Code Name: Luminous (7 page)

“Did the Navy teach you how to be psychic?”
she teased.

While his fingers skirted her arm, he let his
thumb graze the fullness of her breast.
“In a way.
It’s called confidence. Believe in yourself. Believe in your skills. Believe in
your team. That’s how you create the future.”

“Tony, I’ll admit I’m a little nervous, but I
want you to show me what to do.”

This time when he passed his hand down her arm
his thumb swept against her nipple, rounding it with a gentle caress. “Tell me
what you feel.”

Her eyes shuttered with his touch, the
response under his thumb made him impatient and needy.

“It aches, but in a good way.”

He
was actually loving
this. There was no need for speed, and although he’d been lying there with a
stone-shattering erection for the last two hours, he wouldn’t let it possess
him or her until she was ready.

“That ache is going to become a sizzling need,
Lumin,” he said, placing a deep kiss on her mouth. With a gentle prod, she
opened for him and he let his tongue roam her sweetness. She was uncertain, but
not tense. Hesitant for only a few seconds, then she began to explore herself.

When she laid her head back, he followed. He
nibbled at the edge of her mouth and kept tasting until he found the pulse in
her neck, licking the strong beat of her heart with his tongue.

A niggling thought crept into his mind.
She is yours
. As if she read his mind,
she sat up and with one swoop removed her top, then turned her back to him. His
hands actually shook as he reached for the clasp. He brushed her wisps of
blonde hair away, and slowly unhooked the claws. She vaulted to her feet and
drew her shorts and panties to her ankles then stepped out of them.

His pulse fired on all cylinders, and his
heart drummed heavy in his ears. Under the moonlight with the rays catching her
straight locks of hair, his eyes had no hope but to become addicted.
Totally, overwhelmingly addicted.

Full breasts like teardrops, a flat stomach
with the tiniest hint of tone narrowed to rounded hips and taut thighs. Like
Adam and Eve, they had the garden all to themselves. A warm summer breeze blew
with a whisk of mountain air to keep them cool, but he still couldn’t get
enough oxygen into his lungs.

“I’ve seen many beautiful women, Lumin, but
I’ve never seen exquisite until now.” He rolled to his feet and drew his
T-shirt over his head, flinging it to the ground. His body flexed, and her
breath hitched in her throat. “I sure as hell hope you know what’s in these
pants.”

She laughed. “Pretty sure I remember a little
bit about the birds and bees.”

He reached for his button and hesitated. Maybe
he should keep them on. His need, their need would become primal. Something
wild was growing inside him. It wanted to fuck the daylights out of her, but he
wouldn’t allow it. For the first time, he was going to make love.

“Why are you stopping?” Her eyes were like
blue cups of light catching what the heavens cast down on them.

“Because we do this slowly.
Come to me.” He swallowed seeing her step without hesitation at
his command, and he’d never felt like more of a man than in that second. He
began at her neck and his hands glided a breath away from her skin, not
touching her, just letting the thought seep into her mind that he was close and
he would have her. She shuddered, impatient and excited. Finally, his thumbs
made contact across her nipples, puckered and perfect.

She sucked in her breath, her eyes widening
even more. Would he find what he hoped he’d find if he carried on? He bent to
one knee and raised his eyes to watch her. She followed his hand as it drifted
down her body, stopping just above her mons.

Releasing her gaze was hard, but he leaned
forward and brushed his tongue across her fold. With the lightest touch, he
circled her flesh, and tasted her excitement. His heart swelled and so did his
shaft when she exhaled a perfect little moan. Forking both her hands in his, he
laid her down on the blanket and this time showed her the pleasure of his mouth
on her breasts.

Another sigh escaped her lips and she arched
into him, squirming as he circled her nipple and sucked it slowly into his
mouth. Kissing his way to her thighs, he probed once with a quick kiss on the
beautiful nub jutting from her fold, and her fingers dove into his hair.

“Oh, God,” he hissed. She was so wet her silk
dripped down her cheeks in streams. He was going to have to lose his pants soon
or he’d have a permanent zipper mark on his skin. Rising to his knees she sat
up with a start, and he laughed, kissing her back to the blanket. With a quick
hand he freed himself and tossed the pants. “Listen to me,” he kissed her
again. “This part is up to you. I’m going to make you feel things you’ve never
felt before, but it’s you who has to tell me when you want me.”

