Protecting Terra (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

by Desiree Holt

  Although by now she could barely breathe, she was reluctant to break the fiery contact with him. She knew what people meant by the expression, “more than my next breath.”

  By the time Griffin lifted his lips from hers, she was so weak in the knees she wasn’t sure she could stand. And the heavy cock pressing against her had swelled even more.

  “Jesus, Terra. What the fuck do you do to me? I have to have you. Right now.”

  She tried to say something, but her brain was so scrambled she couldn’t form words. “I. uh…”

  “We need to get rid of these clothes,” Griffin whispered in her ear then bit the lobe.

  “Uh, so, I guess you’re coming in for a while?”

  His laugh was rough and low. “Damn straight. I’ve been hard for you since I picked you up.” He nipped her ear again. “I don’t know what the fuck you do to me, Terra. I seem to lose all my self-control when I’m with you. If this assignment wasn’t so critical, I don’t know if I could have made it through dinner. We need to get out of these clothes.”

  “Um, okay.”

  He made her stupid, that’s what he did. Words failed her as her body took over, giving her orders she had every intention of obeying. She was as baffled by this raging attraction as he was, but she didn’t have the willpower to resist.

  “Shower,” he murmured in her ear. “We worked hard all day, we deserve one, and we’ve never showered together.”

  “Okay.” God! Was that all she could say? Did his kisses make her that stupid? Apparently so.

  “You like sex in the shower, Terra?”

  His low voice rumbled through her as he unzipped her jacket and slid it down her arms. Tossed it onto a chair. His own jacket followed before he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. He stood her back on her feet, cupped her face in his hands, and fused his mouth to hers in another of those hot, hot kisses. While he was sucking her tongue and scraping it with his teeth, he lifted her sweater and went to slide his hands up to her breasts when suddenly he stopped, lifted his head, and gave another one of those rough laughs.

  Terra focused on his face. “What’s wrong?”

  “I forgot. We’ve both got insulated long johns on. That’s okay.” His grin was hungry. “I like anticipation.”

  He eased her sweater upward until he could pull it over her head, followed by the lightweight silk underwear top. As he exposed each inch of skin, he paused to kiss, lick, nip then repeat the process. By the time she was naked from the waist up except for her bra, she was trembling and he’d hardly done anything yet. Then the bra was gone, and he gave each nipple one soft swipe with the tip of his tongue.

  “Put your hands behind your back.” His voice was deeper, rougher.

  She blinked. “What?”

  “Hands. Behind your back. Keep them there.”

  She didn’t even ask why, just did as he ordered, clasping her fingers together to keep her hands in place. Griffin backed her up until she was touching the wall.

  “Close your eyes,” he ordered.

  She never even thought to ask why. This was a rougher, more demanding side of him than she’d seen, and the shocking part was, it excited her even more. When she’d backed up as far as she could go, he cupped her face and strung kisses along her jawline before trailing his mouth down between her breasts. His lips were cold on her skin, but even that excited her.

  The next thing she felt was his mouth sucking on one hard nipple, biting lightly before sucking hard again. Heat streaked straight to her core, igniting every single nerve there to the point where she thought she might come from nothing more than standing there. He sucked hard enough to send a streak of heat down to her core and make her nipples ache for more. When he curled his fingers around her breasts and squeezed, the added sensation made her body tremble.

  Keeping her eyes closed, she dug her fingernails into her palms and concentrated on not coming until they were both at least naked. It turned out to be an impossible task. Griffin Dunne flipped her switches and turned her on quicker and hotter than any other man he’d ever been with. The harder he sucked and nibbled, the more the spear of desire spiked through her.

  She felt the orgasm start low in her belly then race headlong through her.

  “I’ve got you,” Griffin said, moving his hands to hold her waist and steady her. “Let it go, Terra. Come on.”

  And she did, hands still clasped behind her back, fingernails digging into her palms, Griffin steadying her with his hands at her waist. She was so weak, when the last shimmer faded she leaned forward and rested her head on his shoulder.

