Maybe it was.
There was nothing in his voice to give him away, but she heard it anyway. She looked at him with such compassion and understanding that he knew he didn’t have to explain.
It was like the night when he’d gone to her after Mark had died. Mark Fallon had been a fellow officer, the OIC of Neptune Platoon (the other platoon in Team Nine), and one of his closest friends in the navy. While on a joint mission, Scott had sent him and half his platoon into a building on overwatch. The building that was supposed to have been deserted for some time had been wired to explode. Mark had gone in first and had died instantly. He was the only casualty, although a few of the guys had been badly injured.
Scott had gone to Natalie’s after the funeral at Arlington. She’d opened the door, took one look at him, and didn’t say anything. She knew exactly what he needed. Someone to be there for him. Someone to turn to. Someone not to ask questions.
She did the same thing now. Wordlessly, she lifted the covers and opened her arms.
He didn’t hesitate.
Scott crossed the room in a few strides and slid in next to her. The next moment her arms were around him, their bodies were pressed together, and his mouth was on hers.
The edginess was gone, and all he could feel was warmth. Warmth that penetrated to the bones. Warmth that made everything else around them disappear.
This was all that was important.
This was the answer.
He groaned at the taste of her. She was like sugar, melting under his lips. He couldn’t seem to get enough of that sweetness before it was dissolving away from him, so he kissed her deeper and deeper.
Their tongues twisted and twined, circled and stroked, until the soft moans and pants urging him on became more than he could take.
He couldn’t wait. She was giving herself to him, opening her body and her heart with no questions asked.
With no conditions.
No promises.
Maybe it was wrong. Maybe she deserved something more in return. But this was all he could give her right now. His body. His desire. His need.
And God, how he needed her. He wanted to feel her under him. Feel her silky skin sliding against his. Feel her body squeezing him like a glove as he pushed inside. Feel her hips lifting and circling as he thrust. And most of all he wanted to feel the cries of pleasure reverberating through him as he forced her over the edge.
He tore away with a groan long enough to get rid of the limited clothing that was in his way.
She was reaching for him even before he finished, and he moved over her, pausing just long enough to look into her eyes. He might be out of his mind with need for her, and they might have made love a hundred times before, but he needed to hear her say it. She might have been ableto get beyond what had happened to her, but it was new to him, damn it.
“I need you to tell me you want this.”
His voice sounded as tight as the rigid muscles of his neck and arms.
“What?”
He could see the confusion in her half-lidded gaze. “I need you to say it.”
Suddenly she seemed to understand. Her eyes grew suspiciously shiny. She reached up and cupped his grizzled jaw, with a look of tenderness in her eyes that melted what little ice he had left around his heart.
“I want you to make love to me, Scott.” He would have groaned with relief if she hadn’t stopped him. “It’s just...” Her voice dropped off.
He frowned. “Just what?”
A slow smile spread over her face as she took advantage of his position looming over her to let her hands slide over the muscles of his flexed arms and stomach. He sucked in his breath at the bolt of pleasure that surged through his veins from the delicate touch.
When she reached the thick column of his erection, she took him by the balls—literally—squeezed as if she owned him, and then circled her hand around his cock, gripping him with a long hard stroke. She leaned up and whispered in his ear, “Just hurry.”
Scott groaned and thrust deeper into her hand. There weren’t many things he could do with her hand working him like this, but hurry...thathe could do.
He bent down and kissed her again. But the milking torture of her hand made it harsher. More demanding. More carnal. And maybe even a little raunchy.
