“Hi,” she said, her voice soft and surprised. “No, it’s not.”
She couldn’t stand it. She reached for him.
Sean’s arms went around her, and they shared a hug. Her arms tightened around his neck as she buried her face against his shoulder and smiled for all she was worth. He smelled of wonderful, brisk musk. Again her body reacted, taking in his body heat. One hand cupped over the back of his neck, and when she tilted her head back to look at him, their lips were so damned close.
The crowd around them went wild.
“Kiss her! Kiss her!” went all around the room.
She couldn’t look away from his stunning eyes. How had she been so blind before and not noticed how deep, how mysterious his eyes were?
His fingers tangled in her hair, and before she could do more than blink, his mouth settled over hers.
Chesny let out another squeal of approval, then Eve didn’t notice anything more than the tender way he tasted her. He didn’t kiss her hard, but as if he feared frightening her away. She kissed him back, trying to reassure Sean. Though she responded, he didn’t take the kiss deeper than a sweet, exploratory meeting. Long, warm seconds later, he drew back and broke into a smile.
“Sean,” she said, still hearing shouts of approval around her.
“Eve.” He winked. “Happy birthday.”
She pushed back from him. “Thank you.” She turned her gaze on Chesny. “I suppose you had something to do with this?”
Chesny’s dark eyes sparkled with unholy glee. “I confess.”
Dazed by the last few minutes, Eve looked from Chesny to the confident and not the least contrite Sean and asked, “But how? I thought you were wounded and in Iraq.”
He tapped his forehead. “Takes a lot more than a bump on the head and a little metal to get me down. I’m a software engineer.” He winked.
“Seriously,” Chesny said, “I found out about your uh…interest in him several weeks back.”
Eve wrinkled her nose and Sean laughed.
“My what?” Eve asked.
Taking her sweet time, Chesny sipped her wine. “You know. Your crush on warrior boy here.”
Eve swallowed hard as heat filled her face. “Umm…well…”
“Sean called one day when you were away from your desk. He didn’t want me to tell you he was in town because he wanted to be here for your birthday as a surprise.”
“Brat,” Eve said to Sean.
His muscled arm, which lay along the back of her chair, almost embraced her shoulders. His unrepentant smile said everything. He didn’t regret the subterfuge.
“Well, speak up, soldier,” Eve said.
He shrugged. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I have no shame.”
As his breath wisped across delicate, sensitive skin, she shivered with pleasure.
As soon as the show ended, the dance floor opened up at the back of the small club. A few women decided to dance with each other and some women had brought male partners with them and they started to dance.
Chesny winked. “Well, I’m outta here.”
Regret spiked in Eve. She didn’t want this night to end. Apprehension and excitement mixed hand in hand as she thought of time alone with Sean.
“Stay and dance with me.” Sean’s deep voice close to her ear sent wildfire into her veins. She shivered in need. Need for his touch. For his arms about her.
“Okay,” she said without hesitation.
Chesny winked. “You two have a good time.” She waved as she left the table. “Talk to you later.”
“Come on.” He smiled as he put his hand out to Eve.
She followed, her small wallet purse still looped over her chest to make sure she wouldn’t lose it. She moved it to the side so that when he held her close it didn’t come between them. And oh, oh, God. What it felt like when he drew them body-to-body and started the slow, sensual dance. To her surprise he didn’t draw her full to him, but kept a more respectful distance.
“You all right?” he asked.
She grinned, flabbergasted by all that had happened, and wanting this sweet moment to continue into the wee hours. “Never been better. You’re here, and safe and that makes everything great.”
“Music to my ears,” he said.
“I never thought in a million years that you’d do something like this.”
He shook his head, his gaze suddenly harder and deeper. “You disapprove?”
She grinned. “Do I look like I disapprove? It was just stunned seeing you up there. I never…” Her throat went tight. “I’ve learned a lot of things about you I didn’t imagine when we worked together.”
