Dungeon Games (11 page)

“It was Afghanistan.” His voice was quiet, but she could easily hear him through the door. She felt it the minute he put his back to the door on his side.

She didn’t care. Not a bit. Nope. She didn’t give a shit that he’d been in Afghanistan and served his country and apparently still had nightmares about it. “Did you get pinned down?”

Yes, she was just a little curious. No more than that.

There was a long sigh from the other side of the door. “Yeah. We were close-quarters fighting. We got into a firefight in Fallujah and me and Jones got cut off from the rest of the team. You got to understand. The streets are really narrow and when your adrenaline is up, you just kind of react. It was a part of the city we hadn’t been in before. Taliban held.”

“So you were surrounded?”

“Not exactly. It was just the two of us and he’d taken some fire. I had to get him out of there. I thought I remembered the way back, but I just took us deeper in.”

She closed her eyes, not wanting to think about how horrifying that must have been. On the run without the rest of his team, Brighton would have felt a deep sense of responsibility for Jones. “How bad off was your teammate?”

“He’d taken a couple to his right leg. By the time we could stop, he was bleeding pretty freely. I found an abandoned building and we slipped inside. It was rat infested, a real pit, but I didn’t have another option. I had to stop the bleeding.”

“And keep him quiet. He was probably in a lot of pain,” she guessed.

“Yes. I had to put him in worse pain because I had to dig the bullet out. He screamed. God, I can still hear it and I couldn’t do anything but stuff a rag in his mouth because they were everywhere. I could hear them moving around, shouting at others to look for us. They actually came in at one point. I hid us under some garbage. I kept my hand over his mouth so he couldn’t cry out. I damn near suffocated him. Do you know what I felt like in that moment?”

Powerless. He would have been utterly out of control and praying to anyone who would listen to save him. How humbling must that have been for a man like Derek? She couldn’t help it. She was stupid. Utterly ridiculous. She knew it was dumb, but she softened toward him. Her heart was an ignorant thing. It just kept reaching out.

“How did you get out?”

There was a long moment where she worried she’d lost him. He would go back to his couch and she to her bed, both in their respective corners, and the fight would begin again in the morning like nothing had happened the night before.

“He bled out.” The words sounded hollow, utterly haunted. “I tried to tie the damage off. I tried to stay up so I could watch over him. But I fucking fell asleep and when I woke up he was dead. He was twenty-three years old. I’d promised to get him back to his family.”

“I’m going to open the door now.” She couldn’t just sit there when he obviously needed affection.

She heard him shuffling, moving even as she opened the door. And then he was there, his muscular body seeming to shrink in on itself.

“You can’t be around me when I’m like that, Karina. I could have hurt you.”

She followed her instincts now and walked right up to him. He didn’t move as she folded her arms around him, tucking her head under his chin. “I wasn’t going to let you hurt me, Derek. I had a plan.”

It took him a couple of seconds, but his arms wrapped around her, squeezing her tight. His big palm came over her head in a protective gesture that warmed her. “What was your plan?”

It felt so good to be in his arms. The man knew how to hug. He enveloped her, surrounded her. She couldn’t help but cuddle closer. “I kissed you because I figured the dream was from your Army days. I’d tried to talk you awake, but I figured you probably hadn’t kissed your Army buddy a whole lot.”

He chuckled and she felt it all along her spine. “No. I hadn’t even kissed Jones once. It was effective. You stayed calm, didn’t you? I didn’t really worry you at all.”

She would bet he’d freaked the hell out of other women. “It takes a lot to panic me, Brighton. I know you don’t like it, but I can handle myself. And I can handle you. You weren’t going to hurt me.”

“I almost killed Maia once. I thought I was trying to keep Jones quiet, but she was smaller than him. I covered her nose, too. She couldn’t breathe. She hit me, but I didn’t wake up. She finally managed to pick up a glass on the nightstand and broke it over my thick skull.”

So he had his reasons to be worried. “I’m not Maia. I’m bigger and stronger than she is. I bet she hasn’t had the same self-defense training I’ve had.”

