21 Marine Salute: 21 Always a Marine Tales (154 page)

Pushing a hand through her hair, she tried to lift it away from her face. Tom helped, catching some of the damp strands and stroking his fingers through the length of it. Giving into the impulse, he wrapped the long tendrils around his hand and tugged her close for another pulse-pounding kiss.

“You make it a very hard offer to say no to,” she whispered beneath his kiss.

“Then don’t say no.” He wanted to make it impossible, but coaxing might be easier for her.

Brenda groaned. Stretching, she looped her arms around his neck and he rolled onto his back, enjoying the feel of her draping across him. “If I say yes, then what?”

Joy flared in his gut, but he tamped down the reaction. She’d said
if
. “Then we spend the rest of our night here, and when my stamina returns, I’m going to make love to you until neither of us can walk.”

She shivered. “Go on.”

“And when we’re able to walk, I think I should do it again for good measure. After that, it’s all up to you. If you want to stay and work your job, then I’ll find a place close by.”
Coax, Marine. Coax
. “And we’ll do the day-to-day thing, take every moment as it happens.”
I can go help out Luke if I need to keep busy
.

“Hmm.” She brushed her lips to his chest. “Every year for the last thirty years, I’ve spent this night by myself—and I’ve cried and mourned.”

Tensing, Tom held her tighter. “I’m not asking you to forget him.” She had to understand that.

“I know, oh I know that. You were right about what you said earlier though—that he wouldn’t have wanted this for me. You made tonight so much easier for me, better—I think I even forgot for a little while. For a moment, I felt guilty—and now….”

A fist tightened around his heart.
Patience. First engagements can be tricky. If she backs off, that just means you have to go slower
…. The last thing he wanted was slower, not with her in his arms, relaxed and warm and so soft.

“I’m thinking about these plans of yours and there’s no guilt.” Wonder echoed in her voice. “Is this too weird for me to talk to you about?”

“No.” He wanted her to tell him everything. He couldn’t battle demons or fears he didn’t know about. “You never have to hide him or what you felt about him. Ever.”

“But that’s just it, I don’t feel guilt. I feel—lighter—hopeful.” And the bruising grip on his heart relaxed. “I want to say yes, but I’m terrified we’re going to make this crazy leap and both regret it. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since we met and I’m wondering what it would be like to make love on the boat you keep mentioning.”

The words evoked a very provocative image of her sprawled on a sun-kissed deck while he nibbled his way across every inch of her skin. “We don’t have to wonder. All we have to do is find out—maybe we’ll love it, or maybe we won’t. Half the fun will be in the discovery.”

“And the other half?” She traced the spot on his chest she’d kissed with her tongue and his body responded with a wave of desire. It may not take him that long at all to find his stamina again.

“The other half,” he tumbled her over and looked down at her, “will be because I’m with you. Say yes, Brenda. Leap…I’ll catch you.” To hell with coaxing. She sat right on the verge and he wanted to grab her hand and jump.

“Crazy. Impulsive. We’re not eighteen, we both know the consequences of this—I have a house, mortgage payments—well, not really. I actually paid it off early by doubling—oh….”

So close, she was so close to saying yes.

Ease back or stay in the game?

She stroked his scalp with her nails, the sensation soothing and turning him on in equal measures. “One year.”

“What?” He blinked.

“This is our year.” Her shaky voice grew stronger. “We rang it in together, we take this year and we go crazy. Go where we want, do what we want…and next New Year’s Eve…we decide then if we want it to be permanent.”

“Together, all year, anywhere we want to be?” He clarified the terms.

“We’ll go fishing….”

“And to the Caribbean, and anywhere else you want to go,” he promised. That dark road turned into a summery field. “What about your job?”

“It’s a job. I’ve had a career. I want a life.”

One year. Oh, he could do a lot with one year.

“Mission accepted.”

National bestselling author, Heather Long, likes long walks in the park, science fiction, superheroes, Marines, and men who aren’t douche bags. Her books are filled with heroes and heroines tangled in romance as hot as Texas summertime. From paranormal historical westerns to contemporary military romance, Heather might switch genres, but one thing is true in all of her stories—her characters drive the books. When she’s not wrangling her menagerie of animals, she devotes her time to family and friends she considers family. She believes if you like your heroes so real you could lick the grit off their chest, and your heroines so likable, you’re sure you’ve been friends with women just like them, you’ll enjoy her worlds as much as she does.

You can visit Heather at:

http://www.heatherlong.net