you, with this new-and-grumpier Sean. I adore you. For who you used to be, and who you are right this very second.”
He exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for too long.
She took a tentative step toward him, and he moved, too, closing the gap. He cupped her cheek, his fingers sliding into her hair, and he kissed her.
Now she recognized the vibrating tension in him as he kissed her. He didn’t want to control her. He was trying to control himself. Hold himself back.
He didn’t need to do that anymore.
When he released her mouth, she hovered her hand just in front of his chest. “May I…?”
He nodded, his gaze suddenly almost shy, and she reached out, grazing the hard planes of his torso with just her fingertips.
The drumbeat inside her got louder.
“I thought I was fattening you up,” she murmured as she traced the cut lines of his abdomen.
“I’ve been doing my best to convert all that to muscle.”
“Your best is…exceptional.” She licked her lips as he caught her wrist, his fingers a loose manacle.
“Enough,” he said in a rough whisper. “I need to kiss you.”
She smiled up at him. “I want to touch you.”
“I know the feeling. But…” He turned them around and gripped her by the hips.
She gasped as he hoisted her onto the counter. “Sean, don’t—”
“I’m fine.” He grinned, his teeth flashing white in the dark kitchen. “Just a little boost.” He grazed his hands down the outside of her body. “I like your dress, by the way. It’s been distracting me all night.”
“Oh?” She wiggled against him, her thighs falling open as he moved closer. She’d worn the dress for him, too. It had a row of buttons down the front that begged to be peeled open.
She wasn’t above begging. She might explode if he didn’t touch her.
And hopefully if he did touch her, there would be explosions of a different sort.
Her desires were a runaway train tonight. There was no putting on the brakes, not the way he was touching her and looking at her and…oh, his lips on her throat, his breath on her skin…
Her head dropped back as he tasted her, too. He sucked on her neck, then licked his way over her collarbone.
She shoved her hands behind her, skittering the fruit bowl across the counter. “Oh!”
Sean didn’t stop, not for a second. His lips ghosted down the bare plane of her upper chest until he got to the neckline of her dress.
Her hand slipped again, and this time the fruit bowl toppled into the sink with a loud clatter.
Sean just laughed as he flicked the first button free.
Thank God for talented fingers. His mouth followed, tasting each newly exposed bit of skin until he found her bra, and then he tasted her through that, too.
Hot, wet heat tugged at her nipples through the lace. It lit the live fuse which led directly to her core, and she made an inhuman, wild keening sound.
He groaned in response and redoubled his efforts.
Oh, it had been way too long.
His hands pushed her skirt up as he sucked, and she managed to lift her hips for him, one at a time, so he could strip away her underwear.
Yes, yes, yes. Bring on the explosions.
He breathed her name against her neck as he dragged his mouth up to meet hers again. His kiss made her legs shake, and he dropped one hand to her thigh.
“Sean…”
“I’ve got you.” His voice had never been stronger or more sure.
And as his fingers slid up her bare skin again, she felt herself tumbling. He had her, and she was a goner.
The first touch of his fingertips between her thighs made her jump. The second had her hips rocking forward, ready for more. And the third could only be called a cruel tease of the best kind.
He moved through her wetness, straight to her entrance, but he only circled there with the lightest fingertip before dragging her slick arousal up to her clit.
Oh, that was good. So very, very good. But she wanted more.
She wanted him inside her. “Please, Sean.”
He nipped at her lower lip. “Tell me what you want.”
She chased the kiss, and they got lost in that for a beat, maybe three. When she broke it off, her head was swimming with delicious heat, and want had loosened her tongue.
“Your fingers.”
“You’ve got them.”
“Inside me.”
He groaned and obliged, smoothly twisting his hand so he could enter her and still give her his heel to grind her clit against. “I want you to come like this,” he said hoarsely. “I want to feel you grip me, tight and hot. God, I’ve missed you.”
That made her shudder, and he pressed deeper, stretching her with another finger.
Heat flooded her body as he leaned over her to whisper in her ear. “Is that good?”
Oh God, his voice was an aphrodisiac.
“So good.” She was panting now, writhing on his hand, and the way he was breathing, too, she knew she wasn’t alone, but she couldn’t think about what he needed right now.
Too close.
Too twisted up.
It was right there, that desperate, clawing hunger. His fingers sped up, thrusting into her with just enough of a curve that he was both stretching her open and rocking against her G-spot at the same time.
“Come on, Jenna. Show me how pretty you are when you let go,” he crooned.
She cried out as he pressed into her again, and as his heel rocked over her clit, she shattered for him.
He held her as she shuddered in his arms, and kissed her, over and over again, and told her that he loved her, until her breathing returned to normal.
Wh
en her brain finally worked again, she reached for him. He caught her wrists and lifted her hands so he could kiss her knuckles.
He shook his head, and a little bit of her joy slipped away. Just a little. She frowned. “What about you?”
“That was for me.” His eyes glittered a warning not to press him again, so she nodded as he leaned in and kissed her again. “This is just the start,” he whispered against her mouth. “We’ll find our way back.”
She didn’t need to go back to what they’d had. If this was the start of something new, that was a-okay by her. She cupped his face with her hands and softly kissed him. “We’re exactly where we need to be.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“WHAT TIME ARE YOUR FRIENDS ARRIVING?” Sean asked as he crowded Jenna against the bathroom counter. She was smoothing sunscreen over her face, and she flashed him a quick smile in the mirror.
“They should be here in an hour. Grace messaged from Markdale thirty minutes ago.”
Good. That meant they had time for something a little dirty first.
Two weeks had passed since he’d set up the Jurassic Park screening, and ever since, he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her.
He dropped a kiss to her shoulder as he squeezed her hips, snugly hugged by black spandex. “I like these shorts.” He liked the bathing suit beneath them even better.
They were heading up to Tobermory for an afternoon on the water. Snorkelling and swimming.
Sean would stay on the beach.
Small price to pay to see his wife in a bright pink bikini.
Two months ago—hell, a few weeks ago—he’d have wallowed in what he couldn’t do.
Now he drew strength from what he could do.
Namely, make Jenna cry out his name like it was a prayer.
“I think you like everything I wear,” she whispered as he tugged down the shorts, baring her pink-covered bottom.
“True. And everything you don’t too.” He traced the line of her bikini bottoms before tugging those down, too. He left them around her thighs, trapping her legs together as he wrapped his arms around her and stroked his fingers up her neck.
“Just like this,” he whispered in her ear. “Just like Gibraltar.”
She gasped as he eased her forward, onto her elbows.