The SEAL's Secret Heirs (10 page)

I'd suffer.

Where had that come from? She tried to shake it off, but as they stood there in the kitchen of Wade House with his masculinity pouring over her like a hot wind from the south, the emotions welled up again and she cursed herself. Cursed the truth.

Sometime between his coming home and now, she'd opened her heart again. Just a little. She'd tried to stop, tried asking for space, but the honest truth was that she'd never gotten over him because she still had feelings for him. And it had only taken one kiss to awaken them again, no matter how much she'd tried to lie to herself about it. Otherwise, that scene with Emma Jane would have rolled right off like water from a duck's back.

And she didn't trust him not to hurt her again. It was a terrible place to be stuck.

“Grace,” he murmured. “I'm here. For good. I didn't get Liam's messages, or I would have been back earlier. You've got me cast in your head as someone with my sights set on the horizon, but that's not true. I want to live my life in Royal, at least until my daughters are grown.”

He wasn't aiming to leave the moment he changed his mind. He was telling the truth; she could see it in his eyes. Maybe she wasn't such a bad judge of character after all. Maybe she could let her guard down. Just a little.

The tightness in her throat relaxed and she took the first easy breath since smacking into him. “Okay. I'll shut up about it.”

“Just to make sure, let me help you shut up.”

He hauled her up and kissed her. His mouth took hers at a hard, desperate angle that she instantly responded to. Maybe she didn't have to resist if he wasn't going to leave again. Maybe she didn't have to pretend she didn't want more. Because he was right here, giving it to her. All she had to do was take it.

His hands were still on her elbows, raising her up on her tiptoes as he devoured her with his unique whole-body kiss. Need unfolded inside, seeking relief, seeking Kyle.

Yes
. The darkness she sometimes sensed in him lifted as he dropped her elbows to encompass her in his arms, holding her tight. He backed her up against the counter to press his hard body to hers, thrusting his hips to increase the contact.

A moan bloomed in her chest, and her tongue vibrated against his as he took the kiss deeper, sliding a hand down her back, to her waist, to her bottom, molding it to fit in his palm. His touch thrilled her even as she pressed into it, willing him to spread the wealth. And then he did.

His hand went lower, gripping the back of her thigh, lifting it so that her knee came up flush with his thigh, which hiked her dress up, and
oh, my
. She was open to him under her skirt, flimsy panties the only barrier between her damp center and his very hard body.

He thrust his hips again, igniting her instantly as the rough fabric of his jeans pleasured her through the scrap of fabric at her core. Strung tight, she let the dense heat wash through her, mindless with it as she sought more. His mouth lifted from hers for a moment and she nearly wept, following him involuntarily with her lips in hopes of reclaiming the drugging kiss.

“Grace,” he murmured, and dragged his lips across her throat to the hollow near her ear, which was so nice, she forgot about kissing and let her head tip back to give him better access.

He spent a long moment exploring the area, and finally nipped her ear lightly, whispering, “You know, when I said I wanted to live my life in Royal, I didn't picture myself alone.”

“I hope not,” she murmured. “You have two daughters.”

He laughed softly, as she'd intended, and hefted her a little deeper into his arms as he lifted his head to meet her gaze. “You know that's not what I meant.”

Of course she did. But was it so difficult to spell out what was going on his head? So difficult to say how he felt about her? She wanted to hear the words. This time, she wasn't settling for less than everything. “Tell me what you're picturing, Kyle.”

“Me. You.” He slid light fingertips down the sweetheart neckline of her dress until he reached the spot right between her breasts and hooked the fabric. “This dress on the floor.”

Shuddering in spite of herself at the heated desire in his expression, she smiled. “Let's pretend for argument's sake I'm in favor of this dress on the floor. What would you say to me while you're peeling it off?”

The glint in his eye set off another shower of sparks in her midsection. “Well, my darling. Why don't we just find out?”

