Fall for a SEAL (12 page)
“You’re home,” she breathed into his neck. “Oh my god, I’ve
missed you so much.”
He pulled back just enough to press a hard kiss against her lips, then shifted her out of the way so he could leap over the barricade.
“You could have gone around,” she whispered, pressing her entire body against his.
“And let go of you? Not a chance in hell, sugar.” He slid his hand behind her neck and covered her mouth with hot demands and hungry promises. As his tongue
worked its magic, his hands familiarized themselves with her body, and Annie wanted more.
“Come on, let me take you home.” She tugged him toward the exit, wanting to get someplace private so they wouldn’t need to hold back.
“Wait,” he said, reaching for his bag. “I got you something.”
She spun around, nerves and relief both making her antsy. Her skirt flared a bit, the fabric dancing against
her fingertips, and it occurred to her that was an odd thing to notice. Also odd was how her pulse picked up and how loud all of a sudden her breathing sounded to her own ears.
Drew stared at her for a moment, a secret smile on his face, and the realization of what was about to happen fully dawned just as he dropped to one knee.
Don’t pass out
, her brother’s voice rang through her head, and
the tears started to fall in big, wet, embarrassing plops.
He doesn’t deserve you, but he’ll love you forever.
“Annie Martin, you are the light of my life. I didn’t know what love was before I met you, and—” he broke off and swallowed hard.
“You can cry, all the cool kids do.” She laughed and wiped her own face, then touched his.
“Hell no. Okay, I can do this.” He cleared his throat. “I love
you, sugar. There are fancier words to describe what we have, but I want us to be together forever. I want to be yours forever, and you be mine.”
“I’m yours,” she whispered, willing her knees to not give out before he finished.
“And I’m yours. Forever, sugar. Will you marry me?” He held up a platinum band, split in the middle around a channel-set diamond solitaire, and she wasn’t sure she could
take it from him without dropping it because her hands were shaking too much. She nodded enthusiastically and threw herself against him instead, and somehow in between standing up and kissing her again, Drew managed to slide the ring on her finger.
— —
“It’s a perfect fit,” Annie exclaimed a few minutes later as they stopped at a red light. She wiggled her fingers in the sunlight. “I
never thought I’d be that girl, but holy crap, look at my ring.”
Drew grinned. Hitting a jewelry store was his first and only priority when he landed in Dubai. The unique setting had grabbed his attention and he’d paid for it on the spot.
“How did you know my size?”
“I measured you one night while you were sleeping,” he admitted.
She twisted in her seat. “Before you left?” Her lips parted
for a second before she took a deep breath. “I had no idea…”
He squeezed her knee. He was thankful her sedan was an automatic and he didn’t have to break contact with her. The red flouncy fabric of her skirt sat on top of his hand and in its shadow he stroked bare, smooth skin. “I’ve been serious about you—about us—since that first weekend, sugar.”
“Me too.” She bit her lip, and he knew she
wanted to ask about future deployments, her schooling, what this meant for their future and where they might live, but there would be time for all of that later. She pushed a bright look onto her face. “Are you hungry?”
Only for her. “I just want to get you home and into bed, sugar.”
She smiled, all the way to her eyes this time. “Yeah. Me too.”
A few hours later, Drew pulled on black gym shorts
from the drawer he’d established months earlier and padded to the apartment door to pay the Chinese food delivery guy. Humming, he dumped the cartons of food on the kitchen table and pulled out plates and chopsticks. From the bathroom, he heard the shower turn off, and a minute later Annie was in the doorway watching him. She wore one of his t-shirts and her damp hair hung loose around her shoulders.
“Come here,” he instructed.
“I like to watch you.”
“And I like to touch you. Come. Here.” He wasn’t kidding. Feeling the warmth of her skin under his hand soothed him in a way he’d never appreciated before.
She smiled but did as requested, sliding between him and the kitchen counter. He caged her in with his arms and pressed his forehead against hers.
“It’s different than I expected,” he whispered.
“Leaving someone behind.”
She stroked his cheek. “How so?”
