Laura ran her fingers through his hair. She wasn’t sure how to answer that question. Charlie looked up at her, his eyes pooled dark. She felt his look through to her toes.
“Just so you know,” he said as he tugged at her towel. “I’m not wearing purple.”
The towel came loose and fell in a puddle at her feet. For one brief second Laura felt exposed and self-conscious, then Charlie gently kissed her in the soft space between her breasts and her fears evaporated. Slowly, tenderly, he kissed his way up her neck to her lips as his fingers traced circles in the small of her back.
“Is this what you want?” he whispered against her lips.
“Yes.” Her reply was little more than a breath.
He wrapped his arms tight around her and stood, lifting her as he did so. Slowly, he lowered her onto the bed.
“Beautiful,” he said hoarsely as he looked his fill.
“Charlie?” Laura said as her cheeks flushed.
“Mm?”
“Take off your clothes. Now.”
His eyes snapped to hers and they sparkled with amusement.
“Yes ma’am,” he said and did as he was told.
Now it was Laura’s turn to be mesmerised. Soft skin over taut muscle. She would never be able to look enough. She reached for him. There would be time for looking later. Right now, she wanted to let her fingers memorise him.
Charlie crawled onto the bed; he put a hand on the pillow beside her head.
“Hold on tight Laura, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
His mouth was on hers before she could hear her laughter.
Laura fell back into the soft pillows with the sheets twisted around her body. Her breath was laboured, her skin tingled from top to toe and she knew her cheeks were flushed. Charlie landed beside her, threw a heavy arm over her body and propped himself up on his other elbow.
“See that wasn’t so bad,” he said teasingly. “You managed to lose control and nothing burned down.”
If she’d had any energy left, she would have hit him. Instead she looked up into his amazingly handsome face and wondered what had hit her. She lifted a leaden arm to pat his cheek. Stubble nipped at her sensitive skin.
“That wasn’t bad,” she told him.
“Wasn’t bad? I was there. You lost it big time.”
“It was definitely better than the last time.”
She thought she saw him flinch slightly at the memory and she hoped she was better than the last time too.
“You do know you are the only girl I’ve ever run out on like that,” he said earnestly.
“Well, that makes me feel a whole lot better.”
“You freaked me out. I never thought of you like that, then there you were saying take me. It’s every guy’s fantasy.”
“So you didn’t say no.”
He smiled that self-depreciating way that made women lose their morals.
“If it’s any consolation, I may not have thought of you like that before that day in the shed, but I have thought about you often since.”
Her ears perked up.
“Yeah? Like when?”
She stretched out towards him, moving her body so that his hand caught her breast. For a minute she forgot about the question as he traced his finger around her nipple.
“Well.” When he spoke his voice was deeper. “There was Maddie’s wedding. You looked hot in your bridesmaid’s dress. I entertained some thoughts that night.”
Her body moved of its own freewill pressing up into his touch. Little bubbles floated inside her head and her eyelids suddenly felt a lot heavier. She was finding it hard to concentrate as his hand roamed from her breast up and down the length of her body.
“What kind of thoughts?” she managed to say.
His touch came in waves, feather soft, then hard and determined. She began to float away.
“Well, I can tell you,” his voice was hoarse, “or I can show you.”
She couldn’t speak. Instead she reached for him, looking deep into eyes that were suddenly black, before she pulled him to her.
“You know Laura,” he whispered against her mouth. “I think you’ve been so self-contained for so long that you don’t know what losing control really is. I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface.”
His hand slid under her to flatten against the small of her back, wedging her against him. She should have felt threatened by his size and strength, instead she felt secure and strangely liberated. Was this freedom? Could she let go and really be herself? Did she even know who that person was?
“You’re thinking again, we can’t have that.”
His mouth dipped to her breast and her mind went completely blank as sensation after sensation assaulted her.
“So incredibly sensitive,” he murmured against her skin. “This is kind of like a controlled environment right?”
She knew he was talking but his words didn’t make sense, she willed his mouth to move back to her skin.
“I say we experiment,” he said. “Let’s see just how far we can take this loss of control of yours.”
He perched on strong muscled arms above her.
“Do you trust me?” he said.
Laura’s heart actually strained within her.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes.”
A slow smile curled out from the corners of his lips.
“Then you ain't seen nothing yet.”
And then he was kissing her, touching her, tasting her. She bit into his thick shoulder as he nipped her ear. The feel of him. All that softness and strength, it drove her crazy. She was driving fast in a car with the top down. She was jumping from a cliff into icy waters. She was sailing through the air with no idea where she would land. And all the while she held on to Charlie. He was the source of her adventures and the strength that kept her safe.
“Just because you let loose now and then, live a little, doesn’t mean that you’re deranged like your old folks.”
“I set fire to your tent,” she said wryly and held her hands up, burnt palms towards him to make her point.
It was the wee small hours of the morning and they were eating cold Indonesian food straight from the boxes, while propped up in bed.
