The Valentine's Arrangement (8 page)

“Yes, ma’am.” Kale’s voice was husky and his face was contorted into a wry grin, his eyes beaming with imperative hunger and a little bit of victory.

His mouth twisted up even more and he grabbed her under her ass tossing her over his shoulder.

Ronnie released a shocked squeal and she wanted to rip her own fucking vocal cords out when she heard the annoying sound escape from her throat. Kale laughed only making it worse.

“What the fuck, Emerson!”

“You like it,” he accused, with what she could only imagine was a sly smile on his face. He smacked her ass that was perched on top of his shoulder making her jerk. And damn it, she liked it.

As soon as Kale was in her bedroom he dropped her onto her bed, causing her body to bounce on the mattress. “Don’t be gentle by any means,” she hissed.

“Don’t worry, Sweetheart. I don’t plan to be.”

She swallowed hard, her mind and her body played a close game of tug-of-war with her conscience, but with Kale saying words like that, her body started to take the lead.

Ronnie propped up on her elbows and attempted to narrow her eyes at Kale but it was useless. He was already pulling his shirt off and her eyes lost their previous intentions, they were now completely focused on his bare chest. He stepped out of his jeans and Ronnie sucked in a breath at the sight of his erection pressing against his boxer briefs. She inched back on the bed and she couldn’t help the smile that took over the majority of her cheeks.

“Like what you see?” Kale let his smile tease the words. Um, hell yes she did. His thighs were thick, his waist was narrow, and his chest was broad. He was definitely beautiful.

Ronnie didn’t say anything, though. Admitting to him that she liked what she saw was almost as bad as admitting to him that she had wanted him from the first night she met him. And there was no way in hell that was going to fucking happen.

Kale just laughed, it was low and sexy, almost like it was intentional. He bent over sliding his boxers down and in one graceful movement he slid between her legs.

“Hips up,” he said, grabbing a hold of the waistband of her sweats along with the unfortunate cotton panties she had put on today—it wasn’t like she had anticipated getting naked with anyone, for crying out loud.

She did as he asked and he easily slipped them off her. She was sprawled out on the bed, completely naked, and this irritatingly sexy man was kneeling in between her legs. Her blood started flowing hot in her veins, swirling through her body, the heat gathering low in her stomach.

She watched as he reached down, grabbed his impressive length in his hand and rolled a condom down his thick shaft. He leaned down between her, his body sinking onto hers. The playfulness in his eyes was now ringed with an intensity that was raw and sexy and powerful and she could see the take charge Sergeant First Class in him that she knew he was.

His head dipped down to her shoulder, kissing and sucking her sensitive skin. He smelled intoxicating, a light woodsy cologne, and it made her lightheaded in a way that had her wanting to be wrapped in his scent. She leaned her nose against his neck and breathed him in, grazing her teeth along his skin as she did.

Instantaneously she felt the head of his erection flex against her entrance. She raised her hips, begging for the invasion but he remained still, unmoving above her.

She groaned in aggravation, she needed him now. She didn’t think she could wait another minute. “Kale.”

“So eager all of the sudden?” He lifted his head up and looked at her, an impish gleam shining through his eyes.

He lowered his hand between their bodies and found the ache between her legs with his finger. He easily slipped it inside her, her silky arousal encasing him in wet warmth.

“Mmm,” he moaned, the low hum tickling her flushed skin as he pressed his lips to the dip at her throat.

“Kale,” she pleaded, her body squirming uncontrollably beneath him.

He didn’t respond. It was like his name rolling out of her mouth was the signal he was waiting on. He withdrew his finger from her and slammed into her in one quick thrust, producing a sharp audible sigh from Ronnie. Yes, this is what she fucking wanted. Her insides wrapped tightly around his thickness and he slowly swiveled his hips while keeping himself pressed deep inside her as she stretched to accommodate him. As she moved her hips with him, he increased his speed, sinking into her hard and fast then pulling back only to repeat the delicious movement over and over and over.

His mouth found its way back to hers. It was demanding and consuming and anything but gentle. His tongue pushed its way inside her, deepening the kiss, claiming her—and Ronnie willingly reciprocated.