“How will I know?”

He smiled down at her. “You’ll know. Trust
me.”

She offered him a sweet smile, her hair
framing her like a golden mane, and he had no other recourse but to kiss her
again.
Long and hard.
She broke the kiss when his
thumb began to strum her wet bundle of nerves and she gave a little cry,
closing her eyes. “Look at me, Lumin.” Her eyes flashed open, filled with a
sexual fury that drove his heart into hard, pounding beats. He knew what was
coming, but she didn’t. Nature was in control, and its need to fuel a man and
woman’s prime directive pushed away all thought and allowed touch to steer the
course.

Lumin’s arms snaked around his neck and she
pulled him toward her. Wild but innocent, she devoured his lips. He withdrew,
and traced a path down her body till he found his target again. A long, slow
lick across her fold and her thighs opened to him. His hands folded around her
hips and palmed her ass. With a deep sucking pull on her slick flesh, he
moaned.

She cried out and bucked. “Oh shit, oh shit.”

His tongue kept her in a passionate balance as
his finger probed into her channel, slowly, carefully he stroked her. Oh damn,
she was tight.
Really tight.
There was no doubt she
was a virgin when he met the resistance. He kissed his way back up her body,
lingered on her breasts and met her mouth with his.

She palmed his cheeks. “I want to touch you.”

He was barely keeping himself on this side of
sane. “But you have to stop when I tell you,” he said rolling onto his back,
bringing her with him.

“Why?”

“Because guys are made a little
different than women.
We don’t have the willpower.”
Nope, none whatsoever, especially with her
trim form lying on top of you like a warm, silk blanket.

She sat back on her haunches, and the second
her fold swept up his cock, he jolted. The heat scorching through him nearly
paralyzed his brain. Her hands strayed down his abs, tracing the indentations,
and he watched her curious touch. His shaft stood like the bloody obelisk in
Washington. She palmed it with gentle uncertainty,
then
stroked it.

“It feels like metal wrapped in silk.”

Without making it obvious, or at least as
little as possible, he folded his hand over hers and squeezed her hand tighter.

“Really?”

He grinned, but gritted his teeth as she slid
down his legs and her hair draped across his stomach. A groan crawled right out
his throat when her wet mouth slid over his head and she sucked. The moan from
her vibrated through him when she drew him in, and desire tightened in the base
of his spine.

“Stop, Lumin, stop.”
He unglued his eyes from the back of his head and drew her up his
body. “Lean back on your palms,” he said hoarsely. His chest heaved with heavy
breath and determination, but he was dangling from a fine line, and it was
about to snap. With his thumb he strummed her. A primal urge gripped him as her
hips began to rotate against his. He opened the condom he’d slipped under the
blanket and rolled it on quickly. Throwing herself forward, she rubbed her nub
against him, covering it in a warm, wet acceptance.

“I need you.”

He gripped her neck and drew her mouth to his.
“Not nearly as much as I need you.
Go slow. Relax, and
take me inside you,” he breathed, and possessed her mouth while his finger
circled her slick nub. Her thighs clenched him, and he felt her soft wet core
cover his head. He swallowed and rocked his head back determined not to thrust
himself inside her, knowing he’d lose his mind.

“Hurts.”
She closed her eyes.

“Only for a second I promise, and then
pleasure,” he reassured her.

She nodded and tore through her hymen with a
small cry, her velvet sheath taking him deeper. His head throbbed, wanting her
wet channel to clamp around him.

“Be still,” he said quietly and kissed her
gently. “No rush, my beautiful light, there’s
no
rush.
From here on in, it’s only pleasure.
You and I.”
He
kissed her sweetly on her mouth, on her nose and each cheek. “Your body will
accept me.” She swiveled her hips to test the waters, and he circled her
breast, teasing the tip, and then savored each one, flicking the pebbled peaks.

“Oh yes,” she cried and her ass began to
rotate in a sensual rhythm, Mother Nature and lust taking each other’s hands.

