Off Base (6 page)

She looked down and saw the thick ridge of his erection, outlined where it lay against his belly. Anticipation sent dampness spreading between her legs.
Need him inside me. Need him to need me back.
“When you think about your first time, Major…” She flicked open the top two buttons of her shirt. “Am I on top, riding your big body? Or do you have me on my back, taking it hard?”

His tight-lipped groan sent a shiver pulsing up her thighs. “Don’t make me say these things here. I’m trying to do this right.”

Trying to do
what
right? Be respectful to her father…or something else? She didn’t want to know, so she finished opening the trail of buttons and parted the thin material of her shirt. He managed to keep his gaze plastered to the ceiling until she unsnapped the front clasp of her bra. His head came up, eyes blazing as her bare breasts bounced free. “
Jesus Christ
.” His tongue dragged along his bottom lip like a man getting ready for a meal, but instead of feasting on her, he said, “I could live off the sight of you, darlin’. But if you don’t put your shirt back on, I’ll hold you down and do it myself.”

Her sex clenched at his words, the mental image of Beck angrily dressing her. “I’ll put my shirt back on if you answer my question.”

Kenna stepped closer, bringing her breasts within an inch of his mouth, and his entire body shuddered. “What was the question again?”

“Your first time.” His puffs of breath made her nipples tighten. “Me on top? Or you?”

For a split second, she thought he might give in and suck one of her peaks into his mouth, but he remained in place. “When I first saw you, I thought of…”

“Tell me, Major,” she whispered hoarsely. “Say all the bad things in your head.”

His swallow was audible. “I wanted to hold you down and—and fuck you. Without holding back. I wanted to push your legs wide open and fuck you while your nails made my back bleed.” The words were rushed, out of breath. “Even if you screamed, I didn’t want to stop. Just wanted to pump and fuck until I stopped thinking and only felt you.” His hands shot out to grip the sides of her open shirt, closing the material over her breasts with a heavy, relieved exhale. “But I’d want you on top, Kenna. I don’t think we could do it the other way. Wouldn’t I hurt you, darlin’? You’re so small compared to me.”

Very few times in her life had Kenna been struck speechless. Beck’s graphic description of what he wanted to do with her blazed through her middle like a lightning storm, but the sweetness that followed, his covering her breasts, laid a balm over the scorched earth left behind. She felt pulled in two directions and each one was equally appealing. Sex with him wouldn’t be as black and white as she’d hoped. The tingling in her neck said
run, run away and don’t look back
, but when she remained silent too long and a hint of vulnerability crept into his expression, she knew it would never happen.

Messy or not, she was running headfirst into the oncoming storm.

Chapter Five

Beck studied Kenna from the passenger seat, wishing like hell she’d say something.

See? This is why he kept his sinful thoughts to himself. Since Beck could remember, he’d been tested by desires that a good man had no right to feel. At age fourteen, he’d even gotten the nerve up to confide in the youth minister at his church, but instead of giving Beck a way to control the urges, he’d been instructed to ignore the need to…rut. Not just to have sex, but to recreate the sweaty, flesh-slapping images his mind conjured up. He’d been told that they were the work of the devil, that lovemaking was a quiet, caring act shared between husband and wife. Over time, he’d learned to keep the thoughts at bay until late at night, in the dark, when they wouldn’t remain caged any longer. It had worked well enough until Kenna had sauntered up to him at the landing zone and mental hell had broken loose.

Everything he’d said to her had been truthful. The afternoon he’d woken up to find her gone, he’d been so painfully erect, he’d been forced to ease himself before rising from the bed had been an option. She’d poked the sleeping bear inside him and now it roared through his insides, looking for its mate. Last night in the bar, he’d only been capable of mustering a mild appreciation for other women, much like he’d felt for the female soldiers he’d encountered overseas. But he’d
needed
Kenna. Only Kenna. Didn’t even want to consider someone else’s hands on him. Or
hers
on someone else.

Beck had to close his eyes and count to ten, surprised once again by the depth of jealousy the thought of her with someone else incurred. He was leaving Thursday morning, the day after the ceremony. Leaving for good. There wasn’t a man alive with the power of sight who wouldn’t want her for himself. On top of being every male’s sexual fantasy on two legs, she had a quick sense of humor. She was
interesting.
Intelligent. Mysterious. Knowing how quickly she’d be spoken for, he could already tell boarding that plane on Thursday would be like getting caught in a tunnel blast a second time. Worse.

