A SEAL's Courage (Military Match #1)(31)

“Promise me.”

She rubbed the center of his chest, aiming for soothing. “I don’t believe for one second that you’d hurt me or I wouldn’t be here. Relax, Trent. I’m not worried. Neither should you be.”

His breath left his mouth in a rush, his shoulders rounding as the tension left him.

She leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth, then slipped her hand into his and led him out of the kitchen. She stopped at the edge of the living room and turned to look at him. “Here or…the bedroom?”

Amusement glinted in his eyes. “We should probably stick with the living room for now.”

She nodded and moved around the recliner that marked the beginning of the living room. The short walk to the sectional lining the far wall was the most nerve-racking one of her life. Trent followed in silence, but his gaze seared into her. By the time she came to a stop in front of his worn blue sofa, all the bravado she’d marched in there with deserted her.

She let out an uncomfortable laugh as she turned to him, flashing what had to look like a terrified smile. “I have to admit, now that I’ve dragged you in here, I haven’t a clue what happens next.”

One corner of his mouth quirked upward, and he hooked an arm around her waist, tugging her against him. “Well, it requires us to get a little closer.”

The hunger in his eyes made her insides wobble, but the press of his warm, deliciously hard body against her had the butterfly party starting in her stomach. Her hands came to rest on his chest, but the only word she could manage to form was “Hi.”

“Hi.” He grinned and leaned down to brush his mouth over hers, then released her, took a seat on the couch, and crooked a finger at her.

Lauren swallowed the lump of rising fear, braced her hands on his shoulders, and climbed onto his lap, straddling his thighs. He sat for a moment, eyes heavy-lidded and filled with a heat that scorched her insides.

He slid his big, warm hands up her thighs to curl around her ass and tugged, pulling her tight against the hard bulge in his jeans, then caught her bottom lip between his teeth. “I need you. Too much.”

Clearly he was more nervous than she was, the thought of which relaxed the tight ball in her stomach. At least she wasn’t the only one with something at stake here.

She stroked her fingertips through the short hairs at his nape. “Tell me something. Do you like it rough?”

“Yes and no.” He shrugged, but heat flared in his eyes. “Sometimes a good hard fuck is exactly what you need. Wild and unrestrained.”

She had no idea if he meant his words as the tease they were, but a hot little shiver raked the length of her spine, settling in her damp panties. The meaning behind the words, however, told her a lot. “And you can’t do that with me.”

Trent cupped her cheeks in his hands, thumbs sweeping her skin. “Not yet.”

She leaned in, pressed her breasts against his chest, and brushed her mouth over his. “Trent?”

His gaze locked on hers, eyes blazing. “Hmm?”

“For the record…that thought turns me on more than a little. You pinning my hands above my head so I can’t move and shoving so hard into me the headboard knocks the wall.”

She closed her eyes as the image slid over her. She could almost hear the huff of his breathing in her ear, the slap of flesh on flesh. Her insides clenched in luscious anticipation and, unable to help herself, she rolled her hips, grinding against the bulge behind his zipper. Pleasure erupted from the point of contact, seeping over her nerve endings, and a quiet, needy moan escaped.

“God, that’s the stuff of fantasies.” She forced herself to pull back, because she needed him to know, to understand. “It’s important to me that you enjoy this, too. I don’t want you to hold back. If you get nothing out of this, then I don’t either.”

He let out a low, husky laugh and nipped at her bottom lip. “Oh, believe me, doll. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of you.”

Lauren rolled her hips again, grinding against him, and bent her head, scraping her teeth over the fleshy muscle of his shoulder. “Trent?”

A shudder moved through him, and his fingers tightened on her ass. When she pulled back, he had his eyes closed, mouth hanging open in awe. “Yeah?”

She leaned her mouth to his ear. “Then shut up and fuck me.”





Chapter Eight



Trent bit back a groan. God, she had to go and say that. He couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman as much he did her. He was shaking, for crying out loud. Having given himself permission to want her, taking steps to actually be with her was like opening the floodgates. What he really wanted was to rip her clothes off, to feel all that warm, supple skin against his.

But that meant taking his shirt off, and the thought made his insides shake. Outside of the doctors and nurses, nobody had seen the scars dotting his torso, healed wounds from the shrapnel they’d taken out of his skin. His right arm contained the scarred-over remains of the burns he’d suffered when the IED detonated. It wasn’t pretty. Would it bother her?

Oh, they’d have to get there sooner or later. He just wasn’t ready to do it now. He’d hoped they could take things slowly. One step at a time. So that when they actually made love, they’d be more comfortable with each other and it wouldn’t matter.