Authors: Tawny Weber
He angled closer so he was wedged between her thighs. His erection pressed against her belly, even harder than his impressive bicep.
So she did it again. This time, though, she captured his tongue between her lips and sucked while her nails skimmed from shoulder to bicep and up again.
He growled, low and deep.
She thought he’d take her.
She wanted him to.
Livi had never felt such a desperate need, such a deep, clawing desire for a man. She wanted to strip for him, to tear his clothes away. She needed to feel him, all of him, sliding over her body. Into her wet heat.
But instead of taking her, Mitch eased back.
With a long, soothing stroke of his tongue he ended the kiss, then brushed his lips over hers as if he couldn’t quite bear to quit just yet.
“You blow my mind,” he murmured against her cheek.
She felt his deep breath against her ear, a part of her wanting to protest that she wasn’t ready for this to end. She wanted more. She needed to know what else there was.
His hands gripped her waist, lifting her so she was seated on the stack of crates she’d been leaning on.
“Oh,” she breathed.
“Yeah,” he agreed, moving between her thighs. His hands still on her waist, he took her mouth again.
If the last time had been a deluge this was an explosion.
Before, he’d seduced.
Now, he took.
And Livi let him.
Her hands smoothed upward along the muscles of his back before caressing his shoulders. He had incredible shoulders. His tongue played with hers, sliding then plunging, again and again.
Livi’s entire being focused on his mouth. On the feel of his tongue, the glide of his lips.
Then his hands cupped her breasts.
She cried out at his touch, wet heat stabbing low and pooling between her thighs.
He didn’t squeeze. Didn’t rub. He just held her.
Livi squirmed, the need coiling tighter inside of her.
His mouth left hers, skimming her cheek with kisses as light as air. He nuzzled against her ear, his breath warm, before his tongue slid down her throat. Hot, wet and delicious, he buried his face in her shoulder.
Livi moaned softly, her head falling back to give him better access.
She was a woman highly in tune with her body.
She worked it, she pushed it. She made her living from it and, for better or worse, was becoming famous for it.
She thought she knew what it would do, how it would react. But as Mitch skimmed his fingers along her thigh, coming teasingly close but not touching her center, she admitted she’d had no clue.
Either that, or he was simply a superhero when it came to turning her on.
Before she could decide which, he pressed his hand against her mound, his fingers hot through the fabric of her unitard.
Livi lost it.
Oh, God.
Everything went black, tiny pinpricks of light flashing behind her eyelids as the pleasure ripped through her, tight and sharp.
Her legs tightened on his hand.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders.
Her mouth melted beneath his.
As the orgasm curled back he changed the kiss. In an instant it went from voracious to soothing as he guided her down.
It was as if he knew her body better than she did.
She’d never had an easy trigger. As much as she liked the idea of sex, she’d rarely been able to relax enough to climax during lovemaking. She hadn’t relaxed with Mitch, either.
But oh, my, had she climaxed.
Fully clothed. She realized he hadn’t shifted a single piece of fabric.
Livi’s mind boggled.
Her body shivered.
Not just at the wonder of what he’d done.
But at the possibilities of what he could do.
“More,” she breathed.
She had to have more.
* * *
D
AMN
,
SHE
WAS
SWEET
.
His body tight, Mitch took a deep breath and grabbed on to control. He’d known she’d taste good, but he’d had no clue she’d taste this good. Be this responsive.
His hands skimmed back up. Grazed her hips, slid over her waist, briefly cupped her breasts. Livi gave a little purr when he touched the soft warmth of her cheeks.
Her body...
He took a deep breath, blown away.
Because her body was simply amazing. Not just because she was built like his every fantasy, but because she was so amazingly responsive. He was a good lover. A damned good one. But he’d never had a woman ignite so fast, explode so intensely, then sigh so sweetly. The combination was addictive. He wanted more. He needed more.
Brushing a soft kiss over her lips, he skimmed his hands down to her shoulders, fingers sliding under her leotard straps. He wanted to push them aside. To pull them down her arms, free those breasts and look his fill.
A part of him, the part that’d been raised to be a gentleman, reminded him they were in a public storeroom and that stripping her naked—even if to worship her body—was pretty tacky.
The rest of him, led by his dick, insisted he could more than make up the tacky setting by offering incredible pleasure.
