Aside from the flaming asshole in pinstripes, Shannon’s apartment was exactly the way I remembered it. Furniture that only looked too fancy to be comfortable. Hardwood floors topped with intricately woven silk rugs. Built-in bookshelves on either side of the brick fireplace, filled with books, old photographs, and an assortment of geodes, none of which she wanted to discuss.
It was precisely Shannon.Intentional. Everything had a purpose, everything meant something.
The click of her heels against the floor announced her approach before she rounded the corner from the kitchen, but it didn’t prepare me for the impact of gazing at her again. The months, the distance, the resentment over the state of things between us…none of that changed the way my heart and head reacted to her. She was sexy as hell—that was nothing new—but that wasn’t my first thought this time. No, this time I wanted to drag her into my lap, wrap my arms around her, and let myself becloseto her for a long, long time.
“Did you say you wanted wine?” Shannon asked. She stared at the empty chair, blinking. “Where’s Gerard?”
“I threw him out the window,” I said. “I had to kill him but I didn’t want to get blood on your rugs.”
“Jesus Christ, Will,” she hissed. She crossed her arms over her chest and I sucked in a breath. I couldn’t remember seeing anything that beautiful in months, and that wasn’t just because those months were filled with some of the toughest, most deadly missions I’d ever led. “That’s really fucking hilarious.”
“Anything to get you smiling,” I said.
She sent me a withering smirk, and I was pleased to see it fall into a frown when Gerard entered the room.
You can’t fool me, peanut.
“Shannon, thank you for an enjoyable evening. If you’ll excuse me, I need to see to a client.” He glanced in my direction. “Captain, it was a pleasure, and…thank you for your service.”
I offered a tight salute as Gerard shrugged into his coat. I couldn’t hear their conversation, but observed with an emotion I can only describe as glee when Shannon showed him to the door without so much as a handshake.
She kicked off her heels as the door closed, and came to a stop right in front of me. “Captain, is it now?”
We did not have time to discuss my ascension in the ranks. “Who the fuck wasthat?”
“What the fuck areyoudoing here?” she yelled. “I mean, itisnice of you to knock this time. Have you grown out of your breaking and entering stage yet, commando?”
I was on my feet and grabbed her around the waist before the last syllable passed her lips. “Tell me, peanut: when his name is on your lips, does it taste the same as mine?” I asked, my arms banded around her torso with her back pressed tight against my chest.
“That’s none of your goddamn business,” she bit out as she wriggled in my arms. My shoulder was aching and pins and needles were setting my last three fingers on fire, but I didn’t care. I was going to hold her until she drew the line and told me to stop.
“Would he mind if I did this?” I dragged my lips up her neck and over her jaw, melting even further into this woman as the taste of her skin spread around me. “What if…” I brought my fingers to her chin and angled her toward me. “What if I did this?”
She knew what I was thinking while I stared at her mouth. She knew I was going to kiss her, and that, in the long, disjointed history of us, kisses were never simple, never innocent. My lips found hers, and we were both uncoordinated and impatient, biting, sucking, licking, feasting on each other. When she released a sweet,relievedsigh, I knew she still belonged to me.
“Kiss me like that again and your clothes are coming off,” I warned, my hand tight on her hip.
When our lips met, I knew she was as desperate for this as I was. My hand ran down her thigh and then back up, and over the globes of her ass, squeezing and grinding myself into her. My lips landed on her neck and this—this right here—was worth crossing deserts and mountains, surviving helicopter crashes, taking a fucking ton of shrapnel.
This woman was worth it all.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she asked. “It has been eight fucking months, Will.”
“I needed to see you,” I admitted, my lips on her neck. “I told you I was coming for you when my tour was up.”
I couldn’t talk about the failures of my last mission, the scars it left behind, or the decisions ahead of me. Not tonight. The one thing I was capable of doing tonight was crawling into bed with Shannon and holding her—
“And I told you this was over,” she said. “You cannot show up at my door like this and think…I don’t even know what the hell you think, but you can’t do this. I’ve moved on. I’mwithsomeone else.”
She fought against me, and for a second I debated whether she actually wanted me to release her. We were rough with each other as a matter of fact, but this seemed different. I loosened my hold, and she slipped out of my arms.
“You can’t do this,” she repeated. “You can’t be here.”
When I hopped a flight back to the States with the intention of sorting out my life and visiting Shannon, I knew there were several possible outcomes.
She could straight-up refuse to see me, and that was a very real contender. Shannon was a heavyweight when it came to shutting people out and pretending they didn’t exist.
She could order me to whip my dick out and fuck her until we both collapsed. Of course, she’d insult me the entire time and I’d get off on that shit.
