21 Marine Salute: 21 Always a Marine Tales (112 page)

Only once they were inside did he let her go and lean back against the closed door. Tossing her purse, his jacket and the wrap onto the little chair, he slid his hands into his pockets and waited for her to turn around.

“Are we…?” She couldn’t quite seem to meet his gaze. Wonder and wariness came with awareness.

He didn’t usually have to struggle for control, it came naturally to him, but he wrestled with the urge to toss her on the bed and go down on her until the only thought in her mind was him.

“Take off your dress,” he ordered, barely recognizing the low, rough sound of his voice.

Challenge rallied her spirit and her eyebrows lifted. “I beg your pardon?”

He didn’t smile. It took too much effort to do anything other than stay against the door. “Take off your dress or it’s going to rip when I take it off you in about thirty seconds. Maybe less.”

Surprise rippled across her face and she took a step toward him. In the hushed silence of the room, the slide of the fabric on her skin was torture.

“Derek?”

“Twenty-five seconds.”

Her breath caught and she ran her sweet pink tongue over her full lower lip. “I thought you….” Apprehension filled her eyes.

“Twenty seconds.” He fisted his hands in his pockets, trying to keep them still.

“Okay, so now we are having sex? I want to make sure I’m on the right page of
Derek for Dummies
.” She put her hands on her hips, a sassy tilt to her chin. Apprehension and wariness fled, leaving his forbidden goddess to dare him.

“Fifteen seconds,” he murmured, almost looking forward to shredding the dress. She didn’t need to be out in public in it—no other man deserved to see her looking that fine.

“I swear to God, Derek, if I take off this dress and you walk out with it in your hand, I’ll prance through that club bare-ass naked.”

His eyes nearly crossed at the image. “Ten seconds.”

She reached for the zipper and he held his breath. The metal slid down with a loud rasp.

He forgot to count.

The dress hit the floor and he forgot to think.

Kara couldn’t stop the shiver wrapping around her spine. Meeting his bold demand left her nude save for a pair of sheer panties. Derek stared at her like he wanted to take a deep bite out of her. Despite her bravado earlier, she didn’t possess near as much worldly knowledge or experience as she pretended. Losing her virginity and one other serious boyfriend accounted for the two whopping notches in her belt.

And they had nothing on Derek. He was quiet, deliberate, and radiated a pure masculinity that heated her body just by being in the same room with her. The cool air tightened her nipples. She expected him to do more than simply stand there, but he didn’t move away from the door. His gaze locked on her. He was so much more than just a good-looking man. Sexy, exasperating, amusing—and loyal to the bone.

“Turn all the way around for me.” Her heart kicked her ribs at the order. “I want to see….”

See what?
Instead of asking, she slid out of her heels and turned in a semi-circle to face him, more curious to see his reaction than anything else. Strain etched his face and a muscle ticked in his jaw. For a second, she thought his throat even convulsed with a hard swallow.

Did looking at her really affect him that much? When he still didn’t leave the door, her skittish nerves resurfaced and she folded her arms, blocking his view of her breasts.

He frowned. “Did you change your mind?”

The look of genuine worry knitting his brows together softened her heart. Stepping toward him, she shook her head slowly. “No. I have not changed my mind—but you’re just standing there, staring at me, and I’m a little naked here.”

A smile curved his lips and her heart flip-flopped. His bronzed skin reddened around his ears—the poor things always burned. His normally dark brown hair had bleached light blond by his time in the sun, but where his haircut grew in, it darkened.

She drew closer to him, leaning toward his heat. Being near him always felt like that, the sheer force of him pulling at her.

“Be very sure, because when I touch you, it’s going to be a rush and I won’t be in all that much control. You have no idea how much I want to taste you, kiss you, feel you come—and that’s just to start.” His voice was slightly rough, and his eyes dilated.

Holy hell…I do affect him
.

He’d always pushed her away, dismissed her, laughed her off—except the single time he’d kissed her. But after that kiss, he left. Torn between the desire to know and the desire to feel, she took the initiative and threaded her arms around his neck.