Slowly, he pulled down the shoulders of the dress, baring her bra straps, which he promptly gathered up, as well. She heartily blessed the impulse that had caused her to pick this semibackless dress that didn't require unzipping to get out of. Which might not have been an accident.

“Beautiful.” He kissed a shoulder, suckling on it lightly, then following her neckline with the little nibbling kisses until she thought she'd come apart from the torture.

When she'd asked him to talk about what was on his mind, she'd been expecting a declaration of his feelings. This was so much better. For now.

All at once, the dress and bra popped down to her waist in a big bunch of fabric, baring her breasts to his hot-eyed viewing pleasure. And look he did, shamelessly, as if he'd uncovered a diamond he couldn't quite believe was real.

“Grace,” he rasped. “Exactly like I remembered in my dreams. But so much more.”

That pleased her enormously for some reason. It was much more romantic than what she recalled him saying when they were together ten years ago. He'd seen her naked before, but always in semidarkness, and usually in his truck. Bench seats were not the height of romance.

With a reverent curse, he brushed one nipple with his thumb, and her breath whooshed from her lungs as everything went tight inside. And outside.

“Kyle,” she said, and nearly strangled on the word as he lifted her up onto the counter, spreading her legs and stepping between them. Then his mouth closed over a breast and she forgot how to speak as he sucked, flicking her nipple with his tongue simultaneously.

She forgot everything except the exquisite feel of this man's mouth on her body.

Her head fell back as he pushed a hand against the small of her back to arch her toward his mouth, drawing her breast deeper into it. She moaned, writhing with pleasure as the heat swept over her entire body, swirling at her core. Where she needed him most.

As if he'd read her mind, his other hand toyed with her panties until she felt his fingers touching her intimately. It was cataclysmic, perfect. Until he placed his thumb on her nub, expertly rubbing as he pleasured her, and that was even more perfect. Heat at her core, suction at her breast, and it all coalesced in one bright, hot pinnacle. With a cry, she crested in a long orgasm of epic proportions.

She'd just had an
orgasm
on the
kitchen
counter
. She should probably be more embarrassed about that...

Before she'd fully recovered, Kyle picked her up from the counter and let her slide to the floor, then hustled her up the stairs to a bedroom. Heavy, masculine furnishings dominated the room, marking it as his, but a few leftover items from his youth still decorated the walls. He dimmed the light and advanced on her with his slow, lazy walk.

“Oh, there's more?” she teased.

“So much more,” he growled. “It's been far too long since I've felt you under me. I want you naked. Now.”

That sounded like a plan. The warm-up in the kitchen had only gotten her good and primed for what came next.

Breathless, she stood still as he peeled her dress the rest of the way from her body and let it fall to the carpet. She promptly forgot to worry about the extra pounds she'd gained in her hips and thighs since the last time he'd seen her.

He stripped off his shirt, exposing that beautiful torso she'd barely had time to explore earlier.

When his jeans hit the floor, she realized his chest was only part of the package, and the rest—
oh, my
. He turned slightly, holding one leg behind him at an odd angle, almost as if he was posing for her. Well, okay then. Greedily, she looked her fill, returning the favor from earlier when he'd gorged on the sight of her bare breasts.

In the low light, he was quite simply gorgeous, with muscles bulging in his thighs and a jutting erection that spoke of his passion more effectively than anything he could have said. The power of it coursed through her. She was a woman in the company of a finely built man who was here with the sole intent of pleasuring her with that cut, solid body. And she got to do the same to him.

Why
had she waited so long for this?

“Grace.”

She glanced up into his eyes, which were so hot, she felt the burn across her uncovered skin, heightening her desire to
get started
already. He was going to feel amazing.

“You have to stop looking at me like that,” he rasped.

“Because why?”

He chuckled weakly. “Because this is going to be all over in about two seconds if you don't. I want to take my time with you. Savor you.”

