Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (20 page)

“More.” Nina’s
breath
stuttered. “Harder
, Mace, please,” she begged.

He responded with a
primal groan.
 
One hand shot to her
waist, the other encircling her wrists, anchoring them to the bed above her
head, but he wouldn’t give her what she wanted. He felt her arms strain against
his. If he let
her go, she’d dig her fingers into his
ass and her impatience would rip the orgasm from both of them. With his body
strung tight as a bow, he buried his shaft in her, and her hips met his every
plunge.

“That feels so good,
baby.” His heart hammered in his
chest with her body
meeting every plunge as he drove her with long, luxurious strokes until she
shook. A familiar sensation, too many months gone, but not forgotten, bit at
his core. A light sheen covered their bodies. His need for Nina climbed the
scales.
He growled and pulled out, wanting it to last
a little longer. Lifting Nina, he drew her back on the bed. Spooning her, and
pulling one leg across his hip, Mace covered his head in her moist heat. A
fierce craving to be one with the woman he loved shatter
ed the blocks of resistance, and he plunged inside her. Nina cried out
his name. Her arms swung back and cinched around his neck. Need scrambled to
its highest peak. Mace pinched her nipples between his thumbs and fingers and
rolled them.

“Oh fuck, Nina.”
His words vaulted from him, knotted tight with pleasure.
Nina’s channel milked his shaft, and his hips rolled faster, his stomach
coiling. He couldn’t get deep enough. It was so fucking good, he was losing his
mind. “God damn, I love you,” he shouted as h
e came.
Nina’s body shuddered hard as he strummed her clit, bringing her with him.
Together they tumbled into a seizure that left them shaking and panting.

When their senses
returned, he opened his eyes and laughed out loud when she snaked around,
rolled h
im onto his back, jumped on top of him, and
peppered his face with kisses.

Nina rested snug
against his chest. Mace caressed her hip and gazed out the window into a
cloudless night and a half moon shining down on a peaceful San Diego. He was in
no hurry to
leave,
he never wanted to leave her again. He’d seen all the
phases his buddies had gone through when they’d found their wives.

For him, meeting the
right girl wavered like heat on the desert sand somewhere in the distance. He
knew she was out there, but
ignored it for years. Now
he understood. Falling in love for a SEAL was like passing through some kind of
doorway into a room of contradiction. Every time he’d have to leave Nina, he’d
have to suppress his heart so the ache didn’t take his mind
off
 
the
n
ext tango
that wanted to see him gutted on the ground. There would be regrets, lost
moments, missed holidays, and for her—fear. No woman loved a SEAL without
living in fear. Some couldn’t get to the finish line, others were stronger. His
gaze dropped to Ni
na’s peaceful expression. Nina was
strong. He just had to keep his ass alive long enough to come home to her and
Gabbs. “I love you, you know that, right?” he said.

Her lips curled into a
sweet smile as she opened those amazing eyes of hers. “I do, and I’l
l never stop loving you.” She cupped his jaw, and he bent
his head to kiss her softly.
“Mace?”

“Yeah,
babe.”

“He did it for us.”

Being reminded of
Tony’s actions caused a knot in his stomach. “What do you mean?”

“I asked for his
help.” Nina shifted and
propped her head with one
hand. “I begged him to do it. He didn’t want to.”

Mace leaned back. For
some reason he wasn’t as shocked as he thought he should be. “You asked him to
do that in front of me? Why?”

“You might be all
hero, hotness and mild-mannered
most of the time, but
inside you is a warrior that won’t be defeated. It’s basic instinct. I took the
chance that you’d fight for me and the challenge would crash through your
barrier.”

It had done that, all
right. “You’re saying I owe him a thank you ins
tead
of a date with my fist?”

Nina rolled onto her
stomach and slowly leaned in to brush a kiss over his lips. “I’m saying you
have the best friend in the world. He was willing to sacrifice that friendship
for us.”

“How far did you ask
him to go?” The look
in Tony’s eyes when he touched
Nina was pure, unadulterated lust. His phone beeped with a text, and he threw
his arm back to feel around until his fingers found it. It was from Tony.

Mission accomplished?
I love you guys.

He quickly sent a
message back.

Affirmative.

We okay?

Talk later.

Roger.

Mace turned the phone
so she could see the texts. “He’s a good man. It might be selfish, but I sensed
you’d given up, and sooner or later you’d give up on us.”

He mulled over her
words, and didn’t disagree.

“I
never thought I could ever feel this happy with someone.”
Her thumb traced his bottom lip. “It took me a long time to make the decision
to apply for the job at Base Command. Leaving my family behind was hard. I
never expected to walk straight into the arm
s of
you.” She gazed up at him with
a
warmth
that speared his heart. “You’ve never judged me. I can be
weak or strong, and you’re confident enough to accept all that I am.”

He leaned over and
kissed her slowly, savoring her. Adventurous, brave, beautiful a
nd wildly erotic when she made love to him, he didn’t need
anyone else by his side, but her. Spending the rest of his life with this woman
would never be a mistake.