His fingers held hers, his hand moving from her waist to slide around her waist and draw her to him. He winked, his gaze teasing. “What you thought you knew about me didn’t match up?”
She lowered her head a little, staring at his chin. “I’m ashamed to admit it.”
“You thought I was a geek.”
Oh, Lord. She could tell a lie, or she could fess up to her prejudice. Damn. “I’ll admit it. Yes. But even so, I’ve always liked you. You know that, right? I never would have said I’d write you if I didn’t consider you a friend.”
“You saw me more as a buddy.”
She nodded. “Absolutely.”
“And now?”
Okay, Eve. Plunge into the deep end of the pool. Come up for air and say what you think and what you mean. “You’re a buddy, but an even closer friend now than when you left. We’ve learned so much about each other.” She added her own version of a teasing smile. “I admire you. And face it, Sean, you’re just damned sexy.”
His grin widened to epic proportions. “Eve, you could be good for my ego.”
Sean’s body moved like poetry until the distance between them collapsed. His body brushed hers continuously, his hand caressing her lower back, his fingers drawing her smaller hand to his chest. She shivered under his attention, a delightful arousal sparking, simmering below the surface as she tried to hold on to a shred of sanity. But she couldn’t. His touch was too caressing, his scent an intoxicating blend of man and musk. Eve wanted to drown in Sean’s masculinity, his gentleness.
“God, this dress feels…God, better than I ever imagined it could.” Sean buried his face in her hair. “And pardon my cursing, but you smell fuckin’ edible.”
A giggle slipped loose. “Thank you.”
When his hand skimmed over her back once more, she couldn’t suppress a wild quiver.
“I always thought you had a beautiful body, but now I’ve seen you in this dress, it’s driving me wild. The way this material clings to your every curve.” He pulled back, and she could feel his erection pressing her stomach.
Her eyebrows went up. “Feels good?”
His gaze dipped to the low cleavage. “Damn, yes.” His voice went huskier, his eyes burning with nothing less than pure male hunger. “When I saw you sitting at the table, I had an instant hard-on. You’re drivin’ me crazy. The material hugs your pretty butt, and your flat belly, and the way your hips sway, the way your breasts curve…” He didn’t finish.
A sensual beat poured from the speakers, a throb and stroke she experienced with acute fever. As they twisted a slow and erotic path across the dance floor, heat drove her to move sinuously, suggestively. By the ravenous male attention in his gaze, she knew she didn’t have to seduce him. Yet she knew that she wanted him primed, dying for her, on a razor edge of masculine desire.
“Please tell me you’ll stay with me tonight, even if it’s just to talk. I want to be with you,” he whispered into her ear.
Pleasure, strong and lethally persuasive, flowed through her veins. “Yes.” Her fingers tightened on his shoulders and eased around his neck. “Let’s go to my place and see what…comes up.”
“Mmm.” His male groan of affirmation renewed desire spinning through her stomach, aching in her pussy.
She knew, without too much doubt, what they’d do if they spent time together. Eve cr
aved it like oxygen.
During the short drive to her place, excitement burst inside Eve. Sean drove his motorcycle behind her sedan, wearing his battle dress uniform and helmet, all the way to her house. Her adobe style house called to her, promising sanctuary from prying eyes. The idea of having private, possibly intimate time with Sean was making her pulse throb and her heart pound.
“Follow me,” she said after he’d parked his cycle. Once inside the house, she turned on one dim light to illuminate her living room. Sean glanced around, his gaze curious as he placed his helmet on her coffee table.
“Beautiful place.” He walked toward her purposefully.
He looked so hard, so edgy, that her primal female instinct to fear the warrior male kicked in and she backed into the couch.
He caught her in his arms, and she reveled in the strength and warmth. His gaze took in her dress.
“Man, I can see why men stare at you. It’s…you’re beautiful. You’re—aw screw it. I can’t wait any more.”
