Page 59

She let out a surprised squeak, and then a laugh. “Is that a special Navy SEAL sex move?”

“Of course.” Positioned on his side, he enjoyed a few seconds of just taking her in. Long and lean, and he barely even noticed she was sprawled out on a gingerbread-man-printed nightmare. He leaned down and kissed the tip of her tightened nipple and she squeaked again, so he licked, sucked, lost himself there in the sweet softness of her breasts until she was panting his name.

Then he moved lower, tasting and nibbling down her torso, carefully maneuvering her until he’d positioned himself between her legs, tasting the sweet velvet of her thighs.

She gave his shoulders a little push. “O-oh, no. No, you-you can’t.”

He glanced up, raised an eyebrow at her. “Why not?”

“B-because. Because.Because.” She gave his shoulders another ineffective shrug. “I cannot speak coherently when you are… You’re…”

“Who asked you to speak coherently?” He kissed higher on her thigh, letting his breath trail over the center of her as he moved to the other leg. “You don’t like it?”

She let out a sound he thought was maybe supposed to be a laugh, and the thing was he wasn’t the one holding her legs open. He certainly wasn’t the one shaking and watching him with intense, wide eyes.

“W-we have to look each other in the eye after this is all over. I can’t… You’ll…”

He grinned up at her over that gorgeous body. “If you think this will make you incapable of looking me in the eye, we probably shouldn’t have sex.”

“Oh God, wehaveto have sex.”

He laughed at that, then went ahead and tasted her. She nearly jolted off the bed.

“Want me to stop?” he asked, looping his arms around her thighs to keep her on the bed. There was the longest pause, and when she finally answered, it was on a whisper.

“No.”

* * *

She couldn’t quite admit to him that no one had ever…well. She’d been so young and naive when she’d been married, andthishad always seemed too…intimate. She hadn’t had years with Dex to get beyond that either.

In retrospect, that was stupid. But that was retrospect, and now she was thirty years old, and this could quite possibly be the last time she had sex ever. She’d experience it. Enjoy it. Savor it.

“Eep.” If she could stop squeaking every time his tongue touched her. But it was like electricity. A shock that jolted, but only pleasure was left after. A pleasure that seemed to wave bigger and bigger as Gabe’s mouth explored her.

She squirmed, unable to stop herself, but Gabe held her firm and still and she had to grab on to the sheets to stop from…something. Something.

“Gabe…”

But he didn’t stop. If anything, he only focused harder until that last wave seemed to break, a spiraling crash of a million sensations she could only let roll over her, a perfect kind of drowning.

“Okay,” she managed, her voice a scratchy thing as she tried to stop panting. “This time I am going to definitely and without reservation saywow.”

He laughed, dragging the sound and feel of it against her body as he moved up until she was completely covered by six-foot-a-lot of former Navy SEAL. She sighed happily, winding her arms around him.

He nuzzled into her neck, as though content to simply lie there as her heartbeat and breathing slowly came back to normal. She could tell certain parts of him werenotcontent, were hard against her, and yet he made no move for himself.

She trailed her fingers over the soft bristle of his short hair, down the surprisingly smooth skin of his neck, to the scarred shoulder.

She traced the outline of a tattoo that must have predated his scars. “It’s a bird,” she murmured, angling her head to get a better look.

“Mm.”

“What’s it mean?”

“That I sailed a lot,” he said, his voice muffled against her neck.

“Really?”