Burning For Nero (SEALs Going Hot) (8 page)

She sank to the mattress and waited for him, searching for an answer that would serve them all well.

****

Escaping his parents’ house was worse than doing mission recon. He marked time in the kitchen, while the world marched past him. Grinding his teeth, he felt an uncharacteristic anxiety grow that Cass was waiting for him and he was late.

But his mother was holding her own in the kitchen and had corralled Tessa and her two girlfriends into helping her with the cooking. The one co-ed who had tried to sink her talons into him last night was still coming to terms with his rejection. Earlier, she had waylaid him as he exited the hall bath after his lesson with Jon. He had firmly told her, he was otherwise engaged and not interested in any kind of hook-up. Now or later.

She had sulked. But accepted his dismissal.

Then his brother, Gil, had surprised them all by walking in the front door, courtesy of three days leave. With hugs and greetings all around, Tony joined in the family conversation and watched the clock tick past one. He loved his little brother, was proud of him and couldn’t abandon the welcome party without arousing suspicion.

Tony decided he’d delayed enough when he saw Tessa’s friend—who had set her sights on Tony—now latch onto his little bro. A jarhead, Gil had joined the Marines out of high school. That had been four years and two tours in Afghanistan ago. The kid was tall, buff and to Tony’s shock and awe, entertained the advances of the girl who had stalked him.

Finally, Tony saw an opening. He drifted out of the kitchen, down to the rec room and out the side door. Hoping no one watched from either house, he hurried to the boathouse, climbed the deck, pulled open the door and saw Cass sitting on the edge of the bed.

She was frowning when he stepped inside, but when she saw him, her face lit up. Then she grinned, relief etching her features. She rose, tossed her head of golden curls in laughter and walked right into his open arms. “I thought you deserted me.”

“Never. Gil showed up. Sorry. I had to stay for a while,” he said as he cradled her close and kissed her forehead, her nose, her warm lips. “I missed you.”

“Mmm,” she crooned as she snuggled into him. “Ditto.”

“Had a great time with Jon.” He needed to talk about that with her. The little boy’s conversation had touched him and awakened a familiar tenderness in his heart. That love of Jon blossomed into a larger devotion now that Tony was intimate with his mother. Tony took it on as a new responsibility.

“I’m grateful. He loves you.”

“I get that. He talks about Ray, too, but in a way that makes me think he was afraid of him. Am I wrong?”

“No. Ray was larger than life.”

“A big man. But in size, I’m even bigger and I don’t want to frighten Jon.”

“You don’t. He idolizes you. Thinks of you as his friend.” She stepped backward out his arms, smiling at him but wary. “We should talk about that. About a lot of things.”

Someone walked up the steps of the deck and banged on the door. “Cass? You in there?”

“Tessa,” Cass whispered to him. To his sister, she called, “Just a minute.”

Tony sank to a far corner, hating that he was hiding from his own flesh and blood when what he wanted was to shout that he was really here and Cass was his.

Cass cracked open the door, and she and Tessa talked about tonight’s music. Cass always brought a track to run during the dance so that everyone—young and old—could have a turn on the floor with songs from their era.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes, Tessa. My iPod is up at the house. Left it there last night. So I’ll bring it to you in about half an hour, okay?”

“Sure. Not a problem. See you later. Bye, Tony!”

Oh, hell. Caught.
“One point to you, Tessa.”

“Not counting, big brother. I am leaving you two now.”

“Good riddance,” he told her.

After Cass closed the door, she sank against it. She shook her head.

He laughed as he strolled forward and gathered her against him. “Busted.”

“Do you think they all know?” Cass asked as she sank against him.

“Guess we were obvious last night. My folks noticed.”

“Peg and Tom know, too.” She sighed.

He didn’t like her tone. Sorrow? Regret? Her expression told him she was conflicted. Why? “What gives here?”

“I don’t want anyone to get any big ideas.”

He stilled. Fear was an alien to him, but it clawed at him like a fiend. “Does that include me?”

She shook her head and locked her eyes on his. “I never thought you and I would ever do this.”

He inhaled the fragrance of her hair. Honeysuckle. Hell, he was a fool for honeysuckle. “Me, neither. But now that we are…”

He tickled her and she squealed as he pulled her to the bed.

