Careless (21 page)

“Tori, I never thought I’d feel like this.”
He took a deep breath as he pulled back to look her in the eye. Her eyes were
wide and glistening with unshed tears when he said, “I thought marriage and
commitment were for other people. Those poor suckers who were afraid of bein’
alone. I wasn’t that guy. I liked my life exactly the way it was. Until I
didn’t anymore.”

She looked at their joined hands before
looking up at him.

“I saw somethin’ in you from the very first
moment I met you, and it scared the hell out of me ’cause I wasn’t supposed to
feel that way about a girl like you.”

“A girl like me?” She raised an eyebrow.
“You wanna explain, Lieutenant?”

He loved that she challenged him and didn’t
go along with everything he wanted. She made him explain himself, she pushed
him out of his comfort zone, she forced him to put her first, but most
importantly, she made him want to be a better man because she brought out the
best in him.

“You were so different from all the other
girls I’d dated.”

She rolled her eyes. “You say that like
it’s a bad thing. I met some of those sock puppets, remember?”

He chuckled. “Would you just let me say
what I have to say already?”

“Who’s stopping you?” Her mouth turned up
in a small smile. “Talk already. I know how much you love to hear the sound of
your own voice.”

He knew this woman would always keep him on
his toes, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. She was perfect for him…
exactly the way she was. He cleared his throat. “As I was sayin’… from the
first moment I saw you, I couldn’t stop thinkin’ about you, and it seemed
everywhere I turned, there you were. I’d see your gorgeous face every time I
turned on the TV or passed a magazine stand. I stopped listenin’ to my favorite
radio stations ’cause they kept playin’ your songs and they’d get inside my
head. I’d hear those words about love and lust and forever, and I’d wonder if I
ever crossed your mind when you were writin’ those lyrics.”

“You did,” she whispered. “All the time.”
She smiled. “You know that song I wrote, ‘Done with Jack’?”

The party anthem soared to the top of the
charts months after their night together. It was a song about the regrets that
followed a night of hard drinking. “You don’t think I know that was your way of
gettin’ back at me?”

She laughed. “Okay, that one was obviously
about you.” The amusement left her eyes when she said, “What you don’t know is
how many of the others you inspired… ‘Lonely Tonight,’ ‘Missin’ Him’… Hell, I
could go on and on.”

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened
to me, baby. You make me laugh. You remind me not to take life too seriously,
and I need that. I need someone who’s gonna remind me my life isn’t all about
my job.”

“It’s not, ya know.” She stood on her tippy
toes to press a kiss to his lips. “My life has been about my career for a long
time now too, but I want that to change because of you. I want to make time for
you… for us.”

“Promise me,” he said, holding her gorgeous
face between his hands as he wondered what good deed he’d done in a previous
life to be given this incredible opportunity to love a woman like her. “Promise
me we’re gonna make time for each other, that we’re gonna make this
relationship a priority.”

Her eyes fell to the middle of his chest.
“If I had my way, I’d spend every night in your arms, but we both know that’s
not possible.”

He’d fallen in love with a woman who would
only be able to share his bed half the time. Letting her go for weeks or months
at a time was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done, but knowing she was
coming home to him made it worth the sacrifice. “I know. I can live with that.”

“For how long?” She blinked back the tears.
“How long before you get tired of waitin’ on me to come home? What happens when
some hot little honey turns your head and—”

“Never gonna happen.” He loved that despite
her beauty, talent, wealth, and fame, she still had her insecurities.

“Promise me?” He could tell how hard she
was trying to maintain her composure. “If I had your love and lost it, I don’t
think I could handle it. Hell, last time I only had your body and I was barely
able to bounce back.”

He grinned. “That works both ways, you
know.” He’d never been insecure about where he stood with a woman before, but
he’d never had this much to lose either. “I know there are millions of guys out
there who’d give anything to take my place.”

“No one could ever take your place,” she
whispered. “Not ever.”

The promise of forever on those sweet lips
had him wanting to drop to one knee and make that engagement official, but he
knew they still had to figure out how to integrate their lives before he could
ask her for that kind of promise. “Can you spend the night?”

She smiled. “Why? Were you thinkin’ about
kickin’ me out again?”

“My home is your home from now on.”

“That goes both ways, ya know.” She looked
up at him from beneath her long, dark lashes. “Um, so you never really said, do
you like it at my place?”

“I love it. Why?”

“I was thinkin’ when we get back, maybe you
could stay there, you know, if you want to.”

He chuckled as he wrapped his hand around
the back of her neck and tilted her face up to his. “Darlin’, are you askin’ me
to move in with you?”

“I don’t wanna be alone anymore, Mike. I’m
tired of comin’ home to a big, empty house, hearin’ the echo of my footsteps,
eatin’ breakfast alone. I want to know you’re there waitin’ for me when the
plane lands. I wanna curl up in your arms, fall asleep, wake up, and make love
to you as the sun rises over our own private paradise.”

He leaned in to nuzzle her neck. “God, I
love the sound of that.”

“So you’ll move your stuff in while I’m
gone?”

He looked around the condo that had been
his home for the past seven years. He felt more at home in Tori’s house than he
ever had in this place. “I guess I’ll have to rent this place out.”

She took a step back, just out of his arms.
“You’re gonna rent it out, not sell it?”

“What difference does it make?”

She walked over to the window and pressed
her hand to the glass.

She was standing in the same place she had
been two years ago when he realized he couldn’t let her walk out of his life
until he showed her how he felt about her. If only he’d been brave enough to
tell her back then. He would have saved them both a lot of grief. He walked up
behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “What’re you thinkin’ about?”

