Ricochet (39 page)

“That’s what I thought.” He closed the shower door with another slam. “Leave the lights off on your way out.”

She gritted her teeth and reached for the door, sliding it back even harder than he had. It banged against the wall and rattled. “Knock it off—” was all she got out before he fisted her tank top and dragged her to him. His mouth covered hers, and his other hand closed on the back of her head, holding her to him as his tongue drove between her lips and took everything he wanted. A sound of surprise popped from her throat, but Nathan drank it, fisting her hair and eating at her mouth until she couldn’t breathe. Until she was soaked from his body, from the splashing water.

He pushed her away as suddenly as he’d yanked her close, his eyes heavy and hungry and so very needy on hers. “Last chance to leave,” he rasped. “I’m not feeling friendly, so what you’re going to get if you stay isn’t anything like I’ve given you in the past.”

A thrill snaked down her spine and flooded her with heat.

“Stop giving me those hungry eyes, Hart,” he said, growing angrier. “You don’t want this. You don’t want
me
like this. So get the fuck out of here before I do something we’ll both regret.”

Oh, but she did. She wanted him exactly like this. Twisted or not, she craved a look at the most damaged part of him.

She didn’t bother with her clothes, just pressed a hand to his chest and pushed him backward, making room for her to step into the shower.

“You stupid girl,” he growled.

She pressed her fingers to his lips as the water soaked her. “I may be foolish, I may be naïve, but I’m not stupid, Nathan. Nor am I a girl.
Nor
am I near as fragile as everyone thinks. And I know what you want.”

She held his gaze, which glittered as he stared at her with a mixture of disbelief and relief, hunger and regret.

With the water spraying off his shoulders, she stepped back and gripped the bar on the door with one hand, pressed the other to her hip. His gaze slipped over her body—the white tank, now plastered to her breasts and belly, her soaked shorts almost falling off her hips. His jaw muscle jumped, and his eyes turned dark. The raw hunger on his face was a potent aphrodisiac, and she wasn’t about to let him out of here without one of them ending this encounter with a screaming climax. “Are you going to take what you need? Or did I call your bluff?”

His gaze jumped back to hers and held only a second before his arm snaked out and clutched her waist. He pulled her toward him so fast, her back arched with the momentum. Nathan’s head bent, and he pulled the nipple of one breast into his mouth, sucking at it through the cotton tank. Sensation bolted through her body, spreading through her breast and slamming her sex. Rachel cried out and fisted his hair.

His mouth was wickedly unrelenting, sucking and biting until the edge of pain joined her pleasure. With both his hands at her back, his mouth forcefully attacking her breast, Rachel bowed and gripped the bar on the door for support.

His hands groped lower, gripping her ass and pulling her up to rub his erection between her legs.

“Jesus,” she murmured, eyes closed, absorbing the wild whirlwind of passion. “Nathan.”

He growled, pulled his head back, and shoved her tank roughly up her chest, exposing her before lowering his mouth to the other breast. The feel of his hot mouth on her tender flesh shot lust through every cell in her body, and she moaned at the delicious sensation.

His hands lowered, squeezing her ass, dragging at her shorts until they fell in a slosh to the tub. Then Nathan dropped to his knees, turned her, and pushed her against the cold wall. The chill shocked her.

“Oh my—” she started, then Nathan’s mouth opened over her sex, and she finished, “
God,
” with a whole new thrill.

Nathan jerked one thigh up and over his shoulder, then the other, taking her completely off her feet. Being trapped between the wall and Nathan’s mouth made her feel completely out of control, giving her an uneasy kick of excitement. His hands gripped her ass and pulled her into his mouth even as his lips and tongue covered and ravaged her. A blast of heat and pressure rocketed through her.

“Ah, fuck…” She squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her head against the wall as his tongue stroked every millimeter of her folds, his lips dragging her clit between them to suck until she arched and lifted into his mouth. “Fuck, Nathan…”

Almost there…she rode the orgasm’s sharp edge. Nathan pulled back, curled his tongue, and plunged deep. Pulled out to stroke her entrance roughly, then plunged again. Pulled out to stroke, then drove his tongue home again. The wet, hot pressure was maddening, erotic, naughty, decadent, wicked, everything she’d labeled as a “shouldn’t” all her life. And if this was a “shouldn’t,” she was definitely abandoning them.

