Authors: Cooper McKenzie
“So very pretty,” he murmured as he lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers again.
She moaned softly and shifted, sliding her hands around to his back and pulling him back against her again.
Bailey took a deep breath and returned his lips to hers. Though his lower body was slick with his juices, he snuggled her even tighter to his chest. Parting her lips with his tongue, he thrust deep. His cock reinflated and went hard enough to crack diamonds. He smelled Eden’s arousal as he thoroughly explored every inch of her mouth then invited her to do the same.
When she tried to pull away several minutes later, Bailey loosened his hold but refused to release her. When another car drove past and honked, he broke the kiss and pressed her cheek to his chest as they caught their breath.
* * * *
Eden stared across the parking lot in shock. Bailey Hawks was indeed wearing a military camouflage uniform, or BDUs, as those associated with the military had called them for decades even though the military now called them by some other name. Someone had once jokingly explained to her that BDU meant Battle Dress Uglies.
Eden did not think the uniform looked ugly on Bailey. The loose-fitting canvas material with the tan and brown patterns just made him appear bigger, stronger, and more powerful. She could not wait to see him in a T-shirt and jeans, or better yet, nothing at all.
That thought stopped her in her tracks. How could she have such thoughts about a man she had just met when just an hour before she had sworn off
all
men?
But this man was not a mere man. He was a Marine.
Tilting her head back, she looked up and found Bailey staring down at her with a hunger in his expression she wondered if she could satisfy. That had always been her ex-husband’s biggest complaint, that she was not good in bed. Of course, the fact that he sucked at anything that did not involve his own self-gratification was one of the reasons their marriage only lasted a year.
Pushing out of Bailey’s arms, Eden moved so her back was to the shop’s door. What would happen now? Would he climb on his mechanized charger and ride away never to be seen or heard from again? Or would he want to come upstairs with her?
She could not invite him upstairs tonight. She was not looking for a one-night stand, but for a relationship, something that would last over time and grow stronger, not fizzle and die when the sun came up in a few hours.
“Um, thanks for the ride.”
“You are most welcome, Lady Eden. I’ll be back to see you again, very soon,” Bailey’s deep voice rumbled, sending a dark thrill of sexy pleasure through her.
She frowned at him when he did not climb on his motorcycle and leave.
“Go inside, sweetheart,” he instructed. “I can’t leave you standing out here all alone.”
Eden nodded. Of course. He was waiting for her to go inside. Somewhere, sometime in his life someone had taught him some very impressive old-world manners.
She fumbled to get the key in the lock, but finally opened the door. “Good night,” she said as she stepped through.
“Good night, sweet lady. Sweet dreams.”
He waited until she closed and locked the door. Peeking through the front window, she watched as he walked off the porch. He climbed onto his motorcycle and, after filling the silent night with the roar of the motorcycle’s powerful engine, rode off toward the main gate of the Marine Corps base.
She had a feeling that as magical as the encounter had been, she would never see Captain Bailey Hawks again.
Chapter 3
When the bells hanging on the front door jangled late the next afternoon, Eden swore softly as she looked up from the paperwork she was trying to decipher. Though she needed the sale, she did not need the interruption just when she was on the verge of figuring out what the fuck the government was trying to tell her.
“Take a look around. I’ll be with you in just a minute,” she called, trying to sound pleasant and not frustrated.
“I’ll get it.” Crow, the tattoo and body-piercing artist who rented the body art booth in the shop, popped his head around the corner.
Crow was his own best advertisement. He had tattooed most of his body, or so he claimed when he had come in for the job. The colorful art started just below his ears and went down his body. He also wore enough metal on his body to set off any metal detector in the county just by walking within five feet of it. But he paid his rent on time and was a strong set of arms when she needed muscle and had a work ethic similar to her own.
“Thanks,” Eden said, returning her attention to the tax paperwork that had arrived in that day’s mail.
Crow clomped down the hall in the heavy work boots he wore every day with oversized jeans and one of his endless collection of black T-shirts with insulting or disrespectful sayings on them. A few minutes later, she heard the front door bells jangle and heavy footsteps returning to the back of the store.
“You didn’t scare them off, did you?” she asked without looking up.
“No, but the tattooed guy wanted me to tell you that he’s gone for coffee,” a deep voice replied from the doorway.
Eden’s head lifted and swung around so fast she was surprised she did not give herself whiplash.
The tall, broad-shouldered man leaning in the doorway had not been far from her thoughts in the last twelve hours, and now here he was in person as if she’d conjured him up from her many vivid daydreams. In the full light of day, she saw he truly was beautiful. She found herself swallowing hard to keep from drooling all over the black leather vest she had chosen to wear with her short denim skirt and over-the-knee boots.
