All of Me (19 page)

Stella moaned as
he gently bit it and kissed behind her ear. Nathan did his sexy little growl
thing when she reached down between them and caressed his erection through his
uniform pants.

Stella nimbly
undid the button and yanked his zipper down.  Within seconds, Nathan’s hot,
hard – and huge - erection was in her hands.  She only managed to stroke it a
few times before Nathan groaned and tossed her onto the bed.  Stella shucked
her socks, pants, and underwear off and waited for Nathan to join her.  It
occurred to her how comfortable she was naked in front of him already.  And she
was about to get a whole lot more comfortable with him.

But Nathan just
stood there looking torn and Stella remembered what he’d said about his own body.
With what she knew about his background, Stella could only imagine what it
was.  She wanted to see him and she wanted to make him feel as accepted and
beautiful as he’d made her feel.  But something told Stella this wasn’t the
right time to push him. 

She latched onto
his eyes.  “You don’t need to show me anything, Nathan.  Not until you’re
ready.  Whatever you need to do to be with me, is fine with me.  I want you
anyway I can have you.” Stella smiled as she crooked a finger at him.  “But I
need to make love to you right now, so please come here.  Now.”

To Stella’s
absolute shock, Nathan slowly stepped out of his pants, folded them, and set
them on a chair next to his bed.  His socks were removed and balled up and set
aside. 

Nothing too
evident so far.  There were a few roundish, shiny scars scattered here and
there on his legs, but nothing grotesque that should cause Nathan such
embarrassment. 

He put his hands
on his hips and sighed.  When Nathan met her eyes, Stella nodded her
encouragement.  He slowly unbuttoned and pulled off his short-sleeved uniform
shirt, revealing that tattoo Stella had been dying to lay eyes on. 

It covered most of
his left bicep, extending onto his left pec and up over his left shoulder a
bit.  It looked like a military tattoo of some kind:  a skull wearing a beret
in front of a sword, with wings extending out from each side of the skull.  A
banner on top read “Death Before” and a banner below read “Dishonor.”  The
upper arm of his right arm was also tattooed up.  The words “Special Forces,”
“Ranger,” and “Airborne” were placed in three consecutive tattoos down his
arm.  They looked like uniform patches.  Below that, it read “75
^th
Regiment” in Old English black script.

Stella nearly
swooned. 

It was cliché and
so very womanly of her, but Stella seriously started panting at that ink.

Until she saw all
of the marring of his skin around the tattoos.  And some scarring even through
the tattoos. 

“Shrapnel,” he
said flatly in response to her unspoken question. 

Stella swallowed
hard and nodded.  “Can you take your tee shirt off, please?” 

Nathan stood
motionless for a while and Stella knew the worst of whatever was going on was
beneath that wife beater tee shirt.  But he’d better get on with it soon
because watching his huge muscles flex and not being able to touch and taste
them was driving her crazy.  She wanted to be as compassionate to him as he’d
been to her, but Sweet Jesus, there was only so much a woman could take.

Knowing exactly
how Nathan felt as he lifted the hem of his shirt over his head, Stella tried
her best not to react to what she saw, but that proved to be too difficult. 
She gasped and a hand flew to her mouth when she saw what he’d been hiding from
her.

Nathan wasn’t
sporting a bad tattoo, bad skin condition, or a measly scar.  His entire torso
was
covered
in faded scars.  Some looked the round ones on his forearms,
others were lines, and still others were jagged. 

Before Stella had
a chance to process or react to what she’d just seen, Nathan turned around, giving
her his back. 

If Stella had
thought his front was bad, she hadn’t seen anything yet.  There were healed
over welts, more circular marks, slashes, and jagged patches.  His body looked
like a road map of scars.

Stella couldn’t
begin to imagine what had caused all of them.  She could hardly process what
she was seeing, let alone try to understand it. 

All of a sudden,
her single mastectomy scar seemed pretty…well, manageable. 

Nathan turned back
to her, his face inscrutable.  “So did you see everything you needed to see?” 
His tone was flippant and sarcastic, but the look in his eyes was anything
but. 

Stella quirked a
brow.  “Not everything,” she answered with a lip curl he couldn’t misinterpret.

His defensive
smirk faded and his arms dropped. 

