Breaking All the Rules (4 page)

“Bobby’s a
Marine I met a few years ago,” Nina explained. “We hook up whenever he’s in the
country and I’m not swamped with work. It’s nothing serious, just simple,
no-strings-attached sex.”

“Wow.” Despite
her bravado, color rose in Jackie’s cheeks, reminding Nina just how young she
was. “Do you even go out on dates or anything, or is it really just sex?”

“We’ve never
been on a single date. It really is just a physical relationship.” Nina doubted
they’d even be able to make it through a date. They’d probably be pawing at
each other before the main course arrived, if they hadn’t ended up on top of
the table already. She always made sure her refrigerator was stocked when Bobby
was due so they’d have something to snack on if they got hungry. Usually the
food was abandoned after a few bites, or quickly integrated into a new round of
sex play. Like the time she’d pulled out the chocolate syrup—

Chocolate
syrup
, she thought, making a mental note to add it to her shopping list. And
whipped cream. And honey. And maraschino cherries—

“How long has
this been going on?” Jackie asked, dragging Nina’s attention away from her list
and all the tantalizing possibilities and memories it raised.

“Three years,”
Ashley answered. Her grin said she knew Nina had drifted off again.

Jackie’s eyes
widened. “Three years and you haven’t even been out on a date? Haven’t you even
thought about it?”

“There’s no
reason to,” Nina shrugged. “We have a good thing going and neither of us wants
to ruin it.”

“Nothing like a
relationship to ruin perfectly good sex,” Ashley smirked.

“It’s not good
sex. It’s amazing sex. If that changes, it might be time to reevaluate our
situation. Until then, there’s no reason to.”

“Gosh,” Jackie
sighed. “And here I can’t even remember what it’s like to have sex. I mean,
there’s no denying I’ve done it, but that seems like a million years ago.” She
rubbed a hand over her belly. “Who am I kidding? I can’t remember what my feet
look like.”

Ashley started to
say something, but Nina was already drifting back to Bobby. When they’d agreed
to hook up again that first night, she’d never imagined they would still be at
it three years later. That kind of passion seemed like it would burn itself out
fast. Somehow it never had. Every time they met again, the attraction was
there, stronger than ever. Sometimes she wondered if the briefness of their
encounters and the long stretches in between were what kept the desire strong.
Between his deployments and the shop keeping her busy, they’d only been able to
squeeze in a few days or a week here or there. Sometimes months could go by
before they saw each other. Absence might not make the heart grow fonder, but
it did leave certain other parts hungry for more.

This had been one
of the longer stretches he’d been away without a leave. As the time went by,
she’d found herself wondering more than once what he was doing and how he was.
He never wrote or called, of course, although she’d thought about dropping him
a line every once in a while, only to dismiss the idea. She didn’t know how to
reach him, and at any rate, she didn’t know how he’d react. It wasn’t that kind
of relationship. But she couldn’t help thinking about him from time to time,
and every time she did, the ache inside her for his loving grew heavier.

She could have
gone out and found someone else to tend to her needs in the meantime. They
certainly didn’t have any kind of commitment to each other and were free to do
whatever—and whomever—they wanted when they were apart. But she didn’t have
time to go looking for a man and none had fallen into her lap with little
effort on her part. She’d found herself waiting for his return, wanting him
more and more with each passing day.

And then she'd
gotten his text. All she'd had to do was see a new message from that familiar
number, and all that pent-up lust that had been building for months had almost
erupted. She could have come right then and there.

Only a few more
hours and she would do just that. Over and over and over again, if past
experience was any indication. She couldn’t keep a big, goofy grin off her face
at the thought of it, the same grin she’d no doubt be wearing several times
tonight.

The silence of
the room finally sank through her horny thoughts. She forced her eyes to focus.

Both Jackie and
Ashley were watching her. As soon as they saw she’d noticed, they broke out
into laughter.

“You were
right,” Jackie said. “She didn’t hear anything we said.”

Nina couldn’t
help blushing again. Damn, she really was losing it. And she still had the rest
of the day to go.

