Fall for a SEAL (16 page)

And even though he didn’t get it, it made him happy to be there with her. Plus she looked
good
. She was wearing jeans today, and the faded blue denim highlighted her sweet curves in a way that made his mouth water. Her long-sleeved t-shirt hugged her in all the right places, too, and he couldn’t be sad that the temperature had dipped a bit in the
last few days. It wasn’t quite the white Christmas he’d hoped for, but something about seeing Cassie a bit bundled up made him think of mistletoe and hot apple cider. And more mistletoe.

“Yeah, I’m happy,” he finally responded. “Now that I’ve caught up with you. You’ve been…busy.” Busy avoiding him, but he didn’t add that.

She raised her brow in a non-response and stepped forward in line.

Once she’d signed for her boxes, he helped carry them the short distance to her car. She looked around for his truck and he grinned sheepishly. “I walked. Thought I might catch a ride back with you.”

“Sure…” she said, reluctantly.

“Is that okay? I can walk back if you’d rather.”

She laughed. “No, it’s fine.”

They didn’t talk again on the short drive home. When they got upstairs, she hesitated
on the balcony between their doors.
 

“Can I carry this inside for you?” he asked, not caring if he sounded hopeful. His box was bigger and heavier, but for a second she looked like she might ask him to just hand it over. He wouldn’t, but she could ask.
 

Instead, she nodded and juggled her own box as she unlocked the door. He followed her, relieved to be allowed back in—first step her home, second
step her heart.

— FOUR —

Jared set his box of produce on her counter, then backed up, giving her some space to put stuff away.

But he didn’t leave.
 

“So…” Cassie said, uncomfortable with the silence. “How’s leave going?”

He nodded. “Decent. I went shopping yesterday. Bought you a Christmas present.”

Her breath caught in her throat. It wasn’t that she was surprised—she’d picked up his gift a few weeks
earlier, a nice GPS unit because he’d said his was broken and the one in his phone was a “total piece of shit.” But yesterday…she hadn’t given him any reason to think they’d be exchanging gifts.

“I like presents.” She smiled behind the safe cover of the fridge door.
 

“Are you doing family stuff tomorrow? Maybe I could take you out for lunch first?”

Argh. All of a sudden, spending time with
her parents and sisters was the last thing she wanted to do. Unless… “Do you want to come with me? As a friend,” she hastened to add.

He frowned.

“My parents have a big party tomorrow night, lots of champagne and appetizers, that kind of thing. My mom has a bunch of brothers and sisters, and they all have kids. So it’s basically her family. But it’s not…close. More formal. We wouldn’t need to
stay very long, just an hour or two.”

“Sure. I only have one suit.”

“It’ll be fine.” She grinned. “And then I have to go back for lunch on Christmas Day and exchange gifts, but if you don’t mind watching the turkey roast for me, I’m happy to share my dinner.”

He frowned again, looking at the giant bag of multicolored potatoes on her counter. “You aren’t cooking all this for your family?”

She wrinkled her nose. That
had
been the plan, until her mother and sister decided they were going on a diet after she’d put in the food-box order. “They’ve decided to do a salad and grilled meat buffet thing instead. That’s okay. It means more leftovers for us.”

“You were going to have Christmas dinner all alone?”

Well, her first plan had been to invite him over, but then her grumpiness intruded.
The anger had quickly evaporated at the sight of him in that parking lot, however. A few Jared-free days had been good for her perspective on the situation. He was right to protect their friendship. And by acting pissy, she’d been the one to damage it, not him.
 

“Not anymore, though, right? That’s all that matters. Stop frowning, you’re going to crease your forehead permanently.”

He scowled.
She moved across the kitchen without thinking and pressed her fingertips to his brow. She had to reach up—way up—to do it, which meant she had to stand close to him. Way close.

He closed his hand around her wrist, but instead of moving her hand away from his face, he held it in place. “I’ve missed you,” he said gruffly.

She swallowed hard. “I…I’ve missed you too. I’m sorry I went quiet.”

He
shook his head, and his nose brushed the inside of her wrist. Then he kissed her there, a sweet press of his firm lips against her arm.

And her heart started thumping double time.

