Fighting Redemption (19 page)

“Well you can’t do much better. You’re blind,” he pointed out.

She paused to glare at him. “I only need glasses to read.”

He waved a hand in front of her face. “Can you see this?”

Laughter bubbled out of her as she snatched the purse out of his hands. “Fine. We can just camp out here. Wait for dawn so we can see properly.”

“I’m not sleeping on the fucking porch.”

“Why not? I’m sure you’ve slept in worse places.”

He had. Many nights had been spent camped out on the dirt during an exercise or patrol. Interrogation training had been the worst. He’d slept bound—hands tied behind his back and ankles shackled—and after being dragged naked through mud and worse, ice cold water had been tossed over him every half an hour to keep him awake. But fuck, he wasn’t training, or at war. He was with Fin. That deserved a cosy bed and warm, naked skin.

Ryan’s eyes dropped to her mouth. Visions of picking her up, slamming her back into the wall and kissing those lush lips hit him hard. He sucked in a quick breath when all the blood in his body headed south. Suddenly getting inside was becoming more urgent. He snatched at her purse at the same time she tugged it backwards, and it went flying across the lawn, the contents scattering in what felt like slow motion to all four corners of Hell. Somewhere out there in the dark was the key, and he needed inside, and not just the house.

“Well, now you’ve done it,” Fin announced.

“Fuck.” Ryan peered out onto the front lawn. “Don’t you have a spare hidden somewhere?”

Fin fisted her hands on her hips. “I used to put a key above the door ledge until Jake found out.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “He flipped out and threatened to shave off Crookshanks’ fur if I did it again. I guess he was worried about someone finding it and getting inside while he wasn’t around. I guess it wasn’t the best spot to hide a key, but I never got around to finding another spot.”

“No shit it wasn’t the best spot,” he mumbled before striding over to where her purse landed and getting down on his knees, started the search. “I bet he’s laughing at us right now.”

Fin knelt beside him, her thigh brushing against his. “You think so?” she asked softly.

“Of course. I hear him laughing at me all the time.” He stopped grabbing at the random objects Fin obviously felt were necessary for a night out and looked at her, his chest aching. “I’m sure I even hear him talking to me.”

“You too?”

Ryan licked his lips. “You … I’m not the only one going crazy then?”

“Well …” she drawled.

He chuckled softly, shaking his head. “What does he say to you, Fin?”

Fin picked up a blade of grass and began shredding it carefully. “Okay, um … the other day I was backing out of the car park at work and almost got side swiped by a delivery truck. Then it was like Jake was sitting in the passenger seat, yelling at me to get rid of my little quote-unquote ‘earth saving little buzz box and buy a goddamn 4WD with bullbars.’”

“Well, that does sound like Jake, and he does have a point. You’re not the best driver. You’d be safer driving a bigger car.”

“Well,” she muttered, leaning over and running her hands over the lawn searching for the key. “I’m not telling you what else he says then.”

“Oh yeah?” Ryan launched himself at her, tackling her around the waist. He landed on his back with a thud, Fin falling on top of him. She scrambled back, straddling him. “I know ways to make you talk.”

Fin raised a brow at him, and he trailed his finger down the V of her top, careful to make sure it traced teasingly over the delicious swell of her breast.

She whipped her head around, peering up and down the street. “Ryan, we’re on the front lawn.”

“Whose fault is that?”

“Yours,” she moaned when he cupped both breasts in his hands, rubbing his thumbs over her nipples.

“Fuck,” he muttered, desire coiling tight in his belly. He ran his hands down the flimsy edges of her top. “I want to rip this thing off you.”

“Oh God. Don’t. You’ll shred my skin.”

He looked at her, aghast. “What have you done? Glued the thing to your boobs?”

“No!” She huddled down on top of him, and he bit back a groan at the warm weight of her chest pressing against his. “It’s taped on.”

“Really? So I get to unwrap you like a present?” Ryan ground his hips into her, liking the idea.

