Contract with a SEAL (Special Ops: Homefront Book 3) (9 page)

“I’d still love to see that. But not
tonight.” She started toward the bar, which looked like it was minutes from
closing down. “Buy me another drink, Sailor?”

“It’s an open bar.”

“Then buy me two drinks. They won’t mind
if we take them up to our room.”

Our room.
Was he imagining it when her tone seemed
to drop a half octave on those two words?

Her eyes danced. “You were the life of
the party. I knew the uniform would be a hit in this crowd.”

“So you think you made the impression you
were shooting for?”

“
You
made the impression. I owe
you, Captain.” A seductive smile washed over her face as she pulled him slightly
toward her with a tug on his lapels.

Joe could feel her breasts rise and fall
in a sigh against his body, and he pulled away slightly. He was, after all, in
uniform. And the jacket didn’t hang down low enough to hide the hard-on that
was threatening just below his pant zipper.

“This was payback for last Saturday,” he
reminded her. “You don’t owe me at all.”

***

Oh, yes I do, she thought, her blood
simmering under the heat of his stare.

And I plan to pay you back in ways you
didn’t expect.

Exhilarated by need, Vi latched herself
onto Joe’s arm as he carried the two martinis she had just snatched from the
open bar. “Sure you don’t want one more drink?” she suggested. “Last call
before they close.”

“No.” His voice, like his face, exuded
control. She wondered how much of a fight he’d put up when she catapulted naked
into his arms tonight, whether he liked it or not.

Taking one of the drinks from
him—she was going to need it with her plans tonight—she practically
floated toward the elevator. Glancing around to see if anyone was watching, she
traced her hand up his arm and wondered if her touch did to him what his did to
her. His muscles tightened under her light caress, and she felt emboldened by
it.

“You were incredible. Do you know that?”

Joe laughed uneasily.

Her touch continued up his arm to his
neck as the elevator doors opened. “Everyone was eating you up like there
wasn’t enough of you to go around.”

“That sounds like a bad thing.”

Stepping from the elevator onto their
floor, Vi shook her head and felt the hallway slightly sway as she did. A
little tipsy, more from a surge of excess estrogen than alcohol, she thrust her
pointer finger into his chest as he slid the key card into the room lock. She
nearly purred when she hit rock solid flesh. It felt like he was wearing
protective armor, for as hard as he was. “You have the it factor, Captain Joe
Shey. No one could resist you.”

Giving her an uncomfortable smile, Joe stepped
into their room.

Before he could say anything else, she
pushed him up against the wall, locking her hands behind his neck. “Let me
amend that.
I
can’t resist you.”

Her fingers shaking, she pulled on his
neck to lower his face toward hers and pressed her lips against him. He let out
a low moan when she parted his lips, and she could feel the vibration of it on
her tongue as she intermingled it with his for a slow, seductive dance.

Digging his hands into her hair, he swung
her around so that she was now the one pressed up against the wall. Cupping her
bottom, he pulled her closer to him, so that she could feel the powerful
erection behind his zipper. “You’re killing my resolve, Vi.”

“Good.” Her breathing quickened.

He opened his mouth to say something,
probably to list the many reasons they shouldn’t do exactly what they were
going to do, and she silenced him by slamming her mouth to his again, her
tongue deeper this time, in and out, with a rhythm she hoped reminded him of
just what she was after tonight.

Her fingers taking over, each one fueled
by desire, she unfastened some of the buttons on his shirt, aching to feel the
ripples of muscle that hid behind the fabric.

“This can’t go anywhere, Vi.” His words
were strained. “My job—” he sucked in a breath as she explored him. “I’ll
be gone a year. I won’t be able to fly back and visit with my teams deployed.
I’ll be unreachable most the time, Vi.”

“And this has
what
to do with
tonight, exactly?” she asked playfully, tracing her tongue against his chest,
along the hills and valleys of his muscles. The heat of his skin amazed her,
and her tongue almost sizzled in response as she tasted him.

Wanting nothing between them, she narrowed
her eyes on the bow tie that still was affixed to the top of his shirt and
tugged it free. After tossing it on the floor, her hands reached down to the
button at the top of his pants.

His hand caught hers, his grip tight. “Vi,
if you do that, I won’t be able to stop.”

“Good,” she said, launching her full body
against his, and forcing his back against the wall again. She kissed the
exposed skin on his chest once more and traced a path further down with every
opened button. She felt his hand loosen its grip on her, and knew his resolve
was slipping out of his grasp. “We’re both consenting adults, right?”

She heard him murmur a curse in response
just as her hand touched the hard cock aching to come free from his pants.

“It’s sweet you’re playing the protective
commander here, Joe. But I’m a big girl. And I’m not looking for a relationship
with you. I won’t get hurt when you leave. I won’t be asking Mick about you, or
saying you broke my heart. I won’t get clingy or pathetic. I just want a fling.
One night.”

As she knelt low in front of him, he dug
his fingers into her shoulders. “You don’t strike me as the fling type, Vi.”

“Think of yourself as doing me a favor,”
she continued, pulling his cock free of his shorts. God, the feel of the supple
skin over something so hard made her wet with desire. “I need this Joe. I
haven’t had sex since my ex left me, and if you don’t do the honors right now,
I’m telling you I’ll go down to that hotel bar downstairs and find someone else
for the job.”

He laughed at that. “And undo the image
we created all night? You’d never.”

“Never test a desperate woman,” she
threatened as she tasted him, and she rejoiced when she heard him draw in his
breath as though she had just sapped the last ounce of resistance from him. She
took him in deeper, loving his salty male taste and the heady feeling of power over
him.