  “You still have all your clothes on,” she told him with a breathy little laugh.

  “We’ll take care of that, don’t you worry. But let’s get the rest of yours off, first.”

  Leaving her braced against the wall, hands unclasped so she could press her palms for balance, he knelt and removed her boots, lifting one foot at a time. Then, so slowly each movement felt like a sensuous caress, he eased down first the ski pants and then the silk long johns.

  “Damn!” He grinned up at her. “Undressing a woman who wears ski clothes is a project all in itself. But it’s sure worth it.”

  Pressing his fingers against her mound, he opened the lips of her sex and slid his tongue slowly against the wet flesh, stroking her clit and sending a shiver through her.

  “Mmmm,” he hummed. “You taste better every time.”

  And he did it again. And then again. She was ready to melt to the floor by the time he finally got to his feet, kicking off his boots and shucking his clothes with incredible speed.

  “You must like carrying me around,” she told him when he lifted her and headed to the bathroom.

  “I love having my fingers on your naked body,” he told her. “Everywhere on your body.”

  He set her down on the mat in her bathroom and demonstrated by sliding his fingers through the crease of her ass, pausing long enough to press the tip of a finger against her hot spot. Her breath caught, and she leaned forward, pressing her hands against the sink for balance.

  “Don’t go anywhere.” Griffin’s voice was husky with need.

  A little laugh escaped her throat. “As if I could or would.”

  He leaned against her, his arms around her briefly while he reached to put condoms on the little vanity counter. When he did, his hot, heavy cock bumped her body. Fire shot through her, and she turned, dropping to her knees in front of him.

  “What—”

  Terra wrapped her fingers around his swollen shaft, squeezing gently, and drew the flat of her tongue over the dark-purple head. Griffin sucked in his breath, making his muscular stomach even flatter. Terra licked around the head then carefully holding his dick, lapped his cock from the crown down to the root and back again. She repeated it, over and over, so soft and gentle that he cried out, the sound one of need.

  “Jesus, Terra. You’re killing me.”

  She laughed, the sound bubbling in her throat. “It’s my turn.”

  She opened her mouth wide and slid her lips down the length of his cock, a little at a time, easing it slowly because of the length and breadth. With fingers wrapped around the base, she slid her mouth up and down, using her tongue for added effect. Sliding her other hand between his muscular thighs. She cupped his balls and began a rhythmic squeezing in time to the movement of her lips.

  “God, god, god.” He chanted the word over and over again.

  Terra hummed her satisfaction as she licked and sucked and stroked, loving the taste and feel of him. She was determined not to hurry it, to tease him as he did with her so many times the nights they’d been together. He braced his hands against the counter, his breathing accelerating. She increased the pressure on his balls as she sucked harder.

  “Jesus, Terra. Holy fucking god.”

  She could tell by the tensing of his thighs and his accelerated breathing the orgasm was building in his body. She sucked harder and increased the pace of her stroking. He was almo
st there. Almost. Faster, she told herself, Faster, faster.

  He exploded into her mouth, his entire body clenching as he filled her with his liquid. She pressed her fingers into his balls in a steady motion, sucking harder until she’d emptied him of every drop, swallowing it all. Then she slid her lips back to the crown and let him slip out of her mouth, her fingers still wrapped around him.

  “You slay me, Terra. Holy god. You undo me.”

  He dropped his head, drawing in deep lungfuls of air before finally pushing away from the counter. He looked down at Terra, incendiary heat still flaring in his eyes.

  “Good,” she whispered, circling the crown with one last twist of her tongue.

  What the hell is happening to me?

  Griffin drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Impossible as it was, after such a gigantic orgasm, when he looked at Terra kneeling in front of him his very worn-out cock began to twitch. What the fuck? He’d been with more women in his life than he decently wanted to count. None of them had ever gotten as deep inside him as Terra Oenning did. Not to mention the fact she’d given him the best blowjob of his life.

