Brian skirted her throat, dragging his lips over the sensitive skin as he pushed into her with force, picking up the pace of his rapid strokes, driving into her with purposeful thrusts. Callie was slick, hot, stretched and her muscles reacted to it, clutching at his cock as Brian filled her.
His head fell to rest against her collarbone, leaving a stark contrast to Callie’s lighter skin. His hands let her wrists go, gripping her by the shoulders and pressing her into the wall. Brian pulled out almost to the tip of his cock, only to delve back into her slick heat again. This time with a force that gave Callie reason to clench her teeth—the thrust was so intense.
Callie arched her neck, driving down on Brian’s heated shaft, silken and smooth with the evidence of her need. Mouths touched, then sank into each other as tongues danced, entwined, dueled with each other, exploring in a frantic glide.
Brian jammed a hand between their sweat soaked bodies, fingering her clit as he moved his hips against hers. Callie’s hands clung to his shoulders, gritting her teeth and the heavy breaths they took echoed in her ears in resounding gasps.
The tile behind her back was moist from the press of her heated flesh and Callie could no longer keep from riding the crest of the wave that was sweet relief. She ground her hips against Brian’s as his hand moved from between them to cup her breast, thumbing her nipple to a tight point as he rolled his hips upward in quick jabs.
The searing heat of orgasm attacked Callie as Brian plunged upward and she crossed her ankles behind his back, riding the all-consuming sweep of release. It flooded her cunt, made her dizzy, had her screaming Brian’s name. Her scream bounced off the tile in the small bathroom and shot into the steamy, still air thick with their lovemaking.
Brian arched into his own release, pulling her body close to his with hard hands that spanned her waist.
Callie sagged against Brian, her lungs begging for breath, her chest slamming against Brian’s for air. She loosened her grip on his shoulders as he gathered her in his arms and held her close to him.
“Christ woman, you’re gonna kill me if this keeps up,” he said against her throat.
Callie let her head rest against the top of his and giggled. “You just ruined a perfectly good shower, mercenary man.”
Brian chuckled. “It couldn’t have been that good. I wasn’t in it.”
Callie smiled against his hair. “Well, there is that.”
“You know what I just realized?” he asked as he withdrew from her and she slid down his body, letting her head rest on his chest and wrapping her arms around him.
“What did you just realize?”
Brian enveloped her in his embrace, his hard arms squeezing her gently. “We only have one more day left and that kinda sucks.”
Callie scrunched her eyes shut. Yep, one more day and this would all be over. Callie wasn’t sure if she could bear to think about the clock ticking away just yet. “Then I guess we’ll have to make the best of it, huh, Mr. Benson?” she whispered into his chest, trying to keep it light and breezy.
Kissing the top of her head, Brian said, “I don’t plan to waste a second. So c’mon, let’s get that shower so we have to use it all over again.”
Callie let Brian pull her into the cool porcelain of the bathtub as she took slow, barely audible breaths to alleviate the heaviness in her heart.
One day left…
* * * *
Brian smiled politely at the cashier as he hurried to grab their pizza. Callie waiting back at that hotel for him, naked and heart-stopping beautiful did something to his insides. He didn’t want to waste a second of their last night together.
Brian Benson had it bad and he knew what he wanted. He intended to have it.
He wanted Callie Winston at any cost. Brian had known just meeting her wouldn’t be enough. Now that he had, he knew he had no intention of letting her go.
Callie didn’t believe him. Not the words he spoke, nor the gestures he made. She wanted to. She was so close to wanting it more than she wanted to hide behind her fear. The only way to prove to Callie that he was sincere was to show her.
Over and over.
Brian was going to do that and keep on doing that until she saw what he saw.
He saw someone who didn’t look at him with a scrap of fear in her eyes. The first someone in a long, long time. Someone who saw beyond his job and heard his heart.
Brian wasn’t ashamed to share his feelings for Callie. Being a mercenary had taught him a valuable lesson. Your chances to tell a loved one what they meant to you came few and far between, and he tried never to miss an opportunity to do it.