Bailey’s dirty blond hair stood straight up from his head, adding another inch to his height. The apple green polo and worn blue jeans hugged his body, showing off broad shoulders and a lithe, muscular swimmer’s body. From where she sat, she could see his eyes were a soft dove gray as he stood with his hands behind his back.
“Bailey? What are you doing here?”
“I had to come back and make sure you were real. I also wanted to bring you this,” he said. Straightening from the doorway, he pulled a large sunflower from behind his back as he took a step into the cramped room that served as both her office and storage for the store.
Eden stared at the flower then lifted her gaze to his. “You brought me a flower?”
He took another step, which brought him to within a few inches of her. “Yes. Is that okay?”
Eden nodded, caught up in the heat and intensity she saw in his eyes. Her nipples beaded, and she felt her pussy grow damp as she continued to stare at the gorgeous, thoughtful man.
“I…um…I guess it’s okay. It’s just that…well…no one has ever brought me flowers before.”
“Well, that was their mistake. A beautiful woman like you should get flowers on a regular basis.” He took her hand and put the flower in it.
Once she held the sunflower, he wrapped his hand around hers. Then he moved their hands out from between their bodies so he could take the last step that separated them.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“Thank you,” he said as his lips moved closer and closer before stopping with less than an inch between them.
“What’s going on with us?”
“I’d say it’s magic, but I’ve never believed in magic before,” he whispered in response. “Would you go out with me tonight? Dinner? Movie? Walk on the beach? You name it, and we’ll do it.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t. I have to tend bar next door tonight.”
“What time?”
“Six to close.”
“You work here and there?”
“My brother owns the bar. I’m filling in for the evening.”
Bailey nodded. “Guess I’ll just have to come there and keep you company.”
“Why?” Eden asked as his lips brushed across hers.
“Because that’s where you’ll be and I want to get to know you,” he said. “I barely slept this morning because of thoughts of you.”
Before she could respond, he tilted his head and kissed her deeply. It only took a few seconds before all she wanted was to crawl into his skin and become a part of him. Instead, she lost herself in the kiss, forgetting everything except the man who held her pressed tight to his chest.
“You smell like paint,” he panted when they finally pulled apart several long, hot minutes later.
“I painted my apartment this morning so I could finish moving in.”
“Why didn’t you call me? I could have helped.”
“Even if I had your phone number, I don’t know you well enough to impose like that,” she said.
“Where’s your apartment?” Bailey’s free hand worked its way down her body to caress one cheek of her ass then the other through her skirt.
“Upstairs,” she breathed as he brushed his lips over hers once again.
“Really?” He smiled, sending a sexy shiver straight to her pussy. “Can I see it?”
“Um, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. You and last night—” Eden said.
Her brain and heart fought a short and intense duel as to whether she should take him upstairs and fuck his brains out or do the proper thing and send him on his way. Her chest shifting against his heat and the hard arm that tightened around her back short-circuited her brain. Her body won the fight by default.
“Yeah, you’re right. But I’m not sure I can wait until you finish work,” he said as he continued massaging her ass cheeks.
“Mmmm, yes,” she moaned, canting her hips forward to feel his long, thick erection press into her belly. “God, you feel so good.”
“Mmmm, you do, too, sunflower,” he said.
He lowered their entwined hands, still holding the flower to her desk. He pried her fingers from around the stem so it dropped to her desk. He then danced them the few feet across the room. He shoved the door to the rest of the shop closed and twisted the lock. Once they had privacy, he pulled her even closer as they shuffled back across the room to her desk.
The need for skin-on-skin contact made Eden pull the back of his shirt from his jeans. Sliding her hands up under the fabric, she smoothed her palms up his back on either side of his spine. His skin felt warm and smooth with just a dusting of soft hair. She sucked a breath when he slid his hands through the oversized armholes of her vest and unhooked her bra. Pulling her lips from his, she laid her cheek on his chest and tried to catch her breath enough to slow down what she knew was about to happen.
But she did not want things to slow down. All she wanted was to strip this man, throw him to the ground, and fuck him until neither of them could move. Sliding her hands down to his waist, she then slid her fingers under the waistband of his jeans and underwear to cover the cheeks of his ass. She sighed as his muscles flexed and released under her touch.
“Magic,” he murmured.
As he continued to kiss her, his hands stroked their way from her back around her sides to the front of her chest. He pushed her bra up and out of his way and cupped her full, sensitive breasts.
Eden breathed a sigh as warm palms brushed over her erect nipples. She could not find words to respond, but nodded her agreement. Her need for this man grew higher and hotter as Bailey massaged her breasts with the callused fingertips of a working man. Hot electricity raced from nipples to pussy as fingertips circled her nipples. She could not fight back the high-pitched humming sound that emerged as he began to tweak them.
“Please,” she heard herself say into his mouth.
“What does my pretty sunflower want?” He lifted his head to study her, his gray eyes glowing silver as they met hers.