Jonesin' For Action (2 page)

Telling herself to be bold for a change, she placed his new beer in front of him and shot him what she hoped was a sexy smile. “So, are you meeting someone here?”

Glass halfway to his mouth, he cleared his throat and peered at her over the rim. “Ah, no. My friends had plans for the evening, and this looked like a good place to hang out for a while.” He dropped his gaze and took a swallow of beer. He seemed nervous, and understanding that he might be gave her more courage.

“My name’s Marissa.” She didn’t offer her hand because that struck her as being kind of lame, like they were meeting at a social event.

He put his glass down. “Aidan. Chief Petty Officer Aidan Jones, to be exact. My friends call me Jonesin’.” When she furrowed her eyebrows at him, he offered up an explanation. “It’s because I’m always jonesin’ for a fight.”

“You like to fight?” With his pretty face, it was hard to imagine. His features were perfect, not a broken nose or black eye to be seen. He had deep-set hazel eyes, and while his brown hair was cut short, a stray lock kissed his forehead. He looked more like a lover, to her. Her pussy throbbed in agreement as she gazed at him.

He shrugged his wide shoulders. “I’m a SEAL. We like to fight.”

Wow, why didn’t the news surprise her? He looked tough enough, except there was no way he still deployed. As if reading her thoughts, he followed up quickly with a caveat. “I
was
a SEAL. I’m out of the teams now.” He paused, studied his glass of beer. “I was injured a while back. Not that you can tell from where you’re standing,” he added.

“I saw you out on the water this afternoon,” she said quickly. It was clear to her now that his injury was an issue, or rather he thought it was. She wondered fleetingly if other women had been foolish enough to shoot him down. It was hard to believe given how gorgeous he was, and there was a certain boyish charm about him that was irresistible. Regardless, she wanted him to know his disability wasn’t a problem for her.

He looked at her in surprise, so she forged ahead. “Living down here, I have total water envy. I can barely swim, and I live vicariously through others, watching them water and jet ski, surf.”

“What brings you to Key West then?” The look in his eye told her he really wanted to know, he was listening. But experience told her he’d get bored fast, every other guy had.

She gave him the shortest, I’m-not-too-much-of-an-egghead version she could. “I’m writing my dissertation for an economics PhD.”

“Really? What’s your field?”

“Healthcare.”

He nodded as if interested. “A big topic these days.”

“Yes, it is. My focus is on public sector healthcare. Once my dissertation is approved, I’ll be heading up to D.C. for a job with the government or maybe a non-profit. I think this is the single most important economic issue of our time. I mean everyone needs this service sometime in their life.” And, look at who she was preaching to.

Way to go, Marissa. Your mouth ahead of your brain, as usual.

Her expression must have mirrored her thoughts because Aidan smiled at her and said, “As a recent recipient of public sector healthcare, I agree.” She winced in apology, but he waved her concern away. “Believe it or not, I was a corpsman, the team’s designated medical guy. Now that I can’t deploy anymore, I’m thinking of going to medical school and becoming a Navy doctor.”

Add one more thing Mother Nature had endowed this guy with, intelligence and compassion. Two things, actually. Before she could respond, another bartender, Will, elbowed her as he passed by. “Guy’s looking for a refill down at the other end.”

“Oops, got to go. I’ll check on your food, too.” He gave her a two-finger salute and stared at his beer once more. As she walked away, though, the back of her neck itched as if he watched her. Hoping he was, she put a little more swing into her hips, such as they were. She really hoped he liked petite.

She filled orders and bantered with her other customers the way she normally would, but half her mind and all of her hormones were focused on Aidan. Her skin tingled, and her breasts were heavy with mounting excitement. This was a first for her. She had rarely dated anyone she met at the bar and had never considered simply picking a guy up and taking him home. Normally her brain ruled her body. This night was different. Desire for the guy was so strong, she wanted to race around to the front of the bar and hop on his lap. She needed a reality check.

When Aidan’s food order was up, she grabbed it and nudged Will to one side. “Help me out here.” When he reached to take the plate, she pulled it away. “Not that kind of help. I need advice. You know the guy at the end of the bar? Don’t look!” she hissed when he automatically turned his head.

Will rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you mean Admiral Scrumptious? What about him?”

