by Tawny Weber
“All you have to do is tell me you don’t want me,” she said, giving him a look of sweet challenge through her lashes. As if testing his resolve, and daring him to lie straight to her face, she stepped closer.
Close enough that the tips of her breasts brushed his chest. That her breath was warm on his face. That he could see the sparkling humor in her dark eyes.
That was the thing that slayed him about Eden. No matter what was going on, what current disaster she’d dropped herself into, she always found a way to laugh. To enjoy herself.
Why the hell was that so sexy?
Why was she so damned irresistible?
“Look,” he tried again. What had she said he could do to make her back off? He couldn’t remember.
“Haven’t you ever been a birthday wish before?” she asked when he couldn’t find any words—or thoughts—to stop her. “Something you really, really wanted and knew you couldn’t get yourself. Something that was going to take a little bit of magic.”
“There’s no such thing as magic,” he managed to grind out as he tried to keep from moving too much. Every breath was a lesson in torture, pressing his chest closer against those soft, gloriously full breasts. He wanted to touch them. To feel them. To weigh them in his palms while running his thumbs over her nipples.
Oh, God. Her nipples. Nothing turned Cade on more than a set of gorgeous breasts.
“You don’t believe in magic?” Upping the torture, she traced the fingertips of one hand up his arm, a whisper-soft journey toward his shoulder. Then she changed the angle, so her nails scraped ever-so-gently down his chest. “I think it’s very real. Some might call it luck. That special something that brings everything and everyone into the right place at the right time so something special can happen.”
“We make things happen,” he said, barely aware of his words since the few drops of blood that weren’t pounding their way south were totally focused on her fingers, now winding a path of torture around his hardening nipple.
“Of course we do,” she agreed, her eyes molten now. So hot, so filled with passion and power that he was surprised they weren’t shooting flames. Talk about magic. All she had to do was give him that look and he was done. All of the rules, all good sense, gone.
“But since I did build up a lot of years of birthday candle wishes, don’t you think it’s about time we made some very good...”
Pressing closer, close enough that he could feel her nipples through her bra, she stood on tiptoe.
“Things.”
She scattered whisper-soft kisses along his jaw, her warm breath a vivid contrast to the cool ocean breeze.
“Happen.”
Her teeth scraped along his throat. Cade growled. Sweet he could resist. But this sexy side of naughty?
He had no more willpower.
It was like she’d found the key to the part of him he kept locked tight. The part he mostly denied. The part that wanted her, wanted a future, believed he could actually have a relationship. The part that pretended the statistics regarding military relationships didn’t apply to him. That he could beat the odds. That he wanted to try.
Or, more likely, she’d hit his horny button and he was about to explode.
Either way, there was no holding back any longer.
6
GRABBING EDEN BY THE WAIST, Cade pulled her tight against his hips, grinding his hard, throbbing dick against her soft warmth. He took her mouth. His lips slanted, finding the right angle, pressing and sliding against hers. Why did she fit so perfectly? Her mouth opened to his, inviting him in with a soft moan.
His tongue swept in, testing.
Tasting.
She was delicious.
His hands rushed over her body with desperate haste. She, on the other hand, was taking the slow, leisurely route, her palms smoothing his biceps before her nails scraped the muscle gently. He shivered. Freaking shivered. He’d been with plenty of women. A lot who saw his body as a damned fine example of masculine perfection.
But he’d never felt worshipped before.
Never felt that this—the sex—was as much about him as it was the end result. Doing it with a SEAL. Doing it with a Sullivan. Getting to the orgasm.
But Eden was all about him.
The real him.
Cade wasn’t sure what swelled more at that thought. His ego or his dick.
Said dick did a little throbbing dance in his pants, as if to yell, Yo, dude. This is my time. Egos check it at the zipper.
Taking his cue from below, Cade focused.
On Eden.