He tugged her closer, molding what seemed like every inch of his superbly conditioned body against her. His fingers slipped into the hair at the back of her neck, and he kissed her.
This time his kiss went for broke.
His tongue brushed hers, thrusting deep to caress in the most carnal dance of give and take. A firestorm arose in her loins, and a rush of moisture dampened her folds. Her nipples tightened, and Eve thought she would almost come on the spot. Her hands caressed Sean everywhere, searching his intriguing, hard angles, testing muscles. She moaned and pressed into his embrace, welcoming the delicious press of solid cock against her belly. She writhed in his arms as he continued to kiss her with an animal intensity she couldn’t resist.
He pulled back, his breathing hard. “God, I’ve wanted to do that for six months.”
“That badly, eh?” she said weakly, trying to catch her breath.
“Oh, yeah. I was tempted to kiss you like this when we were in the club, but I’m not supposed to show physical affection while in uniform. Against the rules. I was pushing it when I kissed you that one time.”
“Oh.” That pleased her, and she smiled. Pleased her because he’d lost cool control, something she’d never seen him do before when he represented geek man at work. She trembled on the edge herself, ready to let her hair down.
She had to understand what they had here—if this relationship meant more than spine-melting lust. Her arms tightened around his neck.
“You scared me. I was so worried when a letter didn’t come after three weeks.” Tears stung her eyes, and she understood now that she’d invested far more in this man’s well being and in her feelings for him then she’d realized.
“I’m sorry.” He brushed her cheek with his fingers and snuggled her closer. “I’ll admit that I thought maybe when you heard I was hurt, that you wouldn’t want much to do with me.”
“What? Why?”
“Because a lot of guys get Dear John letters when girlfriends and wives find greener pastures at home, or when they can’t take the thought of their man in danger.”
A tear slipped down her cheek, emotions boiling up. “I didn’t like thinking of you in danger, but…um…the thought of not writing you, of talking with you that way just didn’t cross my mind.”
“You liked the fantasies, didn’t you? The ones in our letters.” His wicked smile made fresh arousal tingle in her lower belly.
“Yes.”
“Damn, I’ve waited for this for so long.” He hugged her, burying his face in her hair. “I wanted it even before I left for Iraq.”
Surprise stunned her. She pulled back a little. “You did?”
“So damned bad I’d go home and jack off in the shower.”
Heat raced through her. “God, Sean.”
His fingers trailed up her back, big, hot, and caressing. She quivered, her body fine-tuned and ready for any eventuality. He made her crazy, nervous, and wonderfully aware.
She swallowed, licked her lips, and plunged into the fire. “What do we do next? Where do we go from here?”
His smoldering gaze held her immobile. “Straight to bed, I hope.”
His mouth tasted hers gently and teased at the corners for the most exquisite, soft moment. She drew in a slow breath, staggered by the tingling racing through her belly and straight into her folds. Hot, swollen with achy desire, she pushed her hips into his.
“I can’t believe this is happening. Am I dreaming?” he asked. “Tell me I’m not going to wake up in that desert hellhole and find you’re not here.”
The agony in his voice surprised her. Eve caressed his shoulders. “I’m here. You’re here. It’s all real.” She needed to reassure him with a heavy, overwhelming compulsion.
Her heart pounded with a new, startling beat as he swept his hands over her back down to just above her buttocks. As his touch lingered there, she tipped her head back and his lips followed. Tender, brushing exploration warmed her body from the center outward. Her nipples went hard and tight, and he cupped the side of her breast.
She gasped, and Sean halted, his big hand holding her breast with a reverence that took her breath away.
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked.
The fire in his eyes held a feral, raw passion she never imagined seeing in a man’s eyes as he embraced her. “No.”
With a knowing smile both gentle and holding a hint of male arrogance, he cupped her breast more firmly as his mouth settled over hers. This kiss wasn’t tentative. Long, deep, and assured, his mouth devoured and yet didn’t press. She knew no matter what, he’d never do anything she didn’t want.
