Holiday at Magnolia Bay (Southern Born Christmas Book 1) (9 page)

T
wo hours later,
Jenna sat cross-legged on her living room floor sorting through the newly minted Christmas ornaments Kristin had brought by the beach house. As usual, her friend’s creations were unique and beautifully crafted. They would likely sell easily, bringing in much needed funds to the turtle center. She put one aside to send to her parents in hopes it would encourage them to finally visit Magnolia Bay for the flotilla and fishing tournament. Jenna knew if they saw the place and understood the plans for the hatchery, they would finally accept her life’s ambition.

Music from another party down at the college boys’ bungalow filtered through the open window as the two women sipped on white wine. “Sounds like they’re having a blowout over there. You look like you could use some cheering up. What do you say we crash?” Kristin asked.

Macy was away for the weekend shooting a wedding in Charleston and while her earlier dinner had put Jenna’s emotions on edge, she preferred solitude over a crazy frat party. “No, I’m fine,” she lied. Kristin eyed her shrewdly. “Really, I am. It’s just been a long, crazy week. What I need is a good night’s sleep,” Jenna added.

Kristin hesitated as though she had more to say before finally packing up her supplies. “Well, if you change your mind, I’m headed over to Bottoms Up. Darcy and Trevor said they might drop by, too, which will make me the awkward third wheel.”

Jenna smiled because nothing about Kristin was awkward, from her sunny blonde hair to her perfectly sculpted face and body. It was likely that her friend would spend the evening dancing with every single guy in the bar. They made plans to meet at the beach the next day before Kristin took off for Magnolia Bay in her Mini-Cooper.

Jenna wasn’t surprised when the doorbell rang fifteen minutes later. She’d worried about Drew since she left Miss Evie’s house, wrestling with whether to alert the older woman to his state of mind or not. A wave of relief—and something else she refused to acknowledge—pulsed through her at the sight of him silhouetted beneath the porch light.

Wearing the same sweatshirt he’d worn the night before, except this time with the hood pulled up over his wet hair, Drew stood in front of her, his stance tense and battle ready. The cool, assured demeanor from the night before was gone. The hard lines of his mouth, however, weren’t.

He pushed out a deep breath. “Nothing I’ve tried works.”

Jenna watched as he began pacing her porch. He pulled a bottle of whiskey from the pocket of his sweatshirt. “This,” he said with a growl, waving the bottle in a wide arc in front of her face, “doesn’t do a damn thing to dull the memories!” He moved to toss the bottle into the bushes, but Jenna grabbed it from his hands at the last minute, carefully placing it inside the open door.

“I just spent two fucking hours in the ocean trying to out-swim the flashbacks and I still can’t escape them.” He pushed the hood off, wrapped his fingers around his head and squeezed. “I just need them to stop. At least for one night. Please, Jenna,” he whispered.

She knew what he was asking of her. Jenna doubted sex would totally obliterate his PTSD, but she didn’t dare tell Drew that. Not while the desperation shrouding his face made Jenna’s heart squeeze. If she invited him in, it wouldn’t be because of any patriotic duty, either. It would be because she was attracted to him; had been from the moment she laid eyes on the Navy SEAL. He’d be using her, but his honesty about the situation somehow made the scenario a little more tolerable for Jenna. He wasn’t her future. Heck, she wasn’t even sure if he’d still be in Magnolia Bay by the end of the weekend. But they could have tonight. Based on their previous kisses, she was pretty sure she’d enjoy it. And didn’t she deserve a little no-strings-attached-hot-sex of her own? Her belly leapt for joy at the thought.

She’d hesitated too long, however, and Drew gave his skull another squeeze. “Jesus,” he mumbled. “I’m an asshole. You don’t need to be dragged into this. They’re my demons.” He took a step back. “Lock your door, Jenna, and go to bed.”

Jenna’s hand reached out before her brain could stop it. Decision made, she wrapped her fingers around Drew’s hard biceps. “Don’t go.” She was surprised at how steady her voice was when her heart was beating out of her chest. She was going to do this. For Drew. But for herself, too. “Stay. Let me help you.”