“That’s what I mean. If you allowed yourself to lose control every now and then, you wouldn’t go so mental when you did let loose. You need to let that wildness out in more controlled circumstances, in ways that will only benefit you.”
He was doing his best to look innocent but was pretty sure from the amusement in her face that he wasn’t pulling it off.
“And I suppose you know the exact way I should go about ending this repressed life I lead?” she said with mock solemnity.
“Absolutely.”
He swept the empty containers onto the floor.
“I know exactly what you should do.”
She started to giggle.
“You can stop that for a start. Admit that Charlie knows best.” He leaned towards her and heard her breath leave her. “Trust me Laura, I’m a doctor.”
She was laughing heartily when his lips covered hers.
She smelled of roses and maybe vanilla. And she tasted like cake. The best cake he’d ever had. She groaned as she rubbed against him. Charlie angled his head to get better access to her mouth. No matter how deep he kissed her, he never quite managed to get to the spot he wanted. There was something about her that was out of reach. It was driving him crazy. Laura Prentice was driving him crazy.
He broke the kiss and held himself above her. Man, but she was beautiful. Her whole heart was in her eyes, her cheeks were flushed the deepest pink and he could see her pulse beat a salsa rhythm in the base of her neck. His lips found the pulse beating in her neck and he sucked on it. Nope, the thing he was looking for wasn’t there either. He’d have to search all of her. Because one way or another he was going to find the thing about Laura that was driving him nuts. In the back of his mind he wondered who exactly was losing control. And then he thought nothing at al
l. All he could feel, all he could taste, and all he wanted was all of Laura.
As the sun sneaked through the curtains Laura snuggled in deeper to Charlie’s embrace. She wasn’t an idiot. She also wasn’t very good at fooling herself. She was head over heels in love with the man. And it would end badly. There was a pain in her chest as the truth settled there. She shook her thoughts free from it. She would deal with truth and the reality it brought later. Right now she had Holland, freedom and Charlie.
His breathing was heavy and steady against her back. The man was like a furnace, the heat coming from him made the room stuffy, but she didn’t want to move. She didn’t want to ruin the moment. They had two more days together and she didn’t want to forget even a moment. Even in his sleep his hand roamed her body. Her eyes drifted shut. She felt contented. She felt like she belonged. It was a bittersweet realisation.
Charlie’s phone started to buzz beside her head on the night stand. She reached for it.
“Leave it,” he growled into her hair.
Laura smiled at him before looking at the phone. Her heart sank. There was no leaving this. She struggled out of Charlie’s grip so that she could sit on the edge of the bed.
“No,” he groaned. “Put it in the bin. I never wanted it anyway.”
She wrapped the sheet tight around her as though it offered some sort of protection against the conversation ahead. She glanced at the man sprawled in the bed beside her. What she really needed was protection for her heart.
“Hello,” she said into the phone.
“Idiot,” Charlie mumbled against the pillow.
“Well hello to you too.” The sharp voice of her boss was like a spike in her ear. Laura winced. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
From the sleazy tone of her voice that was exactly what she was hoping; otherwise why call this early in the morning.
“What can I do for you Claire?” Laura asked.
She felt Charlie stir on the bed behind her.
“Well, for starters, how about you get me my interview?”
Laura rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“I’m working on it,” she said, aware of how that sounded to Charlie’s ears.
“Well tick tock. The deadline is today. Story or job. The choice is yours.”
Laura sat up straight.
“You said until the end of the holiday.”
“Deadlines change. Things happen. I need it by the end of today.”
Deadlines didn’t change. The woman was simply exerting her ability to make Laura jump through hoops. She ground her teeth, but stopped when she felt a hand rubbing her back. The tension eased slightly.
“I’ll do what I can,” she said into the phone.
“No,” Claire’s voice was sharp, “you do what you have to do. Get my story.”
There was a pause.
“It had better be a good one, Laura. I have high expectations and even higher standards.”
The line went dead. Laura listened to silence for a minute while Charlie stroked her back.
“It’s over, isn’t it, short stuff?”
She nodded. The words were stuck in her throat. Yeah, it was over. She’d taken a holiday from herself and now she needed to get back to reality.
“Come here,” he said as he tugged at her sheet.
She looked over her shoulder and her heart actually ached. It was written in his face. He wanted to comfort her; he wanted to make everything better. No one in her life ever wanted to do that for her. And she couldn’t take what he offered. She blinked back tears. How could she have ever thought that this man was still the irresponsible boy she once knew? His face saddened when he realised she wasn’t coming. Laura stood up to increase the distance between them.
“I need the interview, Charlie.”
She felt pathetic asking. She knew that if he was in her position he wouldn’t do it. He’d quit the job and take his chances. Unfortunately she wasn’t him.
His smile was gentle.
“It’s okay, I know. Why don’t you get dressed, I’ll get breakfast and we’ll deal with it?”
Relief and shame in equal measure rushed through her. Deep down Laura knew he would keep his end of the bargain. Beneath it all he was honourable. Probably more so than she’d realised over the years.
She nodded and headed for the bathroom without looking at him again.
