A SEAL's Courage (Military Match #1)(46)

*



Trent woke the next morning with the sun. Lying on his side, he took a moment to drink in the sight beside him. Lauren lay on her back, mouth slack in slumber, breathing deep and even, gloriously, beautifully naked. The covers had slipped down, now lying around her waist, and her nipples puckered in the cool air of the morning. He couldn’t resist tracing a finger over her right breast, following the curve up and over those perky, dusky nipples.

She shivered and moaned softly in her sleep, rolling onto her side to face him.

This. This was the feeling he missed, waking to a warm body and supple, feminine curves. That the body was Lauren’s only made the moment sweeter.

It also increased the soul-deep ache in his chest. He yearned to make love to her, but the why had changed a bit. He wanted to connect to her on every possible level, to take a piece of her with him when he had to end this side of their relationship.

And he did have to end it. He firmly reminded himself why every time this feeling crept over him. These days, he felt it a lot. It seeped over his chest, a sense of loneliness that ate away at his soul. They’d been together like this for only two weeks, but it seemed like a lifetime.

Which was why he was getting out of this damn bed.

Twenty minutes later, he was dressed in his jeans and halfway through making breakfast when Lauren appeared in the kitchen entrance. In a light pink terry-cloth bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, of all things, she shuffled into the room. Her hand slid across the bare skin of his back as she stopped beside him and peered around his shoulder at the stove. “Do you ever sleep late?”

Despite the brewing coffee and the aroma of cooking bacon that permeated the air, his senses focused on her. Warm skin. A hint of her musky perfume. God, he ached to bury his mouth between her thighs again. To bend his head and find that sensitive spot on her shoulder that made her shiver.

He tossed her a smile and prayed it looked at least somewhat realistic. “Not really. Habit, I suppose.”

She peered up at him, head tilted back slightly to meet his gaze. Her eyes were soft and filled with a mischief that made him ache all over. “I was hoping to wake up next to you this morning.”

He forced a laugh and concentrated on pulling the cooked bacon from the pan, laying the pieces on the small rack to drain. If he didn’t, he’d be turning to her. “I think it’s better for both of us that I got out of bed. If I had stayed, that rule to wait to make love would’ve ended this morning.”

Lauren let out a quiet laugh and slid behind him, pressing a kiss to his back as her warm hands slid up his chest. “That was your rule, not mine. You wouldn’t have heard me complaining.”

His gut clenched. She wouldn’t have, and he damn well knew it, but that wasn’t why he’d gotten up.

“I need you too much. I’m not sure I would’ve been gentle.” That wasn’t entirely a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. After sleeping beside her naked curves all night, he’d woken with the hard-on to end all hard-ons. Jesus, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted a woman this bad.

He’d also needed some semblance of distance, time to get those boundaries straight in his head. To remind himself why he’d made them. He’d failed Wendy as a husband. Had failed Cooper and AJ. And if he let himself fall for Lauren, he’d fail her, too. He would not lose her. She was the sunshine in his world, and the day she walked out of it was the day he had to go back to living in the dark. As friends, she’d remain in his life.

He turned the burner off and slid the hot frying pan aside, then turned, resting his hands on the counter’s edge as he leaned back against it. “Got any plans for the day?”

“Nope.” She flashed a smile that melted as quickly as it appeared and laid a hand against his chest, eyes searching his. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. I just wanted to make you breakfast.” That at least was true. To distract her from this line of questioning, he pressed a tender kiss to her lips. “I’d like you to sit for me.”

The idea had hit him as he lay watching her sleep. She was beautiful and he wanted a memento to remember her by.

Her eyes widened with surprise. “You want to carve me?”

He nodded once. “In the nude, if that’s okay.”

Her brows shot up into her hairline, but one side of her mouth hitched. “Nude?”

“Do you mind?” He wasn’t sure he could explain it if he had to. Each carving represented something, some bit of pain. She was a bright spot, and he wanted something that would serve as proof that she’d once been his.

She grinned full out now and swirled a pointed finger over his chest. “And exactly where will this carving go?”

He winked. “In my bedroom, of course.”

Desire flared in her eyes, and just that fast, he was hard again, his cock pressing painfully against his zipper. Her warm hands slid up his chest like a seductive caress as she pressed her curves into him, lifted onto her toes, and leaned so close her lips brushed his as she spoke. “Shower with me first.”

He groaned as the last of his willpower snapped. He untied the sash of her robe—because he was dying to know what, if anything, she wore beneath it—and pulled the sides open.

“Christ. You’re still naked.” His hands gained a mind of their own, seeking out all that warm, supple skin.