Initiating the kiss wasn’t hard, but she didn’t stay in charge for long. He took her lips in a hot, open-mouthed possession. Yearning hummed through her, and her head started to spin. He whirled her around and pressed her up to the cool wood of the door. She could barely hear his voice, he said something against her mouth. He glided his fingertips over her, delicate skimming touches that grew more insistent.

She found the buttons of his shirt and yanked them free, uncaring when one went flying. Pulling her head back, she glared. He shot her a questioning look, his breath coming in hard, shallow pants.

“Shirt. Off.” She drew her finger down the line of bare skin revealed by the separated buttons. “See? I can give orders, too.”

He grinned, stripped the shirt off and tossed it behind him. She splayed her hands on the hard wall of his chest and the light dusting of hair that coated him. Like the hair on his head, it had bleached golden, too. God, he was so built—hard sinewy strength, and she discovered a whole new appreciation for the gentleness of his touch.

“Hey,” he whispered, pulling her attention from the solid cut of his pecs to meet his dark gaze. He bent his head and kissed her again, and this time she didn’t imagine a sense of control. The contact inflamed her senses and devoured her will. He never stopped caressing her, shaping her breasts, teasing the nipples before following the outline of her shape to her hips, then down to her ass.

She moaned as he lifted her and hitched her legs around his hips. Even through the clothes separating them, she couldn’t mistake the hard length of his cock for anything other than what it was.

He wants me
. The thought ripped through her like a geyser of pure joy. Whirling her away from the door, he walked toward the bed and laid her down. Hooking his thumbs into her panties, he tugged them off her legs and stopped.

His expression squeezed her heart. Joy softened his face—joy and something like awe. He swallowed hard, his dark eyes almost unreadable. Need crawled through her, and she pushed up on her elbows.

“Derek…?”

“Yeah?” His gaze fixed on her legs and stoked the heat burning through her system to near boiling. The naked desire on his face should have terrified her, but it only served to make her bolder.

“I won’t break.” Extending her leg, she ran her bare foot down his pant leg.

“You have no idea how much I want you right now. I’m not entirely sure I trust myself.” Veins popped on the corded muscles of his arms, like he physically fought himself.

Sitting up, she kept her movements slow and careful. She recognized that look on his face. She’d seen it on enough veterans to know he struggled with something internally and no matter how intimate their position, it didn’t have to have anything to do with her.

Working her way to the end of the bed, she set her feet on the floor. Careful, as though coaxing a baby bird, she caught his hand. “It’s okay. You’re here with me, Derek. Can you take a deep breath?”

He squeezed her hand and bent down to kiss her knuckles. Dropping to his knees, he nudged her thighs apart and leaned in to her. The warmth of his breath teased her skin and sent a wave of tenderness through her. Stroking the back of his head, she pressed a kiss to his temple.

Little by little, he wrapped his arms around her and inhaled deeply. He shuddered with the exhale.

“That’s it, breathe,” she murmured. “Deep, cleansing breaths.”

The vibration of his chuckle teased her skin and her sex clenched in response. Did he want comfort or need it?
And am I going to hell for being turned on by it?
She cradled him, soaking up his heat and nearness.

His cheek rubbed against her breast, the rasp of his stubble rough and tantalizing. Her nipples tightened almost painfully with need. The lazy heat at her core turned into a raging inferno. Derek groaned and closed his mouth over one of her nipples. Pleasure spiked through her.

“I love you, Kara.” The muffled words shredded her, and she eased back from his seeking mouth, but he wouldn’t be denied. He captured her nipple and sucked the tip between his teeth, scraping sparks of pleasure through her overwrought system.

She’d longed to hear those words for so many years, hanging on his every smile and casual joke. Loving him brought her almost no respite since she realized what she felt for him wouldn’t easily go away or be dismissed—no matter how he might rebuff her advances or interest. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“Oh, Derek….” She held onto him and stroked his back. “I love you, too.”

She had no idea if he heard her. His slow, sensual assault moved from one breast to the other. He slid his hand between her thighs, and she nearly wept needing him. He worked his way down to her belly and kissed the flesh on the inside of her thigh.