She was perfect. Her mouth fit his like they’d been made for each other, her lips gliding over his mouth in a whisper-soft caress that seduced all the more because of its sweetness.
On her body.
It was delicious. Soft, curvaceous and welcoming as she snuggled up against him.
On how she made him feel.
Like the hero she joked he was. Like he could do anything, be anything, because she believed in him. Like making her feel as incredible as he did. Like giving her the kind of sensual delights that would blow her mind, make her scream with pleasure, send her body melting into orgasmic overload.
Yeah. He could do all that.
He took the kiss deeper.
Slower.
Their tongues danced, sliding hot and slick against each other. In and out, twirling and licking. The dance was slow. Sensually sweet. Cade felt like he was spinning in a gentle eddy, floating softly around the edges of passion as it pulled them in tighter, closer to the center.
He relaxed as the cool ocean breeze skimmed his bare arms, wondering when he’d ever felt this mellow during a kiss. Usually it was all hard, driving force, with passion pounding, demanding, taking control.
This was nice.
Sweet.
Easy.
Then Eden shifted, her fingers digging into his shoulders and her breasts pressing, hard, against his chest.
Cade’s body reacted like she’d just poked at his passion meter with a cattle prod. She sucked his tongue deep inside her mouth. He growled, every single muscle in his body going rock hard. It was like an inward orgasm. Sensation exploded inside Cade, making him quake with desire. His fingers shook as his hands raced down her back, cupping her ass and pulling her tight against his throbbing erection. Her moan reverberated against his tongue, adding a whole new dimension of pleasure to the delights she was offering.
She wrapped one leg around his thigh, so her hot core was pressed against him. He was breathing like a freight train now, desperate, needy, craving her like a drug he couldn’t live without.
Holy hell. He’d thought she was nice and sweet?
Clearly, Eden knew a thing or two about torture.
On the edge of losing all semblance of control—and with it the image he always carefully maintained in Ocean Point that he was a gentleman—Cade pulled back. Just a little. Enough to see the passion fogging her dark eyes, to delight in the sexual need clear on her face.
Her need for him.
A need he was suddenly desperate to satisfy.
“You know what I like?” she asked quietly, her head falling backward, leaving the long line of her throat bare in the moonlight. “I like having my nipples tweaked. I want to feel what it’s like to have you suck them into your mouth. To swirl your tongue around and nibble on them.”
Cade was pretty sure his brain exploded right then and there. His knees almost gave out. His dick pounded against his zipper, determined to get out and play.
All this time, he’d figured her for a sweet, shy girl next door. Instead she was a sexual siren, a seductress with amazing sensual powers. It was like she’d delved into his deepest sexual fantasies and decided to bring them to life.
“I’ll bet you taste delicious,” he muttered, stepping back so he could clearly see her body, hidden in moonlight and fabric. He couldn’t do much about the lack of lighting, but he could damned sure get rid of the material.
His fingers
made frantic work of the buttons of her blouse, spreading the filmy fabric wide. Her skin glowed like white silk in the moonlight, a vivid contrast against her red bra. Cade traced the curve, just there, where the satin was edged in black ribbon. His mouth watered. He wanted to taste her. All of her.
But he knew his limits.
Her breath was coming faster now, those satin covered breasts quivering with every inhalation. Cade wanted to rip the red bra away. To touch, to taste. But he couldn’t. The minute the bra came off, he’d lose every last bit of control.
So he feasted on her breasts with his eyes, but kept his mouth away. And his hands occupied.
Otherwise he’d take her with hard, fast desperation.
For no other woman would he ignore most of his rules of engagement so he could feast on her sexiness. But this was Eden. His sweet girl next door. The one who’d haunted his dreams for years. He had to taste her. Just a little taste. He had to hear her come, just once. But that was it. Just once, just a taste. He couldn’t have more—wouldn’t allow himself satisfaction—until he’d talked to her about expectations, made sure she knew the rules.
And there was no way in hell he was having that talk right now, with her body so hot and ready for him.