As if she sensed his internal debate, Livi shifted closer, her tongue sliding along the seam of his mouth like hot velvet.
No question about which part he was going to listen to.
Mitch reluctantly pulled his mouth away from Livi’s. She was delicious, but he wanted to watch the first time he stripped her bare.
His hands slid over her slender shoulders under the fabric. Despite the dim lighting, he could still see the slumberous excitement in her gaze, the glistening temptation of her full lips.
Before he could do more than enjoy the view, there was a loud pounding on the storeroom door.
Livi jumped. He simply turned his head toward the racket.
“Pull your pants up, I’m coming in,” said a female voice.
Since his pants were secure—thanks to his hard-on, so secure he might have trouble unzipping them—Mitch didn’t bother following the instructions.
He did mentally curse Romeo for losing his magical touch. In all the years they’d known each other, Mitch had never seen the guy strike out. Seriously? He had to do it for the first time tonight?
Light slanted in, bringing the racket from the party with it.
“Liv, I’ve got to get out of here. You want me to cab it or take your car and you can get a ride from your aunt later?”
Livi closed her eyes, gave a mortified groan and dropped her forehead onto his chest.
“Something upset her,” Livi told him, her voice low so it wouldn’t carry. “I should give her a ride.”
Since Mitch could hear the tears in the other woman’s voice, too, he could only nod and vow to get revenge on Romeo.
“I’ll meet you out front in five minutes,” she called to Tessa, giving Mitch an apologetic look.
He waited until the door closed, then tilted her lips up to meet his. She tasted so good.
Too good.
It was probably just as well they’d been interrupted. He didn’t want their first time to have been some tacky backroom bar encounter, fast and furious against the wall. Livi deserved much better than that. But he knew he wouldn’t have been able to resist her taste if she’d stayed.
“Rain check,” he said against her lips.
“Okay.” Livi leaned closer and traced her tongue over the join of his lips.
There came another loud thump on the door.
This time they both groaned as they separated.
“I don’t think your friend is waiting out front.”
“She doesn’t take orders very well. But she really is upset. I should go,” Livi said, her voice heavy with regret.
Mitch was tempted to ask if she always put everyone else’s needs ahead of her own, but that would have been rude. And he figured one orgasm and the intention to strip her bare in a storeroom were the limits to his rudeness for the night.
So he stepped back, holding out a hand to help her down. Livi cupped her fingers around his but didn’t move.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Will I see you again?” she asked hesitantly.
“Of course,” Mitch assured her, surprised she’d asked. Not because of her stunning looks, drop-dead body and adorable personality, although those were all major factors. But because he wasn’t a sleaze.
But she couldn’t have known that. Mitch had to remind himself that despite how close he felt to Livi, they’d only met tonight.
“That’s right.” Her smile bloomed. “You owe me a date.”
“That’s a bet I’m looking forward to paying. But, unfortunately, I can’t right away.”
Ready to get her number and set up a date for the following night, Mitch glanced at his watch. And clenched his teeth as reality smacked him upside the head.
“Damn it,” he muttered. At her questioning look, he grimaced and said, “I’m due on the east coast tomorrow. I have to go by the base, get my orders and catch a plane.”
“Ah.” Her smile was agreeable, her nod perfectly understanding. And her eyes filled with skepticism. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to see her doubts, to know she’d figured he’d blow her off.
Showing impeccable timing once again, Tessa chose that moment to pound on the door.
“I guess I’ll see you sometime.”
He understood her suspicions. Navy guys weren’t known for sticking around. Not because they were dogs, although every branch of the military had their share fit for kenneling. It was because they were deployed for long periods of time—months, years—in submarines, on ships, in other countries.
That sort of lifestyle didn’t lend itself to dating, let alone to having relationships. It was irresponsible to pretend otherwise.
Mitch looked into Livi’s big brown eyes and couldn’t resist, though.
“I’ll see you when I get back in town,” he promised. “In the meantime, tell me your number.”
She rattled it off.
“Aren’t you going to write it down?” she asked with a frown as she slid off the crate.
“I never forget things that matter,” he promised. “I’ll call you when I get back.”
“Will you be gone long?” she asked, her fingers rubbing the sleeve hem of his shirt so her knuckles slid over his bicep.
He wasn’t going on a mission, per se. Nothing about his trip was top secret. Still, Mitch didn’t share any details of what he did. An overcautious habit, perhaps, but a habit nonetheless.
