by Brynn Paulin
“Nope.”
“But what happened?”
“Injury.”
We were next to the bed, and he started pulling at my shirt that clung to my skin and felt clammy in the air conditioning. Still, I pushed his hands away.
“Tell me what happened.” Geez, we were a pair. You’d think we hadn’t been effortlessly communicating since we were young children.
“I got shot a few times. I’ve been recovering, or I would have come after you sooner.” He frowned. “Not that anyone knew where you were. What the fuck, Van? Your parents and brothers are out of their minds with worry.”
“I call them.”
“But they have no clue where you are, who you’re with, what’s going on, or if you’re truly safe. I should turn you over my knee and spank you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” And why the hell did my pussy just go molten with liquid heat?
“Try me.”
His hands were pulling at my shirt again and I pushed them away again. “Will you stop?” I exclaimed. I didn’t really want him to, but I wanted to know how he’d been hurt. And what the extent was.
He grasped my shoulders. “Savannah, enough. Our future starts now,” he said, proving we weren’t on the same page.
How had we gotten so out of step? We couldn’t even communicate anymore. Once, we’d practically been able to read each other’s minds. Then he’d gone away into the Army, to “secure our future”—whatever that meant. I’d never agreed with that. We’d talked constantly, whenever we could and been inseparable when he’d been on leave, yet now… We couldn’t even understand each other.
It hurt my heart to think about it. Jordan and I had been each other’s first everything. We’d experienced most of our firsts side-by-side, his hand in mine. First love, first kiss… We’d expected that to always be. Even with him seeming to accept my diagnosis, I just wasn’t sure.
“I want to know what happened to you.”
Chapter Four
~ Jordan ~
Savannah didn’t understand my desperation and desire. I needed to rush forward, reassure myself she was here, mine and I wouldn’t ever let go. Yet, she was telling me to stop.
Then her concern seeped in, and I understood. Nodding, I let go of her and pulled off my shirt. Her blue eyes went wide at the dark pink, puckered wound high on my left pec. The color leeched from her face and her knees buckled. I caught her before she fell and eased her to sit on the side of the bed.
“You could be dead…” she whispered.
I nodded. I could sugar-coat things, but the truth was, yeah, I had almost died. Not from this wound though.
“This one isn’t so bad,” I told her. Yeah, it had hurt like a bitch once the initial shock had worn off, but it hadn’t been my life-threatening wound.
“When?” she asked. She had to know it was after our breakup or she would have known about it. We would have flown her to be with me in Germany.
“The day I got your letter.”
Tears flooded her eyes, and she sobbed. Lifting her hands, she buried her face in her palms, shaking. When I came close to her, she must have sensed me. Her arms reached out, and she clamped them around my waist, pressing her wet face to my belly. And asshole that he is, my cock went instantly hard. I tried to ignore it as I buried my fingers in her wet hair. It reminded me that we were both still soaked from the rain. With the air conditioning running in here, it was downright frigid. If I was cold, Savannah must be freezing.
“C’mon, babe.” I urged her to her feet, and she swiped at her face. I knew she hated that she was crying. She tended to tamp down her sad emotions, and bind it up inside her. It had to bother my little ray of sunshine that she’d cried so much the last hour.
“You must hate me,” she said.
“Hate you? Van, I fucking love you. You’re my everything. I could never hate you.”
“You were alone. And…and…this happened right when I told you it’s over.”
“It’s not over.”
She bit her lip, and her head dropped forward as she stared at the floor. Her shoulders were slumped as if all the world’s weight was on them. I raised her chin, so she had to look at me. Her eyes were glassy, but she wasn’t crying anymore. My strong, strong girl.
“It’s not over,” I repeated. “Not then, not now, not ever. It’s you and me always, remember?”
Her intake of breath was choppy, but she nodded. “Jordan,” she whispered. “I feel like…like we’re so out of step. Like this time apart—you in the Army and me here—like we can’t communicate anymore.”