His hands began to stroke her. One flowed over her hair, the other down her back. “Yeah, she wouldn’t have thought to kiss me. Do you think you might want to kiss me in some situation other than trying to save your own life?”

Such a drama queen. She lifted her head and found him staring down at her. Heart-stoppingly sexy. That’s what he was. With his sleepy eyes and that sexy beard of his, she couldn’t quite look away from him. And his lips. Oh, they were plump and sensual and she wondered what it would feel like to have those lips on her body, worshiping her skin, kissing and licking and sucking.

She had a choice. She could step back and go to her widow’s bed or she could make one small move and the night wouldn’t be spent alone. She would spend it in his arms and she would finally know what it felt like to be Derek Brighton’s woman—even if only for a little while.

With a shaky breath, she went on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

* * * *

Derek’s whole body reacted to her. His heart pounded, his skin tingled. Every available ounce of blood seemed to flow right to his dick. She was saying yes. She was offering herself, and he wasn’t about to turn her down.

The need to burn off the dream was riding him hard. When he’d finally woken up and found Karina’s body trapped under his, he’d damn near lost it. He could have hurt her, could have killed her. It was precisely why he didn’t sleep with women. He fucked and pleasured and found his comfort in their bodies, but he went to his own bed so he couldn’t hurt them.

Except Karina really did seem to have handled him.

He gave her a minute, allowed her to explore. Her mouth was oddly tentative for an experienced woman, but then Karina seemed to be a study in contradictions. She was on her toes, her hands moving from around his chest to his jawline where she brushed against his beard, her light touches making him shiver slightly.

He didn’t shiver. He didn’t get this weird tightness in his stomach. He fucked. He brought pleasure. He didn’t get worried or nervous.

But he was kind of both because he wanted her so fucking bad, he couldn’t see straight.

From the moment he’d woken up and found her underneath him, his cock had jumped and pleaded and twitched in his pants. His brain might know that she wasn’t his type but his cock had entirely different ideas about what was attractive.

She kissed him and he kept still, allowing her to explore, to be in charge for now because she wouldn’t be later. What was attractive? She was. God, he loved the fact that she’d been willing to take off his balls if she had to. He also kind of loved that she’d come up with a way to save his balls.

He could still remember Maia crying. She’d sobbed for hours after the incident. Not Karina. Karina had that crazy sexy smile on her face that let him know she hadn’t been bothered at all by his PTSD dreams. She’d handled it. She’d taken care of it and she hadn’t needed to nearly kill him to do it.

Karina wasn’t his forever sub, but damn he wanted her now.

She stopped, pulling slightly back. When she looked up at him, he nearly got to his knees.

She was fucking gorgeous. She bit her bottom lip, obviously nervous. “Do you want me to stop?”

He had zero plans to stop. He might never fucking stop. A dangerous thought played through his head. He didn’t have to stop. He could fuck Karina until he didn’t have an ounce of come in his body and then he’d just wait until he had more and he’d give that to her, too.

“Yes. I want you to stop.” Because it was far past time for him to take over.

Her face fell, the sweetest pink flushing through her. He loved her skin when she was embarrassed or emotional. She couldn’t hide from him. It all played out over that precious flesh of hers. “Okay.”

She started to take a step away, but he wouldn’t allow it. She might be able to handle him when he was asleep, but he was going to make it very plain that he was her Master when he was awake. He caught her, pulling her to his body, letting her feel every ounce of his will because it was all directed her way.

“I want you to stop because I’m the top, Karina.” He practically growled at her. He’d never wanted to dominate a woman as much as he wanted to dominate Karina. He wanted to bend her to his will, to watch her give in to him because she was the fucking alpha female and that meant she belonged to him. She wouldn’t submit to anyone else—man or woman. Only to him because he was strong. She was everything he needed her to be.

She gasped a little, the action bringing her breasts in close contact with his chest. Her nipples had peaked, her eyes softening. Even the hands on his body had become something different. Before, she’d held him, but the minute he asserted dominance they became cajoling, pleading for his affection, his praise.