His eyelids slammed together as he tossed
his head back to the wall. His hands leaving her shoulders and digging tunnels
into her hair, he seemed to savor her mouth’s exploration of him, till he
lowered his hands under her arms and lifted her off of him.

Damn, she cursed silently, wondering if
their dance had come to an end.

Stooping slightly to bring his face level
with hers, she could feel his warm breath caress her lips. “No woman who looks
like you should think of herself as desperate.”

“Then show me. Show me how beautiful you
think I am. Just one night is all I’m asking. No strings. No desperate phone
calls or emails afterword. I don’t need the drama any more than you do.”

Unbuttoning the last button, she was finally
able to push off his shirt and jacket in one swift stroke, letting it fall to a
heap on the floor. She ogled him. “My God, what do you do to get a body in
shape like this?”

“A lot of PT and a lot of weightlifting.”

“Good,” she said, wrapping her arms
around his neck. “Then you won’t mind carrying me over to that bed there,
Captain?”

“No strings?” he confirmed.

“No strings, Joe. From either one of us. I
don’t want you thinking I’ll follow you to your next port, Sailor. I’m staying
put here.”

He swept her off her feet so easily her
breath caught.

“Then I guess I’ll have to make this
night something we’ll never forget,” he said, laying her down on the bed.

His body covering her, she could feel his
arousal pressing up against her belly. She hadn’t ever wanted a man like this. Desperate?
Hell, yes. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to feel him inside her right now.

He slipped his hands behind her and
struggled with her back zipper. Giving up, he flipped her onto her belly and
straddled her. Even better, she couldn’t help thinking, a sly grin creeping up
her face as she felt the pressure of his erection against her bottom. With the
dress’s low back, her skin was already exposed, and she felt the glide of his
lips against every square inch of her he could reach as he pulled the zipper to
reveal the thin fabric of her panties. He slipped the sleeves off her and moved
her onto her back again, her breasts fully exposed. “God, you’re beautiful,
Vi.”

Passably pretty was more the description
she always had for herself, but the way he was looking at her made her feel
sultry and erotic.

His hands caressed her, the callouses of his
fingers gently scraping her delicate skin. His thumbs made tiny circles around
her nipples and he lowered his mouth, dampening them with his tongue. He nipped
one gently, then the other, and she felt her legs open in response, aching to
have him inside her. Slipping down the bottom portion of her dress to feel the
thin fabric of her panties, he slid his hand underneath, brushing past the tiny
pearl of her arousal and feeling the moisture between her legs.

“God, you are so wet,” he said, as he
pulled the remainder of her gown off from her waist and let the fabric fall to
the floor. “Come here,” he said as he knelt along side the bed and pulled her
hips lower. He parted and bent her legs so that she was fully exposed.

She could feel his breath against her,
the scrape of his stubble against her as he kissed her inner thighs, making a
slow, tortuous path to where she ached to be touched. Finally, his fingers parted
her curls, finding the center of her arousal.

His mouth met her moisture and he slipped
a finger inside her. She was so wet and swollen, begging for penetration. In
and out, deep and rhythmic, his finger slid as his mouth toyed with her. She
bucked almost immediately from the touch, only a breath away from a splintering
climax.

He stopped.

“Don’t stop,” she demanded.

“Not yet. Half the fun is getting there,”
he reminded her as he waited a moment, then ever so lightly toyed again with
his tongue against her.

“Harder, please.” She’d beg if she had
to, teetering so close to the edge of the precipice, she could feel the aching
need to soar over the side.

Ever so gently, he slipped a finger
inside her, barely an inch, stealing some of the moisture and spreading it
around her clit in a tiny, tender circle. He dipped inside her again, and just
as her hips rose to take in more of him, he pulled out, rubbing the moisture on
the nub again, this time, a little harder, allowing her to let the sensation
build. Then, just before she was about to shatter, he stole the pressure away
again.

“You’re killing me.” Her voice was
accusatory and desperate at the same time.

“I know plenty of ways to kill someone.”
He brushed a light kiss to her dark curls. “This isn’t one of them.” His mouth met
her again, this time more demanding, sucking on the core of her arousal as he slipped
one finger in, deep now—so deep, yet not nearly enough. Another finger
impaled her, stretching her, and he plunged in and out as his lips and tongue
devoured her.

Crying out, she shattered, pulsating from
her core all the way out to the tips of her fingers, till she fell limp on the
bed.

He gazed up at her. “Liking your fling so
far?”

“If all flings were like this, I’d have
one every day,” she confessed breathlessly.

He stripped off his pants and briefs in
one quick motion, and stood at the bedside.

There wasn’t a flaw on the man, and if Vi
wasn’t feeling quite so lascivious she’d have the instinct to cover up her imperfect
body with a sheet. But at the moment, the only thing she wanted covering her
own body was his.

He stooped over to pull the foil packet
from his wallet in his pants.

Vi grinned. “And all this time you were
pretending we wouldn’t end up like this.”

“I’m a SEAL. I’m always prepared,” he
said as he sheathed himself. As he lowered his body to hers, she reveled in the
feel of his chest pressed against her bare breasts and dug her fingernails into
his thick, corded back to pull him even closer.

Greedily, his mouth moved from her lips
to her neck, nipping and licking as he kneaded the sensitive skin of her
breasts. His erection pressing up against her soft curls was tempting torment,
and her legs opened for him shamelessly. Yet still he held out, as though he
wanted her to beg again.

“Please, Joe.” Dizzy with sensation, her
voice was winded.

Lifting his mouth from hers and meeting
her eyes, she felt him slowly slide inside her, so long and thick, she felt
stretched to her limits. She gasped from the intrusion, and as he met her
innermost point, the pressure swelled inside of her, making her rocket again to
the crest of a wave, aching for release.