I gathered her into my arms but didn’t try to push away her concerns. Plenty of guys in my unit had mentioned this same thing. Their spouses feeling foreign; then the pair of them felt like strangers once they were reunited. Hell, I’d felt it a few times when I’d been on leave. Apparently, Savannah had too, though she’d never said anything.
Ignored, it caused lots of divorces and breakups. Sometimes, even with work, the barrier from the spans of separation couldn’t be overcome. We would. We fucking would no matter what I had to do. And if she didn’t want to try, I’d make her.
“We can. We will. We just have to get familiar with each other again. Give it some time, and work on the intimacy we’ve lost.”
A flush colored her cheeks, and I knew she was thinking of the one thing we’d never done. We’d come damn close, but never gone all the way to sex. At first, it was waiting until she was eighteen, too. Then it was not wanting to go there when we were just going to be separated by the military again soon. We both thought it would be harder to be apart if we knew what we were missing in bed.
I’d been hard anyway, wanting her, needing her. Right now, my cock ached from how full it was.
Savannah shivered, dragging me from thoughts of how I wanted to bend her over the bed and fuck her until she couldn’t even remember that she’d considered leaving me. My mind didn’t go far. Now, I was all about how I could warm her up.
“We need to get you out of those clothes.”
She raised a brow at me.
“I’ll get you a shirt to wear. Or a robe. I saw a couple robes hanging up in the bathroom. I guess they come with the suite.”
“I could just head to my place—”
“Let me grab some clothes, and I’ll come with you then.”
“Alone. I can go alone.”
“No deal. This breakup bullshit, it’s over. You’re with me. You might as well stay here since this was going to be our honeymoon getaway. We can get your stuff squared away so we can go home together. Hell, it can still be our honeymoon. We can get married here before heading to Arizona.”
She bit her lip and shook her head, another sort of sadness appearing—maybe not sadness per se. More like regret. “I…um… I want to live here.”
“O…kay… Well. I’ll have to go back.”
She nodded, that regret deepening, her eyes downcast again. I lifted her chin.
“To get my things. To arrange our belongings to be moved here.”
Her mouth moved, no words coming out for a moment. “You… What? You’d move here?”
“I haven’t seen much of it since I just arrived, but yeah. You love it; I know I’ll love it. Besides, I’m done with sand and heat.”
“From what I hear, we might both change our tune come winter.”
“We’ll think of something to stay warm.”
“You’d really move here?”
“If you’re here, I’m here. That’s the only thing that’s important to me. Your family will know though. We can’t avoid that. Your brother’s my best friend, and he asked me to partner with him in the business—and before you worry, I can do what he needs from anywhere.”
“I was just…ashamed. I didn’t want to face them, I didn’t want to explain or be interrogated or have them be angry at me. It’s…” Her hand splayed on her flat stomach. “It’s embarrassing and…” Her breath shuddered inwards before she let it out slowly. “Hard.
Jordan, I want your kids so badly.”
I gathered her clammy body into my embrace. “And you will. Maybe adopted kids, but they’ll be ours. It’s you and me together. No one else and nothing else matters.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Okay,” I repeated. “Now, we have another decision to make.”
“What?”
“Stay here or go to your place. Well, maybe a few decisions. We also need to discuss the wedding and talking to your family. Then we need to start making plans for where we’ll live—I’m guessing you have an apartment.”
She shook her head.
Why did I think I wouldn’t like this?
“What do you have?” I asked slowly.
“Um…well…a…um…camper at the campground down the road. A cute little one that I can pull with a car.”
I stared at her. “And then we’re getting your things and bringing them back here. What the fuck, babe?”
“I’m borrowing it from one of the girls here. It was just until I found a place. The summer season is really hard because of tourists renting everything they can.”
“That’s where you were headed when you found me?”
“Yeah. I like the beach way better than taking the road. Less traffic, and most of the time, it’s pretty walking along the lake.”
I glanced out the window where rain was still pounding down. “We can take my rental. That reminds me. I should look into a vehicle for us. You don’t have one already?”