His dark realization was cut short when Kenna pulled up outside a greasy, dilapidated garage. “Tell me you don’t live here. Please.”

“Afraid so, Major.” She cut off the car’s engine. “Still want to come inside, or have you changed your mind?”

“I have not changed my mind.” Great. Finally, he gets her talking only to insult her home. “I beg your pardon, Kenna. I didn’t mean to come off rude.”

A smile entered her eyes. “You’re begging my pardon?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He looked back toward the garage, noticing the sign advertising break inspections was seconds from plummeting to the ground. “It just doesn’t seem safe for a girl living alone, is all. Doesn’t your father object?”

“I’m an adult, Major. I decide where to lay my head.” She shrugged. “Besides, I think as long as I moved out and gave Tina room to move in, I could have gone to the moon for all he cared.”

Beck experienced the same irritation he felt when the lieutenant general hadn’t thanked her for the beef jerky, and then again when Tina hadn’t offered her a drink. “I don’t like you being treated that way.”

She stared through the windshield for a moment before returning her attention to him. Gone was the forlorn quality in her expression. Invitation had taken its place. “You know, talking about this doesn’t put me in a sexy mood.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned across the console, casting a net of her incense scent to drag him under. Her hand landed on his thigh, but it might as well have been his cock from the way it immediately strained against his fly. “I want to hear more about what you want. What you told me back at the house…I liked it, Major. A lot.”

“You ought to start calling me Beck, now, Kenna.” Lord, her breasts swelled against her shirt as she leaned toward him. “Seeing as how you’re taking me home.”

Her hand skated higher on his thigh. “Okay…Beck.”

That was it. Kenna saying his name blew a fuse in his head, short-circuiting his self-control. A
boomboomboom
started in his ears as he yanked her across the console, dropping her firm, little backside onto his lap. Every second of resistance he’d managed back in that dining room demanded repayment and nothing could settle the debt, save her. Before he knew his own mind, he ripped her shirt open and upclasped her bra, growling as those rosy-peaked, bad-girl tits popped free. “I’m going to suck them.
Need
to suck them.” He bent his head and dragged her right nipple into his mouth, drawing on it with a loud moan. “Move around on my dick while I suck you, Kenna. I’m so hard. You make me so hard to be inside you. How is that possible when I don’t even know what it feels like?”

She turned in his lap to straddle him, one palm smoothing down the side of his face. “Take me upstairs and I’ll show you.” Her breathing was erratic, but she stopped after one mind-bending buck of her hips. “Don’t you know you make me just as achy?”

Awe and relief and
lust
battered him. “I want to see that spot where you’re achy. I want to look at you there, watch you touch it. I want to touch…your pussy. Want to lick it.”

Kenna fell forward onto his chest, forehead dropping onto his shoulder. “Beck, if you keep talking like that, I’m going to come before you get inside me.”

“I don’t think I want that to happen.” With an iron will she continued to diminish with every hot breath against his neck, Beck pushed open the passenger door and stepped out, smiling through the pleasure-pain of Kenna clinging to him like a lifeline. Ah hell, he liked that. Like her compact body wrapped around his like a missing piece, her curves accommodating his ridges, the valley between her legs, warm and inviting, settling on top of his throbbing dick. “Tell me where I’m going, darlin’,” he choked out.

She ran her open mouth up his neck. “There’s an alley on the left…staircase around back.”

Beck strode toward the alley, unable to ignore how poorly lit and deserted it was. Anger and worry trickled through the permanent heat she’d inflicted on him. “I don’t like this. I don’t like you here.” She tugged on his ear with her teeth and his stride faltered.
Distracting me. It’s working. For now
. He stomped up the staircase, groaning at the way she slid up and down his bulging fly with each step. “While we’re on the subject of things I don’t like, Kenna, I haven’t even kissed your mouth. You can be damn sure that’ll be happening before we go any further—”

Her mouth landed on his just as they reached the door. Sweet Lord above. If he’d thought Kenna simply walking into a room had an impact on him, he’d had another think coming. His back hit her front door, air seeping from his lungs as she locked their mouths together and slowly dragged away, taking his bottom lip with her. Both of their mouths opened on cue for a pull of oxygen before melding together, meshing hotly, moving in a slow, sexual rhythm, matched by the pulsing between his thighs. As if she’d made an unexpected discovery, she climbed higher on his body, thighs gripping his sides, hands holding his head steady as she delivered the kiss of his life. As soon as the notion rocked through his fevered brain, he reversed their positions, shoving her up against the door, determined to deliver the same to her. Their tongues tangled in an eager slide and he finally let himself do what he’d been fantasizing about since yesterday. He reached beneath her skirt and manhandled her sinner’s backside. He gripped the taut flesh and tightened his hold, lifting and stroking. She alleviated any fear he had of being too rough by moaning into his mouth, digging her heels into his waist.

