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“I wish I was done with school. I’d like you to be my first, Case.”
She didn’t realize blue eyes could burn so hot. “I’d like that, too.” His voice was thick, husky, sending shivers through her body. He leaned down and kissed her lightly, being careful not to hit her forehead with his helmet or the NVD attached to it. “The rain is coming. Let’s keep moving before it hits.”
Trailing Case as closely as she was, she wasn’t bearing the brunt of the foliage. He was. She turned her head to avoid greenery to the face and used her shoulders and arms to block what she could.
That warm gooey feeling was back, and Nyx suspected she was in big trouble with this man.
Big trouble.
“Shit.” Case tried to grab a large, frond-like thing before it could hit her. He wasn’t fast enough. Nyx lowered her head and closed her eyes, but she still got a face full of leaves. He pulled it away from her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. How does my face look?”
He studied her carefully. “You have a couple of cuts. We’ll have to take care of those on our next break. I’m sorry about that.”
Nyx waved off the apology. “You’re doing a hell of a job protecting me. One slipped. Don’t worry about it.”
Case shook his head. “It shouldn’t have happened. I let myself get distracted, and I know better than that.”
“Distracted? By what?” She looked around, trying to find what caught his interest.
He caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger, gently tilting her head until their gazes met. “About us. In bed. Cashing in your V-card.”
Her gulp was audible. She brought her hand up, curling her fingers around his wrist, and ran her thumb across his skin. Caressing him was as necessary as breathing. She couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to stop. She had a sudden image of him over her. Moving slowly, carefully, making sure she enjoyed it as much as he did. “It would be so good,” she whispered.
“It would be more than good. Monumental? Epic? Earthshaking?”
“All of the above?”
“Yeah, all of that and more. But Fireball? You’re not helping me regain and maintain control.”
She had to clear her throat. “Sorry.”
Case freed himself from her hand and released her chin. As she watched, he worked on reining in his desire. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s make some progress before I fall into another fantasy about us.”
It took Nyx a few moments before she could find her voice. “We could talk to keep your mind off…you know. If it’s safe.”
“We should be okay. I picked the last topic. It’s your turn.”
Nyx knew what she wanted to ask him about, but from his tone of voice earlier, she was pretty sure Case wouldn’t like it. “Tell me about your childhood. About why you went to bed hungry.”
He still moved fluidly, but she saw his muscles go rigid. “That’s personal.”
“More personal than my being a virgin?” She let the dryness of her tone convey her thoughts on that dodge.
“Yeah.”
Nyx didn’t push.
“My mom could be the best mom in the world. She liked to cook, and she’d make one of my favorite foods, a Greek dish called spanakopita. It’s made with spinach and feta cheese and phyllo dough. Whenever I have it, I remember the best-mom times. Unfortunately, those became fewer and farther between as I got older.”
“Why?”
More silence. Then, with reluctance, “My mom was a drug addict.”
That wasn’t the answer she expected. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“Me, too. When she was clean, and had a job, life was good. We never had a lot of money, but enough for food and rent. The problem was she couldn’t stay off the shit for long. She’d lie about whether she was using, but I started to be able to figure it out, anyway.”