“No. Didn’t see the point.”
“Okay, well, we need to do that.” I headed toward the sitting area of the suite. “Do you think there’s some paper out here? I should start a list.”
Behind me, Van giggled—the sweetest sound in the world. If I had my way, she’d have reason to laugh often.
“What?” I asked.
“You. You’re always making a list.”
I shrugged. It was who I was.
Lightning sizzled down outside, accompanied by a crashing explosion of thunder that rattled the hotel. The lights flickered. I fought the fight-or-flight instincts rising inside me and knotting in my gut. It took every bit of steel I had to keep from tackling my woman again. It wasn’t the enemy outside. We were safe—relatively safe, anyway.
“I think the list can wait,” I said. “And I think we should stay here for a while.”
Van nodded, eyes wide.
“And I think you should take off your clothes. Right now.”
My girl beneath me, us finally one, was exactly the distraction I needed.
Chapter Five
~ Savannah ~
The heat in Jordan’s whiskey-colored eyes darkened and left no doubt as to what he wanted. My head was still reeling. In the span of about an hour, we were no longer broken up, we were getting married, moving here and now, finally going to be together—fully together.
I knew part of this was his desire to escape the storm but an even bigger part, probably the main share of it, was us being together and the inevitability of what we’d been waiting for, for too many years.
My hands went to the hem of the shirt I’d kept stopping him from removing. From across the room, his eyes followed me, his gaze hungry, devouring. I wanted him to devour me, to consume me. Jordon was my other half, and I needed to be whole with him after feeling empty too long. It had been as if part of me was missing. And part of me had been missing for most of the past four years.
Yeah, we were still young, just twenty-two—Jordan almost twenty-three—but we’d been waiting forever for this part of our lives.
I dropped my shirt on the floor then reached for the button on my jeans. At the same time, I toed off my shoes and socks. I nodded toward Jordan’s pants. “You need to take off yours, too.”
“I will.” He closed the distance between us, pushed aside my hands then lifted me into his arms. He strode toward the bed then laid me down in the center before climbing over me.
“We’re going to get the blankets all wet,” I murmured.
“So?” he replied against my lips before opening his mouth over mine. I groaned, accepting him, taking all he gave. My arms wrapped around his warm, wide shoulders. When my hands splayed over his shoulder blades, it was like holding on to a velvet-covered rock. He was so hard… My hips lifted against his. Everywhere. God, he was like granite, everywhere.
He’d always been muscular, having played baseball and soccer in high school, but that bulk had matured and grown in the best kind of way. I ran my palms around and over his pecs, but when I reached the hard little divot at the top, my eyes flew open, and I pulled back.
“Don’t,” he growled.
“I—”
“You already know about it. I told you.”
“Yeah, but—”
“It’s over, Van. It would have happened anyway.”
I wasn’t sure I believed that. Jordan distracted me by doubling down on that kiss. My whole body curled. My toes dug into the mattress. My knees bent up around his slim hips. My center lifted, trying to find his cock, and my back arched. My fingers flexed into his biceps, and I was lost. There was nothing but my body, his body and limitless need. The past and the future, any worries or problems we might have, all ceased to exist.
Pulling back, I stared up into his dark amber eyes—eyes I hoped I’d look into every day from this day forward. I prayed I’d see them filled with this same passion every night in bed. And maybe out of bed, too.
“Is this real?” I asked. I couldn’t believe I was with him, that we were here.
In response, he grinned and ground into me.
“Oh, that’s real,” I moaned. I wanted to be naked with him now.
“Just wait. It’s going to get better.”
I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously, but my lips quirked, likely giving me away. “And you would know this how?”
“I was in the Army, babe. Guys talk. A lot. I probably know way more than I should about their sex lives.”
“All I care about is ours.”
His mouth brushed over mine. “Me, too.”