Unable to resist any longer, he cast a quick, desperate look around. There, ten feet to the north, was a crop of rocks. Picnickers used them, he remembered. They’d be good enough, except he had a different treat in mind.
“Over here.”
He didn’t wait for her to follow.
He simply swept her into his arms and carried her across the rocky ground.
“Afraid I’ll fall at your feet?” she teased, her hands sweeping around the back of his neck, fingers tickling the hair at his nape.
Cade grinned down at her, suddenly feeling more like the romantic hero she saw him as than the horny guy in a hurry he knew he was.
“More afraid I’ll fall at yours,” he admitted, sinking his face into the silky strands of her hair and breathing deep before setting her gently on the broad stone surface. “You’re a handful.”
“Surely I’m not too much for you?” she asked, her tone not teasing anymore. Cade had to wonder what kind of guys she’d been hanging out with to ask such a crazy question.
Instead of answering, or releasing her, he held her gaze with his, refusing to let her look away. He leaned in slowly, taking her mouth with his. Softly at first. Just a glide of lips over lips.
She sighed.
He slipped his tongue along the edge of her teeth, sucking gently on the full pillow of her lower lip.
She whimpered.
He plunged his tongue deep, in and out, intense and fast.
Her nails bit into the back of his neck as she hung on, groaning in delight.
Cade shifted, angling his body to bump his hips against her knees. As if she’d been reading his mind forever, she shifted, clamping one thigh on either side of his and pulling him closer.
He’d found heaven, right here between her legs.
Suddenly desperate to explore more, Cade let go of Eden’s waist, his hands rushing over her hips and down the fabric of her skirt to find the soft flesh of her thighs.
“Your hands are so warm,” she breathed against his mouth. “So strong.”
“Shh,” he told her, releasing her mouth to trail tiny kisses down her throat. His hand skimmed up her thigh, under that tight little skirt. “You talk, you forfeit the fun.”
“You mean you’re calling all the shots?” she clarified, the last word coming out a squeak when his finger found the edge of her panties.
“I plunder, you surrender,” he confirmed with a grin. She caught on fast.
“I never surrender,” she breathed as his fingers curled under the elastic, sweeping inward, combing through her damp curls.
“Sure you will,” he vowed.
He was going to make sure of it.
* * *
EDEN HAD SPENT a lot of time over the years imagining her and Cade together. She’d written stories in her mind, created visual odes to sexual pleasure starring the two of them.
She’d had no clue.
Not a freaking single one.
He was amazing. Incredible. He was going to ruin her for every other man for the rest of her life. And she didn’t care. After all, just the fantasy of him had ruined her for all men up until this point. Why ruin a perfect track record?
His hands were so hot, his fingers sure as they skimmed her thigh, teasing their way under the edge of her panties. Her body throbbed, wet, needy.
She wiggled a little, trying to entice his fingers. Hoping he’d touch her. Needing him to relieve the pressure that was building, tight as a spring, low in her belly.
He angled himself between her thighs, lifting her with both hands and scooting her further up the rock. The contrast of his warm body, hard muscles and unforgiving stone added an extra erotic edge to the passion coursing through her. His hand swept down her legs to her ankles, making her shiver as he gripped her feet just above the little leather straps of her shoes. Still gripping her ankles, he lifted her feet so they rested flat on the rock with her knees aimed at the sky.
“I feel like a sacrifice to the sea gods,” Eden laughed breathlessly, propping herself up on her elbows to watch him through passion-hazed eyes. He looked so hot, so sexy. And so much better pleasuring her up close than he’d ever looked with someone else far away.
“They’d have parted the water for you,” he told her before pressing an open mouth kiss against her knee, just inside where it curved. She shivered, delight skimming up her thigh like hot water over a hot skillet. With his eyes locked on hers, he kept the kisses climbing. She held her breath, her body getting tenser the higher he climbed. By the time he reached the tautly stretched fabric of her skirt, she was ready to pass out from lack of oxygen.
