Wet For Her Warriors (Book 5 of the WILD -- Warriors Intense in Love & Domination -- Boys of Special Forces) (6 page)

Lani let her
eyebrows drop as her confusion rose. His baritone kept the needle pinned right
down the middle lane of neutrality. “Well, was she?” she asked.

“Was she what?”

“Misunderstood?”

His chin rose as
he clearly gave his reply some thought. “Yeah. I think she was. Of course, that
only fed into T’s Prince Charming complex. Anything to be the guy who saved the
day.”

A memory flashed
at her. The moment Bommer had trotted up to her in the garden in his briefs,
panting like the happiest puppy on earth.
I’ve beat aside the rose bush
dragon…my lady
. Though he’d been half obliterated, he’d also been pretty
cute. Sensing Rush didn’t share her sympathy for Bommer’s gallant streak, at
least not now, she kept her thoughts to herself and pushed on.

“You’re
referring to her in the past tense.” She let her voice dip to a murmur. “Does
that mean what I think it does?”

“Probably.” He
raised his head and gazed out over the ocean. “The mission ended with President
Nichols having to have his hand sewn back on and an explosion in Hollywood that
rocked the Richter scale.”

Her mouth popped
open. “
Kahaha
.”

“Huh?”

“Holy shit.”

“Oh.”

“That was
you
guys?”

“Franzen didn’t
tell you?”

“He doesn’t like
to talk work when he’s home.” She let out a huff. “He’s mostly out surfing with
Leo and bugging me about why I haven’t found a nice guy to settle down with.”

He grunted,
sounding eerily like Franz in the doing, though she couldn’t figure if he
issued the expression in approval or discomfort. Confusion hit harder about why
she even cared.

“So you know the
public details,” he went on. “But the follow-up story is grim.”

Her heart
squeezed. Her mind returned to the moment on the living room when Bommer
clutched her in tight desperation. No. Not desperation. It had been…grief. “The
blast killed Luna?”

“Not right away.”
Kellan’s jaw turned the texture of the rocks beneath them. “She was thrown by
the shock wave. It fucked her up enough to put her in a coma for six months.”

“Oh my God.”

“She finally
woke up, but only long enough to—”

“To what?”

“To say good-bye
to Tait.” The words left his lips as if they’d come straight from his gut. They
were full of deep pain for his friend, which led Lani to curl her hand around
his shoulder. “Fuck. I never got it…until now.”

“Never got
what?”

He pulled in a
long breath. “Tait always told me…well, he said that Luna had been his ‘flare.’
You see, we use these sticks—flares—out in the field, if we need to alert exfil
planes to where we’re at or we need light really quick. They burn like a ball that
fell off the sun, but it’s fast and furious, then it’s over.” The corners of
his mouth twinged. “I never faulted the guy for the comparison, though I came
up with a hundred ways to call him out as an idiot for it. But T always
answered by shaking his head, calling
me
the fool. He’d say borrowed
minutes were some of the best we can have in life, a lesson
Luna
taught
him. He also said that light is often at its most perfect before the darkness
comes again, and that those moments are worth risking everything for…worth mourning
for.” He shook his head as his face crunched into a beautiful contortion. “At
which point, I usually called him a bigger fool. And at which point, we usually
got into disgusting fights.”

“I know.” She
infused it with the warmth of comprehension. When she’d first seen them on the
beach, they’d been after each other like bears. Now, she recognized the brawl
for what it was. Rush had been trying to beat some sense into his
friend—literally.

“Yeah.” A bleak
laugh tumbled from him. “You do, don’t you?” He shook his head. “He’s been an
idiot, but I’ve been one, too. I just didn’t get it. I told him he was a fool
to have sunk so much of himself into something that never could be, even if
Luna had lived. She was on loan to the FBI from the Washington state penal
system. Yeah, the ‘history’ I mentioned even landed her a prison term for a few
years.

“I thought
they’d have something fleeting at best, and that nothing like that was worth
throwing himself off a goddamn emotional bridge. But T wouldn’t listen. He said
he’d found something real. I was a prick to him about that, too. Told him there
was no fucking way he could’ve found ‘something real’ after being with the
woman for a total of a few hours, that connection didn’t simply happen that way.”
He closed his eyes as if condemning himself for all of that. Clouds slipped
across the moon, turning the night’s silver glow into shadows that matched his
compunction—and made him even more beautiful. Lani’s throat constricted. As he
even spoke the word “connection,” she longed for more of it with him, if only
for tonight. She was seconds away from tugging him into a hug when he slid a
hand up to cover hers, and raised his dark gaze to capture hers. “Hell. I was really
wrong, wasn’t I?”

She surrendered
to a tight gulp. His touch tightened on her. His stare enveloped her. His body
was so close and powerful and strong…and his presence permeated her spirit in all
the same ways. It had been so long since she’d allowed herself anything like
this. With
anyone
like this. Feeling her heart stop…in all the right
ways. Letting her control go…in all the best ways.  

A flare in the
darkness. Magic for just a moment.

It wouldn’t be
forever. But that was the most perfect part. In a few days, Kellan would be
gone, called to his duty across the world, and she’d be committed to nothing
except some amazing memories to make the minutes with her vibrator
much
more interesting.