She never imagined a man tasting her as if she meant the world. Though her emotions jumbled, one thing stood clearly. She wanted him and she wanted him now. All the while, his fingers slipped over her breast, massaging. Her body ached, wanting so damned much to move, to arch into his hard frame and demand he extinguish the growing fire.
His fingers passed over her nipple, and she gasped into his mouth. His tongue plunged, caressed, fucked her mouth with a ruthless passion that sent white-hot sparklers of desire coiling inside her so strongly she almost cried out. Under his touch, Eve came unglued.
When he broke from the kiss, heat once more warmed her face. God, things tumbled down the slope so fast. Her hands smoothed over the khaki T-shirt on his chest—he’d taken off the top that went over his T-shirt, and the material stretched over his muscular chest with loving attention. When she slipped her hands over his shoulders and dared look into his eyes, she couldn’t deny the spiraling attraction reaching exciting heights within.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Am I going too fast? You look a little shell shocked.”
“Yes and no.” She smiled and smoothed her hands to his upper shoulders. “I’ll admit this is a huge surprise, and I’m still taking it in.”
His arms kept her firmly along his hard inch of his body. His mouth traveled gently across her forehead, then touched her nose. “Whatever you want…whatever you don’t want…your wish is my command, Eve.”
“My own special genie.”
He tossed her a crooked smile, so damned sexy and irreverent. “Hey, now. Soldiers don’t look like genies.”
A soft laugh came from her. “No. You absolutely don’t look anything like a genie. Your picture…um…”
“Yeah?” His handsome head tilted to the side.
“It blew me away. Made me want you so much.”
“Then I’m yours.”
Chapter 4
Without another word, Eve reached up for him, and he met her halfway. To Eve’s surprise and excitement, he picked her up in his arms. Wild thrills darted through her stomach. God, a man had never done that before—showing her his strength and turning her on because of it.
“Bedroom,” he said, his voice husky.
She grinned. Her body wanted him, her mind even more, and she knew the biggest sex organ in the universe was the mind. She directed Sean down the hallway, though her brain felt
mushed enough she couldn’t be certain if she’d send him the right way.
When they tumbled onto her king-sized bed, the room stayed shadowy, illuminated only by the night light in the hallway. She inhaled deeply and enjoyed the moment, felt it through her bones and sinew as he slipped his arms around her. He kissed her gently, but under his touch, his body vibrated with a sexual restraint. She knew deep in her bones that he wanted more, that he need more and wanted it fast. But so did she. They’d waited, built up the anticipation after all these months. The erotic content of their letters had fired them to exquisite heights, hanging in the balance and on the edge of going nuts. She pulled back from his kiss and cupped his face.
“You all right?” he asked, smoothing her hair back from her face.
She smiled. “I’m wonderful. More wonderful than I’ve been in a long time. You don’t have to hold back with me. I want it all.”
She drew him into a passionate kiss, her tongue tasting his with delicious searches, her body wanting everything he could show her. His hands skimmed over her body, exploring hungrily. Warm palms skated over her breasts, fingers plucking her nipples and cupping her breasts. Her thighs dropped open as she strained upward, writhing upward to press her hips to his. His cock pressed against his pants, and she struggled with the fastenings. He helped her, and faster than she expected, his cock was in her palm. Sean shivered as she stroked the long, thick length, her touches unrestrained.
As she tortured him, she whispered, “God, you’re so…”
He groaned. “What?”
“Strong.”
A soft laugh left his throat. “Yeah?”
“Oh yeah.”
She tugged at his T-shirt, and Sean helped her slip it over his head. Her fingers splayed over his solid pecs and enjoyed the sensation of his chest hair tickling her skin. His stomach muscles rippled when her touch explored the ridged surface. Man, he was sexy. Ripped and so damned gorgeous she thought she’d die right here. Her fingers returned to his powerful erection, glorying in how it surged with life under her attention.
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