“I’m thinking of jumping his bones.”

“And you want to know whether you should do it here or wait until you get to a more private place?”

Marissa grimaced in exasperation. “You know me, and this is decidedly not me. Am I being too risky? Will they find my various body parts tomorrow in dumpsters around Key West?”

“What’s his name?” She told him. “Wait a sec.” She watched him walk over to Aidan and say, “Excuse me, sir. We forgot to card you before serving. May I see your I.D. please?”

“Seriously?” Marissa said it under her breath as she heard Aidan say it to Will. A wallet came out, a card was passed over the bar. Will smiled and thanked Aidan before returning the card and sauntering back to her.

“I.D. confirmed. Jump away. If you end up dismembered, I’ll know who to send the cops after.”

“Thanks,” she replied with a laugh.

Before she took a step, Will grabbed her arm and said in a low voice, “You know he’s disabled, right?”

“Yup. Not a problem.”

“I agree. Just wanted to make sure you knew.”

Marissa smiled at Aidan as she placed his food order in front of him. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, looks good.” He nodded toward Will. “What was that all about? I’m pretty sure I look older than twenty-one.”

Embarrassed that Will’s obvious ploy was so…well, obvious, she felt her cheeks pink up. She bit her lower lip, unsure of how to phrase what she wanted to say. God, she was such a dweeb sometimes. She may as well say it out straight. “He’s looking out for me. I don’t normally ask guys what I’m about to ask you.”

Aidan raised his eyebrows. “What would that be?”

“Do you want to come home with me tonight?”

Chapter Two

Aidan all but swallowed his tongue at the blatant invitation. Was it really going to be this easy? Although he was used to women making the first move with him, that was before he had become disabled.

No, he refused to think of his body in those terms. Differently-abled had seemed like a pointless change in terminology before it applied to him. He knew better now. He couldn’t do some of the things he had done before, but those were small in number compared to the skills he retained. He just had to do some of them differently, like waterskiing with one leg instead of two. Sex would be like that, the same with some minor modifications. Only, unlike anything else he’d tried since losing his leg, fucking required up close and personal observation of his body by another person. It was a distinction that mattered.

He must have mused a little too long because he saw her eyes go wide, and she backed up a pace. “Sorry if that was too blunt.” She blushed a dusky rose color under her tawny skin. “I totally get it if you’re not interested.”

Aidan laughed. He couldn’t help it. “You actually think I might turn you down? Why on Earth would I do that?” The obvious occurred to him. “Because of my leg?”

Her eyes got wider and her cheeks redder. “God, no! I meant because I’m half Asian, Thai, actually. Some guys aren’t into that.”

“You mean ‘some guys’ as in assholes,” he replied because who in their right mind wouldn’t fall to his knees in gratitude for a chance to be with her? Yet, she had picked him. He had seen a lot of good-looking guys with both their legs in the bar, so maybe her offer was based on the one reason he would turn her down. Leaning in closer to her, he asked in a low voice, “Are you making the offer because of my leg?” He held his breath, afraid of the answer because if it were a pity fuck, his answer would be no.

Her eyes narrowed as if she were annoyed. She leaned toward him so that they were mere inches from each other. Her voice was equally soft. “I don’t sleep with guys just because I feel sorry for them, which for the record, I don’t feel for you. I asked you to come home with me because I have this almost overwhelming urge to climb into your lap.”

“Oh.” It was hardly a word, more like an exhalation of breath as her confession shot right to his groin. Already half-hard, his cock surged up and pressed against his fly. Good thing he was sitting down. “Okay,” he managed to choke out as he stared at her, falling into the deep, dark pools of her eyes.

The tip of her tongue slipped out, and she ran it along her lower lip. “My shift finishes in a couple of hours. Can you sit tight until then, or do you want to come back?”

He wanted to trace his own tongue along where hers had been. Instead, he pulled back, aware that she was at work and he shouldn’t press his luck or freak her out. “My T-shirt isn’t long enough for me to get up right now. I’ll wait.”

He saw understanding in her eyes. She smiled and nodded. “I’ll be back.”

As he watched her saunter away, he took a swig of his beer and willed his body under control.

