Hunter's Heart (11 page)

After a few bites he said, “This is good,” hoping to get a conversation going. No go. She nodded and kept eating.

The silence was frustrating but he figured she needed the time to work on trusting him. Truth be told, not talking was probably best. It was bad enough not telling her about leaving and now he felt like a bigger shit for not exactly being honest and giving her the innocent act. He really didn’t know how to approach this. He’d never had a relationship—if you could call them that—last more than a few weeks. Never wanted one until now. It seemed he was doing a good job of fucking this one up.

He tried again. “The pipes leak anymore?”

“No.” She glared at him and sounded pissed.

Great Caesar’s ghost if she was mad, why’d she ask him to stay? She kept giving him furtive glances and narrow-eyed looks. He put his fork down and finished off his beer. “I don’t like that I upset you.”

She stared at him, her expression considerably less than sympathetic. “I noticed you didn’t say it won’t happen again.”

Damn, she was not going to give him a break. She stood and took her plate to the sink.

“I have a damn high security clearance.” She leaned her backside against the counter and folded her arms. “That should have been good for something.”

Yeah, good for getting him hung from the CO’s flagpole by the short hairs if she turned him in. He picked up his plate and followed her. When Bug said this was the hard part he sure as hell was right.

“Celia, I like you.”
Fuck
that sounded so high school. “I….” They said simultaneously.

He went silent.

“I like you, Hunter.” Her stiff back and folded arms said something else. Her chin jutted out defiantly. “But, if you can’t trust me….” She shrugged. “I don’t want to see you anymore.”

“It isn’t about trusting you. It’s what I can and can’t tell you.” Frustration crept into his voice. “Think about what you do. The ramifications if you told people what you did.”

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“I’ll go.”
 

She said nothing.

He left the kitchen and went for the door. It was best to regroup. Live to fight another day. Come back when he had a better handle on how to work this out.

“Don’t forget your hat.”

Fuck.
He’d deliberately walked past it. Leaving it was a reason to return. He turned and snatched it up.

“I was disappointed,” she said from the kitchen door. “Every man I’ve been with—and that’s been very few—has disappeared after we were between the sheets a few times. I thought you’d be different. I wanted you to be different.”

“Don’t make me pay for what other men have done. I—”

“Why? You did the same thing they did.”

“And you’re doing what you’re accusing me of. How about throwing a little trust my way? I already said it. You know what I do. Yeah, it was training and I probably could have called. What if it had been an op and I was gone for months?”

She said nothing.

“So you know—if I had it to do again, I’d do the same thing. Any way you look at it, I was wrong and…you’re right.” He slapped on his cap. “This. Us. Won’t work.”

“I’ve never had a reason to trust anyone.” The hurt in her voice came through loud and clear.

“Haven’t found anyone who was worth the risk until now,” Celia said to his back. She didn’t want him to go, but damn it, she was upset and hurt. He stopped but didn’t turn.

“I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

He half turned, his hand on the door handle, giving her a brain-scanning look.

“I’ve been on my own, protecting myself, since I can remember. I’m not using that as an excuse. I…. Please stay.” She gave another shrug. “I’m at a disadvantage here. I don’t do relationships. You’re right. I was judging you against other men and past experience.”

Faint tremors of fear vibrated in her core and she willed them to stop. She knew he was different from those other men. Even so, this wouldn’t, couldn’t last long. Her fucking past and always-present fear wouldn’t let it. Even so, she’d take whatever time she could have with him.

“I apologize. Please stay. We can have coffee and talk.”

He turned, his back at attention straight, his expression stern. She was sure he was going to leave.

“I want to stay. I felt like crap leaving you after the way we were that night.” His voice trailed away. “I understand you’re pissed. And no, I can’t say it won’t happen again. It was the reason I didn’t want to have sex that night. But when….” He hung his head and moved it side to side.

“Shit.” He looked at her. “No excuses. I wanted you. I want you now. If I stay, I’m going to be honest, I want that to happen again. I want to stay the night with you. In your bed. If you aren’t good with that tonight, say so. I’ll leave and we can talk on the phone.”

A quiver worked its way through her belly and judging from the warm moisture building between her legs it wasn’t fear. She said nothing.

“I also want you to know it isn’t just about sex. I want to be with you, take you places.” He scrubbed a hand over his beard. “I should leave. Better we talk about this tomorrow. I’m talking in fucking circles. This is your call. You have to tell me what you want.”

He was ready to leave and she didn’t want that. She believed he wanted more than sex. The real question was, did she want more?

“Do. You. Want. Me. To stay?”

She nodded.

He shook his head. “I need to hear it.” His voice deep and gravely. “Say you want me to stay.”

A warm certainty settled over her. She found her voice. “I absolutely want you to stay.”

Hunter closed the distance between them in a blur, encasing her in an embrace. Holding her so hard she felt his heart hammering as fast as her own. She clung to him, reveling in his scent and the feel of his body. She prepared for a barrage of kisses, for her clothes to be torn away and to have sex right there on the floor or sofa.

It didn’t happen. He gave her a sweet kiss and when it ended, he touched her face.

“Fresh start?” His hand cruised down her arm then caressed her back

“Yes.” The word rode out on a long breath.

He pressed her to him breathing heavy.

His labored breathing concerned her. He’d mentioned a bump on the head and concussion was a possibility. “Are you all right?”

He took in a hard breath and blew it out. “I am, now that I have you in my arms. There for a while, I wasn’t.”

She leaned back to look at his face.

“I was damn worried you were going to throw my ass out and tell me you never wanted to see me again.”

“I thought about it,” she said, half-serious.

“I know. That’s what had me worried.”

She popped the snap on his jeans.

