Code Name: Luminous

by Natasza Waters

  Lumin’s arms snaked around his neck and she pulled him toward her. Wild but innocent, she devoured his lips. He withdrew, and traced a path down her body till he found his target again. A long, slow lick across her fold and her thighs opened to him. His hands folded around her hips and palmed her ass. With a deep sucking pull on her slick flesh, he moaned.

  She cried out and bucked. “Oh shit, oh shit.”

  His tongue kept her in a passionate balance as his finger probed into her channel, slowly, carefully he stroked her. Oh damn, she was tight. Really tight. There was no doubt she was a virgin when he met the resistance. He kissed his way back up her body, lingered on her breasts and met her mouth with his.

  She palmed his cheeks. “I want to touch you.”

  He was barely keeping himself on this side of sane. “But you have to stop when I tell you,” he said rolling onto his back, bringing her with him.

  “Why?”

  “Because guys are made a little different than women. We don’t have the willpower.” Nope, none whatsoever, especially with her trim form lying on top of you like a warm, silk blanket.

  She sat back on her haunches, and the second her fold swept up his cock, he jolted. The heat scorching through him nearly paralyzed his brain. Her hands strayed down his abs, tracing the indentations, and he watched her curious touch. His shaft stood like the bloody obelisk in Washington. She palmed it with gentle uncertainty, then stroked it.

  “It feels like metal wrapped in silk.”

  Without making it obvious, or at least as little as possible, he folded his hand over hers and squeezed her hand tighter.

  “Really?”

  He grinned, but gritted his teeth as she slid down his legs and her hair draped across his stomach. A groan crawled right out his throat when her wet mouth slid over his head and she sucked. The moan from her vibrated through him when she drew him in, and desire tightened in the base of his spine.

  “Stop, Lumin, stop.” He unglued his eyes from the back of his head and drew her up his body. “Lean back on your palms,” he said hoarsely. His chest heaved with heavy breath and determination, but he was dangling from a fine line, and it was about to snap. With his thumb he strummed her. A primal urge gripped him as her hips began to rotate against his. He opened the condom he’d slipped under the blanket and rolled it on quickly. Throwing herself forward, she rubbed her nub against him, covering it in a warm, wet acceptance.

  “I need you.”

  He gripped her neck and drew her mouth to his. “Not nearly as much as I need you. Go slow. Relax, and take me inside you,” he breathed, and possessed her mouth while his finger circled her slick nub. Her thighs clenched him, and he felt her soft wet core cover his head. He swallowed and rocked his head back determined not to thrust himself inside her, knowing he’d lose his mind.

  “Hurts.” She closed her eyes.

  “Only for a second I promise, and then pleasure,” he reassured her.

  She nodded and tore through her hymen with a small cry, her velvet sheath taking him deeper. His head throbbed, wanting her wet channel to clamp around him.

  “Be still,” he said quietly and kissed her gently. “No rush, my beautiful light, there’s no rush. From here on in, it’s only pleasure. You and I.” He kissed her sweetly on her mouth, on her nose and each cheek. “Your body will accept me.” She swiveled her hips to test the waters, and he circled her breast, teasing the tip, and then savored each one, flicking the pebbled peaks.

  “Oh yes,” she cried and her ass began to rotate in a sensual rhythm, Mother Nature and lust taking each other’s hands.

  “Oh God, you feel like heaven,” he growled, watching a blissful expression crown her features. He was buried deep in her, and she rotated her hips. He encouraged her to rise up and ride him. She liked it, and before long the dance became a race to the finish line. He had to wait. He had to see it and feel her come around him, and it didn’t take long. Her eyes shot open and then slammed shut, her muscles clenching him and a cry escaped her, setting him off in his own orgasm as his balls tightened and he released himself with a roar of pure, raw satisfaction.

  She draped herself against him, her warm breath skipping across his chest, and he curled her tight in his arms. His heart swelled. No woman had ever trusted him like this before. He tipped her chin. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “A little sore maybe.”