Stolen beats. Borrowed
time. If only for now…

“Wrong…about
what?” The words left her in tentative spurts, but somehow, he managed to hear.
Kellan dipped closer. He delved a hand into her hair and spread his fingers
across the back of her head. Damn, he felt good. Huge, commanding, a warm
refuge in the gathering storm.

“About this,” he
told her, mingling his breath with hers. “About exactly this.”

His lips fitted
over hers, taking her hunger and turning it to fire. He kissed her deeper,
parting her wide so he could invade her mouth with his tongue. And he took
again, transforming her high sigh into pure, sensual surrender.

With a groan,
Lani readily gave it to him. And prayed he’d take so much more.

Kellan’s head
spun. His senses careened. If the island’s tsunami sirens suddenly blared, he
wouldn’t be surprised. Surely the earthquake that started the wave would have
its epicenter here, in the strata of this cliff where a single kiss rocked the
axis of his being.

He didn’t do
shit like this. He didn’t
feel
shit like this. Miracles were for
hipsters who believed in wheat grass for breakfast. Life-changing kisses were
for saps who didn’t know better. That made him, here and now, the butt of the
universe’s biggest joke. Enthralled with how readily she opened for him. Moved
by how beautifully she moaned. And harder than the rocks beneath them as he lay
back and pulled her with him, savoring how she curved her thigh around his
waist.

When he wrested
his lips away from hers, his breathing came in harsh bursts. His fingers
trembled. Holy fuck. He hadn’t been a wobbling colt like this since Stacy
Weebler pulled out a box of condoms after the ninth grade dance with a shy
smile. But Stacy had been a girl. Lani was a woman, aware of what she wanted,
alive with what she needed, and telling him both with every magical silver
light in her gaze.

She smiled and
teethed a piece of her bottom lip. At the same time, she arched her leg to run
her toes beneath his shirt and up his spine. The contact sent bolts of heat through
his body. He groaned deep, then raked a hand along the gorgeous, generous curve
of her thigh. When she hitched out a sigh in response, the sound was a pure
beguilement.

As the woman
herself would say,
dear gods
. What the hell was she doing to him? He’d
always been the guy rooted in reality. Ruthless with the facts, steadiest with
the trigger finger. But as he breathed her in, filling his senses with her
ocean and jasmine scent, he barely remembered that man. His skin burned. His
muscles clenched. And his cock was well on its way to being a swollen rod of
torture. He hadn’t lusted for a woman like this in a very long time.

Which was why
his next words, as well as the conviction behind them, surprised him as much as
they did her.

“I think we need
to stop, sweetheart.”

She swallowed
like he’d just killed her puppy. “You just not feeling it, huh?”

A laugh shot out
of him. “Are you kidding?” Knowing he tempted fate with the move, he shifted so
she was completely beneath him, his crotch lodged against hers. “This is me
not
feeling it.” Using the excuse of “clarification,” he thrust a little, pushing
his length against the sweet warmth of her cleft.

“Oh—mmmm—okay.”
Her high-pitched rasp was beyond adorable. “So…
why
are you stopping?”
Suddenly, her muscles tensed. “Crap. You’re seeing someone, aren’t—”

“No.” He stopped
her from surging up by grabbing both her thighs. “
No
. There’s nobody, I
swear it. Nobody that’s done
this
to me.”

Her muscles went
lax. The feeling of her acquiescence was…amazing. The woman’s physical strength
matched the conviction of her character. To feel her giving that up for him, softening
for him, sent a sluice of raw arousal to his cock.

Kell grimaced.
Fuck
.
Years of fighting and training with T-Bomb had caused his friend’s kinky
tendencies to start rubbing off on him. Not good. He didn’t get major wood on
the domination thing like Tait and a lot of the other guys did. At least not
until now. As he envisioned lashing Lani’s naked body down to these rocks then watching
the ocean mist drench her spread limbs and pleading mouth, his cock went solid
as a Sequoia.

Goddamn. The
woman was turning him into someone he barely recognized. He should be
horrified. Afraid. The trouble was, he liked that someone.

As if Lani had a
window into his mind, she lifted a hand to his jaw and murmured, “I like it,
Sergeant. I like feeling what I do to you…and how you look when I do it.”

He glided his
hands from her hips to her waist. As he pushed them up under her jacket, a
surge of energy, primal and powerful, slammed him. “Kellan,” he growled, stopping
short of making it a full command.

“What?”

Screw it. Maybe
a little of that domination shit could be fun. “Kellan,” he repeated. “It’s my
name, not ‘Sergeant’.” He leaned over her, matching the angle of his face to
hers so he could see every curve and angle of her features. “Say it,” he
ordered. “I want to hear it on your lips, your beautiful voice wrapped around
it.”

Her lips opened.
But for a long moment, nothing came out. She held the expression, mouth parted
and eyes longing, giving him her veneration in this exquisite visual form first.
Her beauty impacted him just like the storm that approached: bold, magnificent,
cleansing.

As he blinked
from the blast, she smiled and whispered, “Kellan.”