Her hands wound underneath his arms and she pressed her fingers to his back. Just as her fingers started to curl into his skin, he sucked in a quick breath and the muscles of his back tensed—but his hips never stopped moving.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” Ronnie said, jerking her hands from the freshly inked skin of his back.

Kale pulled his hips back agonizingly slowly, teasing her as the feel of him gradually leaving her left waves of silky pleasure in its place. Just as the very tip of him rested against her, he thrashed back into her, hitting that spot within her depths, causing all her other senses to give out. She threw her head back as she cried out.

Kale’s tongue licked a trail up her throat as he went back to relentlessly pushing her closer and closer. “I don’t have a problem with pain, baby. Touch me wherever your little heart desires,” he whispered as his mouth reached her ear.

Holy fucking…he was driving her body insane. A pressure was building and she latched onto his shoulders, digging her nails into his skin.

“Yeah baby, let go. I want to feel you come around me.” He rolled his hips and then slammed back into her.

Her hips lifted to meet his as a rippled paroxysm of fire scorched to life between her thighs, bubbling over in waves.

Kale collapsed on top of her. His breathing was quick and heavy, matching her own breaths, and his chest and stomach bathed her in a thin layer of sweet moisture. After a few heartbeats, he rolled off her and pulled her to him. Her head lay in the crook of his neck and her legs were flung loosely in between his, their bodies tangling together. A part of her wanted to object, to tell him to back the fuck off, but her eyes were heavy and her body was spent. Her mind was in complete euphoria, plus the feel of his fingers gently raking through her hair made her scalp tingle and it made her eyes so tired it felt as if they were weighed down. Her body was riding on a hundred different sensations, and she didn’t have the energy to protest or ponder the repercussions of them. So she just took a breath, and allowed her vision to slowly fade behind her tired lids.

*****

Kale was jostled awake by a shove to his arm. He didn’t have to open his eyes to know that a beautiful, yet pissed off Ronnie would be staring at him.

“Get up.” She jabbed her palm into his bicep again and Kale just smiled. He reluctantly opened his eyes and stretched out his arms that were still wrapped around Ronnie as she tried to wiggle her way out of his hold.

“Hey.”

“Think you could get off me?” she asked, trying once again to shift her body out from under him.

He laughed pressing his hands onto the small of her back and holding her in a hug. He dipped his head down and kissed her once on her earlobe, quickly grazing it with his teeth before he let her go and rolled onto his back.

The dim light flowing in through the window was carrying with it the thick warmth of evening. Shit, they must have been asleep for a couple of hours. 

“Okay,” Ronnie said, sitting up, pulling the white sheet around her so it was covering her bare breasts. “We can’t do this anymore. You’ve had your fun; I’ve had my fill, now we can both go on our separate ways.”

“You’ve had your fill?” he said, cocking his head to the side to look at her. Her face was impassive.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, my curiosity is satisfied.”

“You were curious about me?” He looked knowingly at her, and as he watched Ronnie’s face turn from creamy to rosy, a pixilated smirk pulled across his cheeks.

“
Were
being the operative word; as in no longer. Look, this was fun, it was good—” Kale stalled her words as he arched his thick eyebrows at her, unconvinced by her choice of adjective.

“—okay it was pretty fucking mind blowing,” she declared.

His eyes relaxed and his mouth slacked back into its original post-coital smile.

“But…that was it. We can’t do this again.”

He leaned up on his elbow. “And what is your reasoning for that, because there are more than a few reasons for why I think we should
definitely
do this again.”

“I told you last night, I don’t date.”

“Who said we were dating?”

“No one said we were dating, but I’m also not a tramp who sleeps with different guys every night.”

A possessive shrill slithered through Kale’s nerve endings causing him to tense. “You won’t be sleeping with different guys. You’ll be sleeping with me.”

“No. I—”

“Ronnie, I get it. You don’t do the whole girly thing. Lucky for you, I don’t do the whole relationship thing.”

“A guy not wanting to commit to one girl, shocker.”