“Come here.”  She
beckoned him with another crook of her finger.  Just to be cruel, Stella leaned
back onto her elbows and let her legs open slightly.

Nathan was on top
of her so quickly it stole her breath.  Or maybe it was the insanely passionate
kiss that stole her breath. 

“Mmmm…”  Stella
wrapped her legs around his waist and lifted her pelvis up to grind against
his.  Nathan nipped at her lower lip and sucked at her top before flipping them
until she was on top.

“Oh, I like this,”
Stella said with a laugh.  She straddled him and slowly ran her hands over his
hard pectorals.  She pressed her lips to one then the other.  “These are very,
very nice…I mean, like insanely amazing.”  Her hands skated over his muscular
shoulders and down each arm.  “Although, these might be my favorites.” 
Nathan’s eyes were hot and hard on her face as Stella gently gripped his
bulging biceps.  She ran her fingertips around the outside over his triceps,
over his tattoos, and sighed.  “Yum-my, Nathan.  Seriously.”

“I’m glad you like
them.”  His voice was so choked and raw that Stella smiled.

“That’s an
understatement.”  Her mind wandered and Stella’s heart sank a little.  “But I
bet that’s not the first time you’ve heard that, is it?  I bet all of the women
have liked them, huh?  Who wouldn’t?” 

Stella tried her
hardest to ruin the moment because she was jealous and scared and suddenly very
insecure.

“How many women
have you been with, Nathan?  Lots, I bet.”  His muscles went rigid beneath her
hands as Stella continued to caress his incredible body.  She laughed
mirthlessly.  “You don’t need me panting over you, I’m sure.  I bet you’ve
heard it all a million times.”

Nathan flipped her
onto her back so fast the room spun.  He grabbed each of her wrists and pinned
her to the mattress.  Gently, but firmly enough to make his point.  He got
really close to her face and his expression was intense.

“No woman I had
before you matters.  They didn’t matter at the time and they sure as fuck don’t
matter now.”  He stared at her lips longingly and Stella instinctively opened
her legs wider beneath him. 

“I forgot about
them two seconds after they left my bed.”  He laughed, cold and hard.  “At the
risk of sounding like the heartless asshole I am, I’ll tell you I forgot about
them
before
they left my bed.  I fucked to feel something.  Anything. 
And as soon as it was over, I felt worse than before.  But I still did it
because I’m fucked up and a prick and not worth a damn.”

Stella stared into
his eyes for a long time.  Searching.  “Two seconds after I leave your bed,
will you forget about me, Nathan?  Are you forgetting about me right now?” 

“Fucking-A,
Stella...I couldn’t forget about you if I tried.  Which I have.  Since the
moment I met you.”

And cue Stella
melting.

“I want to touch
you. 
All
of you.”  Stella tried to pull away from his grip, but he
wouldn’t budge. 

So she played
dirty. 

Stella turned her
head and nipped at his wrist; licking and biting and sucking at it until
Nathan’s pelvis undulated against the cradle of her body.  Stella smiled
against his skin.

“Oh, yeah?” he
rasped.  “You think you’re getting the best of me, don’t you?”  When Stella
pressed her feet flat to the backs of his calves and arched her back, Nathan’s
eyes squeezed shut and his head dropped down.

“Yes, I do.  And I
am,” Stella whispered. 

“Hell, Stella. 
What are you doing to me?”

 “The same thing
you’re doing to me.” When Nathan’s eyes opened, Stella met them and sighed. 
“I’m sorry I brought that up…the stuff about other women.  I’m jealous.  I
can’t stand the thought of you with anyone else.”

Nathan scoffed. 
“You don’t say.  I sorta got that idea during the Nadia fiasco the other
night.”

When Stella stuck
her tongue out, Nathan smiled. 

She tickled his
side.  “And you’re not jealous?”

“I’ve had more
murderous thoughts toward people in the past two weeks than I have in the past
32 years.”  When Stella grinned, he gave her a stern look.  “Not funny.  You’re
going to get me into serious trouble, you know that?”

“Yes.”  Stella
struggled against his grip.  “Now let go of me so I can touch you.”

Chapter
Fifteen

Nathan couldn’t
believe she still wanted him after seeing what a mess his body was. 