“We should’ve talked,” he said, his voice a delicious rasp against her skin. He kept his eyes down, trained somewhere in the vicinity of her elbow. “We need to talk now.”

“In a minute,” she breathed, gliding her palms
to the back of his neck. His hair was almost shaved back there, and she teased her fingertips over the neatly trimmed line, exploring the contrast between the soft brush of hair and hot, tight skin. She pressed her cheek against his chest, reassured by the sound of his heartbeat, a quick thump that mirrored her own.
 

This hug wasn’t anything like the kiss they shared Saturday night. It was sweet
instead of passionate, tentative instead of hard-charging. But it was hopeful, not scary, and from the way her nipples were throbbing inside her bra and the rough hitch in Jared’s breath against her hair… She knew it wasn’t chaste.
 

They were standing on the precipice of something fiery hot, and they wanted to be sure before they dove in.

“I have a three-date rule—” Cassie blurted out at the
same as Jared said, “I want to take things a bit slow.”

They both laughed, and he eased back just enough to lift her by her waist and deposit her on the kitchen counter. Now she could stare into his hazel eyes, flecked with gold, and what she saw there made her heart sing. He was so damned earnest. Sweet. Not a player at all, unless this was the play of all plays. She frowned. “That’s not just
a line, is it?”

He blinked at her, then laughed wryly and scrubbed his hand over his face. “You don’t know the half of it. Hell, no, that’s not a line.” He leaned in, nudged her nose with his, then slid their faces together until everything blurred and the only thing she could feel was his lips parting hers.

Don’t you dare stop
, she thought as his tongue teased its way into her mouth, nudging
hers when she started a sweet, sensual exploration of her own. She spread her legs enough to welcome his body into the cradle of her thighs and then squeezed, holding him there as he deepened the kiss, stealing all of her breath. She didn’t care. He could have it.

“Mmmm,” she moaned as one of his hands slid under her shirt and played with the bare skin at her waist. “Higher,” she whispered, pulling
back enough to make it clear what she wanted. He groaned against her lips as she pressed little, hungry kisses across his mouth and down to his jaw. “Seriously, Jared, I don’t put out on the first date, but you’re cleared for second base. Please…”

He made a rough noise in the back of his throat as he cupped her breast, his fingers pressing into the bare flesh spilling over the top of her bra.
“Three dates, huh?”

“I’d break that rule for you in a heartbeat, actually.” She panted as he wiggled his thick fingers under the lace and started to nudge her nipple free.

“No, it’s a good rule. Makes me happy when I think about how few guys have gotten to that third date with you.” He sucked her lower earlobe into his mouth and pulled, sending a current of electricity straight to her clit.
“And we have to talk.”

“You keep saying that,” she gasped, wrapping her legs around his butt. “But then your fingers do
that
, and I’m about ten seconds from shamelessly dry-humping you in my kitchen.”

“Okay,” he said, dragging out the syllables as he jerked his hips away from hers just as she found that magical ridge she’d been looking for. She pouted up at him and he laughed as he kissed her
mouth. “Come on. Couch.”

She brightened at the thought of getting horizontal for some more making-out time, but even though he laced his fingers through hers, when they got to her living room he sat them down with a throw pillow between them.

Then he swore under his breath and tossed the pillow across the room. She wiggled closer and pressed her face into his neck.
 

“What’s going on?” she asked
softly. His Adam’s apple bobbed against her nose and his knee bounced up and down as if it was a perpetual motion device.
 

“I guess I should say up front that I don’t have any weird issues or anything. But being with you would be different than how I’ve been with women in the past. And I want it to be good for you.”

She nodded silently. She wasn’t sure where he was going, but given his track
record for one-night stands,
different
sounded good.

“I had a girlfriend in high school. Hannah. We broke up senior year and I haven’t dated anyone else.” More bobbing and bouncing. She wanted to reach out and still his knee, but she didn’t dare do anything that might derail his sharing. “This isn’t about her. Shit, sorry. This is weird for me.”

She laughed gently when he didn’t continue. “This
is weird for me, too, in a good way. Guys usually hate talking.”

He nodded vigorously and she squeezed his fingers in reassurance.
 

“Tell you what. I’ll tell you one of my secrets and then you can tell me one of yours.”