Submission. She offered him the sweetest submission of all. The submission of an alpha female to her chosen top. She would never get on her knees for another man. She wouldn’t allow a lesser the access to her body, the opening to her soul. Only him. In a haze of lust, he fucking believed all of it. He believed it was true. He no longer gave a damn about the dream. Reality was far better. Reality was Karina submitting to him, giving him everything he wanted.

He dragged her against his body, pressing his pelvis to her, letting her feel just how much he wanted her. He wanted to burn away that dream in the hot depths of her body. Karina could handle it. Karina could take his rough impulses. She might even fucking like them.

“Give over to me,” he whispered against her lips. “Give me everything you have. Let me in.”

Into more than just her pussy. In that moment, he wanted to drive into her soul, to make a place for himself there, a home that he never had to leave.

He hauled her up, lifting her like she weighed nothing. He pulled her against his chest, gripping her ass so she had nowhere to go. Her legs dangled for half a second before coming around his waist. It was one easy move to shift and shove her against the wall of her bedroom, grinding down on her clit. That was her sweet spot. She moaned and groaned when he pushed on that little jewel. What the hell would she do when he sucked on it?

He pressed her against the wall, his pelvis hard on hers. So fucking good. He wanted to drown in her.

Her legs wound around his waist. It would be easy, so easy, to push that little T-shirt she was wearing up. He could drag her panties down and let his cock free. He didn’t want easy. He wanted long and hard. He wanted it to last all fucking night.

He wanted to never think about anything but Karina again.

He pressed against her, lighting his whole body up. He kissed her, dominating her the way he’d always wanted to. His mouth pushed against hers, pressing in and taking control. She submitted, sweetly flowering open for his tongue. He took advantage, dancing against hers in a silky glide, so relieved when her tongue moved, joining him.

She was open and willing. She filled him with joy, with fucking happiness, because he’d never had a woman like her. Need rose hard and fast—the need to slip a collar around her throat so she couldn’t run when she realized he wasn’t worth it.

He kissed her hard and long. So warm. So sweet. So fucking gorgeous.

He needed to be inside her, needed to taste her on his tongue. Needed to know he’d given her crazy pleasure. He walked the two steps it took to get to her bed and tossed her gently down. She landed on her back, and he could see how her nipples poked against the fabric of her shirt.

“Spread your legs for me.” He needed her to want him. Needed her to spread herself for his pleasure.

She didn’t hesitate. He’d expected her to, had almost expected her to argue, but she simply moved her legs farther apart. She simply opened herself to him, giving him access to all her sweet spots.

Fuck. She wasn’t wearing panties. Her pussy was right there, spread wide for him to see and she was already wet. His cock was so damn hard, but he wasn’t going to give in yet. The fucker had waited this long, it could wait a little longer. He needed to prove something to her, to himself. He needed to prove to her that he had some semblance of control and he needed to prove to himself that she wasn’t going to taste as good as he thought she would. She couldn’t possibly.

He dropped to his knees, grasping her ankles and dragging her to the edge of the bed. Silky smooth skin caressed his fingertips and he could smell her. He breathed it in, reveling in the scent of her arousal. The petals of her sex were already coated, her labia a gorgeous coral shade.

“You want me.”

“I know I shouldn’t,” she whispered back.

He couldn’t think of all the reasons why this was a bad idea. Right now it seemed like the best fucking thing that had ever happened to him. With the exception of his career, he’d rambled through life ever since coming home from the war. He’d taken the pleasures he’d been offered, but he hadn’t wanted, really wanted anything until he’d seen Karina. It might not last, but he would take it. He would take this passion and enjoy it because he felt alive for the first time in forever.

And hungry. So fucking hungry for her.

“I’ll make you forget. All the reasons this is a bad idea—you won’t remember them when I’m done with you.” With shaky hands, he touched her, sliding his fingers through the soft skin of her sex. He ran the pad of his thumb over her clitoris and she jumped. Karina moaned and pressed up against him, trying to force him to rub her harder.

Pure pleasure coursed through him because she was going to make this so much sweeter for him. He flipped her over and immediately laid a quick two smacks to that gorgeous ass.