His eyes locked onto hers as if he was searching for something—
reassurance, maybe
? She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and his nostrils flared. “Be sure about this,” he commanded.

With a gentle tug to his arm, she led him into the house, surprising herself about how certain she was with her decision. His mouth was on hers before the lock slid home on the door. Drew nipped at her bottom lip as he framed her face with his warm hands. She opened for him and he let out a soft growl of approval as his hips pinned hers to the door. He tasted like whiskey and warm male and Jenna was the one to moan this time as his tongue stroked against hers.

“Roommate?” He murmured the one word question against her jawline. His hand was fondling her breast and Jenna was having difficulty following his train of thought as her body grew warm and frenzied.

“Uh, she’s—she’s away for the weekend.” She barely managed to get the words past her lips before his mouth took possession of hers again. Jenna was thankful for the hard body pinning her against the door because his kiss was liquefying her bones. Slipping her hands beneath his sweatshirt, she brushed her fingers along his damp skin. He was as frenzied as she was and Jenna wanted him to slow things down. A frantic coupling in the foyer wasn’t the answer for his tortured flashbacks. He’d asked for an entire night and that’s what she wanted to give him.

“Shh,” she tried soothing him, but her breath hitched when her fingers slid below the waistband of his sweatpants and came in contact with the bare skin of his sculpted butt. “Oh,” she sighed. He pressed his hips further into hers bringing her hot core in contact with the hardest part of him. Jenna couldn’t help the strangled cry that escaped her lips.

“I’ll make it good for you,” Drew murmured against her ear sending shivers down her spine. “I promise.”

Jenna didn’t doubt him. “Then take me to bed,” she demanded.

Drew’s fingers gripped her bottom, lifting her off the floor as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Whispering naughty things in her ear, he carried her to her bedroom. By the time they both landed on the bed, Jenna was quivering with need. His words had been so explicit. She pulled his mouth down to hers for a searing kiss while his long fingers dispensed with her shorts and panties. Then he pushed a finger inside her causing her to nearly buck off the bed. A second finger joined the first one and Jenna broke off the kiss with a moan.

Drew swore. “Last chance to throw me out, Jenna. You’re as turned on as I am right now, but if this isn’t what you want, tell me now.”

Was he freaking kidding?
Jenna’s body felt as if it was ready to melt and slide down the door and he was talking about leaving. No way was she letting him walk away again. “Lieutenant Commander, if you don’t get naked this instant, I’ll have you court-martialed!”

One eyebrow went up at her words, but he made no move for his clothes. Instead, he flicked his fingers inside her again, his eyes never leaving Jenna’s. She gulped a sigh, her eyelids sliding closed, cutting off his determined stare, as satisfaction consumed her. His mouth found her breast; the pain and pleasure of his tongue abrading the pebbled nipple through the thin fabric of her T-shirt and bra was almost unbearable. His lips pulled at the tender nub while his fingers rhythmically stroked her. Jenna laced her hands behind his head, anchoring him to her body as the tension built within her core. She cried out as an intense climax washed over her scattering her wits and her senses.

Minutes later, she opened her eyes to see a now naked Drew looming over her with that determined look still on his face. “Good?” he asked shamelessly.

Jenna couldn’t help but smile. “Better than good,” she said tugging her T-shirt and bra off. Drew’s eyes narrowed at the sight of her, one corner of his mouth turning up in a grin. She reached for the light beside the bed, wanting to make the room brighter so she could study every inch of the hard body she’d been admiring for days, but he caught her hand and brought it between their slick bodies.

“Later,” he growled before taking her lips with his own. He kissed her as though he wanted to devour her, yet Jenna never felt threatened. Only desired. As he explored her mouth, she returned the favor with her fingers on his body, perusing over the sleek muscles and satiny skin. He hissed against her lips as she wrapped her fingers around the hot, hard length of him and stroked firmly. Leaving her mouth, he bit at her neck and her shoulder as she continued to palm him.