“No.” He grasped her hands. “Not yet. We have plenty of time.”

“But…”

His arms went around her again. “For now, I just want to hold you. Enjoy how good you feel. Then, kitchen clean up.” He looked down with a devilish grin smeared across what face wasn’t covered with hair.
“Then
upstairs.”

“Kitchen clean up? Are you a neat freak?”

“No. The lady of the house is and I want to stay on her good side.”

She bristled. “What makes you think that?”

“Come on. This place has no clutter. Nothing is out of place.”

She did have a clutter aversion and the less she owned the easier it was to move.

“I meant what I said about it being more than sex.” The timbre of his voice sent chills skittering over her spine. “Let’s get the kitchen taken care of then we can decide what we’re going to do for the rest of the night.”

They cleared everything away in what she considered record time. She threw her hands in the air like she’d seen cowboys at the rodeo do when they calf roped. “We’re done.”

Hunter carefully folded a dishtowel and placed it on the counter. His arm shot out grasping her, pulling her against him.

“Hey.” Her mock protest ended when his mouth took hers.

He broke away but kept his mouth hovering close to hers. “What are we going to do now, play checkers, watch TV?”

“I don’t know how to play checkers and I don’t want to watch TV. What else do you suggest?”

He delivered a bone-melting, clothes-evaporating kiss.

“I’m going to carry you to bed,” he said against her lips.

“Good.” She sighed. “Because after that kiss, I don’t think I can walk.” She was kidding but he wasn’t. He swung her into his arms and carried her effortlessly up the stairs.

In her bedroom, he carefully lowered her feet to the floor and they stood by the bed kissing. One of his hands cupped her breast as the other massaged her ass.

“Hunter, please hurry.” She jammed her fingers inside the front of his jeans. “I need you.”

He stopped kissing and removed her hand. A mewling sound of protest escaped her.

“That first night, and that morning the sex was furious, and amazing,” he said.

She loved the way his beard moved when he smiled, or in this case, grinned.

He brought her hands to his lips and kissed the tips. “This time, we’re going to take it slow. Tonight is about you. You’re going to tell me what you like and I’m going to make you come a dozen different ways.”

She shook her head. One of his thick eyebrows rose and his expression turned from thoughtful to questioning. “No?”

“A dozen?” She was thinking she couldn’t survive coming that many times. His hand cupped her chin tilting her face up.

“Anything.” His lips softly met hers. “Worth doing.” His lips trailed her jaw and she shivered. “Is.” He moved to her ear. “Worth overdoing.”

He straightened and the look he gave her was so damn hot she almost came right then. “Okay….” She sucked in a couple stutter breaths and thought death by climax might be one hell of a way to die. “You convinced me.”

He was an excellent multi-tasker, kissing with zeal while his hands skimmed her sides, working up her shirt. “I want to get this off you,” he said. She squirmed, freeing her arms from the cloth even as they continued kissing. His lips left hers only long enough for him to yank the shirt over her head. In the process her hair came free from the scrunchie. Hunter fanned her hair over her shoulder then took a moment to look.

“What you do to me,” he said so low she wondered if he’d meant to say it aloud.

Whatever he meant, it spurred her heart into a wild tap dance and sent a wave of need swirling through her.

“You asked me what I want,” she said, grappling with his shirt, freeing the cotton from the waistband of his pants. “I want you naked. I want to rub my nipples against the hair on your chest.
I want you
.”

He hissed in a breath and worked the shirt up over his head. Before he had it stripped away, she fell against him, fumbling with the dastardly zipper on his jeans. “Damn it.”

He tossed the shirt and pulled back. “What?”

“I can’t get the zipper down.” She jammed her fingers inside the pockets attempting to shimmy the denim past his hips and free his erection.

Hunter covered her hands with his. “Slow down,” he murmured. “We have plenty of time.” The zipper opened easily for him.

She peeled the jeans down his hips and freed his erection. Then yanked, trailing her fingers over his muscular thighs as she pushed the jeans away. She stood unabashedly staring. God, he was magnificent. He kicked off his shoes then hopped from one foot to the other, stripping the jeans completely away. He bent to slide his lips down her neck to the breast he cupped. While his talented lips drew one then the other nipple to hard points, she ran her hands through his hair, down the nape of his neck. Over the warm skin of his shoulders and back. Tenderly exploring the ridges and indentations of small scars.

“I’m going to take off your shorts,” he murmured between oral attentions to her breasts.

Before she could agree or disagree—like she would disagree—he crouched and in seconds her shorts and panties were past her hips, down her thighs, pooled around her ankles. She kicked them away then sat on the bed. Hunter knelt and spread her legs. She braced her hands on the bed and leaned back.

Tough-skinned hands skated up her legs until bracketing her hips with a steady grip, as his mouth and tongue explored the sensitive folds of her flesh. The sensation of his hot breath and soft beard washing over her added to the eroticism and was almost more than she could take. Her arms quivered, unable to hold her any longer. She gave it up and fell back. Hunter stood, scooped her up and deposited her in the center of the bed.

“You have no idea what seeing you react to my touch does to me. Knowing that I can give you pleasure.”

Oh,” she said, her voice quivering, “I think it’s probably the same thing it does to me.” She was wired with sexual tension yet so relaxed she could have become part of the mattress. With infinite care, his hands glided over her and everywhere their bodies connected, her flesh zinged and was newly alive. She squirmed and arched to get as much contact as possible.

“I
will
touch you everywhere,” he whispered. “If I miss a place….” He rolled her on her stomach, running the flat of his hand up her thigh, stopping at her ass to squeeze. “Tell me.” He kissed one cheek then the other. “I’ll give it special consideration.”