Well, maybe he
could believe it.  Stella wasn’t really someone who would let a few hundred
scars stop her from getting what she wanted.  

And she wanted
Nathan, no doubt about that.  He didn’t know how or why, but there was no
disputing the look in her eyes and the way she was kissing him like her life
depended on it.

They were a tangle
of limbs and lips and frenzied movements.  All designed to each them as close
to one another as possible.  They flipped and rolled; his comforter was pushed
off the bed and his sheets were hanging on by a thread.  Nathan would pin her
down only to have Stella distract him long enough to get on top.  When he
finally got her on her back again, she bit and licked and scratched her nails
down his back.  It was like something out of every hot-blooded male’s wildest
fantasy and something Nathan had ever expected to experience.  Hadn’t thought
it even existed in real life.

And if Nathan
thought she’d been passionate and unrestrained during their previous sexual
encounters, those had been nothing compared to her ferocity tonight. 

At one point, the
urge to take control and see Stella on all fours took hold and Nathan flipped
her on her stomach.  She made a little noise of protest at being rendered
unable to touch him, but moaned as Nathan ran his hands over her amazing ass. 
It was soft, smooth, and perfectly shaped…exactly as he had envisioned it a million
times in his mind.  Stella then did exactly what he had hoped:  she stuck her
ass up high enough for him to position himself behind her and grab onto her
hips.

He’d never been
one for shenanigans of any kind, but mostly especially not the sexual kind. 
Sex was for getting off and there didn’t need to be a bunch of BS to get
there.  But with her, with Stella, he wanted to prolong the experience as long
as possible.  And he wanted to do things to her and with her that he’d never
really cared about before. 

Nathan had gone
down on women before and he’d enjoyed it well enough, but the he’d never
experienced the compulsion he had to taste Stella. He pulled her hips back
until his mouth met the slick softness of her labia and groaned when she
audibly gasped.  Nathan started out slow, with his pace increasing in tandem
with Stella’s moans and his own need.  He licked and invaded and nuzzled her
there until Stella broke apart under his mouth; crying out his name as she came
for him. 

Nathan was
positioned himself behind Stella.  He grabbed her hips and entered her in one
smooth, strong movement. 

“Oh, God…
yes
,
Nathan…”  Stella pushed herself backwards on his erection and Nathan lost all
control.

He slammed into
her sweet warmth again and again until a powerful orgasm overcame him; wracking
his entire body and turning his vision black for a few seconds as he pumped
into her.  With a final shudder, Nathan fell forward, one hand braced on either
side of Stella’s back. 

Stella’s body went
limp beneath him and, when he could finally move, Nathan followed suit.  He
collapsed next to her, panting.

Nathan turned his
head and stared at the back of Stella’s.  His gaze lowered to small tattoo on
her left shoulder he’d never noticed before.  It was a pink heart, pink ribbon,
white wings, and a banner that read:  “Survivor.”

Wasn’t that the
truth.

Stella was lying
motionless, with her arms above her head and her legs still splayed a little
from Nathan’s invasion.  A light sheen of perspiration coated her body. 

What the fuck,
man… 

A flush crept up
his neck.

Nice move. 
Really smooth to just fuck her like an animal from behind out of nowhere. 

Idiot.

“Stella?”

“Mmmm?”

“Are you okay?”

“Mmmm-hmmm.”

“I didn’t hurt
you, did I?”

“
Uh-uh
.”

Nathan let a few
more minutes pass in silence before getting all weird on her again.  “Hey,
Stella?”

“Mmmm?”

“Are you…fine…with
what happened?”

Her snort was
muffled by the mattress.  “Uh, yeah, Nathan.  I’m more than ‘fine’ with what
happened.”  She turned her head to face him and smiled sleepily.  “I
loved
it.  It was incredible and intense and insane.  And I want to do it again
really soon.”  Stella’s eyes closed.  “But right now, I’m tired and just want
to enjoy the afterglow.”  She cracked one eyelid and grinned at Nathan.  “Is
that okay with you, Sergeant?”

Stella scooted
closer and nuzzled into the crook of his arm.  She threw her left leg over his
right one and, with a contented sigh, fell fast asleep.  Her slow, steady
heartbeat resonated through his ribcage and the even warm puffs of her breath
on his upper chest.