“Nathan… Jesus… Please…” She clenched her glutes, lifting into his mouth, and he growled against all the sensitive tissues. She slapped one hand against the wall, searching for leverage, but it slipped. Her palm landed on something hard and round—the handle on the soap dish. She gripped it and used it to push her hips up and into his mouth. “Yes,
yes
. God…”

Closer. Closer. Closer… She inched toward orgasm. He was so proficient at keeping climax just out of reach, and when she finally reached the pinnacle, she exploded. And she needed to explode now.

He gripped her ass with a growl, pulled her pussy to his mouth, and feasted without relief. Rachel immediately climaxed again, the orgasm slamming through her pussy, pleasure rolling through her hips, her legs, her belly.

Before she’d even stopped shivering, Nathan stood and pushed his cock into her pussy. Rachel gasped, and her eyes flew open. She wrapped her arms around his neck, but he kept her pressed against the wall.

“Condom,” she breathed, her mind still spinning.

“I won’t come,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. “I want to feel you wrapped around me, pumping me. I want to feel your pussy begging me to come.”

He brought his mouth down on hers before she could respond, and immediately thrust deep inside her. She made a sound of pleasure and pain in her throat, but Nathan didn’t pause. He stroked her tongue with his, his hips forceful and steady as he drove himself deep on every thrust. And while he was inside her, he ground his pubic bone against her clit. With all her tissues already swollen and sensitive, she climbed fast, and before she even knew it was coming, the orgasm hit—stronger and sharper than the others.

She tore her mouth from his and pressed her face to his neck, muffling her scream of pleasure. Then, as fast as it came, the ripping pleasure eased, and Rachel found her legs too exhausted to remain wrapped around his hips.

Without a word, he turned off the water and lifted her from the wall, holding her tight as he stepped over the tub edge. Three steps and he lowered her to his bed, then reached for his nightstand. He pulled a condom, ripped it open, and slid it on, his jaw tight, focus complete. Then he tore the little package of lube with his teeth and squeezed it into his hand.

He gripped his cock with one hand and spread it over the length with the other. The sight might have been even more erotic than what he’d just done to her in the shower, and her heart beat faster. Then he gripped her knees, pulled her wide, and slid his wet fingers between her legs. She gasped at another blast of cold.

He stroked one long finger inside her, pushing it against her front wall with small circles. The sensation created a delicious fullness, and Rachel’s back lifted and curved. He withdrew, added a finger, and pushed deeper. Never once, did he take his gaze off her pussy, off the sight of his fingers sliding inside her. She reached between her legs and stroked her hand over the length of his cock pressed against her thigh. His eyes fell closed, his jaw clenched, and he covered her hands with his, squeezing tighter, stroking from tip to balls, tip to balls.

Then, without warning, he moved his cock to her entrance, pulled his fingers out, and sank in.

He stretched her until her throat closed and her head fell back. Nathan’s palms pressed her inner thighs open, spreading her until her pelvis ached. When his balls pressed hard against Rachel’s body, he withdrew and thrust again. Faster. Harder. Rachel sucked air and gripped his forearms. Still, he didn’t look at her—he watched his cock drive into her pussy. His eyes were dark, his face tight with lust and pain. He seemed to lose himself a little more with each stroke, until the lover Rachel knew was all but gone, here only in body. And he drove that body to the brink.

Fast and hard, he pushed into her, over and over, his fingers bruising as they gripped her thighs wide. Standing on the floor, he used the strength of his legs to drive his hips, his pelvis hitting her clit. The head of his cock rubbing that crazy spot deep in her body.

Despite the pain, despite the disconnection, Rachel rose quickly. “Nathan…” she breathed. “I’m…I’m gonna…”

Slam. The orgasm hit her. Her body arched and twisted. Her breath caught in her lungs. Still, Nathan drove on, the only sign he realized she’d come the way his hands grew harder, holding her still, and a growl when her pussy spasmed around his cock.

Pump. Pump. Pump. He kept driving, and driving, and driving. And as she bottomed out, an instant of clarity made her realize Nathan wasn’t just seeking distraction from the horrible incident with Ray. He was trying to fuck the trauma in Afghanistan out of his mind. And even though Rachel was wrung out, and pain now flowed through her hip joints, an ache had developed in her ass, and her pussy was nearly raw despite the lube, her body still tightened toward climax again.