“I worried I’d feel conflicted. Want to play it safe, that sort of thing.” He squeezed her hip. “But knowing you were here…that just motivated me that much harder.”
Her eyes flared wide and he knew he’d surprised her. She cupped his neck and pulled his lips against hers, sliding her tongue against the seam of his mouth. He opened readily
for her, and within seconds was ready in another way.
“Are you sore?” He growled the question against her jaw as he worked his way down to lick the spot on her neck that drove her crazy.
“A little.” Her creamy skin turned pink at the admission.
“I’ll be gentle.” He lifted her onto the counter with ease, relishing the feel of her slim hips in his hands. Her bare hips, he discovered as he parted
her thighs and dropped to his knees.
“Not too gentle.” She moaned as he licked his way to her core. He wanted to greedily feast on her, but he’d already done that earlier. This time he took care to tease and caress, stoking her desire until she was slippery and just as ready as he was to join together.
Together
. It was the perfect word for them. Despite their separate lives and sad history,
they were building toward a solid future. It was a freakin’ miracle that Drew Castle had been given such beauty, and he was going to appreciate it—and her—for the rest of his life.
He surged to his feet and nudged his cock into her wet folds. His eyes rolled back in his head at the warm welcome.
Jesus
. He’d never get enough of her. With gentle pressure he slid into her, groaning as his hips pressed
into the backs of her thighs. Her legs wrapped tight around his waist, her heels dug into his back, and against his chest her breaths came hard and fast in moist little puffs that drove him crazy.
“Give me your mouth, sugar.” He shouldn’t act like a caveman but he couldn’t help himself. Being inside Annie reduced him to grunting need. God, he was glad Kevin wasn’t in his head anymore.
“I’m so
close,” she whispered, and the urge to thump his chest swelled again. He starting moving, rocketing them both toward the release they craved. She tipped over the edge first, and the soft, rhythmic clenching of her pussy did him in as well. She sagged against him, pressing hot little kisses against his arm, and then started laughing.
“Hey, that’s not good for the ego.” He grinned down at her.
“I was just thinking I’m going to need another shower now.”
“I’ve got a better idea.” He pulled out and pressed her legs together. “Be right back.”
Two warm washcloths later, they were snuggled on the couch trading bites of orange chicken and black bean shrimp.
“Is it too soon to start planning a wedding?”
Annie looked at him with surprise. “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”
“I don’t know.
I’ve never done this before.” He took advantage of her being distracted and stole her spring roll. “I was thinking the fall.” He took a bite, enjoying the curious reaction playing out on Annie’s face. “After I retire.”
In hindsight, telling her while she had a plate of messy food in her hands was a mistake. Fried rice hopped into the air as she jerked in surprise. “Are you serious?”
A slow grin
took over his entire face. “As a heart attack, sugar.”
She bounced up and down and squealed. “I thought you’d have a few more years in still.”
He shrugged. “Priorities change. Technically I won’t retire for another two years, I’ll be a reservist. But my life is with you now, wherever you are. I’m committed until the end of the summer, but I’ve started the process to switch at that point. And
then I’ll find security work here in L.A. until you’re ready to go…wherever you want to go next.”
Her eyes lit up. “Then yes, we should start planning a wedding. How does the Caribbean sound?”
“Perfect. I just happen to know a guy…”
THE END
If you enjoyed
Fall Out
, I’m thrilled to share that the SEALs Undone series continues!
Up next is Jared & Cassie’s book—just turn the page!
Jared Sutter has a simple rule when it comes to women: keep 'em happy and keep 'em at a distance. He's got his reasons, and they all make sense until he falls for his neighbor and Cassie Bronson makes him want things he's always kept off-limits.
And remember, there are other stories in this series as well!
SEALS UNDONE
Fall Out — Drew & Annie
Fall Hard — Jared & Cassie
Fall Away — Trick
& Gaby
Fall Deep — Miles & Piper
Fall Fast — Nathan & Emme
Fall Back — Cade & Mel
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FALL HARD
a SEALS UNDONE novella
by
Zoe York
— FALL HARD —
Jared Sutter has a simple rule when it comes to women: keep 'em happy and keep 'em at a distance. He's got his reasons, and they all make sense until he falls for his neighbor and Cassie Bronson makes him want things he's always kept off-limits.