“Oh God, you feel like heaven,” he growled,
watching a blissful expression crown her features. He was buried deep in her,
and she rotated her hips. He encouraged her to rise up and ride him. She liked
it, and before long the dance became a race to the finish line. He had to wait.
He had to see it and feel her come around him, and it didn’t take long. Her
eyes shot open and then slammed shut, her muscles clenching him and a cry
escaped her, setting him off in his own orgasm as his balls tightened and he
released himself with a roar of pure, raw satisfaction.

She draped herself against him, her warm
breath skipping across his chest, and he curled her tight in his arms. His
heart swelled. No woman had ever trusted him like this before. He tipped her
chin. “Are you okay?”

She nodded.
“A little sore
maybe.”

He carefully pulled out of her, trying not to
jolt with the sensitivity. He winced when
she
did. “It’ll be better in a couple days,” he said, ridding himself of the
condom.

“Days?” she said wide-eyed.

“Yes, Lumin, you have to heal, and then…” He
kissed her chin. “And then, well…you’ll see.”

He needed her body pressed against his and drew her tight.
Their legs remained entwined, and her lids closed, heavy with sleep. Under the
moonlight, under the stars, he prayed she was right. The thought of being like
the man who donated his sperm to bring him into the world made him sick. He
didn’t want to be that man. Grabbing the edge of the blanket, he wrapped it
around them and nestled his cheek against her warm breast. Her silky skin
calmed his fears. She was like a soft little kitten curled into him, and even
though she was at peace safe in his protection, she wasn’t close enough. This
was one mission he would never, ever forget.

Chapter Five

Tony woke with the sun warming his cheek. He
stretched and ran his hands through his hair. With a start, he sat bolt upright
and blinked. Where was Lumin?

“Lumin?”
He rocked to his feet and snagged his jeans, jumping into them
and his boots, noticing her clothes were gone.
“Lumin?”

His gaze darted around the lake and through
the tree line. He ran the trail, ignoring the slap of a few branches against
his face. Before darting from the forest, he cleared the area with a surveying
gaze and then ran for the house. When he hit the stairs, his heart began to
beat again. An enticing smell wandered from the house to meet him on the steps.
He entered the great room.
Pancakes!

Lumin glanced up. “Good morning.” She put down
the flipper she held and walked toward him. “Hungry?”

The air seemed different this morning, like
there was an invisible fibrous line connecting them. She looked—different.
Softer, if that were possible.
He cleared his throat as she
reached him.

“
Kinda
woke up with
a start. You weren’t there.”

She tipped onto her toes and kissed his mouth.
With the dainty brush of her lips, his erection jumped to duty and his hands
curled around her ass, tugging her closer.

“You were sleeping so peacefully. I didn’t
want to wake you.”

“That’s a rarity for me. I don’t normally
sleep very well.”

Her eyes shined when a smile coursed across
her features. “I’m making breakfast, but I’ll apologize now.”

“Why?”

“I follow the directions, but it doesn’t
matter what I make. It tastes like crap.” She broke into a laugh. “You can use
a lot of syrup.”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

They sat down on the back deck.
Holy shit, how can you make a pancake taste
this bad?
“Good,” he said, taking another mouthful after adding syrup.

She barked with laughter. “You lie.” She
shrugged. “I don’t know why I can’t cook. I’m hexed.”

He put his fork down and downed the glass of
orange juice she’d sat by his plate.
“Can’t be good at
everything.”

“You are,” she said, pushing her plate away.
“Ick, this is awful. You don’t have to eat it.”

“Coffee’s decent,” he said, taking a mouthful
to wash down the pancake stuck in his throat. He grinned at her. “Don’t really
mind when it’s prepared by such a beautiful woman. How are you feeling this
morning?”

She blushed and her crystal gaze swerved away
from his inquiring eyes.
“A little sore.”
She played
with her fork before meeting his eyes again. “It was the most incredible thing
I’ve ever felt. Being in your arms, I mean.” She let out a breath. “I don’t
think I’m supposed to say that. Guys get all weird, don’t they?”

“I’m not all guys.” He stretched his arm
across the table and grasped her hand. “It was pretty incredible. If you want
the truth, the guy’s guy inside me can’t wait to make love to you again.”