Brian spent a lot of time alone with his thoughts, and he was able to articulate them clearly when the time came to do so.
Callie wasn’t as good at sharing her thoughts or her feelings verbally. Her words on paper defined her. A kind word to a friend or a good deed defined her, but Brian was going to teach her to trust him. He was going to teach her to accept how he felt about her and then, he’d teach Callie to say the words back because he knew she felt them.
Brian Benson was in love.
For the first time in his life.
With one Callie Winston.
Brian was in love with a frightened, scarred, funny, vivacious, beautifully warm Callie Winston and she was freaking out right now because she was afraid to take the last step toward him—toward them. She couldn’t talk about it, she wouldn’t talk about it, but when the magnitude of what they shared sank in, she was going to run scared. The adrenaline high would wear off and Callie would come back to reality with a resounding crash, but she wouldn’t know she’d landed in a safe zone until Brian reassured her and that would take continual effort on his part.
What worried him was how to go about that. Did he let her find her own way or force her to see the light?
Callie could talk about anything else but herself and what she was afraid would happen if this relationship they’d begun didn’t work out or if it did. Brian felt that in every guarded word she spoke. He felt it in the tension of her body when he held her and he spoke of the things that Callie made him feel.
It was written all over her face.
It was in her body language.
It was deeply imbedded in how she’d learned to live her life.
Brian was going to change that however he could. With time, consistency and patience and he had no intention of letting Callie tell him otherwise.
He didn’t want to leave her tomorrow either, but he had things he had to take care of before he talked to Callie about permanency. Loose ends had to be tied up with the first half of his life. It would take a while for him to get from point A to point B with her anyway.
But that wouldn’t stop Brian from chasing down the second half of his life with Callie in it—full time.
* * * *
“Well if it isn’t ‘Sex R Us’! How’s it going there, you vixen?”
Callie cackled into the phone because she just couldn’t help it. A vixen…please. “It’s going really great, Kath. How about you?”
“Oh, I’m fine—not as fine as you, but just fine. So tell me more, what’s he like after a couple of days?”
“I—he’s—amazing…”
Katherine whistled into the phone. “I figured that he might be. Define amazing, sweetie. Is he hung like a stud mule?”
Callie’s face turned crimson and she tugged the poncho liner around her. “Jesus, Kath! What kind of a question is that?”
Katherine must have slapped something because Callie heard a sharp clap in the background. “I knew it! Oh, I’m so glad he really is the entire package. So he’s wowing you doing the old mattress mash, or what?”
“Oh, hell yeah,” Callie muttered because how could she deny that Brian defied words?
“Ahh, well, now, that’s so good to hear. I’m doin’ the dance of the sexually replete for you.”
“I had no idea, Kath. I mean, none. Who knew you could do it so many times in one day?” Callie coul
dn’t believe she’d just said that. A little sex and her lips got loose.
“Well, I knew, but to share would have been to brag.” Katherine giggled. “So he’s a stud. Knocking your socks off. What about the time you spend out of bed, honey?”
Her smile was warm when Callie replied, “We talk about everything, Kath. He’s a great conversationalist.”
“Do you talk about how you feel about him, Cal?”
Shit. Leave it to Katherine to nail her to a wall about her feelings. “I don’t know how I feel.”
She clucked in Callie’s ear. “Yes, you do, Cal.” Katherine admonished. “You’re falling in love and it’s wonderful. Now you have to make sure you share that or at least share something of yourself so the man isn’t on that limb we talked about all alone.”
“I’ve tried…I did tell him I’ve never known anyone like him and I haven’t, Katherine.”
A snort resounded in Callie’s ear. “That’s because you knew Frank. Brian makes up for all the Frank’s in the world. Is he going back to Iraq?”
Callie bit her lip, “As far as I know. It’s his job, Katherine.”