By the time Marissa announced she was off duty, Aidan was only partially aroused. He had spent the time waiting, mentally taking various weapons apart and putting them back together. He hid a grimace, just barely, when he hoped off the stool and irritated his stump. It was still tender and would be for a long while he had been warned. It wasn’t the pain he minded so much as the reminder that his body was different. Everything was different now, including sex. He had thought it through, of course, knew how he would go about doing it. Still, he was uneasy. He hid it behind a smile as he followed Marissa out the door.

Nightlife was teeming all around them. They had to walk single file until the end of the block, where she stopped and turned to him. “My apartment is a few blocks from here. I usually walk. Is that okay with you?”

“It’s fine,” he answered more sharply than he had meant. Damn it, he was too defensive. He shot her a rueful grin. “Sorry. It’s okay, I can walk that no problem.”

She nodded in understanding and surprised him by slipping her delicate hand into his before leading him back into the stream of pedestrians. The feel of her warm, soft skin against his proved surprisingly stimulating. His cock roused from its nap and took notice, but he didn’t care if it was visible. To be honest, his prosthesis would catch people’s attention before the bulge in his shorts did. They walked slowly down the sidewalk, the noise of carousers and music from the bars making conversation too difficult to attempt. What would he say, anyway? Nerves made him tongue-tied. He felt irritated, too, that she set such a slow pace as if he needed it until he realized she walked slowly because she had short legs. Her head barely reached his shoulders. If he wanted, he could pull her toward him and plant a kiss on the crown of her head.

The urge to do so gave him a solution to his nervousness and his mounting desire. At the next corner, he took the lead and pulled her under the awning of a store. When she looked up at him in surprise, he cupped the back of her head. He stared down at her, and she met his gaze. They both kept their eyes open as he drew her face to his and took her mouth. His eyes closed as he fell into the pleasure of his first kiss in many months, too many. He had missed this simple pleasure of slanting his lips against a softer, sweeter pair.

He traced his tongue along the seam and moaned softly in appreciation when she opened up for him and welcomed him inside. She deepened the kiss by twirling her tongue around his and clasping his arms with her small hands. Her body all but melted against his. They tasted each other for long seconds, long enough for his cock to throb in earnest. But they were on a sidewalk and he heard some whistles and claps from passersby, so he broke away reluctantly.

They were both breathing hard as they once more stood and stared at each other.

Marissa was the first to regain her senses. With a grin, she grabbed his hand and tugged him back into the stream of people. They walked faster with unspoken agreement, and soon she had him inside her building. He swept her into his arms once more as they rode the elevator to the third floor. This time they were alone, so he dared to slip a hand under her shirt and caress her smooth back. Her hands landed on his butt. She dug surprisingly strong fingers into his flesh and pressed him against her body as much as their height difference would allow. They practically stumbled out when they reached her floor.

With reluctance, he let her go so she could get the door open. Once they were inside, he scooped her up before she could turn on the overhead lights. A small bulb above the sink in the galley kitchen allowed him to see where he was going. He carried her over to the countertop that divided the kitchen from the living room. She gasped and then giggled as he plopped her down. Now she was eye level, perfect for more kissing. He dove in hard and heavy, plunging into her willing mouth, both hands inside her shirt. He found the clasp of her bra and flicked it open with practiced ease. Some skills never left you. He slid his hands around her soft sides and traced her pert breasts with his thumbs. Her nipples were hard, and she gasped again inside his mouth when he stroked them.

He broke the kiss long enough to ask, “Do you live alone?” When she nodded, he yanked her shirt and bra off. Then he stood and stared. This was another simple pleasure he had been without too long. Small enough to fit in his palms with dusky tones surrounding the hard nipples, her breasts were a feast for a starving man. Leaning in, he tugged one mound into his mouth and laved the bud with long, loving strokes.

Marissa groaned above him and clasped her hands to his head, holding him in place, urging him without words. He licked and sucked, first one breast and then the other until she moaned incessantly and writhed against him. She dug her nails into his scalp and pulled at the short strands of hair, testament to the effect he was having on her. His cock jerked, anxious to get in the game, but he had other ideas. Pulling back, he placed a trail of kisses from her lips down her throat to reassure her he wasn’t done yet. Then he unsnapped her shorts and tugged at the zipper.