“I’m sorry if you thought that, Desiree. I wasn’t glaring at you, I was memorizing everything I could about you because I was wishing it was me. You weren’t good enough for Bradley. Not because you weren’t worthy, but because he wasn’t worthy of you. I didn’t hold conversations with you because I was afraid that if I did, what I felt for you, just being in the same room with you would intensify and I’d wind up beating the fuck out of Bradley just for breathing the same air as you were.”
“Why did you stop being friends with him?” Desiree asked, biting the corner of her lower lip.
“Because I’d found out from one of his buddies about the stripper. I confronted Bradley about it and he just laughed it off. Said some pretty nasty things. I was planning on coming to find you and let you know but we got called out. I knew as soon as I returned from that op, I needed to find you, so you knew what was going on. But, by the time I returned from that op a couple of months later, you’d already found out about the stripper and ended things with him. We got into a fist fight the week before Green Beret selections because I’d found out he was bad mouthing you for not taking him back. You handed him his ass during selection, so I felt that was revenge enough.”
Chapter
Eight
Max admitted his feelings to Desiree, wearing his armored heart on his sleeve. While his call sign was “Beast”, his teammates, including Teddy, were starting to tease him and call him a monk.
A few of his friends even asked if he’d switched teams and went gay. The jokes were never ending.
When Bradley “took the girl”, he’d tried playing the field for a couple of months. The three attempts at a one-night stand were fucking nightmares for him.
They all thought he had erectile disfunction because he couldn’t get hard with them. Yet, as soon as he’d seen Desiree, hear her voice or her laugh, smell her scent, he was harder than a steel post used to build a damn wall.
It was like once she was close, his body took over and was ready for action. When she was out of sight, his body didn’t give two shits about other females that were fuckable.
After all the failed attempts at dating, he just gave up and focused on his career and working out. He accepted being alone for the rest of his life.
“Why now?” Desiree asked him, staring him down.
“Why not? Seeing you again when you pulled off that extract in Charlotte and with what’s going on now, I realized I need to shit or get off the pot. So, I’m here, with you. Taking care of you the way that you deserve. I would really like a chance with you, if you’ll consider it. We can take it at your pace.”
Max moved to get up, but Desiree grabbed his hand and pulled him back down. She continued to look at him in confusion.
“You really liked me back then? Why didn’t you say something before?”
“Would you have left him or given me a chance if I had?” Max asked, already knowing the answer. “After everything you’ve been through, you needed time to heal. Find yourself. Especially after you left the Army. I knew you were having a hard time after that last deployment you did before you got out. I kept tabs on you through my brother, without his knowledge. Now, someone is targeting you, I can’t let anything happen to you. I don’t want to lose you, again.” Max admitted, looking down at her lips, wishing he could taste them.
Before Max could say or do anything else during the awkward silence that followed, Desiree moved forward and planted her lips with his. She traced his lips with her tongue, making him moan as he opened his lips for her.
He drank her in as their tongues fought for control. Rolling her over to her back, he won control of the kiss, teasing her, tasting her, drowning in her.
Fuck could this woman kiss and steal the air from his lungs. He could drown in her kisses and die a happy man right now.
The taste of her lips had him so fucking hard it hurt to even breathe right now. If she even lowered her hand down there and touched him, he’d come in his pants just a fucking teenage virgin and embarrass the hell out of himself.
He nearly did just that when he felt one of her legs wrap around his hips. Fuck, this woman was sex on a damn stick and God help him, he wanted her all for himself.
What the fuck Bradley was thinking of cheating on this woman is beyond him. If he could make her his, he’d hunt that mother fucker down and beat his sorry ass for causing her an ounce of hurt for what he did to her.
When she moaned into the kiss, his control went from strong to barely there. Max broke the kiss and started kissing his way down her neck.
He lifted her shirt and teased her nipples, licking, sucking, nipping, teasing. He smiled against her breasts when she lifted her back off of the bed trying to force him to do more.
Once both her nipples were hard peaks, he started to kiss his way down her stomach to her thighs. He avoided that area on purpose.
He wanted to savor the time they had together and make her squirm. When she gripped his hair, trying to move him where she wanted him, he chuckled against her skin.
He teased more with his tongue, licking around her clit, refusing to touch it, making her buck her hips. He used his hands to hold her hips still.
He swiped his tongue into her pussy, tasting her essence which was driving him fucking wild. Jesus Christ on a RPG she was going to be the death of him with that taste.
“Fuck!” Desiree moaned out in pleasure.
“Patience, hell cat.” Max said against her pussy.