“If you’re not sure about this… about us…”

He kissed her neck. “Now why would you say
that?”

“You wanna hang on to this place in case it
doesn’t work out, right?”

“You can’t be serious.” He smiled against
her cheek. “Trust me, that was the last thing on my mind. I have no doubt you
were meant to be mine.”

He let his hands skim over her shoulder and
down her arms, watching the thrill bumps rise on her skin as his hands moved to
her zipper. The slow slide of the dress brushing the silk fabric of her black
undergarments heightened his anticipation. This was his chance to rewrite
history, to make up for the last night they spent together here, and he
intended to erase the painful memory with an image so sweet she would still
want to remember it years from now.  

He kissed her neck, letting his tongue
slide over her shoulder as he doubled back to let his teeth gently graze the
subtle indent that elicited the sweet little moan he lived to hear.

She rolled her head back against his chest
and sighed. “I love the way you make you feel.”

“Works both ways, sweetheart.” He flattened
his hand against her stomach, pressing her back into his chest. He would never
take this for granted again. Knowing the way she made him feel compared to the
way he felt when he was alone and missing her. He didn’t want to experience
that emptiness again in his lifetime.

He turned her into his arms, needing to
show her what he couldn’t find the words to say. She was his, heart, body,
mind, and soul, just as he was hers. His tongue traced the soft curve of her
neck as he drew the delicate skin into his mouth, nibbling and licking until
her nails were digging into his shoulders and her head was pressing into the
pane of glass at her back.

“Please,” she whispered.

She didn’t need to utter another word. He
was right there with her, needing to solidify the bond that was four long years
in the making. He carried her into his bedroom as his lips found hers again,
engaging in an erotic duel both were content to lose before he finally set her
down on the mattress.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered,
tracing a fingertip down her cheek. “So perfect.”

“Careful, Lieutenant…” She grinned. “I just
might get used to this sweet talkin’ and start expectin’ it all the time.”

“I intend to remind you every day that
you’re the best damned thing that’s ever happened to me.” He edged back just
enough to pull his T-shirt over his head before slipping her dress off. A black
satin corset-style undergarment woven with silver threads and matching panties
had him reaching for her again. “Sweet Jesus,” he muttered.

She stretched her arms over her head before
asking, “You like?”

“I love… it… you…” He looked her in the
eye. “The life we’re gonna have together.”

She held her hands out, reaching for him,
but he held his finger up. “As much as this turns me on, you wearin’ nothin
turns me on even more.”

“In that case…” Her hands worked the hook
and eye closures running the length of the corset as she watched him strip his
running shorts off. She hooked her thumbs in her panties and slid them down her
legs.

He smiled when he caught sight of her colorful
tattoo. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna get tired of seein’ this.”

 She smacked his shoulder as he came down
on top of her. “You better not, ’cause it’s there to stay.”

He reached into the drawer and sheathed himself
in record time as he sought the sweet evidence of her arousal. He closed his
eyes and savored the moment… lost in her sensual cries filling the room, her
musky scent lingering in the air as he drove her higher and higher, his name on
her lips as she let go.

“Kiss me.”

He held her head in his hands as his mouth
found hers. His body was like a heat-seeking missile and he realized a moment
too late her body should have come with a warning label tonight. The fire,
tautness, and her subtle urging united, making him feel as though his head
could explode from the erotic stimulus.

He wanted to slow down, to enjoy every second,
but his body took over when his mind shut down, urging him to take her hard,
fast, relentlessly until there was no room left for doubt. They’d had mind-blowing
sex before, but nothing prepared him for this. She met him stroke for thrust,
her eyes wild and frantic as though she was trying to decide how far they could
push each other before one or both of them surrendered to the inevitable
explosion.

“Mike… yesss…”

She was the first to plummet, and he found
himself saying a silent prayer of gratitude. There was no way he could have conceded
defeat when the stakes were this high. Taking care of her was suddenly the most
important thing in the world to him, and disappointing her was not an option he
would ever consider.

“Let go,” she whispered, gliding her hands
up his back.

As if he had a choice. His body had wanted
to pass the finish line full-throttle the second she clenched him in her tight
heat. Now that he’d given her what she needed, there was no way he could beg or
bargain for one more second. “Ah… baby…” He threw his head back, barely able to
suppress the guttural moan that threatened to slip past his lips. If not for
the fact his niece was sleeping right next door, he probably would have
shattered glass with the raw intensity of a release that never wanted to end. 

Mike took a moment to catch his breath
before pressing a kiss to her lips and making his way into the bathroom to get
cleaned up. He splashed cold water on his face as he looked at his reflection
in the mirror. He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face if he tried. He was
finally getting everything he wanted and he wouldn’t let himself screw it up,
not this time.

Tori was lying on her side smiling at him,
the sheet pulled up to her chin when he re-entered the room. “Is this the part
where you tell me it’s been fun, but I need to get the hell out now?”

She was still smiling when she said it, but
Mike couldn’t miss the undercurrent of uncertainty in her voice.

“Just so we’re clear, I don’t ever plan on
lettin’ you out of my bed again, sugar.” He climbed in behind her, pulling her
against him as he lowered the sheet to press a kiss to her shoulder. “Ever.”

She giggled. “I guess I should tell the
boys to cancel those tour dates then, huh?” She linked her hand with his. “And I’ll
just tell my fans that my boyfriend’s decided to hold me captive… make me his
love slave.”