As he continued pressing kisses up her thigh, he slid the material higher with his palms, skimming their hard warmth along the outside of her legs as he went. He felt so good, those fingers so powerful and strong against her soft flesh.
“You’re gorgeous,” he said, his words husky and low, hanging on the night air.
“You’re looking at me in the dark,” she teased.
“I’ve got excellent night vision. And even better night skills.” He pushed her skirt up to her waist, so her cherry-red thong was on full view. Even with the moon behind him, she could still see the glint of passion in his gorgeous eyes.
“Night skills?” she asked, her words hitching higher when her now-bare butt settled back down on the cold stone. “Is that a military thing?”
“Why don’t we find out,” he told her, lifting her legs and draping both knees over his shoulders. “You ready to surrender?”
Surrender? Eden wasn’t sure she could even think.
Had she ever been in such an erotic position? Had a man ever looked at her like he was going to eat her alive, and make sure she loved every second of it?
She’d haul out the white flag and wave it like crazy.
Except then the game would be over.
“Oh, no,” she breathed instead. She gave him her best go ahead, I dare you look. “You haven’t won yet.”
“Maybe not. But you’re about to,” he promised.
Then he got down to the feast.
His hands cupped the firm flesh of her butt, lifting her to the perfect angle for his mouth.
Keeping it slow, reining in the desperation, he used his tongue. Licked a wet path from the inside of her knee, all the way to her now sopping wet curls. Breathing in, as if he were addicted to her musky scent, he blew a puff of air against the quivering flesh between her thighs.
Eden gasped. Her fingers curled, then uncurled, like she was trying to grab the rock.
He slid his tongue along her clitoris.
Eden moaned.
He slipped one finger, then two, into her hot, aching depths. Swirling, pressing, then sliding back out.
Oh, baby.
&nbs
p; He was incredible.
She wanted him like crazy. More, she wanted him to want her. To ache for her. To be more desperate for her than he’d ever been for anyone else in his life. Eden wanted to be special.
That need, that hope, overcame all of her inhibitions.
Remembering the intensity in his eyes when he’d looked at her breasts, the way he’d reached for them then stopped himself, she reached behind her back and unhooked her bra.
Quick, with a grace she rarely showed in anything else, she slipped out of her blouse and bra, then lay back on the stone again so her body was bared to the night sky, the ocean air, and Cade’s hot eyes.
“Holy hell,” he breathed against her thigh. She wasn’t sure if the new wetness there was her own dripping juices, or if he was drooling.
Oh, please, her fragile ego begged. Let him drool over her.
With that in mind, she cupped her own breasts, using every move she wanted him to do on herself. She squeezed. She ran the tip of her fingers around her sensitive areola. She scraped her nail across the pebbled nipple, making herself gasp.
She could feel his eyes on her breasts. They were hot, intense as he watched from below. Even more turned on by his stare than she was with her own ministrations, she worked herself harder, her fingers swirling, plucking, teasing. His tongue swirled, plunged, sipped in time with her movements. She set the pace. She held all the control. She’d never had this much power, this much pleasure.
Then she cupped both breasts in her palms, the nipples jutting between her knuckles as she squeezed. Her hands worked the soft mounds, heating her own flesh as the cool ocean breeze nipped at the beaded tips in an erotic contrast. Her moans rose, her butt along with them as she pressed closer to his mouth, entreating him to take her higher.
His tongue stabbed, in and out. His thumb worked her throbbing clitoris, pressing, then skimming the swollen surface.
Her breath came in pants now. Her body rose higher. Her mind shut down. All she could do was feel.
His teeth nipped.
She exploded.
A fireworks of stars bombarded her closed lids, her head full back against the hard rock as she dug her heels into Cade’s shoulders to press herself higher. To wring every drop of ecstasy out of the orgasm.