“I only have one secret. Except State secrets, but I can’t share those.” He said it so dryly she wasn’t sure if he was kidding, but when she looked up, he grinned. “I really
can’t.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “My ex-husband left me because I couldn’t get pregnant.”

Jared tensed up, then made that noise in the back of his throat again. So weird, how the same growly grunt could have two obviously different meanings. “I should’ve punched him.”

“No.” She sighed. “Karma will get him in the end. He’ll probably knock up a hooker or something. Not that I’d wish a
child to have to call him Daddy for any reason.” She shuddered. “I really dodged a bullet there.”

Jared pulled her close and kissed her forehead, but he didn’t say anything. Should she push him? Hadn’t the tit-for-tat sharing been clear?

She felt awkward, like he hadn’t wanted to hear that from her, and fuck, wasn’t that the story of her life… But just as she thought about pulling away, he tangled
his hand into her hair, his fingers finding the back of her neck. He squeezed there and pressed his cheek to her forehead, letting out a big sigh. “Well, now I feel like a fucking teenager.”

“Why?” She tried to pull back to look at him but he tightened his still gentle hold on her.
 

“Because my thing is really selfish compared to that.”

“It’s okay. You don’t need to tell me.” She gave up trying
to put distance between them and melted into his big, warm upper body. He was both hard and comfy at the same time, like a really firm mattress. She slid her hand under his shirt, loving the way he tensed his already tight abs under her touch.

He coughed and made a painful groaning noise. “Oh, no, I do. Only now I’m not sure how it’s going to be received.”

“And now you’re freaking me out.”

“Really?” He tensed again, and she shook her head against his chest.

“No, not really. You’re one of the best guys I’ve ever met, Jared. It would take a lot to freak me out.”

He took a deep breath. “Okay. So, I think we have something between us. Something like a relationship, or the start of one. And that’s new for me. I haven’t done that as an adult. And I want to have sex with you.”

She grinned.
Good. She wanted to have sex with him, too.

“And I haven’t done that before.”

He’d said it really fast, and the words all ran together, but she was still pretty sure he’d just said—
 

“What?” She jerked up, the top of her head colliding with the bottom of his jaw, and he swore as she bounced backwards. “Oh God, I’m sorry.”

He groaned as he rubbed his jaw. “I’m fine.”
 

She spun onto her knees
and grabbed his arm. “What do you mean you haven’t done that before?”

He winced. “The sex part.”

“But you’re a horndog!” She was yelling, which wasn’t cool. “Wait. Aren’t you?” She took a deep breath and rubbed his arm where she’d probably pinched off the circulation for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Why?”

He sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“Like, change into jammies and bust out the
box of chocolates kind of long? Or just put on coffee kind of long?”

He gave her a seriously weirded-out look. “Is that a girl measurement of drama?”

She nodded. He held out his hand and she slid her fingers over his. “Up until the minute I kissed you last week, choosing not to have sex wasn’t a drama for me at all. It was just something that hadn’t happened because I hadn’t found the person
I wanted to do it with yet.”

Oh, wow. She could feel her eyes get really big and wide. Despite her previous promise, she knew she was riding a fine line between normal reaction and totally freaking out.

He dropped his voice into a practiced calm-making tone. “This isn’t about soul mates, or anything like that. I’ve never thought I was keeping myself for marriage, although I don’t think that’s
a bad idea.” He stroked his thumb over her knuckles. “Maybe we should make some coffee.”

“I’ll do it,” she whispered, but when she clambered off the couch, he followed. “You don’t need to—”

“I want to,” he interrupted. “I want to pick you up and carry you to the kitchen, but I’m trying not to be grabby.”

She stopped abruptly and turned, letting him bump into her. “You want to be grabby with
me?”

“Angel, you don’t know the half of what I want to do to you. With you. Against you and inside of you.”

She whimpered and he wrapped his arms around her, doing that fabulous almost-lift thing as he lowered his head to kiss her. Right. As she melted from the inside out, all the panic faded away. He wasn’t a virginal teenager. The man could
kiss
. And talk dirty. He hadn’t seemed fazed by her
dry-humping reference earlier. He was an adult. A capable, sexy—Oh!