by Soraya Lane
Luke looked like he was trying not to smile but he didn’t succeed. “Yeah, something like that.”
Saskia didn’t mind. Why she joined the military was one part of her life she didn’t mind sharing, was always proud of. “My dad was with the army for almost 20 years, and ever since I was a little girl he’d talked about how much he’d like a son to serve just like he did.” She paused, looked across at Luke. “My granddad was a soldier too, and I guess it was just one of those family traditions that was supposed to be continued by a son.”
Luke chuckled. “And then you came along?”
“Yeah, then I came along.” Saskia laughed, just like she always did when she thought about the way she’d announced to her dad as a ten year old that she was going to join the Army. “Don’t get me wrong, my dad is awesome, but I just don’t think it had ever crossed his mind that his pink-loving little girl would decide to follow in his footsteps. And when mom never managed to get pregnant again, he probably thought his dream was over.”
Saskia played with the edge of her sweater, wishing she was with her parents right now, sharing a loud, boisterous Christmas morning with them.
“So how did he take the news?” Luke asked.
“Honestly? I think he was probably expecting me to change my mind by the time I grew up, but after a few years in college I went back to what I’d always said I wanted to do. And that was to serve my country and make my daddy proud.”
She studied Luke’s face, watching for his reaction. A slow smile spread across his face. “And what did he think when you did it? When you enlisted?”
The memory made her choke up a little. “He told me it was the happiest day of his life.” And he’d meant it. She’d seen it shining in his eyes. “My mom didn’t share his enthusiasm, but dad has been my number one supporter from the beginning.”
She stared out into the white, thinking about her dad. About how lucky she was that her parents were caring for her son.
“And you’re definitely retiring from the Army after this tour?”
Luke’s voice coaxed her from her thoughts. “Yeah. I feel like I’ve done my duty, and I need to be there for Jack. He’s everything to me, and he doesn’t deserve to grow up without a dad and worried his mom might not make it home.”
“Sounds like you’ve worked out your priorities,” he said. “When he’s older he’ll be proud of you, don’t you forget that.”
Saskia nodded. She hoped so. “And what about you? How did you end up being a Navy SEAL?”
Luke drummed his fingers on the wheel, moving his head slightly from side to side. “I guess I just wanted to do something different.”
“Fair enough.”
“I joined the Navy and loved it, then I kept on working towards the next level, knowing I wanted to be the best.”
He paused as if trying to decide what else to share. Whether to keep going or not. She knew he had more to say, but she didn’t want to ask.
“It’s a hard life when you have a family,” she said instead of questioning him. “Before I had my son I never would have thought of retiring until I had to, but now? It’s completely different. He’s changed everything.”
Luke was nodding. “It was the same when I met my wife,” he explained. “I still loved what I did, but leaving her was so hard.”
Saskia watched him, the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaw. She didn’t press and let the not-uncomfortable silence sit between them for a moment.
“When I couldn’t get home in time to say goodbye to her I was so resentful, but then once she was gone?” He shook his head. “What the hell would I have done if I wasn’t a SEAL? It kept me busy, on the move, not giving a fuck about the risks I took because I had no one to give a damn about me anyway.”
She grimaced at the thought of how alone he must have felt. Because even when she’d been at her lowest point, when her husband had left, she’d had someone. She’d never been alone, had always known that she was loved by her family, and most importantly that she had to survive to get home for her little man.
“How about now?” she asked him.
Luke pushed his head back against the headrest and let out a long sigh. “Now?”
She waited, wishing she could say something, anything, to make him realize he wasn’t alone. But the truth was that she couldn’t, because maybe he was right. Her problem was that she didn’t want it to be true, and she’d do anything to wrap him up and bring him into her world, to change the way he felt.
Because she liked him. She liked the man because he was honest, and because he gave a damn.
“Right now the most important thing in my life is getting you home to your family. One mission at a time.”
“Someone does give a damn about you, Luke,” she told him quietly, intently. Wanting him to believe it.
“You reckon?”
“Me,” she said, staring straight at him. “I give a damn because you’re the only person who could have gotten me into this vehicle and on the road, and that means I’ll give a damn about you for the rest of my life, regardless of whether we ever actually make it to my place or not in this crappy weather.”
Luke laughed. He actually burst out laughing, and it made her smile.
“Thanks,” he said.
“For what?”
“If you hadn’t fallen asleep on me on the plane, I’d have been glaring at every sign of Christmas like the Grinch.”
“And now?” she asked, swallowing what felt like a stone in her throat.
“Now I’m almost warming to the idea of seeing your family’s Christmas tree.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Saskia was struggling to keep her eyes off Luke. Or stop thinking about him. Or wondering how the hell she’d ended up with him escorting her home.
She bit down on her lip, pain resurfacing when she thought about what home meant. Because she knew how excited Jack had been about her coming home – he’d been marking the days off his calendar, just like she had. And all that talk earlier about why she’d joined the military in the first place, of leaving her son, was still bothering her.
“You doing okay there?”
Luke’s deep voice made her look up. He was glancing over at her, eyes darting between her face and the road.