  And it scared the shit out of him.

  The smart thing to do was gather up his clothes and get the hell out of here as fast as he could. But looking down at this woman, he couldn’t make himself do it. Instead, he slid open the glass door and turned on the shower. Maybe he could wash her out of his system.

  Yeah, right.

  Without speaking a word, he reached down, placed his hands beneath her elbows, and urged her to her feet. He could feel the tiniest tremors running through her body, and even that turned him on.

  Fuck.

  He took her hand and tugged her into the shower with him, first placing one of the condom wrappers in the little soap dish. Then, pouring some of the shower wash she kept in there into his hands, he began to lather her skin. He didn’t rush, spending long moments of time on each area, spreading the bubbles over her collarbone before circling the hollow at her throat with the tip of a finger. When he felt the pulse accelerate beneath his touch, he did it some more. Then he moved from the slender column of her neck across her shoulders to her breasts, cupping his large hands over them.

  Damn, but she had the most incredible breasts. Round and firm with dark, rosy nipples that hardened the instant he touched them. He pinched them now, his fingers slick on the pebbled surface, and Terra gasped. He pressed his mouth to hers, thrusting his tongue inside while squeezing and tugging the nipples. She grasped his upper arms, digging her fingers in to balance herself.

  He could have done this forever, capturing her sexy cries in his mouth, but he needed to touch the rest of her. Feel her everywhere. Their frantic coming together at the door had barely taken the edge off his hunger for her. It scared the shit out of him how much he wanted her. All the time. Nonstop. He was a fucking SEAL, for god’s sake, trained in the strictest discipline. Apparently his cock didn’t get the message. He’d never felt that with another woman, not since the disaster in his life.

  Don’t think of that now.

  He slid his hands down over Terra’s hips, easing to the back so he could cup her rear and squeeze her buttocks. The lather on his fingers made it easy to slide them through the crevice between her cheeks and reach to touch her sensitive opening. He hadn’t fucked her there yet, but he was going to. Oh, yeah. From the day they met, he dreamt about it at night, about easing his shaft into that hot, hot channel and driving into her until they both screamed their release.

  As the image flashed in his mind now his cock, so recently depleted and stirring to life, now somehow burst into full hardness. Shit! This woman was going to kill him.

  Soaping up his hands again he knelt on the floor in front of her, tricky since the shower was so small, but he managed. Of course, it put his face right in front of her sex. He paused before pouring more body wash into his hands to part those lush folds and let his tongue trace a line through the slick flesh. And there was her clit, tempting him, so he gave it a light tug with his teeth.

  “Oh god!”

  She grabbed his shoulders to steady herself, her fingers digging into his muscles.

  He wanted to keep those lips parted while he rubbed and sucked her clit, watching those mouthwatering inner muscles flex and clench as he made her come with his mouth, but he stopped himself. Looking up, he drank in the sight of her naked, leaning against the shower wall, hands braced on his shoulders, the sight of her aroused one of the sexiest things he’d ever seen. He was ready to fuck her brains out with his cock, and he could tell by her choppy breathing she was almost ready to take him.

  Sliding his soapy hands down her legs, he stroked her feet, carefully lathered her ankles and then moved up her firm calves to her thighs. All that skiing had tightened her muscles but didn’t take one thing away from her femininity. By the time he reached her trimmed mound, his hands were again shaking with need. Shit. If he wasn’t careful with this woman, he was going to fuck himself to death.

  He rose to his feet, his swollen cock bumping Terra, grabbed the washcloth hanging from the faucet, and rinsed the soap from her body. His hands were slightly unsteady as he peeled open the foil wrapper and rolled the condom on.

  “Put your arms around me,” he growled in Terra’s ear. “Spread your legs and hold on tight.”

  Cupping the cheeks of her ass, he lifted her and nudged her open with the head of his dick. She sucked in a breath at the contact, tightened her grip on him, and pushed against him. Slowly, slowly he drove into her until all of his cock was in her tight, hot sheath.

