Before the Mission Begins (When The Mission Ends) (2 page)

But wait a minute. He didn’
t remember going for a round one. Why couldn’t he have enjoyed that in this dream too?

Dream
girl moaned and shifted her hips and all questions fled. The tip of his cock found the edge of heaven. Chris yearned to surge forward and sink into that moist heat, but something niggled. Something wasn’t quite right here.

Still half asleep, he
didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t want to wake up. He just wanted to enjoy the spice of jasmine and pear wafting off her warm body. She smelled and felt so fucking good. It would be so easy to simply surge his hips and ease into her. He moved his hips slightly, sinking another inch into that amazing space between her legs. As he became more awake he began to nuzzle along her graceful neckline. Her skin was satin beneath his lips as her hair tickled at his nose.

Finally he managed to crack one weary eye open
to find a girl actually there, in his arms. She wasn’t just a dream. He could only see hair so far, but there was no denying the very female body pressed up against him. She sported a spiky splash of purple and black hair. Purple? Who was this girl and why didn’t he remember going to bed with her?

He opened his eyes
completely to take in his surroundings. He was in Cassie’s guest bedroom. Now he knew something was wrong. There was no way he’d bring a girl into his twin sister’s house. Besides, when he’d arrived in the wee hours of the morning, sex had been the last thing on his exhausted mind.

The
girl wiggled further onto his cock and he stiffened. He couldn’t help the low moan that escaped his throat as more blood rushed to his shaft and his balls drew up in anticipation. He needed to stop this from going any further, before they both regretted it. All his muscles tensed with the control it took to not slide completely into her, but his dick begged him not to pull back. It pulsed, a reminder that it had been months since he’d gotten laid. He was rock hard. Her petite body fit so perfect within his hold and his cock ached for more.

That
tightening of his body must have been enough to pull her out of her own slumber. All of her muscles tensed for a split-second before she squealed aloud and struggled to escape the bed. Her creamy, toned legs tangled in the covers and she tumbled toward the floor. He scrambled up to grab her before she hit, but the bed was too big and he was too far away to snag her. He grimaced as she hit the wood floor hard.

She
clambered up, distracting him with her pert little ass. But then she turned and he couldn’t pull his eyes from those amazing bountiful breasts. They’d felt good, but they looked just as amazing. They had to be “D” cups and were so fucking perfect on that petite, tight body. Both nipples were erect and rosy with arousal. It was enough to cause his mouth to water.

As she wrapped her hands around her breasts
to protect herself from his gaze, she yelled at him. “Chris Robertson, close your eyes!”

Her familiar voice brought him completely out of his sleep-deprived stupor.
His gaze flew up to that face he knew so well, her hazel eyes filled with confusion and anger. The bright purple hair was shocking, in more ways than one. How the hell had he ended up in bed with his sister’s best friend, Julie? And why would sweet, innocent Julie have purple hair?

* * *

Julie covered her breasts with her hands, wishing for a robe— anything— to cover her nakedness.

God was punishing her. How many times over the last few years had she
fantasized about having Chris in her bed? Now he was actually there, but she didn’t remember anything about how he got there.

Adrenaline sur
ged through her veins as she worked to wake up and figure out what happened. Her core throbbed where just moments before she swore she’d felt him, but how was that possible? How the hell did she end up in bed with him? Naked. She searched frantically around the room looking for her robe, avoiding his eyes. Finally she spotted it and wrapped it around her pulsing body.

She turned bac
k to him as he forced his stiff erection into the denim of his jeans. At least she hadn’t dreamed that. He was just as turned on as she was. He buttoned the fly on his jeans, the muscles of his hard abs flexing and contracting and her mouth went dry. She licked her lips as she eyed the happy trail of hair on his taut belly. She knew right where that led and she wanted to explore that area with her tongue. She moistened her lips again and a low groan came from him.

Her eyes flew back to his. Their sapphire blue reflected back the same
depth of desire she was experiencing. But they also held bewilderment and dismay.

She
took a deep breath and gave him a tentative smile. It helped that he looked just as confused as she felt. “Um, good morning?” She frowned back over at the bed, wondering what exactly transpired there and how in the world she’d slept through it. “How the heck did you end up in bed with me naked?”

“You were naked
, too.” His voice was low and defensive.

“Yeah, but when I got into
bed naked, I’m pretty sure I was alone.”

He looked back at the bed as if it would give them their answers. Then he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I got in really late.
I didn’t realize anyone was here. I didn’t want to wake Cassie because I saw some guy’s motorcycle in the driveway.”

She interrupted
with a wave of her hand. “That’s mine.”

His gaze swung to hers in shock.
“Yours?” His voice sounded strangled.

She nodded
. The motorcycle was just another part of her transformation. If she looked bad-ass, she felt bad-ass. That was a step toward maintaining a feel of control over her life without the OCD taking over all aspects of it.

He squinted at
her purple hair, the cleavage exposing silky robe, and glanced back toward where the driveway would be. “Who are you and what did you do with the quiet, shy Julie who normally occupies that body? Purple hair? Motorcycle?”

Heat crawled up her neck
, but shoved her chin up at a defiant tilt.

It hadn’t been easy to remake her life, but by redefining her entire personality and with Rachel’s help, it was
working. It was getting easier to leave behind her stressful past. She knew she was healthier for it even if it was still a daily struggle. But she was getting better about coming out of her shell, making her presence known, and not making a list about every single little thing in her life. She was even coming to like the new, more adventurous Julie. New Julie actually had fun. Rachel had been right about that aspect.