Make love.
He said it, and it didn’t feel
weird. Why was that?

“Obviously, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

He rose and pulled her to her feet. “That’s
the sweet part. You don’t. No man has touched you except me, and I think I
could get a little possessive over that.” She glanced up at him with doubt. “As
in, I don’t want any other man to touch you but me.”

She backed away from him. “I better clean up
the dishes.”

“Leave them. Let’s take a walk around the
lake.” He drew her behind him and they took their time, listening to the rustle
of the wind in the trees and birds calling out to each other. He held her hand
and darted glances at her at least a hundred times. Every nerve ending sparked
with excitement. Even though he’d taken her innocence, she still radiated a
purity that made him crazy. He couldn’t look at her without a charge of warmth
streaking through him.

“Are you going to tell me Ghost and Kayla’s
story?”

It took most of the walk to fill her in. When
they’d reached the point where they’d started, she said, “Kayla doesn’t look
sick.”

“I wouldn’t call her sick,” he said, sitting
on a fallen log and drawing Lumin onto his lap. “I think of it more as a fight
to survive.
The choice to mend over mind.”

“I like that,” she said, casting her gaze
across the lake. “The choice to mend over mind, kind of says it perfectly. I
don’t know if I could have survived all of that. She must be very strong.”

He chuckled. “The strong part comes into play
with the Admiral. You should have seen them try to wrestle each other to the
ground mentally before they gave in to love. Every time they had a fight, Ghost
would take it out on us. Kayla was the first woman to prove herself working in
Base Command. She’s a code cracker and a warfare analyst. That got under
Ghost’s skin big time and he rode her hard, but I think it was because he was
trying not to fall in love with her.”

“What does a warfare analyst do?”

“She strategizes the moves of both sides like
a chess game. She can think ahead and see the likelihood of the enemy’s
intentions.”

“How does she do it? It sounds interesting.”

“You’ll have to ask her.
Must
have something to do with understanding people first.
Since history
repeats itself, there are formulas, tactical maneuvers that can be altered and
reinvented. I don’t really know. Both she and Ghost have this
kinda
eerie way of knowing what’s going to happen before it
does.”

“What about Nina? She works there too, right?”

“She does. Kayla trained her, but she’s more
of a communications expert. She coordinates and
multitasks
the teams’ movements and their missions. In the middle of chaos, she’s filing
her nails and keeps it all up here,” he said, tapping his head.

Lumin eyed him. “You sound different when you
talk about Nina.”

He shrugged. “She’s got it together, and she
keeps us laughing.”

“Guess I better start Googling Navy SEALs to
understand what you all do.”

He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her
waist, resting his head against hers. “What do you want to know?”

Lumin draped her arm around his shoulder.
“Tell me what happens on a mission.”

“Hmm.”

“Is that secret?”

“Parts of it, I suppose. Do you know what SEAL
stands for?”

“No, not really.”

“Sea, Air and Land.
We’re trained to operate in all three environments.
There’s
two groups. One is located in Coronado, the other in
Virginia. Teams One, Three, Five, and Seven deploy from the west. Each team is
broken down into platoons and squads. In each one you have men who are
specially trained like Mace, who’s a sniper. I’m called a Lead
Breacher
. Then there are frogmen, another name for divers.
We all dive, but some of us specialize in underwater demolitions. Stitch is a
corpsman. When we get torn up, he tries to put us back together again. Some
skills, like diving and parachuting, are common to all of us.”

“But you’re not all officers?”

“No.”

“You told the young security guard not to call
you ‘sir.’”

“I’m enlisted, not an officer.”

“Will you be?”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Does it make a
difference?”

“Yes.”

He jerked back. “It does?”

“You should be, and obviously the Admiral
thinks so too. I heard him say you haven’t taken on a leadership role yet. He
seems to think you should.”

Tony scratched an itch at the back of his
neck. “To become an officer I’d have to enter officer training school. Most
enlisted guys stay enlisted.”

“But you’d be a good leader.”

“How would you know that?”

She blushed and traced her finger along his
cheek. “You taught me last night.”

He laughed out loud. “That’s a little
different, Lumin.”