“Yeah, I know. This is the only thing I don’t like about Brian and it isn’t even what he does—it’s that he’s gone for so long. Will you wait for him, Callie?”
She and Brian hadn’t taken that conversation very far and Callie had no right to ask if he wanted her to—she wouldn’t dream of asking. “We haven’t talked about it much.”
“He goes home tomorrow, right?”
Callie’s heart skipped a beat in time. “Yeah, tomorrow…”
“Then don’t miss the chance today to tell him how you feel. You don’t have to use the “L” word just yet, but let him know you think he’s stupefying.”
Callie fell back on the bed, shrieking with laughter. “Ya know, Katherine, how come you don’t apply all this stuff to your boyfriends?”
Sighing, she said, “Because I’ve never met anyone like that, Callie. Never. I don’t mind single, believe me. I’m not lonely or depressed, but if I had the chance at something amazing like you do right now, I’d hang on tight. That’s why I’m telling you to do the same. I just want you happy and capable of leaving shithead where he belongs—in the closet with the door padlocked.”
“He left a lot of shit for me to clean up, Katherine. It’s not as easy as it seems.”
“I know saying it and actually applying it are two different things. I can only give you the tools I hope will help you open up and pray that you’ll use them.”
Callie sucked in her cheeks and fingered the poncho liner. “I’m freaked out, Katherine,” she admitted.
“Yeah,” Katherine answered back softly. “I know. Let’s take this one step at a time. Enjoy tonight and wait on tomorrow. I figure Brian is pretty smart and he’ll move at the pace you set.”
“We have no commitments, Katherine. This might all be over tomorrow.” Oh, God. Just hearing those words out loud made Callie feel ill.
“It might be, Callie, but I doubt it. Let’s see what tomorrow brings, okay? Don’t go freaking out without consulting me, your freak therapist, okay?”
Callie snickered. “Okay. I won’t. Hey, I gotta go. Stud muffin should be back anytime with our dinner.”
“Dinner in bed, eh? Nothin’ can beat that. Have fun, Cal and call me as soon as you get in. We’ll talk then.”
“I will. Talk to you later.” As Callie hung up the phone she closed her eyes and swallowed her fear. She’d been successful at keeping it at bay so far. She wouldn’t let it have her now. Not on their last night together.
Not yet.
Chapter 20
Callie and Brian finished up their pizza and now lay together on the bed watching something Callie couldn’t focus on. Brian nuzzled her neck from behind her. “Hey, you’re quiet, you okay?”
Oh, sure. This clock watching was something everyone should do. Counting the minutes down until you got dumped was high on her list of fun recommendations. “I’m fine,” Callie replied, trying to sound relaxed and easy, as she fought the wave of paranoia that wanted control of her.
“I’m gonna miss you, sweet pea,” Brian said with that southern twang only he knew how to pull off successfully without sounding like Bubba.
Callie closed her eyes and reminded herself that she shouldn’t hold Brian to anything—she wouldn’t. Not until he had time to think about what they’d shared. “Oh, yeah? Listen here, mercenary man, when you go home I want you to think about that statement and get back to me,” she joked.
Brian rolled her over to face him, but this time she refused to look at him, burying her face in his broad chest, letting the hair tickle her nose. “I mean it, Callie. There isn’t anything to think about. You’ve fulfilled every fantasy I’ve ever had, well, except that Mayan temple…” he teased.
Yeah, she was a real fantasy come true. Brian was…a fantasy come true, but Callie would rather have her tongue ripped from her head than say it. That meant giving a piece of herself. It meant laying it on the line. Heart on your sleeve shit and Callie couldn’t do that—because if this ended—her contribution to this would be limited and her dignity would be left intact. She wouldn’t have said anything foolish or needy.
Brian lifted her chin. “Look at me, Callie. I want you to listen to me when I tell you that I’m very serious. You’re a beautiful, exciting woman and meeting you, knowing you has made my life a hundred times better than it was,” his tone was serious, heavy and thickly laced with something Callie was unsure of.
