“And you’ve been doing it for most of your adult life. You’ve been to Afghanistan three times. You like jumping out of planes with loaded weapons and risking your life for others. Some part of you must simply like the rush of it all.”
“First of all, I love jumping out of airplanes with weapons and protecting my brothers, my country, every and any way I can,” he countered. “Getting a rush has nothing to do with it, though yeah, some aspects of the job hold a certain kind of thrill. If all I wanted was to feel adrenaline, I could have done many other things than join the Army.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” she said. “I guess I said it wrong. Now that you’re…done, and close to retirement, what else is there for you? Are you going to have to do some extreme mountain jumping to keep that part of you going?”
Man, she was quick.
Nate hadn’t thought much about what life would be like after the military, how to live the rest of his days without training for war. Still in his thirties, he was young enough to do anything he wanted. He could go anywhere, start a fresh, civilian life. But he’d been pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind. “Truth is, I didn’t think I’d make it this long.”
“In the military?”
“In life.” He stared off in the dark distance of the ocean. “I always thought I’d die in combat.”
“You did?”
He shrugged. “You don’t know how many times I thought a handful of minutes would be my last.”
It wasn’t as if he had a death wish and wanted to die on duty, but he’d never seen himself getting out alive in the end. Once in a while his gut proved wrong, but it had definitely misled him on that count.
Her voice carried some teasing as she said, “And now that you’re still among the living, what are you going to do?”
Why did she want to know? What did she care? What was the point of asking a man these questions when all he wanted was a stress-free night with a woman who didn’t askquestions like these? Maybe a part of him wanted to answer, but he forced the feeling away. He realized that although he’d been eager for her to open up, he was not so inclined. “It’s none of your business,” he clipped. “I’ll think about that when I have to. Right now, it’s the furthest thing from my mind and I don’t feel like delving into my personal life with someone I just met. Get it?” His stomach twisted in hot recoil. Feeling sharp, instant guilt even though she didn’t flinch at his abrupt tone, he took her hand and directed her in the opposite direction, his voice resigned. “Let’s go back to the room. It’s late.”
He’d acted like a jackass, but apologizing didn’t come easy for him. It was not light conversation to discuss his future plans, especially when he had none. Now he’d projected his frustration in also wanting answers to those very questions on her, when she didn’t deserve it. Once they stepped into the elevator, she seemed to have dismissed the conversation altogether and appeared to focus on something more physical than talking.
The doors closed and she slipped her arm around his waist, gazing at him with a light in her eyes. “This is where we met, remember?”
She kissed the corners of his mouth, his chin, down his jaw.
He cleared his throat, intent on making reparations for snapping at her. “Kimber…I, uh…” His voice got lost as she ran her hand down his stomach to his zipper, sliding over his growing dick as she lifted a knee to his hip. How the hell could he form a declarative sentence when she moved her limbs around him like that? Even as her heavenly body melted into his, Nate couldn’t shake the need to express his regret for shutting her down with such callousness. “Listen, I want to say….” He grunted in helpless frustration as she rubbed her lips on his, parting them with invitation. With supreme effort, he broke their kiss. “Kimber, about what I said on the beach. I’m trying to explain—”
She put a finger to his lips. “Shhh. You don’t have to explain. What you should be doing doesn’t need to be spoken. Make love to me before our night is over.”
Ding. The doors opened.
He searched her eyes. She didn’t want an apology; her feelings weren’t hurt. All she wanted was his body. All he had to do was take her to bed and make her scream with pleasure. He didn’t have to explain diddly. Discussion over.
Tomorrow she’d go her way and he’d go his, and God help him, he didn’t want to remember his last hours with her as some sort of inner battle with his guilty conscience. He craved to recall every stunning inch of her. Something to take with him to the lonely nights ahead.
And there were bound to be many of them.
His sudden kiss crushed her mouth, but she accepted its urgency and rendered it her own. So sweet, so affecting. He cupped her face and drove his tongue inside her like a starved animal, punishing her for conjuring feelings he didn’t anticipate, and forcing him to turn away from them.
The doors opened and closed again as if impatient for their exit. As much as he’d like to take her right then and there, the wisest move would be to go to the room.
He swept her up in his arms and carried her there.
Moments later, they crashed onto the bed in a fevered haste, tearing off clothes and tossing them around the room. Naked and desperate for one another. His lips on her breast. Winding her hair around his hand and giving it a gentle tug as she moaned his name. Her fingers grazed the contours of his muscles when her hips rose to meet him. After putting on protection, he entered her without finesse, making her cry out at his merciless possession, sinking as far and deep as could he go. He caught her cries on his lips as he bucked into her, tearing away to capture her breasts with his teeth as she clawed her nails down his shoulders and lower back. He hissed at the carnal scrape deep into his skin, knowing he’d see those marks long after they were done.