“Maybe you can do that the second time,” she suggested, a little shocked at her boldness, but not sorry. “I'm okay with you going fast the first time if I get to look at you however much I want. Oh, and there's going to be touching, too.”

To prove the point, she reached out to trace the line of his pectoral muscles, because how could she not? He groaned under her fingertips and that was so nice, she flattened her palms against his chest. “More,” she commanded.

He raised his eyebrows. “When did you get so bossy?”

“Five minutes ago.” When she'd realized she was a woman with desires. And she wanted this man. Why shouldn't she get to call a few shots?

With a small push at his torso, she shoved him toward the bed. And to his credit, he let her, because there was no way she'd have moved him otherwise. He fell backward onto the bed and she climbed on to kneel next to him, a little uncertain where to start. But determined to figure it out.

“Just be still,” she told him as he stared up at her with question marks in his gaze. Then she got busy exploring.

What would he taste like? There was only one way to find out. She leaned down and ran her tongue across his nipple, and it was as delicious as she'd expected. He hissed as the underlying muscle jerked.

“Staying still is easier said than done when you're doing that,” he muttered, his voice cracking as she ran her tongue lower, down his abs and to his thigh.

She eyed his erection and, curious, reached out to touch it. Hard and soft at the same time, it pulsed against her palm.

He cursed. “Playtime's over.”

Instantly, he rolled her under him in one fierce move, taking her mouth in a searing kiss that rendered her boneless. She melted into the comforter as he shoved a leg between hers, rubbing at her core until she was in flames.

He paused only for a moment to sheathe himself with a condom, and then nudged her legs open to ease into her slowly.

Gasping as he filled her, she clung to his shoulders, reveling in the feel of him. This was so different than she remembered. The experience was so much stronger and bigger. The leftover emotion that she'd carried with her for the past ten years exploded into something she barely recognized. Before, Kyle had been in a compartment in her mind, in her heart. Something she could take out and remember, then put back when she got sad.

There was no putting this back in a box.

The essence of Kyle swept through her, filling every nook and cranny of her body and soul. No, he hadn't bubbled over with lots of pretty words about being in love with her. But that would come, in time. She had to believe that.

And then he buried himself completely with a groan. They were so intimately joined, Grace could feel his heartbeat throughout her whole body. They moved in tandem, mutually seeking to increase the pleasure, spiraling higher toward the heavens, and she lost all track of time and place as they lost themselves in each other.

The rhythms were familiar, like dancing to the same song so often you memorized the moves. But the familiarity only heightened the experience because she didn't have to wonder what would happen next.

Just as he'd done when they'd been together before, he stared into her eyes as he loved her, refusing to let her look away. Opening his soul to her as they joined again and again. The romance of it swept through her and she held him close.

This was why she'd fallen in love with him. Why she'd never had even the slightest desire to do this with any other man. He made her feel that she completed him without saying a word. Sure, she wanted the words. But times like this made them unnecessary.

Before she was fully ready for it to end, his urgency increased, sending her into an oblivion of sensation until she climaxed, and then he followed her into the light, holding her tight against him as they soared.

She lay there engulfed in his arms, wishing she never had to move from this spot.

Kyle must have been reading her mind, because he murmured in her ear, “Stay. All weekend.”

“I don't have any of my stuff,” she said lamely as reality nosed its way into the perfect moment.

“Go get a bag and come back.”

It was a reasonable suggestion. But then what? Were they jumping back into their relationship as if nothing had happened and ten years hadn't passed? As if they'd dealt with the hurt and separation?

That was too much reality. She sat up and his arms fell away to rest on the comforter.

“I see the wheels turning,” he commented mildly as he pulled a sheet over his lower half in a strange bout of modesty. “This is a beginning, Grace. Let's see where it takes us. Don't throw up any more walls.”

She shut her eyes. Romance was great, but there was so much more that she wanted in a relationship. There'd been no declarations of undying love. No marriage proposal. Why did he get a pass that no other man got? She was caught between her inescapable feelings for Kyle and her standards.