  He carefully pulled out of her, trying not to jolt with the sensitivity. He winced when she did. “It’ll be better in a couple days,” he said, ridding himself of the condom.

  “Days?” she said wide-eyed.

  “Yes, Lumin, you have to heal, and then…” He kissed her chin. “And then, well…you’ll see.”

  He needed her body pressed against his and drew her tight. Their legs remained entwined, and her lids closed, heavy with sleep. Under the moonlight, under the stars, he prayed she was right. The thought of being like the man who donated his sperm to bring him into the world made him sick. He didn’t want to be that man. Grabbing the edge of the blanket, he wrapped it around them and nestled his cheek against her warm breast. Her silky skin calmed his fears. She was like a soft little kitten curled into him, and even though she was at peace safe in his protection, she wasn’t close enough. This was one mission he would never, ever forget.

  Chapter Five

  Tony woke with the sun warming his cheek. He stretched and ran his hands through his hair. With a start, he sat bolt upright and blinked. Where was Lumin?

  “Lumin?” He rocked to his feet and snagged his jeans, jumping into them and his boots, noticing her clothes were gone. “Lumin?”

  His gaze darted around the lake and through the tree line. He ran the trail, ignoring the slap of a few branches against his face. Before darting from the forest, he cleared the area with a surveying gaze and then ran for the house. When he hit the stairs, his heart began to beat again. An enticing smell wandered from the house to meet him on the steps. He entered the great room. Pancakes!

  Lumin glanced up. “Good morning.” She put down the flipper she held and walked toward him. “Hungry?”

  The air seemed different this morning, like there was an invisible fibrous line connecting them. She looked—different. Softer, if that were possible. He cleared his throat as she reached him.

  “Kinda woke up with a start. You weren’t there.”

  She tipped onto her toes and kissed his mouth. With the dainty brush of her lips, his erection jumped to duty and his hands curled around her ass, tugging her closer.

  “You were sleeping so peacefully. I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “That’s a rarity for me. I don’t normally sleep very well.”

  Her eyes shined when a smile coursed across her features. “I’m making breakfast, but I’ll apologize now.”

  “Why?”

  “I follow the directions, but it doesn’t matter what I make. It tastes like crap.” She broke into a laugh. “You can use a lot of syrup.”

  “I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

  They sat down on the back deck. Holy shit, how can you make a pancake taste this bad? “Good,” he said, taking another mouthful after adding syrup.

  She barked with laughter. “You lie.” She shrugged. “I don’t know why I can’t cook. I’m hexed.”

  He put his fork down and downed the glass of orange juice she’d sat by his plate. “Can’t be good at everything.”

  “You are,” she said, pushing her plate away. “Ick, this is awful. You don’t have to eat it.”

  “Coffee’s decent,” he said, taking a mouthful to wash down the pancake stuck in his throat. He grinned at her. “Don’t really mind when it’s prepared by such a beautiful woman. How are you feeling this morning?”

  She blushed and her crystal gaze swerved away from his inquiring eyes. “A little sore.” She played with her fork before meeting his eyes again. “It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt. Being in your arms, I mean.” She let out a breath. “I don�
��t think I’m supposed to say that. Guys get all weird, don’t they?”

  “I’m not all guys.” He stretched his arm across the table and grasped her hand. “It was pretty incredible. If you want the truth, the guy’s guy inside me can’t wait to make love to you again.”

  Make love. He said it, and it didn’t feel weird. Why was that?

  “Obviously, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  He rose and pulled her to her feet. “That’s the sweet part. You don’t. No man has touched you except me, and I think I could get a little possessive over that.” She glanced up at him with doubt. “As in, I don’t want any other man to touch you but me.”

  She backed away from him. “I better clean up the dishes.”