“I’ll call you,” he said.
Unable to resist one last kiss, he pulled her into his arms and gave himself over to whatever in the hell this was between them.
Lust. Desire. Passion or a trap, he didn’t know.
All he knew was that he’d never felt anything like this before.
Mitch slowly ended the kiss, his fingers brushing her cheek before he released her.
“You’re so sweet,” he said with a smile. “I never realized how addicting that could be.”
Then he did what he’d spent his entire life training to do.
He walked out and didn’t look back.
4
L
IVI
’
S
LIPS
WERE
still tingling an hour later.
Tucked into her comfiest jammies, Livi sank onto her couch and sighed with pleasure. Mitch Donovan had the most incredible mouth. What else could it do? Was he a kiss-you-everywhere kind of guy? Derrick hadn’t been. She had a feeling there was nowhere Mitch wasn’t willing to go.
“You look like a cat with a mouthful of canary feathers,” Tessa said as she brought Livi a bowl of freshly cut fruit and Greek yogurt. “So go ahead. Dish. What’d the sexy SEAL have to offer?”
Livi opened her mouth, but no words came out. Pressing her lips together, she frowned.
Between training, taping and touring, she’d spent the last year with burlesque dancers, strippers and, for a memorable couple of weeks, drag queens. All the while she’d listened to them and her crew exchange salacious stories, share intimate encounters and dish naughty details.
She finally had something worth sharing, and the words wouldn’t come out.
Not for the first time she wondered what was wrong with her. Why couldn’t she just put it out there, the good, the bad and the ugly? Or in Mitch’s case, the incredible?
“I can’t believe you were so rude,” she said instead. “I’ve never interrupted you like that. I’m pretty sure this means you still owe me.”
Tessa grimaced but didn’t deny the claim.
“So you cut your flirting short,” she said instead, setting her own fruit and yogurt on the table. “It’s not as if anything between the two of you had a chance of going anywhere.”
“A kiss and a date,” Livi reminded her.
Tessa scowled.
“You’re not really going through with that, are you? It was a tie. There’s no way anyone can expect you to pay double when you essentially won.”
“Mitch didn’t lose,” Livi said, running her tongue over her bottom lip as she remembered him making that point.
“He didn’t win, though. So nobody has to pay.” Tessa threw her hands in the air and paced from one end of the living room to the other. Unlike Livi, she hadn’t changed out of her costume. Even dressed in colorless white, she contrasted clashingly with the soothing shades of lilac and pool-blue of the room.
“Nobody?” Livi ventured. “Or you?”
Tessa stopped mid-pace, her glare hot enough to melt glass.
“Okay, what’s the deal?” Livi demanded, straightening with her shoulders back and chin high. As if great posture would allow her to win the argument. “I’ve known you for eight years and in all that time I’ve seen you with hundreds, maybe thousands of men. You either seduce or freeze. You never get angry. So what’s your problem with Gabriel?”
Tessa kept glaring, but Livi could tell she had to work for it. Finally, the brunette rolled her eyes.
“Thousands?”
“Sure. I count all the men I’ve ever seen you with. Fans, dancers, waiters. That old man who lives in the apartment below you.” Livi waited a beat, then snapped her fingers and added, “The little boy who broke your window last year. What was his name?”
“Billy.” Tessa’s lips twitched. “I do not seduce eight-year-olds.”
“Of course you do. Not sexually.” Seeing that Tessa still hadn’t touched her bowl, Livi stole one of her strawberries. “But you pour on enough charm to get the guy—or little boy, in this case—to fall head over heels for you, making him so crazy he’ll do anything you want.”
Livi leaned forward to take a blueberry, but Tessa moved her bowl before Livi could reach it.
“What’s your point?” Tessa snapped.
“My point is I’ve never seen you argue with a guy. Especially not a good-looking, sexy, available one. But you were right up in Gabriel’s face. Why?”
Tessa’s face closed up. Something flashed in her eyes, a pain Livi had seen before. But no matter how often she’d offered to listen, no matter how good of a friend she tried to be, Tessa kept whatever had caused that pain locked away tight.
“Have you met Gabriel before?” Livi couldn’t help but ask.