She was throwing her ex issues in his face and he wasn’t going to let that happen. “That has absolutely nothing to do with it. I’m a firm believer in commitment, and I know what it entails and I know how hard it can be. I also know that adding the military to that equation makes it even more difficult. I don’t choose to not be in relationships because I don’t want to be with one woman, I choose not to be in a relationship because when I decide to commit, I want to put that woman before everything else, just like it should be, and right now I can’t do that. Right now, I’m not ready to do that. So, committing to one woman isn’t the issue.” He reached under the covers and pulled Ronnie’s body down so that she was once again lying next to him. He ran his index finger up and down her stomach, igniting a patch of goose bumps on her naked skin.

“What’re you doing?” Her voice cracked a little as she tried to get the words out in a volume that was slightly louder than a whisper.

“Trying to remind you how I can make you feel. I want you to think about what you would be missing out on.”

Her eyes were dark and her breathing was forced, but her body was lax. She was soft under his hands; she was like warm melting butter.

“I know how you make me feel,” she said blinking hard, scooting away from him.

“I’m only here for five more days, Ronnie. Don’t ask me why, but I like being around your bad attitude and your smart mouth. You’re entertaining.”

“Oh, so glad I’ve provided you with a source of entertainment.”

Kale sighed and shook his head. This damn woman was exhausting, but he already knew it was worth it. “I’d like to spend my last few days in the States with you. No fluffy stuff.” His smiled returned in full swing when she wrinkled her forehead in question, so he elaborated, “I promise not to bring you flowers or take you to fancy restaurants or buy you gifts, and I promise I won’t let you fall in love with me.” He winked.

“Ha, like that would be a problem.” She rolled her eyes and gave him a dastardly laugh. She paused for a minute, seeming to be weighing her options. Her naked breasts caused the sheet to rise and fall above them as she breathed and he could see her pulse pounding through the thin skin at her neck—and it was speeding up.

Her eyes shifted pensively toward the ceiling, and they stayed there long enough to make Kale restless. When she lowered them back to him, the chocolate color seemed to melt around the rim, turning to honey. “Okay Soldier, here’s the deal. We can do this again only under the circumstances that we both understand that it’s JUST SEX. No strings, no commitment, no dating. Just sex.”

“It’s what I do best, Sweetheart.” He tilted his lips into a lopsided grin, which generated one of his now expected responses, an eye roll from Ronnie.

“So do we agree then?” Ronnie asked. She seemed unsure in her own part in the agreement, like she was still teetering on the idea.

“Yes. Ronnie, I enjoy being around you, and I definitely enjoy being inside you—” She pursed her lips together and cocked her head to the side, and it made Kale want to bite those full pouty lips of hers. “— a strictly sex relationship is just what I need right now.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes okay. Now, since you’re horrible timing of seduction interrupted my meal time, I’d like to eat.” Ronnie stood up, Kale’s eyes getting a first glimpse of her glorious body in a vertical position. He could only think of one thing that would make her even sexier at that very moment, and it was an image of cherry red heels.

“You’re mind fucking me again,” she admonished, pulling a tight Black Crowes concert t-shirt on over her head.

“How would you know what I’m thinking?”

Ronnie just laughed as she picked up her sweat pants from the floor and pulled them on.

Kale sauntered out of the bed and made his way to the foot of the bed where his clothes laid discarded on the floor. He watched as Ronnie gazed at him from the corner of her eyes.

“Now who is mind fucking who?” he said, mocking her.

Ronnie tried to cover up her quickly blushing cheeks with an eye roll but she wasn’t fooling anyone.

Kale smiled warmly and shook his head. “Come on, let’s go grab some food.”

“First of all, no dinner dates, remember? Second of all, my ass doesn’t leave the house on Valentine’s Day, especially to go out to eat. If I have to look at one couple staring lovingly into each other’s eyes, I’m likely to fucking lose it.”

Kale shook his head. “Okay, well we both need to eat at some point.”

“I do have a kitchen you know. It comes equipped with things like a refrigerator, a stove, even an oven.”

Hum, sarcastic Ronnie was just a sexy as impudent Ronnie.

“Okay, Sweetheart. Care to feed me?” he asked, walking to the bedroom door, looking back for Ronnie to follow.

She sighed. “Your ass is doing the dishes.”