“I’m making some changes in my life.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him. Maybe God wasn’t punishing her after all. Maybe Chris being here was a bit of serendipity for her. Her best friend’s playboy brother might actually be perfect finale for the kinds of changes she hoped to make in her life. Yes, this could work out very well for her. A little mutual satisfaction for both of them. She started to play with the loose folds of the silky robe around her breasts.

“Changes?”
He looked scared as he became mesmerized by the purple fingernail she dipped in between her cleavage. His Adam’s apple flexed as he swallowed. Hard. No, she wasn’t that mousey Julie anymore. She needed to find her inner vixen and Chris was the perfect person to help her.

She nodded
and hummed in affirmation, not wanting to distract him from the view he appeared to be enjoying a great deal, if the re-bourgeoning bulge in the front of his jeans was any indication.

His brilliant sapphire eyes
glimmered in the faint morning light and she took advantage of his distraction to examine him. She hadn’t seen him in about a year, but the guy had gotten even better-looking since the last time she’d seen him. His blond hair was military short since he was an active duty F-22 pilot in the Air Force. He’d only managed to pull on a pair of worn jeans and they sat low on his lean hips, showing off his amazing eight-pack abs, bulked up arms, and that golden-haired happy trail that she’d noticed earlier, dipping into the waistband of his jeans.

She stalk
ed toward him, but he backed away. 

He shook his head as if to clear it. “I’m sorry. I must have gotten into bed with
you last night. When I came in, I didn’t even turn on the light. It was really late. I just fell into bed and went to sleep. With that king size bed, you never would have felt me get in.” His voice was gruff.

“
Which is too bad because what I felt of you this morning felt pretty good.” Her inner vixen cringed. Corny, bad pick-up lines did not equal sexy.

He
flashed a cocky grin at her, but then seemed to catch and correct himself with a frown. He ran his hand over the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect anyone to be there.” He glanced down the hall then looked back at her and swallowed hard. “I guess I need to let Cassie know I’m here. There’s not a guy in there with her, is there?”

She was disappointed
that he no longer seemed interested in seduction. So much for her inner vixen. She couldn’t even manage to capture and keep Chris’s attention and he was the biggest flirt she knew. She sighed quietly. “Chris, Cassie’s out of town for the weekend. I’m just staying here because they’re re-doing the kitchen in my townhouse.”

He looked up
, startled, and then frowned. “Out of town? She didn’t mention anything to me when I talked to her Thursday.”

“Yeah, some sort of video game thing in Dallas. She thought it was next weekend, but they gave her the wrong dates so she had to scram
ble to get there with only a day’s notice.”

“Well, damn.”
He dropped his head and closed his eyes.

“She didn’t know you were coming did she?”
             

“Um, no
. I just found out I’m deploying for the next six months. They gave me forty-eight hours, so I thought I’d come say goodbye in person rather than by phone.” He gave her a weak smile. “So much for that plan.”

A frisson of
alarm ran down her spine. “Deploying?” Cassie hated it when her brothers, who were both active duty, deployed. Deployments meant danger. As Julie watched the virile man in front of her, she didn’t like the thought of him in danger either. Not one little bit.

“Yep.”
He ran a distracted hand over the back of his neck again. He wasn’t looking at her anymore. In fact, he seemed to be looking at everything in the room but her. “I don’t know about you, but I could use some coffee. I’ll meet you in the kitchen and leave you to get dressed, okay?”

She simply nodded as he took off down the hall.

He’d said forty-eight hours. She wondered how many of those he’d spend here. She wasn’t ready to give up her idea yet, as she thought about his obvious desire earlier this morning. She shivered as she recalled the feel of him up against her this morning. If she was lucky, she might find herself with a second chance at that seduction.

Chris stared over the top of his coffee cup as Julie walked into the room. His grip tightened on the handle of the cup. He didn’t think anything could have topped the sight of her nude body this morning. He was wrong.

He scanned her from top to bottom, forgetting to breathe along the way. She made
the sexy rock chick look work for her. That’s not something he ever thought he’d be saying about the normally quiet and reserved Julie. What the hell was going on with her?

She’d layered several tight
, thin t-shirts. The bottom layer was a black long sleeve tee, but over top of that were several others in multiple shades of purple. All the layers ended midway down her taut belly leaving miles of that satiny pale skin exposed. She wore a black leather micro-mini over black and purple striped leggings. The entire look was finished off with chunky black combat boots.

Her
cropped hair was spiked up in wild disarray, with chunks of purple and even a few blonde spread throughout the normal dark color. Her hazel eyes sparkled behind the smoky plum and black smudged eyeliner as she let him look his fill. But then she looked past him to the windows and gasped.

“It snowed?”
There was no missing the dismay in her voice.

“Looks that way.
I’d say we’ve gotten about five inches since I got in last night. When I arrived it was barely spitting, but that definitely changed sometime in the last few hours.”

“
I can’t ride my motorcycle in the snow.” She blew out her cheeks and glared at him. She couldn’t blame him for bringing the snow.

He gave a low chuckle. “No ma’am, you sure can’t, especially not in that outfit.” He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Not that I’m complaining. I lik
e your outfit just fine. But I have my truck here so you can relax because it has four-wheel drive. Do you have somewhere you need to be?”

She
deflated and sighed deeply. “No, not really. I just don’t like not having an option. It’s Saturday, so I can handle being snowed in. But what about you? Are you gonna stick around even though Cassie’s not here?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think I will. I need the break
before we head out, if you don’t mind sharing the house with me for the next twenty-four hours or so. We can just have ourselves a little sleepover.”