“Ryan!”

“Are you blushing, baby? Because your face looks bright enough to light up the entire lawn. We might just find the key after all.”

Leaning up a little, he caught her bottom lip in his teeth and nibbled lightly. He heard her breath catch before her mouth opened beneath his and her tongue slid inside.

Ryan groaned, his hand sliding up to fist her hair as she kissed him wildly. Breathless, he broke it off and pushed her away. “We need that fucking key.”

After what he was sure was a lifetime of frantic searching, Fin jumped to her feet with a squeal, holding up the little silver key in triumph.

He stood and grabbed her hand. “Inside. Now.”

“No.” Fin started yanking him towards the side of the house.

“Where are we going?”

“The yard,” she told him, unlatching the gate and tugging him along behind her.

“Fin—”

“Shush.”

Their feet crunched softly against the sandstone pavers as Fin led him along the side of the house and around the low set timber decking.

When they reached the middle of the lush thick lawn, she pulled him in close. Breathing softly, Fin pointed upwards. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Ryan looked up into the black sky. “What?”

“The stars, Ryan.” She tilted her head, exposing the long sweet line of her throat as she looked up. “Do you know why they shine?”

He quirked a brow at her. “Am I getting a science lesson?”

“If you’re lucky.”

“I can think of other ways to get lucky right now,” he told her.

Fin rolled her eyes. “That was terrible.”

He chuckled softly. “I know.”

“Look up,” she said, sounding impatient.

Ryan did as he was told, his eyes falling on the twinkling stars.

“Have you heard the term
a star is born
? It’s not as romantic as it sounds, but it’s a process called nuclear fusion. You would get that, with it being the same process used inside weapons.”

He nodded and looked at her, but her face was still tilted upwards, absorbed in the night sky as she spoke. “And they shine because they have huge fusion reactors in their cores that release enormous amounts of energy. Did you know it can take a single photon up to a hundred thousand years to get from the core of the star to its surface? And the sun, which is the closest star to earth, takes eight minutes for its light to reach us? That means when you’re looking at the sun, you’re seeing it as of eight minutes ago. So these stars you’re looking at now …” She looked at him and frowned. “Look up, Ryan.”

Ryan tore his eyes from hers and focused once again on the sky. “We’re seeing those stars as they were centuries, or even thousands of years ago. It’ll take billions of years for one of them to die, yet Jake was gone in only twenty-seven of those.”

Ryan swallowed the lump in his throat her words caused. “What are trying to say, Fin?”

Fin looked at him, her eyes filling with tears. “That it doesn’t matter if you live a billion years, or just a short handful like Jake. It’s how bright you burn while living them that really matters, and Jake burned so bright it hurt my eyes.”

Overwhelmed, Ryan buried his face in her neck, breathing her in. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely. Pulling back, he cupped her face in his hands and looked at her fiercely. “You burn just as bright, sweetheart.”

Her eyes were wide and so full of love it made his heart ache. “So do you, Ryan,” she replied softly.

Lowering her gaze, Fin carefully peeled her top away from her skin and pulled it over her head. She took a step back as she shimmied out of her skirt, leaving him breathless as she stood in nothing but a scrap of black lace. “I want you out here, under the stars.”

“Fin,” he breathed.

She stepped out of her shoes and moved towards him, reaching for the hem of his shirt.

She grinned. “Arms up.”

He held his arms up as she tugged his shirt off and dropped it on the grass beside their feet.

Ryan kicked off his shoes as her fingers reached for his belt buckle. The light touch of her fingers against the bare skin of his stomach had him throbbing painfully.

“No making too much noise like you usually do,” she teased.

He leaned over, peeling off his socks. Straightening, he looked down into her eyes. “Baby, I’ll have you screaming my name so loud, your face will be what’s burning brightly every time your neighbours wave hello with a smirk.”

“Yeah?” She tugged hard at his belt before undoing the button of his jeans and sliding the zipper down. He sucked in a breath as her fingers trailed the hard length of him along the way. “Well they’re your neighbours now too, Ryan.”