  Jesus!

  He closed his eyes, striving for enough control to last so they could come at the same time. In and out, back and forth, as he flexed his hips she rode him, increasing the friction. They were both so aroused it didn’t take long for them to hit that peak.

  “Now,” he growled in her ear.

  “Now.” She nodded, digging her heels into the cheeks of his ass to tighten their connection.

  He pumped one last time, and they exploded together, his cock pulsing inside her as her inner walls gripped him and milked him. Their bodies were pressed so tight together he wasn’t sure if it was his heartbeat he felt shaking him or hers. All he could do was hang on as they rode through the best sex of his life. Again.

  At last, his pulse beat returned to normal, as did Terra’s. He helped her untangle herself from him, withdrew from the tight clasp of her sex, and carefully removed the condom. After tossing the condom into the wastebasket right next to the shower, he managed to rinse them both off, turn off the water, and get them both dried off. Then he carried her o bed while he still had the energy.

  Griffin slid beside her and wrapped his arms around her, spooning against her. Neither of them had said a word. About anything. But this was the third night he was sleeping in her bed, and he never ever did that. Crass as it sounded, with other women he was in, out, and gone. He didn’t even want to think about what kind of trouble he was in here.

  The last thing he did before he fell asleep was to set the alarm on his watch for four a.m. Bad enough he was sleeping with her. Waking up in her bed would put another spin on what was becoming an increasingly complicated situation. He was lucky she hadn’t tried to make more of it than he wanted.

  If that was the case, why did it leave him feeling so unfinished? And pissed off?

  Chapter 8

  “I called Sam this morning.”

  Griffin murmured the message to Terra in a low voice. They had done the casual bump-into-each-other thing again but agreed that today they wouldn’t sit down and eat together. Jennings was moving around the big room, giving them an occasional once-over glance. Neither of them, exchanging significant glances, thought his looks in their direction were casual.

  “And?” She stirred sweetener into her coffee, keeping her eyes on her task.

  “They’ll be here around one o’clock. I made a quick call to Hal to see if he had any updates for us today before Sam a
nd Cassie get here.”

  “And?” She concentrated on selecting her breakfast pastries, not even looking at Griffin.

  “Word is there is a lot of activity at Novak Tech, with some strange people in and out. He thinks between the cabin explosion and our dead snitch these people are getting nervous. Maybe rushing their timeline a little, as we thought.”

  “You think Jennings might be taking a little trip today? It’s about time, anyway, if he sticks to his schedule.”

  “I’d say it’s very probable. I worked it out so I’m handling the snowmobiles this afternoon. That way I can set Sam and Cassie up and also monitor if and when Jennings takes his personal one out. If not, they’ll come back again.”

  “You don’t think Jennings will get suspicious?”

  Griffin’s mouth turned up in a rare grin. “Didn’t Jennings tell us—tell all the employees—to make friends in town and urge people to come out and take advantage of the inn’s resources?”

  Terra wrinkled her forehead. “Does he think he can camouflage himself with a combination of locals and international guests and no one will notice or suspect what he’s really up to?”

  “Hey.” Griffin shrugged. “If it works, it makes him a very smart man.”

  “So, you called Sam?”

  “He said he was about to call me, anyway, about something besides today. He thinks he remembers where he knows Jennings from.”

  Terra did her best not to react. “Did he tell you what it was?”

  “Yeah. His SEAL team was on a mission to take down a high-value target in an Afghan village. They were given photos of the leader of the Sons of Allah who would be there. There were two other men in the photo. One of them was Jennings.”

  Terra sucked in her breath. “Damn.”

  “No kidding. I think the third man was Novak.

  “Anyway, they’ll be here around one thirty.”

  “Okay. Remember, if Jennings is taking his regular run today it’s usually around two. Be nice if today was one of the days to fetch someone because he’ll probably take them directly to wherever everyone’s stashed.”