Claiming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 1) (17 page)

“I love that taste on you.” To prove it, he mouthed across her shoulder, getting his tongue in on the action. He traced a crisscrossing path from side to side until he dipped lower to suck at the delicate flesh of her breast.

Little firecrackers exploded under his lips. She gasped as he hefted her a bit higher in the tight grip of his arms. One nipple disappeared between his teeth, and he bit lightly. Her entire body bowed, pushing the tip deeper in his mouth, which he gladly accommodated. Eyes at a sexy, slumberous half-mast, he watched her as he sucked nearly her entire areola into his mouth. An answering tug at her core buckled her knees.

The things he made her feel… like he was inside and out at the same time.

His urgency doubled, and he switched to the other breast, driving her mad with his mouth alone, and then his fingers found her center, twisting at her entrance in teasing little ins and outs. She ached for him to fill her, to push her over the edge into bliss. But not without him.

“James,” she gasped. “Please.”

She hitched a leg around his waist, opening herself to him, and his hard length throbbed against her core. Almost. There.

“What’s your hurry?” he murmured. “I’ve got all night, and I plan to use it.”

All night? Like sleeping together and everything? That sounded remarkably appealing. Everything she’d been afraid to hope might happen, afraid to find out wasn’t going to happen because he’d disappeared behind his walls again.

Somehow he’d let down his guard, and she was ravenous to find out what might come of it. “Oh, yeah? Let’s see what you’ve got.”

He knelt to retrieve the soap, and still in a squat position that highlighted his mouthwatering thighs, he palmed the slick bar, running it up the inside of her leg. Back down the other side. Her butt tightened involuntarily as she anticipated where he might go with it next.

All over, for the win. Her head tipped back as he soaped her entire body while still in that glorious position at her feet. His fingers lingered at her breasts, pleasuring them. Dipped into the crevice between her butt cheeks, enticing her. A moan slipped from her throat, and she might have begged him again, but he ignored her in favor of focusing on the slow circles he was painting on her abdomen, down her thighs, between them.

At the first firm circle on her nub, she nearly came out of her skin, and when he plunged a finger into her soaking center, her hips bucked, seeking more of the white-hot flame he’d stoked.

“Shh. Be still, Emma.”

He opened her wide with a thumb on either side of her sex and oh, God, was he going to… he did and his tongue was there, licking her so hard, so intimately, so perfectly that she saw stars.
Oh, my God. Is that how that’s supposed to work?

With a whimper that might have formed his name, she soared on a wave of pleasure. So much so that she forgot to be embarrassed. Forgot everything but the feel of Dex between her legs working to create a unique experience for her.

The man’s hot tongue coupled with the jet of hot water built the pressure higher, spiraling her toward the ceiling until she came, nonsensical cries ripping from her throat. A hot, thick wave engulfed her whole body as his tongue drew it out, laving at her sensitive bud. The answering ripples nearly caused her to collapse.

But he rose up and caught her expertly, holding her close, and she let him because holy God, she had no muscles left in her body that worked.

“You’ve done that before,” she accused with a thready laugh.

“You haven’t,” he returned easily. “Or it’s been a long time. Which should be a crime.”

How in the world had he guessed that? Mortified, she shut her eyes, only to have him take her mouth in a long kiss. The musky, odd flavor reminded her of where his mouth had just been, and she grew mortified all over again.

Then he lifted his lips to murmur, “I’ll be doing that again. Later. The sight of you in the throes is—” He sighed lustily. “Too hot. I want to be inside you so bad I almost couldn’t finish.”

And then he was kissing her again with every ounce of the passion he’d just confessed. It was heady to be the object of his attention, and when he pushed her up against the shower wall and shoved a leg between hers, he hit that sensitive spot he’d just tortured into an orgasm, and it greedily drank in more stimulation, driving her right back to the brink instantly.

Okay. So she had one muscle that still worked just fine apparently.

Please-now-please
. He granted her wish this time, hooking her knee over his elbow to open her up, then glorious heaven, he slid into her inch by aching inch as he watched her. His heated gaze was so full of his own pleasure that it was nearly pornographic. She couldn’t look away.

She did that to him. She reveled in it even as he filled her to the brim, so solid and hot and hard. He groaned, freezing for a long moment and yes, she agreed. Pausing to process the amazing sensations worked for her too. But then he began to move, heightening the sparks building between their joined bodies.

Yes, exactly like that. Fingers scrabbling for purchase, she dug into his butt cheeks to keep herself upright because oh, my God. Her second release detonated without warning, and he captured her silent cry with his open mouth, his hips pistoning faster, drawing out her orgasm to unbelievable proportions. And then his own hoarse cry echoed in the shower stall, pleasing her enormously even as she clung to him so she didn’t slide down the drain along with the rapidly cooling water.

He held her close to his heaving torso, like he’d done last night. It was sweet and touching that he didn’t immediately shove her away like a lot of men might after getting what they’d come for. Not that she had a lot of experience either way. But it had been her norm. Until now.

“Dex,” she murmured as the water sluiced over them both. “Would it be too forward of me to ask you do something really crazy?”

“Depends.” He rested his head on hers and didn’t seem to be in any hurry to separate. “Does it involve my brain? Because that’s nonoperational.”

“No brain required.” She smiled. “I just have this fantasy involving your mouth that I never seem to get around to. Indulge me?”

He growled. “Sweetheart, you gotta give a guy a few minutes.”

“Relax.” She poked him in the ribs with a laugh. “I’m asking you to eat dinner with me. I’m starving.”

Somehow Dex managed to keep his hands off Emma long enough to eat the… whatever it was she’d ordered from room service. Honestly, he lost track of the taste because all he could think about was tasting her again. They sat on the bed cross-legged and laughed about nothing until she set her plate on the bedside table.