Her hands slid up and intertwined behind his head, forcing him to meet her eyes as their bodies writhed together. He locked his gaze on hers, something he’d never done before, never having felt connected beyond physical satisfaction. Until now. She bit her lip, soothing her hand over his nape, panting, her dark brown eyes soulful. Perhaps this was more than fucking for pleasure’s sake to her. Though he couldn’t know for sure, he believed it to be true. He kissed her, wondering when all this one-night stand business had ended and wanting to be with her beyond tomorrow began. It made his heart pound extra fast.
“Kimber….” He dug his hands into her hair, feeling his body tense with finality, his stiff cock ready to come hard inside her. She clung to him, pressing her cheek to his as they rode together, crying out his name as she bowed beneath him. He came with her, shaken with the power of their passion once again.
Easing off her body, he lay down behind her, pulling her into his arms. There were so many things he wanted to say, but now didn’t seem like the time. After a while, his eyelids drooped, too heavy to stay open, and he didn’t know if she was awake to hear him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered in the dark. He meant to say more, but as he tried to find the words to complete his apology, sleep claimed him.
***
Kimber woke up alone.
She sat up, holding the sheet to her chest and leaned over to get a peek in the bathroom, listening for any sign of Nate’s presence in the hotel room.
Not a sound.
She glanced at the side table to see if, by some chance, he’d written a note.
He hadn’t.
She shrugged. Oh well. Then her eyes watered with hot, unshed tears and her bottom lip trembled, scaring her.
Not oh well.
She had prepared herself to wake up alone even before she met Nate Brennan. After all, who wanted to subject themselves to morning-after platitudes and graceless good-byes? It was better this way.
Then again, obviously it wasn’t. Not to her. Even an errant, awkward high five for their unbelievable time last night would have been preferable to downright abandonment.
She brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. Stupid her for feeling for once. All it took was one man to mu
ck up what she thought was untouchable. Be careful what you wish for. Now that she had made a connection—an unforgettable and overwhelming one—she wasn’t sure she’d want to again in the near future. At least not with anyone but Nate. Last night she’d tried to see if he would share more with her than just his sexual mastery, asking him private questions, but he’d shot her down hard and fast.
She’d taken the set down well, she thought, and attempted to spend the rest of the night forgetting she’d even asked, surrendering herself in his arms one more time. The last thing she would ever hear from him were the words “I’m sorry” and that also made her ache. He must have said it because he suspected she hoped for more from him, and he was unwilling to give it to her. Her heart had lurched at the thought, but at least he didn’t play any games with her, lead her on, or pretend he felt something he didn’t. That would have been much worse.
Now he was just a memory–a very vivid memory imprinted on every inch of her body and mind, the smell of him lingering on her skin. It would have to be enough.
A door slam and she stiffened, eyes wide.
Nate walked in, looking unbearably attractive in a T-shirt snug to his athletic frame, dark wash jeans…and a grin. “Guess what?”
She sat there with an open mouth. He hadn’t left. He was still here. Grinning like he never had any intention of leaving. Her heart squeezed tight and burst with relief. Unable to believe she’d been wrong, she shook her head. “What?” She couldn’t guess. She really couldn’t. Somewhere between last night and this morning, Nate had changed his mind.
He kicked off his shoes and crawled on the bed toward her like a tiger, coming almost nose-to-nose with her before he said, “The manager said Jackson Castillo, of the Castillo family if you care to know, insisted management do more for us than a free meal for the elevator trauma since we are clients of Madame Evangeline’s. He’s giving us two complimentary nights here at the resort, so there’s no rush for us to end our stay.” He cocked his head, his piercing blue eyes gazing into hers. “Unless you want to.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to.” Not at all; she wanted this to go on and on.
“Good,” he said a smile spreading across his tanned face as he eased her down on her back. “So we’ll have two more days in Hilton Head….” He kissed her and she clung to him with wordless joy. She craned her neck with the insistence of his mouth and the lightness of her heart, and whimpered when he pulled back before saying, “You can ask me as many personal, probing, nosy questions as you want. Right off the bat, I’ll tell you I have no idea what’s going to happen to me after retirement. As of right now, I’ll be thirty-seven and clueless, but I think I have a lot of potential to be much more.”
She chuckled as his mouth grazed over hers, crazy about him, sensing they were just beginning.
“So, Kimber, for the next two days I’m going to keep making you mine. And you’ll have plenty of time to think about what you would like to do when you get back to Atlanta. When I take you out on a real date.”
~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~
More than a little obsessed, Angelita has been writing romance since her early teens, sometimes getting in a little trouble with teachers/employers/co-workers. They'd say: “Are you…writing a novel when you should be studying/working/obeying?” She'd say: “Um, yes. It's my dream.” And now she's living her dream full-time and couldn't be more thrilled.
She writes erotic paranormal and contemporary romance, but reads historical. If she could travel back in time, she'd be attending a ball in Regency England in a fabulously wicked gown, dancing with the most handsome rogue in the room. This shameless romantic loves chocolate martinis, Pin Up Couture, and ballet. She lives with her very own Alpha male in Las Vegas, aka Sin City, where she is a very happy local.
You can visit Angelita at:
www.vegasromantic.blogspot.com
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