“I know exactly what kind of guy he is. He’s military. He’s totally dedicated to one thing and one thing only. His career. Guys like that say they’ll be back. They make all sorts of promises. But they never keep them.” Tessa waved her hand through the air as if shooing away all those broken promises. “I know you think they’re hot, Livi. But they belong in the look-but-don’t-touch category. And more importantly, don’t be touched.”
Tessa gave her a questioning look.
“Oh, no. It doesn’t work that way.” Livi shook her head and wagged her finger at the same time. “You don’t want to tell me what your issue with Gabriel is—that’s your choice. But you don’t get to use those issues to keep me away from Mitch.”
Tessa opened her mouth. Livi leaned forward. She wondered if she’d finally find out what the hell her friend’s problem with military guys was. Then the brunette snapped her teeth shut and shrugged.
“You’re seriously going to date the guy?” Anger gone, leaving her looking empty for a moment, Tessa dropped onto the pale blue couch, shifting the watercolored pillows aside. “Livi, you know I’m not big on rules. Especially not rules made by people for their good and not your own.”
Livi puffed out her cheeks, knowing where this was going.
“But put aside the drama you know Pauline will create if she finds out a lowly sailor has had the gall to put his hands on her daughter, and think about her reasons for objecting.”
“Mitch isn’t just a sailor. He’s a SEAL,” Livi pointed out stubbornly. As if making it worse was going to help.
Tessa gave a look that echoed Livi’s thought.
“Livi, your mom is the last person I’d defend in almost any situation
except
this one. Here, she’s got a right to be biased, don’t you think?”
Livi dropped her gaze to her lap, watching her fingers as they combed through the knotted fringe of her amethyst throw.
She’d grown up fatherless. The word
Unknown
had been typed in the
Father
box on her birth certificate. As far as Pauline had been concerned, Livi might as well have been conceived at a sperm bank. Actually, for quite a few years Livi had wondered if she had been. But her mother had always refused to even tell her that much.
It hadn’t been until Roz had contacted her that Livi had found out anything about her father. Apparently Roz hadn’t even known she had a niece until a sailor who’d happened to know her brother stopped in her bar and started reminiscing. When he’d wondered what’d ever happened to Trent’s kid, Roz had gone ballistic, calling in favors and tapping sources until she’d found out.
She’d been the one to break it to Livi that her father had died during Hell Week of SEAL training. But that wasn’t why Pauline felt Navy guys should be castrated right after being sworn in. It was because Trent Evans had walked out on her when she was five months pregnant to chase his dream of being a SEAL, telling Pauline that a family would only hold him back.
He’d paid sporadic child support for the first couple of months of Livi’s life, but had been too focused on his goal of getting into SEAL training to bother to see her. By the time she was six months old, he’d achieved his dream of going to BUD/S, and lost his life.
Livi knew all of this secondhand. She didn’t know if her mother had loved her father. She wasn’t sure if they’d been together long, or what sort of relationship they’d had. She had no idea if it’d been hard on her to raise a child alone.
Pauline said life was a one-way street, and it was pointless to look backward. But for a woman who refused to discuss anything to do with the father of her child, Pauline sure spent a lot of time demanding that child make up for his sins.
Livi stared at her fingers. It was silly to be hurt over her parents’ choices. They had nothing to do with her personally. She knew that, logically.
But emotionally?
Livi closed her heart against the miserable self-pity trying to take hold in it.
There was no reason for her to feel sorry for herself. She had a great career, fabulous friends and a rockin’ healthy body.
And a date with the sexiest man she’d ever met.
“I can’t make my decisions based on my mother’s history,” she told Tessa quietly. “I have to make my own history and live my own life. Don’t I deserve that?”
Giving her a long look, Tessa frowned. She pulled her dented halo off and tossed it on the marble-topped table with a sigh.
“Okay, yeah. It’s your life and all that.” She pressed her fingers into her scalp before giving Livi a pleading look. “But please, whatever happens, talk to me before you do anything...”
Anything what?
Sexy?
Wild?
Panty-meltingly awesome?
Too late.
“Before you do anything emotional, okay. Please.”
Emotional? This from Tessa, who didn’t believe emotions belonged in any room containing naked bodies? Livi almost rolled her eyes, but she could see her friend was truly worried.
“You mean emotional like falling for him and thinking we can do the happy-ever-after thing?” At Tessa’s shrug, Livi shook her head. “Don’t you think my divorce cured me of crazy thinking?”