Groaning, he reached between them, shackling both her wrists in one hand and gently pulling her arms over her head. Drew leaned his forehead against hers. “Keep that up and we’ll be done before the good stuff.”

She brushed her lips against his. “Then hurry up with the good stuff.”

His eyes were dark as he reached for a condom. Taking it from him, Jenna rolled it over his erection. Drew’s eyes slammed shut before he claimed her with a deep, drugging kiss. Jenna gasped as he entered her with a single thrust before holding himself steady. He peered down at her from his plank position. A sheen of sweat on his forehead indicated that he might not be in control as he made himself out to be. “Still good?”

Tilting her hips to accommodate him more deeply, she lifted her hand and stroked a finger along his rough jaw. “Still better than good.”

Drew began to move then, his rhythm unhurried but intense. That slow burn ignited again as Jenna’s body grew needy for another climax. She wrapped her legs around his back in an effort to pull their heated skin closer together. He dropped to his elbows as he rocked into her, all the while whispering words of encouragement—most of them X-rated and likely learned onboard a ship somewhere. She came in such a rush that caused little pinpricks of light to dance before her eyes while waves of pleasure washed over her. Drew was right behind her climaxing on a guttural moan followed by a reverent whisper that sounded a lot like her name.

*

“And this one,
where did you get it?” Jenna asked, her finger tracing a scar on his leg.

Drew tried not to wince, but her touch was making him hard enough to pound nails. An uncomfortable predicament considering he’d had her twice in the past hour. After the second round—a playful romp in the shower—she’d demanded the lights be turned on so she could explore his body. Propped up against the lacy pillows lining her headboard, Drew imagined interrogations that were a lot worse than Jenna’s intense scrutiny with her eyes, fingers and, if he was really lucky, her tongue. But her sexy inventory of his battle scars was definitely taking a toll on his body. It was all he could do to lie still.

He glanced at the inch-long white mark on his left thigh, relieved that he didn’t have to lie about that one. “Puncture wound. But it was in the third grade. My brother, Jack, gave me that one.” He left out the part about the skewer nearly severing an artery, but he lived by the SEAL’s code to keep the details to a minimum.

“Your brother stabbed you?” Her eyes went round as her lips hovered over the long-forgotten scar.

Drew’s mouth watered as his aching hard-on pleaded with her to move her mouth a few inches to the left. “It was an accident,” he nearly moaned as her tongue traced the tiny scar that Drew wished hadn’t shrunk during the past twenty years. “Shit like that happens among brothers all the time.” The Lanham boys were no different from other brothers growing up.
Until their mother had died.

“That’s ridiculous. Siblings don’t go around stabbing one another,” she said as she straddled him. She released a tight sigh as the sweet seam between her legs rubbed up against his arousal. “Tell me why your brother would want to hurt you?”

He reached underneath his hoodie she’d donned after their shower and wrapped his fingers around her hips. Jenna sighed in pleasure again as she rocked against him. The image was so erotic, he could barely remember his military ID number much less the reason for the fight with Jack. “It’s not important.” He tugged the hoodie over her head, his breath catching painfully in his throat at the sight of her nude body.

She leaned down to touch her nose to his, her index finger tracing his lips while her other hand rested on top of his hammering heart. “Don’t think I’m not on to you. You haven’t answered a single one of my questions. At least not with the truth.”

Drew smiled in admiration. He’d avoided all of her questions with some pretty elaborate made-up crap. Most women bought the bullshit hook, line and sinker, but not Jenna. The fact that she saw through him made the game more challenging, but he couldn’t afford for her to see too much. He’d taken a great risk in coming here tonight—not to mention he felt like a douche-bag for taking advantage of her. Neither of them was complaining, however. For the first time in weeks, his muscles felt relaxed and his mind was quiet. His buddies had been right—sex was the panacea. He only hoped that one dose would be enough to last him.