“My turn with the fantasy,” he announced, and she raised her eyebrows in silent question. “It’s a little unorthodox. Maybe too far out. Sure you can handle it?”

She scowled and whacked him on the arm. “I think we’re a little past that, don’t you?”

Laughing, he grabbed her fist from his bicep and kissed it. “I was just thinking I’d like to try sex in an actual bed. For once.”

The image of her draped over this bed, naked and open to him, crawled into his brain and caught him up in a vivid haze of lust. No sand. No closed-in shower stall. Lots of room to get really inventive with how he could please her…

“Oh.” The glance she shot him did not say take me now, you big hot stud. “You’re okay with that?”

“Uh, yeah.” He wouldn’t have mentioned it otherwise. Could they be having any less sexy of a conversation about sex?

Her fist dropped out of his hand, and for the first time since he’d met her on the beach, when Banana Hammock had done Dex a huge favor by acting like a douchebag, Emma hesitated. “Well, you know. There’s no water. That’s kind of turned into a thing. Between us.”

And the fact that she was uncomfortable about it made him uncomfortable. “Because you’re scared that something bad will happen if we’re not in the water?”

Exhibit A for why he didn’t do this type of B.S. Screwing a onetime Anonymous Jane in the back of a dark club didn’t lead to questions and regrets and conversations about the crap packed into baggage and slung onto their backs.

“Not if you’re not. That was for you, Dex.” She reached out then, lacing her slim fingers with his and holding on tight. “I trust you anywhere, but you didn’t like it when I said that. So I invented an out.”

“You and I both know there’s nothing special about water.” Or him. Which meant there was still a potential for everything to go south, especially when they starting talking about it instead of ignoring the elephant in the room—Dexter.

“Yeah. I um, didn’t realize it was going to lead to smoking-hot shower sex, but that was a total plus, so I won’t apologize for it.”

Since no one was asking her to, he took the opportunity to change the subject by yanking her into his arms and kissing the subject to the back burner. Turned out sex in an actual bed was just as mind-blowing as everywhere else, and soon she shattered into a spectacular orgasm that triggered his.

He rolled, pulling her against him, and lay with her spooned tightly as their breathing evened out. Absently, he stroked her hair and tried not to think about Rachel’s parting comment as she’d sent him off to room 2319—namely that she wasn’t coming back tonight.

He could easily envision falling asleep just like this. Emma in his arms, sated and smiling as she drifted off. It was far too intimate. He didn’t do overnights. But then he’d broken just about every other rule for Emma’s sake. Why not that one? It wasn’t like he wanted to move anytime in the next million years anyway.

But then she cleared her throat. “Why don’t you think I can trust you, Dex?”

His pulse picked up instantly, and he scouted for a comeback that would have exactly the right degree of nonchalance, yet fail to actually answer the question. “Told you, I’m bad news.”

She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Because you had a job that required you to shoot people? I’ve tried, but I don’t see the logic, Dex. They made a whole movie about a guy who did that. And some other movies about the Bin Laden guys. A lot of Americans respect and revere SEALs. How come I can’t be one of them?”

“Because.” He huffed out a breath and tensed his arms with every intent of ripping it out from under her body so he could get dressed and leave. Her scent wound through his senses, and then the strangest thing happened. He didn’t.

“I’m not going anywhere. Explain it to me.”

“It’s one thing to say you respect veterans. It’s another entirely to sleep with one. To let a guy with bloodstains on his hands put them on you.”

Of course, it was way too late to prevent that. He’d selfishly made excuses for why it was okay to do it with Emma, but it really, really wasn’t.

That was when he found the will to move. He pulled his arm free and sat up, but she just went with him, unashamedly naked and completely unconcerned about it.

“Don’t, Dex,” she commanded. “You’re not allowed to shut me out.”

He chuckled darkly. “Yeah, I’ve figured that out. You just pry me open with your crowbar no matter how many ways I say back off.”

She didn’t smile back. “Not because I’m nosy. Because I care about you.”

“Oh, sure, we’ve known each other a grand total of what, five days? That’s a recipe for emotional commitment.”

“Don’t be dismissive of my feelings, and don’t you dare use that as an excuse to deny your own.”

“I’m not—” He couldn’t even get the protest out through his suddenly tight throat. Is that what she thought was happening here? They were falling into some kind of relationship?

They were just having some fun. But as he stared at her, even he couldn’t convince himself of that.

“You said it yourself. Every moment I’m with you, my preconceptions about what’s happening between us are blown into bits. You suck me deeper into it, and I’m not fighting it.” She picked up his hand and held it to her breast, right over her heart, trapping his palm against her skin. “Whatever blood you seem to think you have on your hands washes off. But the decency and honor and all your amazing parts? Those are there. Every time you touch me.”

Her words whispered over him, and he so badly wanted to latch onto them, greedily store them away inside where they couldn’t escape. Where he could take them out and hear them again anytime the memories overwhelmed him. Like now.

“It doesn’t feel like any of those good parts are still in me,” he whispered and God, was that his voice? He sounded like a pansy.

Tenderness sprang up in her gaze. “It was a war, Dex.”

Too much tenderness. He looked away.

“You don’t think I know that? That I haven’t told myself that same thing? The navy shrinks, they have all the fancy words, more than you could ever come up with.” He laughed, and it should have come out bitter. But the break at the end ruined that. “There’s so much evil in the world. I thought I was fighting it, and instead I became like them. Willing to kill because that guy in my sights is on the other side, so it’s okay to blow his head off.”

He’d never said stuff like this out loud, and it sounded just as horrific when voiced as it did whispering through his soul. He was exactly like the worst people in the world—terrorists.