“I wanted you so badly that I feel wicked. Like I’m ten years younger,” she said, her lips moving on his as she ran her hands up under his shirt. Her moves reflected an urgency that alarmed him as much as they thrilled him.

“Works for me, baby.” Confused, he didn’t want to douse her fervor but let her peel off his shirt, then unbutton his cut offs. As they thudded to the floor, she cupped his erection. Already hard and tight, his dick had been fired for her since he had left her in bed at dawn.

“Commando—and ready,” she said, her eyes half-lidded and sultry with desire. “I love it.”

Glad he had her enthralled again, he went with the moment. He traced his fingers up the inside of her shorts to her moist slit. This morning when he had fingered her on the deck, she wore panties but by god, she had taken them off. So, whatever her conflict, she’d come here anticipating that they’d make love. His heart thumped in joy. He delved inside and she threw back her head, her eyes closed. She was already sopping wet for him and flexing her core muscles to keep him there. “Taking my cue from you, baby.”

He watched her swallow hard. Christ, she was so beautiful and he wanted to please her, make her pound, make her want him now, every minute. He tugged her shirt over her head, spread his hands over her firm breasts and rubbed her nipples through the lace of her bra. Moaning, she wriggled and he stripped her of her shorts.

She rose on her toes, wrapping her fingers around his neck. “All morning, I rolled dough, and shaped hamburgers, and all I thought about was you.”

The idea tickled him. “Not sure I like the analogy, but I’ll go with it.”

“No dough on your bod, honey. But patting meat into nice neat shapes?” She raised her brows while she tormented him, stroking his cock. “Watch me do my stuff.”

He hustled her to the bed and followed her down to it. Hovering over her, dark fears nagging at him, he peeled off his brace. He was going to love her with every ounce of his being, no restraints. She deserved that. Besides, her eyes grew limpid with need. “You put me into nice neat shapes, huh?”

She snorted as she spread her legs under him and circled them around his hips. “That shape needs to slide right inside me.”

He arched a brow. “Wow. Ready to come again already?”

“Already? You look at me and I’m a screaming mess.”

He slid along her seam, her wet heat a torrid lure. “I know how to cure that.”

“Better hurry up.”

Smiling, he sank his cock right down inside her core. She gripped him so hard, he caught his breath and thrust deeper.

Her mouth formed an O. Her body melted. Her hips arched in invitation.

He gave her what they both wanted then. A long sweet fucking that rocked him. Burned him. Transformed his craving for her into a need to do this more than once, more than this. Purposely, he brought her to the edge, watched her pant, heard her moan, felt her pussy clutch him.

And he pulled out.

“No!’ She cuffed him, angry he’d gone.

He caught her by the wrist and hauled her up against him. Her hair stood out, wild around her oval face. Her breasts grazed his chest, her nipples rock hard. “Bet your pussy is dripping for me.”

“And empty, damn you.”

He laughed. “So come here.”

He led her to roll over, kneel on the bed and stick that ass in the air. He bent behind her, the musky fragrance of her cream clouding his reason but enflaming his senses. That way, he ate her. Sucking on her fat little folds, he took his time, then found her clit and broke her up into a crying orgasm.

His cock throbbed, wild to be inside her. But he wanted more from her, all of her for him to be exact. No fears, no worries, no realities, not now, not yet. At the moment, the only way he knew how to get her to agree was to love her longer and harder than any man ever had.

His fingers in her pulsing channel, he waited until her muscles stilled. Then he caught her by the waist and whirled her to stand on her feet. She stumbled, but he turned her and bent her over a table. There, he put her hands to the far edge, smoothing her fingers over the edge, then he covered her naked body with his own and let his cock find his own way home.

She curled upward, groaning as he filled her.

“How’s that, honey?” he whispered, knowing by the way her pussy grabbed his shaft that she loved it.

“More,” she demanded, sliding one hand to her mound.

“No. No. That’s mine,” he told her and pushed her fingers away to service her clit himself. He rolled her nub, spreading her cream all around the turgid button. She cried out as she came, long and low like an animal in heat.