Her gaze softened. “I don’t think so. You were
patient, taught by example, let me try to find my own way, guided me when I
wasn’t doing it right, and rewarded me with words of encouragement when it was
over.”

He swallowed deeply as she hit every key
factor of being a leader on the head. “Leading you into my web of pleasure is a
little different than leading a bunch of alpha warriors into combat.”

“But you can’t deny the fundamentals are all
there.”

He leaned back and gazed at this intriguing
woman. “I think you’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the
courtroom.”

“More words of encouragement,” she teased.

“No, I just want in your pants again.” She
swatted him, and he laughed, watching her cheeks color.

A text bleeped from his phone.

Is she still a virgin?

He deleted it quickly.

“What did it say?” she inquired.

“Nothing.”

“Another booty call?”
She slipped from his lap and eyed him suspiciously.

A girl questioning him about his texts used to
make him uncomfortable. Lumin’s question was curious without being possessive.
It didn’t bother him at all. “It wasn’t a woman.”

She wandered away from him, pulling her shirt
over her head.

He wasn’t going to interrupt and continued to
gaze as she shimmied from her clothes and
beared
a course
for the water. He sat in glorious, stunned warmth as she waded into the lake.
At night she was an elfin creature; by day, water nymph. Good thing water was
his element too.
Turfing
his clothes, he joined her
with a quiet slice into the lake and rose up in front of her. Gazing at her
unabashed beauty, it hit him this wasn’t a mission for Uncle
Sam,
this was like a—a vacation or maybe something more permanent like a—
nah
. Up to their chest in water, her
legs wrapped around his hips, and she draped her arms across his shoulders. His
hands swept to her ass and he nestled her closer.

“Tell me,” she probed.

“Tell you what?” he whispered and tasted her
lips. His submarine was going to full battle stations wedged between their
bodies.

“What did the text say?”

“It was Mace checking up on us. That’s all.”

“No it wasn’t,” she argued, beginning to sway
her hips in a delicious rocking motion.

He knew making love in the water wasn’t what
books and movies made it out to be. Water washed the natural lubrication of a woman
away and made it uncomfortable, but he was enjoying the dance their bodies
shared for now and wasn’t about to stop it.

“SEAL’s honor.”
He stole a long, lingering kiss. And then another.

“I like being here with you, Tony.” She
nuzzled her nose into his neck, kissed his shoulder and rested her chin on it.
“Thank you for protecting me.”

He leaned back. “I’m not doing this out of
duty, believe me. I want to be here.”
Where
the hell was all the honesty coming from and why was it coming out of his
mouth?
“You are so beautiful.
So honest and open.
I like that. I like it a lot.”

She pinned a smile on her cheeks. “This is
honest.” She pressed her flat belly gently against his oversized hard-on. “Do I
do this to you?” she asked, her lashes whisking her pale cheeks.

Her innocent question made him laugh. “I’d
control it if I could,” he teased, “but I doubt that’s going to happen around
you.”

If she wanted honest, he could do that. Hiding
his feelings had become second nature, but pieces of something perfect were falling
into place with this woman. He wanted her to know him, even the dark parts.

Lumin leaned her forehead against his. “When
you hold me, I feel all nervous and jittery, and it’s hard to breathe.”

Good to know he wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
“I know you’re telling me the truth, but it’s so hard to believe
you never let anyone close enough to hold you or kiss you.”

Lumin released his shoulders and her gorgeous
body arched back, floating in the water. He kept his hand beneath her bottom
and she stared up at him, her blonde locks drifting on the surface. Again, she
reminded him of some mystical creature. If he’d found her out at sea, he’d swim
a hundred miles to catch her. Her nipples hardened, and so did he as if they
were connected by some kind of psychic link.

“They tried. Mom told me that men wanted sex,
but most would be gone afterwards. My friend Star told me how great it was and
that love didn’t matter. I guess I wasn’t in a hurry to find out.”

He leaned over, slipping his arms around her
slender waist. Kissing her became an all-consuming need. Within a minute, his
mind became fuzzy and he was carrying her in his arms toward the shore. She
clung to him with ease, and he laid her on the soft moss. Her fold was slick
and ready. “It’s too early, my lady, but I don’t have to be inside you to make
you feel good.”