  “Leave them. Let’s take a walk around the lake.” He drew her behind him and they took their time, listening to the rustle of the wind in the trees and birds calling out to each other. He held her hand and darted glances at her at least a hundred times. Every nerve ending sparked with excitement. Even though he’d taken her innocence, she still radiated a purity that made him crazy. He couldn’t look at her without a charge of warmth streaking through him.

  “Are you going to tell me Ghost and Kayla’s story?”

  It took most of the walk to fill her in. When they’d reached the point where they’d started, she said, “Kayla doesn’t look sick.”

  “I wouldn’t call her sick,” he said, sitting on a fallen log and drawing Lumin onto his lap. “I think of it more as a fight to survive. The choice to mend over mind.”

  “I like that,” she said, casting her gaze across the lake. “The choice to mend over mind, kind of says it perfectly. I don’t know if I could have survived all of that. She must be very strong.”

  He chuckled. “The strong part comes into play with the Admiral. You should have seen them try to wrestle each other to the ground mentally before they gave in to love. Every time they had a fight, Ghost would take it out on us. Kayla was the first woman to prove herself working in Base Command. She’s a code cracker and a warfare analyst. That got under Ghost’s skin big time and he rode her hard, but I think it was because he was trying not to fall in love with her.”

  “What does a warfare analyst do?”

  “She strategizes the moves of both sides like a chess game. She can think ahead and see the likelihood of the enemy’s intentions.”

  “How does she do it? It sounds interesting.”

  “You’ll have to ask her. Must have something to do with understanding people first. Since history repeats itself, there are formulas, tactical maneuvers that can be altered and reinvented. I don’t really know. Both she and Ghost have this kinda eerie way of knowing what’s going to happen before it does.”

  “What about Nina? She works there too, right?”

  “She does. Kayla trained her, but she’s more of a communications expert. She coordinates and multitasks the teams’ movements and their missions. In the middle of chaos, she’s filing her nails and keeps it all up here,” he said, tapping his head.

  Lumin eyed him. “You sound different when you talk about Nina.”

  He shrugged. “She’s got it together, and she keeps us laughing.”

  “Guess I better start Googling Navy SEALs to understand what you all do.”

  He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head against hers. “What do you want to know?”

  Lumin draped her arm around his shoulder. “Tell me what happens on a mission.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Is that secret?”

  “Parts of it, I suppose. Do you know what SEAL stands for?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Sea, Air and Land. We’re trained to operate in all three environments. There’s two groups. One is located in Coronado, the other in Virginia. Teams One, Three, Five, and Seven deploy from the west. Each team is broken down into platoons and squads. In each one you have men who are specially trained like Mace, who’s a sniper. I’m called a Lead Breacher. Then there are frogmen, another name for divers. We all dive, but some of us specialize in underwater demolitions. Stitch is a corpsman. When we get torn up, he tries to put us back together again. Some skills, like diving and parachuting, are common to all of us.”

  “But you’re not all officers?”

  “No.”

  “You told the young security guard not to call you ‘sir.’”

  “I’m enlisted, not an officer.”

  “Will you be?”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “Does it make a difference?”

  “Yes.”

  He jerked back. “It does?”

  “You should be, and obviously the Admiral thinks so too. I heard him say you haven’t taken on a leadership role yet. He seems to think you should.”

  Tony scratched an itch at the back of his neck. “To become an officer I’d have to enter officer training school. Most enlisted guys stay enlisted.”

  “But you’d be a good leader.”

  “How would you know that?”

  She blushed and traced her finger along his cheek. “You taught me last night.”

  He laughed out loud. “That’s a little different, Lumin.”

  Her gaze softened. “I don’t think so. You were patient, taught by example, let me try to find my own way, guided me when I wasn’t doing it right, and rewarded me with words of encouragement when it was over.”

  He swallowed deeply as she hit every key factor of being a leader on the head. “Leading you into my web of pleasure is a little different than leading a bunch of alpha warriors into combat.”

  “But you can’t deny the fundamentals are all there.”