“Yeah,” she said, but even pretending was an effort.
“Thinking about your son?” he asked.
“How did you guess?”
He just smiled. “Would you mind passing me some water? I have a bottle in my bag.”
She unzipped his overnight bag and pulled out the bottle, unscrewing the top before passing it to him.
“You know, I spoke to him just before I boarded the plane,” Saskia told Luke, watching as he guzzled the water, Adam’s apple bobbing, lips parted. She tried to look away and couldn’t. “He said he was more excited about me coming home than Santa coming down the chimney.”
Luke passed the water back to her and she resealed it and sipped from her own.
“Sounds like that kid already knows how to work his mama.”
“Yeah,” she said, laughing back at him. “Yeah, maybe he does.”
“And his dad?” Luke asked. “You said he isn’t around anymore.”
“Jack is the most incredible kid, and not a day goes by that I don’t wonder why his dad can’t see that.” She sighed. “He left a couple of years ago, moved to California for a new job, and he’s better known for sending birthday cards than he is for ever showing up to see his son.”
Luke touched her thigh lightly, reaching over, and she could feel the warmth right through her jeans. “You know you deserve way better than that, don’t you?” he asked.
Saskia’s heart was beating so loud it was echoing in her head. “He’d like me to think otherwise.”
She tried not to frown as Luke withdrew his hand, because there was something about him touching her that made her think all sorts of things that she was out of practice at thinking about.
“Well, know so. If you s
ay Jack’s a great kid, then I’ll put money on it that he is. And you?” Their eyes met before he looked back at the road, hands visibly gripping the wheel tighter than before. “You deserve a man who’d never even think of walking out on you, let alone do it.”
The air between them had changed, like it had gone from a settled sunny afternoon to a storm brewing low in the sky.
“Luke?”
He raised his eyebrows but didn’t look at her again, the snowflakes suddenly falling with more insistence on the windshield, making it hard for him to see.
“Shit, hold on.”
She did as she was told, obeying Luke’s command. “How the hell can you see through that?” she asked.
He grimaced, she could see the tightness in his face that hadn’t been there before.
“I can’t, but I need to find somewhere safe to pull over.”
Her heart dropped. They weren’t even half way there and the storm was coming in so bad she was starting to think they could be snowed in for the rest of the day. Or worse.
Luke had slowed the vehicle to a crawl, but now they came to a dead stop. He opened his door and jumped out before she could protest, disappearing into the whiteout without a jacket on. She sat and waited until he eventually leaped back in the truck and slammed the door.
“Luke you must be frozen.” She unbuckled herself and reached out to him, hand hovering before closing over his arm as he blew on his fingers.
Luke stayed still, his body no longer shivering like it had been when he’d stepped back in. She hesitated, stayed still, wondering if she’d done something wrong.
“I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere for a while,” Luke told her, his voice husky and low, turning away only to flick the hazard lights on.
Saskia swallowed then nodded. “Okay.”
They both stayed still, staring at one another. Until Luke reached out a hand, broke the silence and stillness and reached for her, his palm cupping her cheek. “I will get you home, Saskia. No matter what happens, I promise.”
She gulped again, not able to break their gaze, staring into the depths of Luke’s dark chocolate eyes like a spider trapped in its own web. Saskia didn’t answer him, just slowly nodded. He still hadn’t moved his hand, and it was no longer cool, warming up from its connection with her skin.
It seemed like she wasn’t breathing, like she couldn’t have breathed if she tried, as if there wasn’t enough oxygen to even make it possible. Until Luke moved closer to her, his mouth hovering over hers, and suddenly all she could do was suck back short bursts of air.
“Saskia…” As he murmured she leaned closer, couldn’t help herself.
But it was Luke who kissed her. His lips grazed hers so gently, so carefully, that she thought she’d imagined it. She reached her hands up, cupped his face with one, mirroring his action, and clutched at his shoulder with the other. A shiver licked its way down her spine, made her lean closer into him, and Luke didn’t need any further encouragement.
“Hey,” he suddenly said, pulling back slightly and looking down at her.
“Hey,” she whispered back a little shyly.
They stared at one another again, like they had before. Not saying a word, but Saskia’s mind was racing. Was she actually doing this? Making out with a guy she’d known for less than 24 hours, and ready to rip her clothes off if it meant staying close to him?
“We might be stuck here for awhile,” he said, voice low as he glanced out the window. They were surrounded by white. “Maybe quite a while.”
Luke cleared his throat, but Saskia didn’t miss the silent message he was sending her. His eyes flickered past her, only for a second, but not fast enough for her not to keep up.
She glanced over her shoulder, made certain there was nothing else there, that he was actually thinking what she was. That he was trying his best not to look at her for the very same reason – because if they did… Saskia gulped.
Luke’s eyes said it all. They were inquisitive, mesmerizing… hungry. And her fingers were itching to touch his face again, her lips tingling, ready to be covered by his.
She was having that problem with not getting enough air again. Because she wasn’t this kind of girl. She’d never had a one-night stand, never done anything reckless with a man before, never done anything risqué in her personal life. Not ever.