He curled her hand to
his mouth and kissed it. “All I ever need to make me feel good about
being a man is you. I love that you’re a devoted mother,
and one helluva sexy woman in my bed.” He drew her up, and she straddled his
thighs. “Our life won’t be easy. You know how much time I spend away from
home.”

“I know. I got a
sample of that already,
remember? And it had a bitter
taste.”

“Don’t spend time
worrying about it. I’m not going to be a SEAL forever, but I am going to love
you forever,” he said, drawing her down until her breasts brushed against his
skin. It was time to catch up on lost love.
Nina
wouldn’t be running tomorrow, that was for damn sure.

* * * *

Tony didn’t go home,
but instead found
himself
sitting on the sand staring into the
darkness and listening to the waves. Mace had broken through his barrier. There
was nothing standing in the way of him and Nina finding their
happily-ever-after. He pushed aside the small hands of jealousy that reached
for his heart. He hadn’t lost his friend, and he knew he’d
have to keep reminding himself of that. Once Mace passed his physicals, the
SEAL life would draw him away from Nina for most of the year. She had Gabbs to
take care of. Mace had both of them. Who
did he have
to come home to? No one, except the bars filled with women who wanted a roll
with a SPECOP guy to say they had.

His fingers dug into
the sand, a familiar feeling to give him a little warmth because at the moment
he felt damn lonely. How had Gho
st existed this way
for so long? Then again, everything changed for him in a year. He had Kayla and
his son. Fox, Lieutenant Cobbs, Caleb and Clay were all married. Tadpole was
young and enjoying his notoriety with the ladies, and he had too, when they’d f
irst become SEALs. They all had. He didn’t want to turn
into one of “those guys,” the hard-assed members who gave it all to the Navy
and ended up retired sitting in a small apartment with the TV on twenty hours a
day and a fridge full of beer.

“Deliberatin
g life?” a voice asked from behind him.

He turned and
recognized a young girl from the base. She stepped over the log he sat against,
her sandals dangling in her fingers. A swathe of thick blonde hair swept across
her face. She pulled it aside, tucking it
behind her
ear. Ask and ye shall receive? She couldn’t be more than twenty-one.

“Mind if I sit?”

He cranked his head.
“Pull up a piece of sand.”

She nestled onto her
right hip. Dolled up, and dressed for a night on the town, she pulled her skirt
over her
knee. “You work on the base, don’t you?”

Her pretty blue eyes
scanned him. “Yup, so do you.”

She gave him a shy
smile and nodded. “I just got here a few weeks ago.”

“Where
ya from?”

“Pennsylvania. A
little town I couldn’t wait to get out of.” She eyed him.
“If you don’t mind me saying, it looks like someone just
kicked your dog.”

His shoulders lifted
with a chuckle, and his gaze strayed down the beach. “Something
like
that.”

Her finger toyed in
the sand, making figure eights. “I can carry on if you want. Yo
u just looked kind of lonely sitting here.” She shrugged,
and rolled to her knees as if she was going to leave.

“Stay.”

She tilted her head.
“Are you a SEAL?” she asked, with inquisitive, innocent eyes.

He crooked his knee,
and wrapped a forearm around his
leg. Why was there
so much damn hype about being a SEAL? They were like every other guy on the
planet, the only difference was they had to kick bad ass halfway across the
globe. None of them saw themselves as heroes. Just guys doing a tough job that
had t
o be done. He nodded.
“Yeah.”

“I had a date with one
tonight, except he didn’t show up.” She wrinkled her brow.

“Maybe he got called
out.”

She shook her head.
“Nope.
On my way down here I saw him locking
lips with a brunette in front of Breakers.”

“Oh. Sor
ry.”

She shrugged. “I
should have known better. My mom and dad
were
both Navy. Dad warned me.”

He hid a grin.
“About?”

“SEALs.
When I told him I was stationed here,
he said they had a reputation, and only wanted one thing.”

“Same thing as
everyone else, I
would think,” Tony said, watching
her. “No one wants to come home to an empty house, no matter what they do for a
living.”

“I suppose. It just
seems impossible in this town.
There’s
so many women who give it out.
Competition is tough for someone who doesn’t.”

Tony liked her
openness, and she was right. Women gave it away and flaunted themselves openly
in this town. They hung out at the popular bars, hoping to hook up. A guy would
onl
y go home by himself if he intended it that way.
He cleared his throat. “
There’s
plenty of decent guys in this town.
They might not hang around for very long because they’re called away on a
mission, but they’re around.”

Not that he was one of
them. Being
deployed made it easy to say goodbye, and
not many gals wanted to hang around and wait. While he was climbing on a plane,
someone else was climbing off. He had no one else to blame for being alone. He
never went looking for a second hookup or bothered call
ing a girl a second time. Variety had been a slice, and he’d eaten his
share. Now, he was sitting on a beach in the middle of the night feeling sorry
for
himself
because his friend had found happiness.
“Was he supposed to take you out to dinner?” he asked.