Page 15 of Defended By the SEAL

“Nothing.” What was she going to wear to bed? Normally, she slept in the nude, but that hardly seemed appropriate today. She briefly considered hopping in there completely clothed, but it seemed far too immature.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her legs, then maneuvered out of her bra while leaving her shirt on, and moved between the sheets. God, it was uncomfortable being so close to him. Had it just been two nights ago since they’d last made love?

The memory wasn’t a good one. He’d been dropping hints about getting married throughout dinner at therestaurant, then made little comments about having her by his side forever as he’d spread her legs and filled her body with his own. How could she relax into the sensations under those conditions? What should have been glorious and decadent had been stressful and unpleasant, until she’d been so unhappy and turned off, she’d actually asked him to stop before he came. She’d fallen asleep with unshed tears in her eyes.

Thinking of that now helped. She squeezed her eyes shut and moved onto her side with her back to him. The crackling of the fire was inviting, even as the storm raged outside. Within minutes, her mind was combining the two into a fiery twister that carried her along like a cresting mountain stream.

Nature’s fierceness surrounded her, but she wasn’t afraid. She was alone on the river, strong, feeling more herself than she had in ages.

Charlotte.

She didn’t hear her name as much as she felt it being called. She looked at the water. Leo swam beside her, his strokes strong as he worked to keep up with her.

Charlotte.

She awoke with a start. The firelight was dimmer now, the white of the ceiling flickering in time to its pops. She looked over to find Cowboy sleeping soundly, his lips parted, face relaxed, and she was filled with such love for him that it took her breath away.

Like this, she could look at him freely without him taking more than she wanted to give. How long had it been since she’d been able to do that? She was tired of being wrong, tired of constantly pushing him back behind some imaginary line that kept her safe, tired of him not understanding how she needed him to love her. Here there wereonly her feelings, without Leo’s desperate need for a permanent commitment to color and contort the beautiful love they had together.

Her body stirred, blood rushing low in her abdomen as desire fully awoke. There had never been another man who could make her feel this way, who could take her to dizzying heights of sexual pleasure with the slightest touch of his body against hers.

She knew she shouldn’t want him, that it had cost her nearly every ounce of strength she had to drive that wedge between them. Making love to him now was bound to confuse her already broken heart, but she needed him more than she’d ever needed anyone.

After this trip was over, she could put the fence around herself that kept him from hurting her more deeply than she could handle. But for tonight, maybe just for tonight, she could take what life was offering her and be with the man she loved.

She inched closer to him, her sensitive nipples moving against the fabric of her tee-shirt, and she imagined him touching her there, feeling the scrape of his beard against her tender flesh as he took her in his mouth. Her breath hitched and she exhaled, trembling with need.

Don’t do this. It will set you back and make everything harder tomorrow.

She heard the voice, but she couldn’t heed it. For there was a louder voice demanding to be heard, screaming out for her to take what was hers and pull it inside her core, to love this man with her body as she longed to love him with her soul. “Leo.”

“Hmm.”

She moved closer, the smell of him reaching her nose. She longed to drape her leg over his thigh, to wake him upas she had woken him countless times before. But she needed something different today, needed to feel the desire coming off him in waves as he claimed her with his strength and brawn.

She lowered her mouth to his arm and kissed his bicep, tasting his salty skin. He jerked awake. “Charlotte,” he groaned. Her mouth trailed kisses down his forearm until she reached his hand, turning it over and kissing his palm, licking the crease between his fingers.

He reached around her and hauled her up to face him, his hands holding her hips tightly against him as his mouth found the sensitive hollow along the side of her neck and kissed her there. Her legs fell apart, needing him against her heat, the pressure of his body as his cock hardened for her.

Her panties were wet from wanting him, her body ready even before his. His hands moved under her shirt, lifting it over her head and capturing her arms within it. He rolled her to her back, her chest thrust out as her limbs were constrained, and he rubbed his bearded cheek against her breast and nipple as she longed for him to do.

She cried out, hips thrusting against him, but he only did it again before settling his mouth onto her. He drew her bud against the roof of his mouth, the suction and motion of his tongue driving her to the edge of orgasm as his hand slipped inside her panties.

He was torturing her, controlling her every sensation, and she was powerless to participate beyond extracting pleasure from this man. One thick finger parted her flesh and filled her, her hips arching up to meet him as he stroked her sensuously. His thumb settled over her clit and circled gently to the rhythm of his finger and mouth, a rush of excitement fanning out from her center as her body arched to his command.

She called out as her muscles convulsed around him, the sensation overtaking her, vision and hearing diminishing in its wake. There was only Leo and what he was doing to her, only this man and what her body craved.

He moved on top of her and pushed her panties aside with his cock, entering her with one swift stroke before the last of her orgasm subsided and another instantly began to build. His movements were frenzied, rushed and rough in a way that showed her how much he needed her. Bracing himself on one arm, he reached up and tweaked her nipple between his fingers, the twinge of pain only amplifying the pleasure between her legs.

She was moaning, crying, panting, desperate for release, and his thrusts intensified at the same time. Had he ever loved her so thoroughly, so heartily, so completely? Or was it the threat of losing him forever that heightened their lovemaking like this?

The world exploded for a second time, sensation overtaking thought and comprehension, the entire focus of her being moving to the heart of her body. She trembled beneath him as he emptied himself into her, his cries in her ear, his cock firmly seated balls-deep in her body.

The patter of hail hitting the window was the first sound to break through her sensory coma, the pop of the fireplace the second. His breathing in her ear, the weight of his body atop her, the shivers that still shook him inside her.

If only she could stay like this forever, his willing captive, at his mercy and satiated like a wet sponge, but already the feeling was slipping away. The heat of the blankets came next, the sweat that clung to the overheated skin of her legs. The first stirring of recrimination kindled in her breast.

She closed her eyes, willing it away, wishing she could clean up and curl against his side like she used to do, happyand fulfilled for days to come, like she’d been inoculated against dissatisfaction and regret. But that was no longer the case, and she longed to have control of her arms back, to have the movement of her hips be independent from his. “I’ve got to get up.”