Screw it.
Saskia flicked her tongue over her lips, nervously moistening them, before closing the distance between Luke’s body and hers. She leaned in closer, kissed him full on the mouth, and pushed back his shoulders as she landed in his lap, straddling him.
She’d flown halfway across the world for a 48 hour trip home, and she was damned if she was going to waste it. She might not be able to make it to where she was supposed to be going, but she sure as hell could make getting stuck in the snow an experience she’d never forget.
Luke didn’t know whether to grab hold of Saskia and take what he wanted or push her back gently to her seat with regret. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been thinking about doing bad, bad things to her, but… he didn’t want to take advantage of her either.
Fuck it. He ignored the voice of reason in his mind and went with what his body wanted. What he wanted was to throw her in the back and enjoy the whiteout with her in his arms, preferably with no clothes on. And if she was game, so he was he.
They were consenting adults. And that meant he wasn’t taking advantage of her if she wanted it too. She’d been the one to climb into his lap, after all. And who was he to ignore the request of a woman?
Saskia moaned as he caught her bottom lip between his teeth, drawing her in deeper for another kiss, and then another. It was as if she’d heard his thoughts, was telling him it was okay. His hands fell into place on her hips, held her there, palms pushed against the curve of her body. He skimmed them down over her butt, down the curve of her thigh that he could reach, and then back up to her hips again. Damn.
Luke snaked his hands up to her waist and then to her stomach, pushed at her top, desperate to feel her skin, to get rid of the fabric keeping them apart. She gasped, pulling back from him, eyes staring straight into his, all remnants of her blushing cheeks long gone.
Now, her hair was falling out from her ponytail, her lips were plump, pillowy, and her eyes had a wildness to them that made him tug her forward.
“Off,” he ordered, murmuring against the soft skin at her neck and tugging at her top again.
Saskia raised her arms without pulling away from him, her slender body moving closer in to his before surrendering and wriggling from her sweater. He didn’t stop there, yanked the T-shirt she had beneath it off too, until all that was left was her bra.
A devil’s red, lacy, sexy as hell bra. “Doesn’t look Army issue,” he teased, moving from her neck to her collarbone, trailing his tongue and then his lips across the top of each breast.
Saskia gasped and grabbed a fistful of his hair, like she didn’t want to let him back up. “I don’t ever,” she moaned as he flicked his tongue inside her bra and connected with her nipple, “wear boring underwear.”
He couldn’t wait to see her panties then. Luke nipped at her skin, just the lightest of bites on her breast before he moved to the other one.
Saskia tucked in against him and he tried to keep her still, but she wasn’t giving up.
“Stop,” she ordered, no longer whispering.
Luke took his hands off her, thinking she’d changed her mind, but Saskia took her opportunity and tugged his shirt up and over his head, throwing it behind them and placing her hands flat on his chest. He grabbed her around the wrists but she glared at him, like she was daring him to pull her hands away.
“Don’t even think about it,” she whispered, her eyes flashing with excitement.
“Or what?” he growled back.
She just laughed and brushed his hands off, and Luke had no intentions of arguing with her. If they were in a bed, maybe, but with him pinned to a seat and with Saskia straddling his t
highs? No way. Because he didn’t want her to stop. Hell no.
Her hands skimmed lightly across his chest, then down, slowly, fingers gliding across his abs. He sucked in a breath, struggling to stay still. It wasn’t until her fingers were replaced with her mouth that he shut his eyes, leaned back in the seat even further and let her torture him. If he wasn’t so damn ticklish…
“Enough,” he commanded, hands firmly on her hips again, desperate to feel her curves.
She ignored him, tongue tracing around his nipple then arrowing back down lower, then up again. Pulling away from him, teasing him more with every movement.
“Saskia,” he murmured, taking her by the arms and tugging her back up.
Her eyes met his, locked on him, a smile spreading slowly across her lips.
“You didn’t like it?” her whispered question only made him harder, his jeans uncomfortably tight.
“Oh I liked it alright,” he assured her, stealing a kiss from lips that looked so pink and plump he couldn’t pull his gaze from them. “But it’s time to move.”
She looked confused, peered out the window into the white. “You want to drive, in this?” she asked, voice suddenly serious.
Luke shook his head slowly, his eyes locked on hers. “No,” he said, pushing her off his lap, forcing her to move. “I think we should take this somewhere more comfortable.”
CHAPTER SIX
Saskia’s heart was beating so hard it was starting to scare her. She’d never, not once in her life, behaved like this. Maybe it was the snow, the festive time of year, or just the fact that Luke was insanely hot, but she was more desperate for him than she’d ever been for anything. Especially now she’d crawled into the back at his command and was now lying on the floor.
She wanted to strip him bare, touch every inch of his body, kiss him until her lips were bruised, climb on top of him and… she shut her eyes. All she knew was she wanted more. She wanted it all. Now.
And now the man in question was moving toward her, on his knees, like a predator about to consume his prey. Even his smile was wicked, white teeth gleaming as he grinned at her, his shoulders tanned, muscled as hell and massive.