Then Lance got to the part even those films generally shied away from.
“We got hit after nightfall, exactly like we’d feared,” he said, “and I hadn’t had enough time to heal up so my mobility was still shit. I popped off a couple rounds but my head was spinning. I couldn’t concentrate. Next thing I knew, the noise had stoppedand everything I thought had hurt before hurt about five times as bad.” He drew a hard breath and the arm beneath her hands tensed. “I was held, beaten, and tortured for five days before Jon’s recon team got me out.”
Nausea rolled through her stomach, but Lynnette held herself steady. She’d wanted him to share his burden with her.And what a burden.Tortured for a week? He ought to have been released with honors as soon as he was medically cleared for travel. But she didn’t have to ask to understand that with his rapid healing, the Marine Corps would have seen an opportunity to keep a strong and willing weapon in their hands. It was a little sickening to think about. But he’d said the incident had happened a decade earlier, so she knew that had to be the explanation.
Lance held his breath for a moment, then slowly released it and gave her hands a squeeze. “Officially, I’m not supposed to tell that story to anyone who didn’t experience it unless they have a certain clearance.” His thumb stroked over her skin, and when he spoke again, an uncharacteristic vulnerability had slipped into his voice. “But anyone who makes a life with me probably needs to know, because nightmares like that … happen. Sometimes.”
Tears rushed to her eyes and Lynnette blinked hard to chase them back. He didn’t need a sobbing, soft-hearted princess. And generally, she wasn’t one. So, she extracted herself from their embrace and twisted around, climbing into his lap so that she was straddling his hips and could more easily catch his handsome face between her palms.
He blinked up at her with slightly widened eyes as his hands landed on her hips.
“Thank you for sharing with me,” she said softly. “I know that isn’t easy, and I want you to know I appreciate it.” She dragged her thumbs through the half-day’s worth of scruff thathad accumulated on his jaw. “Even more than that, thank you for letting me be here. There may not be much I can do against those memories, but if there’s anything at all, I want to do it.” She leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “You’ve sacrificed so much, for so many. Let me take care of you in the quiet moments. Even if only when it’s just the two of us.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow and he tugged her closer. “I know you’re my soulmate,” he said, lips kicking up at the corners, “but how are you so damn perfect?”
Lynnette scoffed and leaned forward enough to curl her arms around his neck. “Oh, I’m not, don’t worry.” She teased him with a whisper of a kiss. “For starters, I’m unemployed.”
Mischief glinted like a freshly lit spark in his pale green eyes. “For now.”
She had about five seconds to question his response before Lance was in motion, and the next thing she knew, she was bent over the side of the bed and her nightshirt had been shoved up to her shoulders. A breathless laugh escaped her as his lips trailed down her spine.
He reached down gave her ass a one-handed squeeze, the other arm curling around her to catch a boob. With his hands full of her, he let out a rumbling groan. “Every inch.” He slid his tongue over the curve of her hipbone. “Fucking.” His hand left her butt to reach between her thighs, where his fingers swept up to tease her clit. “Perfect.”
Lynnette gasped and clenched at the sheet beneath her. “Lance,” she said on a moan.
His lips changed direction, ghosting across the center of her back, and tingles washed through her in breath-stealing waves. “Fuck, Lynn,” he murmured, his breath hot on her skin, “you have no idea how goddamn hard I get every time I see this tattoo.” His tongue swept over another portion of skin, presumably in the vicinity of her impulsive ink. At the sametime, his fingers slipped between her pussy lips, gliding over her in sensual strokes.
She had to swallow to find her voice. “I’m glad you like it.”
Lance chuckled and his mouth lifted from her skin. “Oh, I like it.” His fingers grazed her clit one more time. “Speaking of what we like….” He pulled his hand from her pussy and nudged her knees further apart. “Your pussy’s dripping for me, sweetheart. It’d be rude of me not to take care of that.”
She would have laughed if he hadn’t followed the statement by grinding his cock over her aching center. It was a teasing, torturous method that had her hips rolling backward for more.
“That’s my girl,” Lance breathed over her ear. “So wet and needy.” He moved one hand to balance himself, settling it over the top of one of hers and threading their fingers, and curled the other around her middle. With a steady roll of his hips, his cock pushed into her, filling her far too slowly.
She wanted to squirm. Wanted him to slam into her. Wanted to feel his hands, his lips, his tongue, on every part of her while he split her open in the most pleasurable way. No one had ever made her so wild.
He held her stationary until he was fully seated inside her. Then he let out a groan, rocked his hips, and dropped his head in order to kiss a path across her neck. The arm around her middle loosened as his hand angled lower, fingers finding and rubbing over her clit. He eased out to the tip, then fucked back into her in a single, harder thrust that had her moaning.
Everything became a blur after that.
Lance held her, kissed her, and pounded into her until her orgasm crashed. Then he lifted her up, pinned her to a wall, and did it again. Except that time, he went with her, his fingers bruising her hips as they groaned into each other’s mouths and her body pulled every last drop from his.
When they eventually crawled back into bed, Lance tugged her on top of him and tangled their legs. She could hear his heart beating steadily beneath her ear, and somehow it reminded her of the comforting weight of his tags that still hung from her neck.
“Since you don’t have to worry about work, and my job’s not exactly off the ground yet, let’s go visit your dad this weekend.”
Lynnette blinked. Hard. Twice. “You want to what?” Post-orgasmic exhaustion and the bone-melting soak they’d just taken must have broken her hearing.
Lance chuckled and gave her a squeeze. “I wanna meet my future father-in-law,” he said. “And I’m guessing you wouldn’t mind some time to catch up? Seems like you get along.”
Her throat swelled. He wasn’t wrong.But…“Dad is highly liable to shoot you.”
“All the more exciting.” Lance shifted beneath her and she felt him press a kiss to her head before resettling. “Lynn, I love you. I’m staying in your life, no matter what. So, all jokes aside, I’m gonna have to meet the people important to you at some point. It doesn’t have to be this weekend if you’re not ready. I just thought the timing worked.”
Her heart raced, seemingly forgetting how tired she’d been three minutes earlier, and Lynnette wiggled around until she could see his face. She needed to see his expression.
He watched her calmly, his eyes almost glowing in the darkness of the room. His lips were tipped up, but that was his default expression. He wasn’t holding back a laugh. His jaw wasn’t taut with frustration or resignation. He was … serious. About everything.