“Okay, that’s
enough,” she said in her sternest voice. She reached for the final cupcake and
tried to look as coolly professional as possible. “I’m sure our customers would
like it if we tried to get some work done today.”

“I don’t think
we’re the ones you need to be telling that,” Ashley said with just as much mock
seriousness.

“Unless it was
thinking about work that was making you grin like that,” Jackie chimed in.

Nina groaned.
She hated being so transparent. She was a twenty-seven-year-old woman acting
like a horny teenager.

“Let’s cut her
some slack,” Ashley relented. Moving to the door, she extended her hands to
Jackie to help her up. “And leave her alone with her thoughts.”

The two women
padded out of the kitchen. With one last indulgent smile, Ashley pulled the
door shut behind her. Nina glanced down and did her best to concentrate on the
cupcakes.

Five minutes
later, she found herself staring at a towering pile of icing that was more than
any cupcake could handle.

With a sigh, she
started scraping most of it off. She was kidding herself. There was no way she
was going to get any work done today, not with her body strumming with nervous
energy and the low ache between her legs dragging her thoughts back to Bobby
time and again.

Just a few more
hours, and then his hands would be on her, and she could touch him, and he’d
put that expert mouth of his on her—

Molten heat
rolled down her spine and she shuddered.

Tonight couldn’t
come soon enough.

BOBBY REACHED FOR
the last button on his shirt, only to discover he’d run out of corresponding
holes. Jarred out of his thoughts, he glared down at the two shirt ends held in
each of his hands. They were completely out of alignment. He hadn’t been paying
attention and had missed a hole along the way.

Sighing, he
started to unbutton the shirt again so he could fix it. His fingers fumbled
over the tiny buttons in his haste. He felt as coordinated as a two-year-old.
Damn it. He forced himself to go slower in order to complete the task quicker,
when all he really wanted to do was yank the shirt off, toss it aside and walk
out of the apartment bare-chested. Anything to get him out of here faster.

“Let me guess.
You’re seeing Nina.”

Bobby jerked his
head up. Mac stood in the open door of Bobby's bedroom, eating a bowl of cereal
and eyeing him with amusement. Bobby finally noticed the sound of his chewing
and had a feeling he should have heard it long ago.

He swallowed
another sigh. Most of the time he didn’t mind having Mac for a roommate. It was
easier to afford a place off-base with two of them splitting the cost, and it
didn’t make much sense for both of them to be paying rent on separate
apartments when they were deployed. At the moment, though, he wouldn’t mind
being alone with his thoughts. “Is it that obvious?”

“I’ve been
standing here for five minutes and you haven’t said a word to me. You’ve just
been buttoning and unbuttoning that damn shirt with a goofy look on your face.
Any idiot could figure out you were thinking about a woman. It's either Nina,
or you've been holding out on me about somebody new.”

“I don’t need to
find someone new. You’re the one who gets bored after one night.”

Mac shrugged.
“What can I say? It wouldn’t be fair to the women of the world to tie myself
down to just one right now.”

“I’m sure they
appreciate that,” Bobby said dryly.

“Oh, I make sure
they do,” Mac said with a leer, and Bobby had to laugh. Mac was a dog, but the
big, dumb kind who didn’t mean any harm. He was right. Most of the other guys
had stories about relationships gone bad, but Mac had never had an angry ex
show up and all of his stories had happy endings. Maybe it was easier like
that, when there were no expectations beyond a single night. There were no hard
feelings and everybody left satisfied.

Bobby almost
envied Mac’s carefree, easygoing ways, even if he’d never been the type of guy
who could be satisfied with nothing more than one-night stands himself. He’d
done that for a brief period when he was younger, a single guy out on his own
for the first time with the world at his feet. Suddenly there were women
everywhere—ready, willing and able. He’d practically been a walking erection,
and with none of that blood in his head, it was hard to resist temptation.