“What do you want to know?” Charlie said after he had polished off both of their McDonald breakfasts. Laura’s appetite was gone. She wasn’t sure it was ever coming back.
“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, I won’t hold you to our deal,” she told him.
He gave her a sad little smile.
“No. I have to.” He took a deep breath, settled back in his chair and gave her his full attention. “So what do you want to know?”
Laura shifted in her seat; she arranged her notepad on the table in front of her for the millionth time. Everything about this felt wrong. Everything.
“Tell me about that day,” she said at last, “if you remember.”
He snorted and shook his head slightly.
“I don’t need to remember, I relive it every night. Well,” he shrugged as though it was nothing, “at least I did until our holiday. I’ve been able to sleep just fine these past two weeks.”
His blue eyes pinned her down.
“Thanks for that.”
Laura didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t known how traumatised he’d been. He was thanking her for stopping the dreams? An ache like nothing she’d ever felt before started in her chest. As he looked away it began to spread throughout her body. It took a minute to realise what it was. Her heart was breaking.
“It was an ordinary day,” he began. “We were on rotated duty and I was working that day. Some of the guys were volunteering at the orphanage. There was a football game. Kids were laughing.”
His eyes took on a faraway look.
“I was worried about a couple of the kids, they had infections and I wanted to check up on them, but I was needed with the patrol. If they’d let me go to check, I would be dead.”
Nausea assaulted her. Her pen stilled. She didn’t need to write this down; she would remember every terrible word.
“Jones, good guy from Sussex, said his gut was off. It was midday, we’d just eaten, I thought he meant he was sick. He looked at me kind of funny and said no. We were walking down the main street when we saw a glint coming from a rooftop. Anywhere else it would be a reflection in glass, nothing to worry about. Over there it was enough for a call to go up and we scrambled. We thought it was a sniper. We took cover against walls and behind vehicles.”
His eyes gave nothing away. Laura desperately wanted to touch him, to soothe him, but they were past that now.
“That’s what they wanted. They wanted us against the orphanage walls; probably they wanted us all to run for cover into the building. About ten seconds later, it felt longer, the first blast hit. The wall behind Jones crumbled trapping him in the rubble. There was screaming and panic. I tried to get to him, to see what I could do. I was running towards him when the second blast hit. My ears were ringing; I couldn’t hear what was being called. My radio was static.”
His face paled, he wasn’t with her now, he was back in the desert. His whole body was tense; sweat broke out on his forehead. If this was what it was like for him to talk about it during daylight, Laura could only imagine what his nights were like.
“Jones was beyond my help,” he said coldly. Laura’s hand flew to her mouth. His friend dead.
“A shot rang out. Sniper. A woman in the yard of the orphanage went down. I ran towards her. It was chaos all around me. I couldn’t stop the blood. She wrapped her fingers in my uniform and repeated the same word over and over as she died. I found out later it meant ‘your guilt’ – she was blaming us. Me.”
Laura’s cheek was wet. She rubbed at it to find she was crying.
“That’s when I saw her, the little
girl. She was standing in the middle of the compound. Just standing there. Dirty, terrified, completely unable to move. People were shouting. I couldn’t hear anything through the chaos. I thought it was a call to retreat, to get out of there. I wasn’t sure. Honestly, I didn’t care. There was a kid standing, waiting to die. I threw off some of my gear and ran. Straight at her. The house to our left blew up. Gunfire kicked up the dirt around us. I honestly didn’t think about any of that. I just grabbed her and ran.”
He seemed a little bemused when he looked at her.
“I’ve never ran as fast as that, short stuff.”
“Gunfire will do that to you.”
Her lame attempt at humour fell flat, hampered by the fact she was crying.
“Back up came. We retreated. The little girl was wounded, gunshot to her lower abdomen. We took her back to base and I worked on her. She was pretty serious, it was touch and go. But we saved her. Afterwards I found out what had happened. Taliban members had infiltrated the orphanage months, maybe even years earlier. They were waiting for us to relax and we did. They had the whole place rigged; half of it didn’t go off. Our guys took out that sniper, but they’re like weeds, always another. I got reprimanded. Disobeying an order. I really can’t say for sure I heard the order anyway.”
He looked her in the eye. A very different Charlie to the one she knew. There was nothing carefree about this one.
“I would do it again.”
She held her breath. He was terrifying. Strength oozed from him, backed up by absolute conviction. She swallowed hard, her throat was dry.
“We lost three men that day. Eight children and four Afghan adults. Jones’ parents asked me to speak at his funeral. I did the best I could, but I don’t think it was enough. Now that guy, he was a real hero. All I did was pick up a kid and be unlucky enough to get filmed doing it. Jones knew about the attack. He was well trained; a complete expert and he had instincts that would blow your mind. He’ll be missed.”
She supposed the implication was that he wouldn’t be missed. She kept her mouth shut.
“I don’t know what else to tell you, Laura. Do you have enough for your story?”
Second Chances Boxed Set: 7 Sweet & Sexy Romances in 1 Book Page 60