“There are nice guys out there, Livi,” Tessa said, looking like she wanted to kick herself. “Don’t let Derrick stop you from believing in marriage and all that stuff.”
As soon as the words were out, Tessa stabbed her finger toward Livi. “Except with a military guy.”
“I’m not going to marry anyone, military or otherwise,” Livi said with a stiff smile. “And not because my ex is an ass. I’ve done the marriage thing and it wasn’t for me.”
Livi might not have grown up in a nice, traditional family. But she’d always wanted one. A husband, children. She even thought about joining the PTA. She loved kids and had always dreamed of having one or four. She’d figured when she and Derrick had married, she had been on her way to the start of that dream. Until she’d been diagnosed with PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, and realized her chances of getting pregnant were on the “none” side of slim.
When she’d told him, instead of being heartbroken like she was, Derrick had been relieved.
He’d claimed kids would have gotten in the way of her career, and the only marketable asset in his portfolio at the time had been Livi’s body. She had it all going on, he’d said. Why ruin things?
Within a couple of months, Livi’s career had skyrocketed. Her no-muss, no-fuss, bottom-line-results style of workouts was the cornerstone of Stripped Down Fitness. And people loved it. It was as if all she’d had to do was give up her dream in order to have it all. Famous clients, video deals, endorsements. Derrick had been in his element, wheeling and dealing, spending money like it was water. The higher she’d climbed, the harder she’d worked, the more he’d spent. Horrified—and yes, probably a little bitter over his emotional deceit—Livi had finally put her foot down. She’d insisted they live on a budget and invest for the future. After all, her body had betrayed her once. She had no illusions that it couldn’t again.
So Derrick had walked out. He’d taken with him over five hundred thousand in investor funds and left her a pile of debt. She’d had no clue how to run her little empire.
Livi had done what any smart girl would do. She’d climbed into bed with a gallon of double-chocolate ripple and cried for a week. Then she’d called her mother. Pauline Kane knew nothing about career management. She had no connections in the fitness world and nowhere near enough money to save her daughter from financial ruin.
But she was a pragmatic businesswoman with a knack for marketing. She consigned Derrick to the bowels of hell, patted her daughter on the shoulder and rolled up her sleeves. Before Livi had recovered from the ice cream−induced gut-ache, Pauline had liquidated all of the business assets, frozen their personal ones, arranged to cosign loans to cover the repayment of investors and taken over Livi’s career.
And Livi had started over.
People thought she’d been hurt by her divorce, but Livi didn’t see it that way. Her divorce had freed her, even if that freedom had carried a hefty price tag. Livi’s only hurt had been in giving up her happy-ever-after dream, the one she’d nurtured since childhood. Derrick hadn’t been that dream. Family had. Livi stared at her fingers as familiar grief poured through her.
Seeing it, Tessa curled her fingers over Livi’s hand and squeezed.
Livi glanced up. Her friend’s eyes were bright, her scowl deep. Then she took a careful breath as if she were about to impart some emotionally supportive, empowering and inspiring words.
“Derrick was a douchebag with a tiny-penis complex who deserves to be thrown under a herd of stampeding discount shoppers on Black Friday.” Tessa pursed her lips then added, “While wearing granny panties.”
Ah, empowerment. Livi considered that image , then blew out a breath. Couldn’t argue with facts like those, either.
“See, another reason to be careful,” Tessa stated. “Look at the mess Douchey Derrick left you with. I’m not saying you should avoid men. Hell, do four at a time if you want. But be, you know, emotionally careful.”
Four?
Where the hell did things go when there were four? Livi debated asking but decided she didn’t want to know.
“It really isn’t a big deal,” she assured Tessa instead. And yes, maybe herself, too. “Mitch is sexy as hell and very nice. But we just met. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” Livi sealed the vow with a hug.
“Besides, I don’t even know when we’d go on the date. He’s leaving town for a while.” She leaned back on the couch, frowning a little as it hit her what that actually meant. “The soonest I’ll see or hear from him is when he gets back. And by then, who knows. He might have forgotten all about me.”
The hottest guy she’d ever met.
The first one to make her forget all of her inhibitions.
The one she knew she’d be thinking of for months, if not longer.
He might forget all about the rain check, about their kiss. About her.
That was depressing as hell.
Thanksgiving
Little Creek, Virginia
“D
ID
YOU
GET
ENOUGH
, Mitchell?”