Inside her, his cock wanted to find his own happiness, but his mind wouldn’t allow it. He kissed his way up her back and along her nape. How could he get her to commit to him? “I need you to want me for more than this.”

“I do, but I—”

“No buts.” He pressed her back against him. “How do I know?”

She did that crazy grabbing thing with her pussy and his dick nearly lost his cool. “You like that.”

“My cock says, ‘Oh, yeah.’”

She complied and he growled, nearly losing his mind. He held back.
Why?
Instinct maybe told him he needed her to agree to more. But damn if he could have a conversation with his cock buried so far inside her sopping wet cunt.

She pushed against him, getting out from under him and standing even if she sort of weaved. “My turn. Sit.”

Like a stone, he sank to the only chair. And she knelt in front of him, took his cock in her elegant fingers and put her lips over his helm. She sucked on him, focused and insistent, licking his slit of the drops of pre-cum forming there. She was patient, thorough, and attentive to him, one hand holding him at the root, the other stroking his length until he wanted to tear the house down with his bare hands.

He shot to his feet. “Lay down. Now. Open wide.”

Her eyes darkened to a jungle green as she led him by his dick to follow her to the bed. There she lay down on her back and with a dexterity that destroyed his logical mind, she rubbed the tip of his cock on her wet pussy as she spread herself for him. “Fuck me now or I’m leaving.”

“Like hell you are.” He plunged inside her to the very quick.

The two of them groaned at their union.

And then he sank to his balls, slapped into her with a wet fury. She groaned, her core convulsing and sending him into his own orgasm. He shot into her, shaken, taken by his violent need for her. Moaning, he clutched Cass to him, his pulse wild, his body soaked with sweat.

He planted his lips against her ear. “Come shower with me.”

She burbled in laughter and pushed away to stare into his eyes. “You wear me out. I need to rest. Besides—” She ogled him.

“What?”

“You promised to make love to me in there. You cannot be ready again so soon.”

“Never challenge a frog.” He pulled her up and in the sunlight streaming in the far window, she looked like a naked goddess, the golden dust motes blessing her perfect skin with specs of heaven. He swatted her backside. “Get in there.”

She yelped and took the few steps into the tiny space. “A thimble is bigger than this.”

“Yeah,” he agreed as he crowded her then turned on the water while he rubbed his chest against her luscious breasts. “And aren’t we happy about that, too?”

She was laughing, reaching for the soap as she shut her eyes against the spray. “I want to touch every inch of you.” And she did so sweetly, so thoroughly that he forgot about his arm. And he flinched. “Oh, no. Sorry, honey. Sorry. The arm? How is it?”

“Good.”
Bad.
True to his training, he sublimated any sensation of pain. Drove it inward until he had accomplished his goal. His objective this afternoon had been to love her hard and long, and boy, he had. He had also wrecked his forearm. He grit his teeth.
It was okay, he would deal.
No big problem.

“You lie,” she said, her gaze scouring his. “Let’s get out of here and you put that brace on.”

“No.”

“Don’t’ be silly. I want you whole. You want you whole. I won’t be the cause of you hurting—”

Moving an inch, he pressed her against the wall, his whole body more articulate than he could be verbally. “I’ll hurt like hell if I can’t have you. See—”

She moaned as he slipped his cock deep inside her pussy and rocked her against the tiles. She was so soft inside, so swollen, so ready that he drilled into her with a blank mind. Damn, if she didn’t come again. And shock of shocks, he did, too. His knees shook, but he embraced her. Hell, if he didn’t praise the guy who built such a small stall. The confines kept him standing until he found the strength to slip out of her sheath and help her step out. He dried them both off, his arm throbbing like a sonovabitch, then led her back to bed.

There, he dropped the towel. Then, he laid her down and curled her against him, his lips to her forehead.

She slept the second she closed her eyes. He lay awake, planning his line of approach. He’d go slowly, ask her if she would see him, date him. He wouldn’t add that he wanted her to let him fuck her blind any time he was in port. But that was what he needed. He had to ask her about her plans to move, too. Wherever she went, he had to go. She had to know he would. Because of this holiday and all this good loving, she certainly must realize he wanted more than a few hours with her. He wanted days and nights.

And more.