  He leaned back and gazed at this intriguing woman. “I think you’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the courtroom.”

  “More words of encouragement,” she teased.

  “No, I just want in your pants again.” She swatted him, and he laughed, watching her cheeks color.

  A text bleeped from his phone.

  Is she still a virgin?

  He deleted it quickly.

  “What did it say?” she inquired.

  “Nothing.”

  “Another booty call?” She slipped from his lap and eyed him suspiciously.

  A girl questioning him about his texts used to make him uncomfortable. Lumin’s question was curious without being possessive. It didn’t bother him at all. “It wasn’t a woman.”

  She wandered away from him, pulling her shirt over her head.

  He wasn’t going to interrupt and continued to gaze as she shimmied from her clothes and beared a course for the water. He sat in glorious, stunned warmth as she waded into the lake. At night she was an elfin creature; by day, water nymph. Good thing water was his element too. Turfing his clothes, he joined her with a quiet slice into the lake and rose up in front of her. Gazing at her unabashed beauty, it hit him this wasn’t a mission for Uncle Sam, this was like a—a vacation or maybe something more permanent like a—nah. Up to their chest in water, her legs wrapped around his hips, and she draped her arms across his shoulders. His hands swept to her ass and he nestled her closer.

  “Tell me,” she probed.

  “Tell you what?” he whispered and tasted her lips. His submarine was going to full battle stations wedged between their bodies.

  “What did the text say?”

  “It was Mace checking up on us. That’s all.”

  “No it wasn’t,” she argued, beginning to sway her hips in a delicious rocking motion.

  He knew making love in the water wasn’t what books and movies made it out to be. Water washed the natural lubrication of a woman away and made it uncomfortable, but he was enjoying the dance their bodies shared for now and wasn’t about to stop it.

  “SEAL’s honor.” He stole a long, lingering kiss. And then another.

  “I like being here with you, Tony.” She nuzzled her nose into his neck, kissed his shoulder and rested her chin on it. “Thank you for protecting me.”


  He leaned back. “I’m not doing this out of duty, believe me. I want to be here.” Where the hell was all the honesty coming from and why was it coming out of his mouth? “You are so beautiful. So honest and open. I like that. I like it a lot.”

  She pinned a smile on her cheeks. “This is honest.” She pressed her flat belly gently against his oversized hard-on. “Do I do this to you?” she asked, her lashes whisking her pale cheeks.

  Her innocent question made him laugh. “I’d control it if I could,” he teased, “but I doubt that’s going to happen around you.”

  If she wanted honest, he could do that. Hiding his feelings had become second nature, but pieces of something perfect were falling into place with this woman. He wanted her to know him, even the dark parts.

  Lumin leaned her forehead against his. “When you hold me, I feel all nervous and jittery, and it’s hard to breathe.”

  Good to know he wasn’t the only one feeling that way. “I know you’re telling me the truth, but it’s so hard to believe you never let anyone close enough to hold you or kiss you.”

  Lumin released his shoulders and her gorgeous body arched back, floating in the water. He kept his hand beneath her bottom and she stared up at him, her blonde locks drifting on the surface. Again, she reminded him of some mystical creature. If he’d found her out at sea, he’d swim a hundred miles to catch her. Her nipples hardened, and so did he as if they were connected by some kind of psychic link.

  “They tried. Mom told me that men wanted sex, but most would be gone afterwards. My friend Star told me how great it was and that love didn’t matter. I guess I wasn’t in a hurry to find out.”

  He leaned over, slipping his arms around her slender waist. Kissing her became an all-consuming need. Within a minute, his mind became fuzzy and he was carrying her in his arms toward the shore. She clung to him with ease, and he laid her on the soft moss. Her fold was slick and ready. “It’s too early, my lady, but I don’t have to be inside you to make you feel good.”

  With one sleek move, she disappeared beneath him and her lips mouthed the head of his shaft.