I moaned as he kissed a trail down my neck and over my shoulder, pushing aside my bra strap with his chin. He followed the path with his mouth until the fabric caught on my upper arm. Then he repeated the motion on the other side.
Lost in him, I just writhed, clutching at him and touching him wherever I could. When my hand skimmed across his belly, then hit his waistband, I didn’t even try to resist temptation. I was so ready to sin with him. Though anything between us was sacred and ordained. Nothing could be further from “wrong”.
And oh, he felt so right. I’d missed this so much, this intimacy. Now, I wanted to strip off the rest of our clothes and finished what we’d always sidetracked. I needed more. Everything.
“I want you so much,” he said against my breast as he pulled down the cups. His mouth immediately captured a nipple. I cried out as a blissful reaction rocketed to my pussy. I was soaked and not in a way that had anything to do with the rain that had drenched us.
I rocked beneath him, riding the ridge of his cock—the cock that was still unfortunately hidden behind his fly. No more of that. Ripping at his button then his zipper, I got his pants open. My hand shoved into his boxer briefs and I felt a fleeting burst of satisfaction that he still wore the kind he always had. The thought was gone as fast as it came when my fingers closed around his generous rod. It had to be my imagination that he was bigger than before. I’d touched him, sucked him, yet I’d never felt this desperate happiness at being this close to him.
I whined when he pulled out of my grasp to kiss his way down my torso.
“Soon enough,” he promised. “I’m too close to the edge, and I need to taste you before I come. I need all your sweetness back on my tongue. You saved it all for me, didn’t you?”
“Of course, I did. It’s always been yours.”
“Good girl,” he growled. My pants were loose from the way I’d barely been eating, and he yanked them down to my
calves without even opening them, taking my panties right along with the jeans. Spreading my knees, but keeping my legs trapped, he wedged himself between my thighs. His wide shoulders held me open while he parted my folds. “So fucking pretty and wet and mine.”
“Yes,” I screamed as his tongue laved over me. Oh fuck, it was so good. I alternately carded my fingers into his hair, clenched his shoulders and fisted the sheets, unsure what to do as pleasure unlike anything I’d had in years took over my body. Tears streamed down my cheeks at the overwhelming intensity. Jordan was here, and he wasn’t letting me go. No, he was proving I was his. All his.
I groaned when he thrust two fingers into me, not even doing a preliminary single touch. He was as anxious as me. Unable to help it, I canted my hips into the finger-fucking, riding his hand and the lips clamped around my clit.
An orgasm barreled down on me, but as my walls closed on Jordan’s digits, he didn’t slow at all. He continued driving, kept licking and sucking until I could barely breathe. The world narrowed to the two of us, and in that moment, I couldn’t have said if we were in a bed or on the floor or outside. It was only his mouth and hands on me, my fists in his hair, holding him there.
“Jordan!” I screamed, going over the edge again.
I was panting, when I realized he was over me. He stared into my eyes. “Never letting you go.”
“Never,” I agreed, realizing I was a fucking fool.
“I can’t live without you, Van. I can’t.”
A lump filled my throat. I couldn’t speak. I could only just shake my head. His thumbs brushed away my tears.
“You okay?”
I nodded. “I’m just… Jordan, I love you so much. You’re my everything, too. You have to know, I never considered being with anyone else. Even when I thought we’d be apart forever, it was going to be me and my cat.”
“You’re practically deathly allergic to cats.” His forehead rested on mine, and he closed his eyes. “We’re never going to be apart. I don’t even think I’ll be able to stand it, even when I know exactly where you are and that you’ll be coming back to me.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I just tipped my head up and met his mouth with mine, trying to give him a reassurance I had no words for. My taste was on his lips and it turned me on more. His cock rubbed along my folds as he immediately deepened the kiss. When his tip tapped against my clit, I realized he’d removed his pants before moving over me. I kicked mine the rest of the way off, not an easy feat with the clammy fabric trying to cling to me, but I was determined. I wanted my legs wrapped around him as tightly as my arms around his shoulders and his love around my heart.