The SEALs Undone Series
Fall Out
Fall Hard
Fall Away
Fall Deep
Fall Fast (short story, free for
newsletter
subscribers!)
Fall Dark (coming in the SEALs of Summer 2 boxed set, Summer 2015)
Fall Back (coming in the Romancing the Alpha boxed set, Summer 2015)
— ONE —
Just once, he’d like to spend Christmas bundled up in a sweater. Preferably with a ski bunny tucked into his side.
Jared Sutter looked at the text message from his brother Jackson again. Something’s come up. We’ll do Colorado in the new year.
“Something” would be a mission. His brother was an ex-Navy SEAL turned mercenary who lived in the Caribbean and did the jobs Jared and his
SEAL teammates couldn’t be asked to do.
Jared could go to Colorado on his own, but that would get complicated. He preferred to play wingman—help his brother or a buddy sweeten up their target, and then pay some attention to her less eager friend who was always relieved to find out that Jared didn’t want to get in her pants.
At least, not all the way. Every girl liked an orgasm or two courtesy
of his fingers, and if they got to the naked stage, his tongue. He’d gotten pretty talented in both areas over the last eight years.
But it didn’t look like there’d be snow, skiing, or ski bunny hook-ups for his holiday break this year. Oh well. Staying home would give him a chance to finally furnish his apartment. He’d lived in California for almost two years, had rented his own place in Coronado
Beach for almost one, and all he had to show for it was a bed, a big-ass TV, and the world’s most comfortable couch. The couch was a hand-me-down from Drew Castle, a friend of Jackson’s and former senior enlisted SEAL who’d recently switched to reservist duty to move to Los Angeles with his fiancée.
Drew had come home from overseas just in time to teach some courses on Jared’s SEAL Qualification
Training course, and while Jared had to put up with some extra ribbing for being Jackson’s little brother, he’d gotten a couch out of it in the end, so he couldn’t complain.
No, his only complaint as a Texas-born, California-trained Navy SEAL who was living the dream was that he once again wouldn’t have a white fucking Christmas. Boo-fucking-hoo. Time to go to IKEA and get over himself.
He lived
on the third floor of a walk-up apartment complex in the heart of Coronado Beach, close enough to base that he could get there quickly, far enough away that he wasn’t entirely surrounded by uniforms when he stepped out his door. A few guys he knew lived in the complex, but his next-door neighbors were civvies and that suited him just fine. His door opened onto a balcony of sorts that ran around
an interior courtyard with a pool. He usually swam in the ocean, but when the girls from the apartment to his right decided to lay out by the pool, he could be convinced to join them.
Something that Cassie Bronson—the
woman
in the apartment to his left—gave him no small amount of grief over.
Unlike Jemma and Brittany, Cassie wasn’t one to parade around in a bikini. Damn shame, because under
her suits and silk shirts he had no doubt she was rocking an awesome body. No, Cassie was a grown-up, through and through, right down to the gourmet dinners she cooked and the fancy wine she drank.
And even though they were like night and day in so many ways, they’d struck up an odd friendship. It had started with a very reluctant tap on his door a few months earlier.
“You’re strong, right?”
she’d asked, hanging back from his doorway like she wasn’t sure what might come snapping out at her.
“Why yes, ma’am, I guess I am,” he’d offered back, laying on the polite Texan-smooth in a way that would make his mama proud.
“I need your muscles, if you don’t mind.”
And he hadn’t—not for carrying that desk up to her apartment, or for opening a ridiculously sealed jar of pickles a few weeks
later. Each time she’d paid him back with a few containers of the most delicious leftovers.
Then he’d gone away for a fourteen-day training mission, and when he returned she gave him a weird look and said she was glad to see he was all in one piece. The next night she invited him over for dinner. He’d graduated up from leftovers, and before he could worry about whatever strings might be attached,
she whipped out the proverbial scissors and assured him there weren’t any. She was recently divorced and her rebound relationship had fallen apart in a big way. She was in a man-free period in her life and happy for it.