Ryan froze, his heart thundering in his chest. “What?”

Fin yanked his jeans down and he stepped out of them. Instead of straightening up, she knelt on the soft grass and ran her hands up the outsides of his thighs. “Move in with me, Ryan?”

She tugged at his boxer briefs, sliding her fingers tantalisingly close to him. Leaning in, Fin let her breasts rub softly against him as she slid her hands around his legs and beneath his underwear. She loved looking at his rough, hard body, but feeling it was even better. She heard his shaky exhale as she peeled the boxer briefs down his legs. Was it a dirty trick asking that of Ryan while she was on her knees before him? Fin slid her hands up the back of his legs, and gripping his ass in her hands, she leaned forward and licked the length of him slowly, from base to tip. Ryan let out a loud groan. It probably was, but she was tired of sitting back and letting him leave her to go do what he needed to do. If he had to go back to Afghanistan, then she was going to damn well get every minute with him she could before he did.

“That depends,” he moaned when she wrapped her hands around him and swirled her tongue around the tip enticingly.

Pulling back, she looked up at him from beneath her lashes as she continued to move her hand over him in slow, even strokes. “On what?”

“On whether you’re going to kick me out the moment I mow the lawn,” he mumbled.

Fin tugged on him firmly and he groaned. “Oh, you like that?” she muttered. “Anything else?”

“Am I allowed to feed the cat and help with the housework without you thinking I’m trying to run your life?”

Fin pulled back, resting back on her haunches as she folded her arms.

“Don’t stop.” He grinned down at her. “I promise I won’t do a thing around the house to help you.”

“Ryan!” She pressed her lips together, trying to fight the smile. “Now who’s being the smartass.”

Ryan chuckled softly before his face sobered. “I can’t live without you, remember? Of course I’ll move in.” He must have seen the wild emotion in her eyes because he gave her a mock glare and folded his own arms. “Now finish what you started.”

Straightening up, she took him back in her mouth, teasing him with her hands and tongue until she could feel him fighting for control.

“Stop now,” he moaned.

“No.”

“Fin, I’ll come,” he warned hoarsely.

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“Yes,” he ground out, breathing heavily. “I want to be inside you where I damn well belong.”

Ryan stepped out of her reach and grabbed his shirt from the ground. He tossed it on the grass. “Lie down,” he ordered.

“You’re so bossy.”

“You like it.”

“Only with you, Ryan,” she told him. The grass crunched softly beneath his shirt as she lay over it. “Well now that you’ve got me here,” she told him as he knelt down between her legs and hovered himself above her, “what are you going to do with me?”

His dark eyes flashed heatedly into hers. “Wicked, wicked things, baby.”

Her heart lodged in her throat. “Ryan,” she whispered thickly and reached up, cupping his beautiful face in her hand. “I love you so much.”

Ducking his head, Ryan took her lips hard, his tongue thrusting inside her mouth and tasting her wildly. Tearing away, he looked at her for a long moment, his chest rising and falling heavily against her own. “I want to say I love you too, but it doesn’t seem enough.”

With a shaky hand, she brushed away the silky strands of hair that caressed his forehead. “Say it anyway,” she whispered.

“I love you, Fin. I’ve always loved you. Right from the moment you walked up those steps at school, you tripped your way right into my heart. I won’t ever stop. I’ll love you longer than the stars that live in the sky.”

“Okay,” she replied, the vision of him blurring behind more tears as she smiled up at him. “That seems like enough.”

He leaned in and nibbled softly on her earlobe. “Now can I please have my wicked way with you?”

“By all means,” she murmured, heat coursing through her body as his hands stroked over her breasts.

Damn the man, he was right, because soon after Ryan’s mouth licked and kissed every inch of her body, and he was moving hard and fast inside her, she was moaning and shouting his name hoarsely. It would take weeks for the wild flushes to calm down every time she looked her neighbours in the eye.