He gripped her tighter,
and returned her smile with the stunned force of his own. “Thank you, Lani.”

“Hokulani.” Her
hand, lifted to his face with sweet emphasis, relayed how she offered it as
another symbol of her trust in him. He remembered how she’d stiffened when
Benson used it, and realized it wasn’t a privilege she allowed from everyone. “It’s
my
real name. Dad used to tell me it was a sacred gift. Right before Mom
went into labor, they were on the beach and watched a star fall over the ocean.
They saw it as the gods sending me down to be with them. ‘Hokulani’ means
‘heavenly star.’” She let out an adorably awkward laugh. “Kind of corny, I
know, but…”

Kellan didn’t
want her to finish. With a rush of inexplicable feelings, he lowered his lips to
hers again. He resolved to savor her slowly this time, trying to put important
brakes on their passion, but as her mouth responded to him, her tongue tempting
him in tender little sweeps, he abandoned the cause. After tasting her for a long,
moist tangle, he pulled back for the privilege of uttering the single,
meaningful word.

“Hokulani.”

Her grateful hum
welcomed him back to her lips, gaining resonance as he demanded deeper
entrance. The weight of her second leg settled against his back, coaxing his
resistance toward a valley of no return.

“Hokulani.” He
repeated it between heavy breaths as he finally dragged away, hoping it would
invoke a spell of angel-strength composure. No such luck. “Damn…Hokulani.” It
became an invocation of need, drawing him into a heated trance that began and
ended with the curves of her body, the desire in her eyes, the wet bliss of her
kiss.

“Kellan.” She
extended his name with husky inflection, driving him as crazy as her fingers on
his skin, flicking over his nipples before she reached for his head and scored
his scalp with her nails. “Kellan.
Kellan
.”

The shower of
her reverence crashed harder over him just as real raindrops descended around
them, smacking the ground at a quickening pace. Damn it. Like he needed yet
another reason to kick his self-control over the cliff. His fantasies of her
nudity had definitely involved moisture…lots and lots of moisture. Now, he
plenty of it to help him out in reality. The rain intensified, soaking them both
inside a minute.

With an eager
sigh, she shifted her hands from his head to pull at his shirt in feverish
tugs, fighting the rain that glued it to his back. When she reacted to his
bared torso like a starving woman given a slab of chocolate cake, his restraint
waned further. When she pulled at the back of his neck and slammed their mouths
together again, he didn’t raise an inch of resistance.

Their groans
mingled and reverberated through his body. She undulated beneath him in all the
very
right ways. The damn minx knew he was sporting commando status
under his shorts, too. She had to realize what her little lifts and grinds were
doing to him. His dick pounded so hard for release, he was certain the horses
below could stage a dance party to its rhythm.

“Hokulani.” He
issued it as half a plea this time. Okay, she was giving him all the high signs
on this and they were both grown adults, but two hours ago, she’d had a Bowie
knife at his balls. Just because they’d changed altitude and body positions
didn’t mean she had alternative plans for his nuts. He pulled an important page
from the battalion playbook.
Crazy times call for clarity and communication
.
“Sweetheart, if we don’t stop…”

His aroused
snarl drowned the end of that, as she ran both hands down his back then beneath
his shorts.

“Tell me.” She
rose a little, going for his neck with her strawberry-dark lips. The second she
made contact, he shook from the power of her warm caress on his soaked skin. He
had to consciously focus on gently forcing her back down.

“Listen to me.”
He growled it, which only seemed to spur her arousal, pumping
his
in a
classic domino effect. “If we don’t stop now, I
won’t
stop. There’s a
condom in my wallet. I’ll get it out before taking off my shorts for you again.
Then I’m going to get you naked and I’m going to spread you wide—yeah, right
here in the rain—and I’m going to fulfill the fantasy I’ve had since first
laying eyes on you. I’m going to ram my cock into your wet pussy, and hit every
spot in your sweet body that’ll make you scream until you can’t anymore.
That’ll be the moment that you come for me, sweetheart. You’ll fall apart for
me for me in a thousand different pieces, and I’ll love it as I watch every
second.”

Mentally, it
felt damn good to say it. Physically, he was a throbbing mess. He took a long
moment before drawing back from her, steeling himself for any number of
reactions. His blunt pillow talk had driven away more than a few fine women
even after three dates, let alone two hours. But nothing less than his truth
would do with this creature, so bold and fierce and passionate, who’d upended
his senses from the moment she’d flipped over his body on the beach. Lying to
her would be an insult to her, and that was
not
okay.

The rain fell
harder as he swept his gaze up.

“Up” being a
subjective term at the moment.

Like a man—or
many women, for that matter—would condemn him for halting his eyes once they
beheld her chest.

Her fully nude,
damn spectacular chest, now exposed past the jacket she unzipped and the
bathing suit she unlatched.

When he ripped
his stare away to find her face again, he found a smile waiting for him there.
She’d become half mischievous elf, half knowing goddess…and a hundred percent
breathtaking woman.

“You may have
beat me up those stairs, mister, but I’ve been three steps ahead of you ever
since.” Her eyes, brilliant as diamonds, fell to the front of his shorts.
“Where did you say that condom was?”