That time in his
life hadn’t lasted long. Though Mac wouldn’t agree, he’d found something empty
about it, and he’d wanted more. Sex wasn’t enough, especially sex with a woman
whose name you couldn’t really remember the next day, if you’d bothered to
learn it at all. It was better to get to know somebody a little, to know she
was a real person, not just some anonymous female body. He liked talking to
women, nothing too deep or serious, just conversation. The way a woman
expressed herself revealed a lot about her, both as a person and what she’d be
like in bed. Whether she was aggressive or shy. Whether she was overly verbal
or liked to use her hands a lot. Not to mention the sex was better when two
people took the time to learn each others’ bodies and tastes. That first
encounter tended to be a little awkward anyway. He liked getting to know what
his partner enjoyed, what made even the quietest woman scream at the top of her
lungs and reduced the most talkative to low moans of pleasure.

At the same
time, it wasn’t that he was looking for anything long term either. He’d never
had the time nor the interest to dedicate himself to anything serious. After a
while, his partner would start to question where they were going, or the
passion would dry up on its own. Either way, the relationship would come to an
end, but only after more than a few mutually satisfying encounters.

And then he’d
met Nina. From the moment he’d first heard her voice in that club, she’d been
perfect. She was funny and sharp, more than capable of keeping him on his toes.
If there’d been nothing between them but conversation, he would have enjoyed
being around her. Lucky for him that wasn’t all there was between them, because
she was also hot as hell. When it came to sex, she was as open and confident as
she was in every other part of her life. She enjoyed giving pleasure as much as
she loved receiving it. He’d never met a woman so completely adventurous. She
was always willing to try new things—and was usually the one suggesting them.
Even after three years she was still finding ways to surprise and thrill him.

Mac was still
talking. Bobby tried to clear his mind to pay attention. “I’ll tell you, you’ve
got a good thing going there. A gorgeous woman wants to have hot sex with you
and doesn’t expect anything else. Wish I could find somebody like that.” He
waggled his eyebrows. “Who knows? I might have to steal her away from you.”

“Hands off.
She’s mine,” Bobby said lightly, only half joking. He knew Mac was kidding
around, so there was nothing to explain the rush of possessiveness that grabbed
him, making his neck tense and muscles tighten.

Mac held up his
hands in surrender. “Hey, I know better than to go after another guy’s woman. At
least without getting the all-clear sign first.”

“Don’t hold your
breath,” Bobby muttered.

“Then again,
seeing what she’s doing to you, maybe I’m better off steering clear of her.”

Bobby met Mac’s
smirk with a blank stare of his own. Mac rolled his gaze lower. Bobby followed
it to his shirt.

He’d buttoned it
wrong again.

Mac let out a
bark of laughter. Muttering under his breath, Bobby started over again.

Three years. He
never would have thought it would last this long. Every other fling he’d been
in had burned itself out long before now, and he would have thought this would
too. But it hadn’t. If anything he wanted her more than he had the night he met
her.

Even more
surprising, he’d been thinking about her more often lately, and not always in a
sexual sense. It wasn’t surprising to start thinking about the people back home
when you were so far away, but this was more than that and had started before
he’d even left the last time. He almost wished they had the kind of
relationship where she’d welcome a call from him or send him a letter. As their
reunion grew closer and closer, he’d realized how much he missed her. Not just
the sex. Her.

That was why he
was going to do something tonight he’d once never dreamed he would.

He wondered what
she looked like now. Last time, she’d been letting her hair grow out until it
hung to her shoulders. He’d loved running his fingers through that dark brown
mane, not to mention the way it felt splayed out over his chest when she
collapsed against him and lay her cheek or her forehead on his abdomen. Or when
she was on top, riding him, and she threw her head forward, letting it fall
over his face. He could close his eyes and breathe in the scent of her, her
body slick with sweat, her hair smelling like some kind of fruity concoction he
always associated with her. He didn’t know its name. All he knew was that it
was Nina.

“Man, you need
to get out of here,” Mac said. Draining the last bit of milk from the bowl in
his hands, he started to turn away. “You’re out of it today. Go get laid before
you jump out of your skin.”