“Nathan,” she begged. “I can’t… I can’t…” But her body made a liar out of her. All the pressure and friction gathered into another wave of excruciating ecstasy and dragged her toward the edge again. “God…”

He drove deep, pressed his pelvic bone to her clit, and pumped his hips in short, powerful strokes. Rachel’s climax erupted , shot a thrill straight to her core, and shivered uncontrollably as Nathan continued to drive a mini burst of orgasms through her body, one after the other after the other, as if he had a finger on the control button and just kept pressing it.

“Na—than… Please… Stop…”

He stilled, breathing hard, eyes squeezed tight. He brought one knee up on the bed between her legs and dropped his forehead to her shoulder. “I can’t…come.” His voice was tight, frustrated. “I just can’t…get off, goddammit.”

Now that he’d stopped moving, even more discomfort rushed to the foreground. Pulls and aches in her lower back, her thighs, places deep in her body she couldn’t even pinpoint.

“You’re thinking too hard.” With her heart aching, she lifted her hands to his face. “Look at me.”

He shook his head. “Can’t.”

“Nathan.” She combed her fingers through his hair. “Look at me.”

He exhaled heavily, then lifted his head and cracked his lids. She pulled his mouth to hers and kissed him. He groaned and kissed her back with a desperate passion. His body began to move again, and Rachel grimaced against the discomfort, but kept kissing him.

“Baby,” he murmured against her lips. “Jesus…so good…” He thrust—slowly, deeply—and his orgasm peaked within seconds. He plunged deep as he emptied, his sounds of release filled with relief.

His arms shook, and he collapsed on her, panting. But within a minute, he pulled out, rolled off, and stalked to the bathroom. Rachel lay there, staring at the ceiling.

“What the fuck just happened?” she whispered to herself.

The toilet flushed. The water ran in the sink. Rachel winced as she pushed herself up. Her head swam. A thud nearby drew his gaze. Nathan stood at the dresser, naked. He’d set the vodka bottle on the surface and pulled a T-shirt from the top drawer. When he turned toward her, she saw he was holding her flip-flops and her bundled wet clothes tucked in his arm. Dropping her shoes and clothes at her feet, he opened the T-shirt and pulled it over her head.

“What are you doing?” she asked, holding her arms down when he tried to pull them through the sleeves.

“Giving you something to wear back to your room,” he said, his voice as flat as his gaze. “Unless you want to go naked. I doubt anyone is awake anyway.”

A chill settled in her chest. She yanked the shirt off her head. “What’s going on with you?” He turned away, and Rachel grabbed his hand. “Hey. Talk to me.”

He pulled out of her grasp. Dragging a pair of boxer briefs from the drawer, he tugged them on, then gripped the vodka and let the bottle hang by his side. “I don’t want to talk, Rachel. And I won’t make good company. It would be better for you to go.”

He held her gaze with an untouchable air. Rachel felt like she was looking at a different man. Not her funny, sexy Nathan. And the way he could slide into such an indifferent shell signaled a very deep problem.

“He was spiraling. It’s one of the reasons I wanted him to do this job. Give him some purpose until he went back to work.”

Every instinct in Rachel wanted to gather him in her arms and love him until his pain eased. But, like an injured animal, he just wanted to run. So Rachel gave him what she gave all her macho Renegades—tough love.

“So all you need is a fuck, and you think you’re good?” she asked, keeping her tone cool, as if it didn’t hurt. “You’re done with me, so I can hit the road, huh?”

He closed his eyes, exhaled, and ran a hand over his head. “I’m not fit for company, Rach. And the last thing I want to do right now is talk about this.”

“Not even if I told you that Josh discovered the cap was defective?” Feeling vulnerable now, she dragged the T-shirt over her head and stuffed her arms into the sleeves.

“What?” he asked, his face pulled into a scowl.

“Josh found the blasting cap that detonated in Ray’s hand. It wasn’t one you’d left behind or missed in the post sweep. It was just a defective cap in the storage locker that went off while Ray was putting things away.”

His gaze went distant, and a cluster of emotion flashed through in mini bursts—relief, hope, regret—then the gut-wrenching guilt returned, and he looked away. “I should have been the one putting those supplies away, not Ray.”