Kenna tore her mouth away. “Inside, Beck. Take me inside,” she wheezed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’d done this before. A lot.”

“Nah, darlin’. Just you.” He took the single key she offered, turning it in the lock. “You make everything I do feel right. That has nothing to do with experience.” Walking them into the darkened apartment, he kissed her collarbone. “Thinking maybe that’s all to do with Kenna.”

Her legs dropped from around his waist. She turned before he could see her expression, but he knew he’d said too much. Shown his hand too early. When the light came on, there was a line of tension in her shoulders
. No.
He wouldn’t let her shut him out after they’d come this far. Hadn’t she said he made her ache, too? When she’d taken off her bra, he’d never been more turned on in his life. Would it work in reverse? Figuring he had nothing—except everything—to lose, Beck started unbuttoning his dress shirt. When he’d nearly reached the bottom, Kenna turned, shifting in her boots. Her green gaze sparked like a firecracker when he tugged the hem from his waistband. “W-what are you—”

Right before Beck let his shirt drop, he remembered the wound in his side and lifted a hand to hide it. Jesus, if this girl could make him forget the painful shrapnel wound, she could do anything. But he’d never willingly shown it to anyone, and he didn’t want her pity. He wanted her to need him. Needed her lust. Her touch. Anything but pity.

Kenna came to him, tension still visible in her shoulders, but it was a different kind. “I thought you were in a support unit.” Her hand hovered over the wound, as if trying to cure it. “You saw action, too?”

“I did. Of course I did.” He ran a thumb over her top lip, relieved to see her eyelids flutter. “I wouldn’t send men into a situation where I wouldn’t go myself.”

She traced the edge of his wound with her finger. “You’re a good man, Beck Collier. Some woman is going to snatch you up one day and never let go.”

Something akin to denial speared his chest and spiked his temper. He tipped her chin up and stooped down to bring their faces close. “Don’t talk about me with some other woman when I came here to be inside
your
body, Kenna. Because I promise you this.” He backed her toward the living room. “I aim to get so deep inside you, neither one of us will think of
anyone
else for a damn long while.”
Ever again,
if he had his way. “Now get your clothes off and show me the only woman I have plans to fuck. Show me.”

A beat passed in the living room where Beck thought he’d gone too far. Showed too early the secret, primitive part of himself he’d worked to suppress. Let more honesty slip out than was acceptable. It all vanished into the racing river of his pulse when she smiled, slow and sensual. “You know, I thought you were all sugar when we met.” She let her tattered shirt slide to the floor, palmed her breasts in a way that nearly brought him to his knees. “But you’re just a little bad underneath the sweet exterior, aren’t you?” She swayed toward him, right into his space. He thought she might kiss him, but she nudged him backward instead, sending him down into a deep-bottomed leather arm chair. “Why don’t we find out exactly how deep the bad goes, Major?”

* * *

Out of self-preservation, Kenna pretended not to see the absolute possession in Beck’s eyes as she removed her bra and kicked off her boots. If she let herself think about the hints he’d been dropping, her intuition that he wanted more than a one-night stand, her conscience wouldn’t allow her to go through with it. Unfortunately, her body gave her zero choice in the matter. She’d known Beck was a large man, a
handsome
man, but then he’d gone and taken off his shirt. If she stared at his brick-house body any harder, she’d need smelling salts to be revived. The angry wound in his side, the jagged, rough-hewn cut of his muscles made him rugged when she’d been expecting a teddy bear. Uh-uh. Not Beck. Beck was ripped as shit, and that little display of anger he’d let slip through the cracks had made him unexpectedly dangerous. He was a coin with two very appealing sides and she wanted to flip him, see where he landed. Since danger suited her need to keep this temporary fling as casual as possible, she would be anything but sweet. Memorable? Hell yes. But not sweet.