“Derek?” she murmured. Slipping his palms under her ass, he lifted her. Her next words strangled in her throat as he licked his way up the seam of her sex. “Okay.” She closed her eyes and fisted the bedspread. “We’ll talk later….”

Derek wanted to take and plunder. Confessing he loved her wrenched something loose, and he was out of control. He set his mouth on her sex with loving licks. She writhed and moaned beneath him as he kissed a path to her clit. Sucking the nub hard, he savored her every reaction.

Working a finger into her, he groaned when her inner muscles clamped down. Would she grasp as greedily at his cock when he thrust into her? Would she tug him deeper and deeper? Could he lose himself inside her as he’d wanted to for so long? He drew on her clit over and over until she began to thrash. With her orgasm imminent, he pulled away. He wanted to be inside her when she came, wanted to feel her fly apart in his arms.

Annoyance echoed in her low growl and he laughed. He delighted in her, working his way up her length. Her smooth skin spurred him on, every soft breath took him apart piece by piece. He wanted to take hours with her, play out every fantasy, provoke every possible reaction. He’d dreamed of the moment over the years, when he allowed himself the pleasure.

He’d planned how he would take her—against a wall, on a bed, on the floor—above her, below her, behind her, pushing her until she was out of her mind and begging him. But he was the one going out of his mind, and his body begged for relief. Reason and his intentions abandoned him. When her mouth collided with his and she arched up to him, her heat scorched him through his pants.

Naked
…. He needed to be naked immediately. Kissing her hard, he rose and stripped. Fumbling for the condoms in his wallet, he swore when the three scattered on the bed. Kara sat up and laughed, the wild warmth and radiance in her face ravishing him. Scooping up one of the condoms, she ripped the corner off the foil with her teeth.

His tension dissolved in horny, teenage humor. “I think that’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

She paused and gave him a speculative look. “I don’t know that I’d confess that, Marine. Remind me that we need to work on your definition of sexy.” Despite her admonition, she rolled the condom into place, and he shuddered at the caress of her hand, surprised as hell that he didn’t come at her gentle attention.

“You are my definition of sexy.” His hands shook with desire, and he couldn’t see anything else but her. “I wanted to make this last for you.”

“Honey,” she wrapped her arms around his neck as he grasped her hips, adjusting her, “You’ve made this last more than a decade. I will
kill
you if you make me wait any longer.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned and entered her with one, hard thrust. She bit down on his shoulder, her moan barely muffled and reverberating through his soul. A man who prided himself on control, he fought to keep his thrusts in check, but Kara dug her nails into his back and cried out encouragement as they rocked together. She came apart with every gliding thrust and her inner muscles clamped down just as he’d imagined, drawing him so deep he forgot where he ended and she began.

Somehow he managed to find her mouth. His balls tightened and he cried out his own release as an orgasm exploded out of him. The moment finally coming true had haunted his dreams for years, always tempting him with the forbidden fruit. But it didn’t matter how many times he’d imagined it or woke sweat drenched because of her, the dreams couldn’t compare to the decadent reality of it.

Collapsing on top of her wasn’t the most graceful thing he’d ever done, and it took a while for his brain and body to reconnect. She grunted beneath him, but didn’t complain, the delicious shivers wracking her, convulsing around his cock and eliciting his own series of shudders.

“I don’t deserve you, Kara,” he whispered.

“Okay.” She patted his shoulder and he had the sensation of someone mollifying a child.

“Hey.” It took everything he had to raise up and look down at her. “I mean that.”

“Uh huh.” Her eyes were half closed and a lazy smile curved her lips. She looked drunk. Gorgeous, but drunk. The perfect Cleopatra and he wanted to worship her body like an altar. The purple prose amused him—but it fit.

“You’re not listening to me.” He deposited a kiss on the corner of her sensuous mouth.

“You don’t deserve me. You mean that. I’m not listening to you.” Kara cracked one eyelid open. “I am listening to you, but I’m also floating on the sea of orgasm and ecstasy at the moment. We’ll talk about your relationship inadequacy later.”