When she found her voice, it was simply to say, “Brian, the past three days have been amazing and I’m so glad we met each other.”
“You’re stuck with me, sweet pea,” he answered with firm determination.
Callie’s heart tightened. Give that some time, she thought. No one wanted to be stuck with Callie. Hugging Brian close to her, she scrunched her eyes shut and sighed a shaky breath as he held her close.
How was she ever going to forget something like this? A connection so vivid, so amazingly clear that Callie felt it in every corner of her heart. It clung to her bones, it left her happy, sad, disoriented, overwhelmed, and mostly—frightened. All risks she’d known were involved in this when she’d agreed to meet Brian.
Brian’s lips found the tender skin of her neck and she let her head fall back on her shoulders, letting go of the worry for however long she could.
The heat of Brian’s mouth never failed to leave Callie breathless, his lips, firm and insistent evoked small explosions of fire in her pussy. His tongue dragging across her flesh left her writhing.
With a need Callie would never be able to express or understand she wanted Brian inside her, filling her…completing her.
Now and without preamble.
One last time before this was all over.
Callie pulled Brian to lay over top of her, relishing his heavy weight as it pressed her into the mattress, running her hands over the firm muscles of his back, inhaling the scent of his cologne, locking the memory in her head.
His breath was ragged in her ear as his cock lay between them, burning hot and silken. Brian slipped it between the lips of her pussy, creating a friction that was delicious on her clit. Callie’s hips rose to meet it as her nipples tightened and her fingers ran through the coarse hair on his chest, clinging to him, silently begging him to make love to her.
Brian’s body knew hers well by now and with a slick thrust he entered her in a swift motion of fluid grace as he took her lips with his own, kissing her with sweet tenderness. Tongues met and clashed, twirling around one another as their hips met and Brian drove into her.
Heat clawed its way along her chest, spiraling downward, edging its way to her pussy with fierce intensity. Callie clung to Brian’s neck, grazing her hands over the corded muscle, digging into his back as she rode his cock, desperate for release, but wanting to hang onto these last moments together.
Brian lifted himself on his arms, driving into her with an ur
gency that had Callie panting as she fought to stave off her need to let go.
Callie gripped Brian’s forearms with fevered hands.
Brian groaned, long and low as he drew back, then thrust forward.
The suction their bodies made sounded in Callie’s ears, calling her seductively.
The slick slide of thick heat became frantic—a desperate, wild need.
Callie’s body exploded violently with a force that she gave up fighting.
Brian’s tensed and Callie peeked at him as he found his release.
His face was hard, his jaw clenched and his beautifully muscled body, tensed.
Hot semen flooded her, leaving her dizzy and weak.
Brian lay back over her, covering her with his solid bulk and pulling her into a tight embrace, whispering something Callie couldn’t make out for the impact his lovemaking had on her.
Silence fell between them, laden with Callie’s unspoken words, rife with her fear of what would be.
They slept like that, Brian deeply imbedded in her, Callie clinging to him, memorizing every last plane of his body before sleep found her, safe in the arms that wouldn’t be around her after this last night together.
Chapter 21
“Callie, I had a great time,” Brian said as he held her close and kissed the top of her head. Callie had risen early and showered, she’d sat on the chair and watched Brian sleep, listened to the sounds of his deep breathing as she warred in her head about what was next—about what she could say to understand what had happened between them.
Now they stood in the parking lot of the Motel Six and whatever Callie had hoped to say—ventured to hope she could say, escaped her.
Tears stung the back of her eyelids, she bit her cheek and muttered, “Me too, Brian.”
“Hey,” he said as he tilted her chin up to look at him. “I’ll call you when I get home, okay?”
Callie nodded and smiled fleetingly, fighting to keep a stiff upper lip. Be a grown up. Be mature. Not turn into a big honkin’ girl. “Okay,” she whispered. “You be safe, alright?”
Brian kissed her lips and squeezed her. “You bet.”
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