Off Base(14)

Everything he’d said to her had been truthful. The afternoon he’d woken up to find her gone, he’d been so painfully erect, he’d been forced to ease himself before rising from the bed had been an option. She’d poked the sleeping bear inside him and now it roared through his insides, looking for its mate. Last night in the bar, he’d only been capable of mustering a mild appreciation for other women, much like he’d felt for the female soldiers he’d encountered overseas. But he’d needed Kenna. Only Kenna. Didn’t even want to consider someone else’s hands on him. Or hers on someone else.

Beck had to close his eyes and count to ten, surprised once again by the depth of jealousy the thought of her with someone else incurred. He was leaving Thursday morning, the day after the ceremony. Leaving for good. There wasn’t a man alive with the power of sight who wouldn’t want her for himself. On top of being every male’s sexual fantasy on two legs, she had a quick sense of humor. She was interesting. Intelligent. Mysterious. Knowing how quickly she’d be spoken for, he could already tell boarding that plane on Thursday would be like getting caught in a tunnel blast a second time. Worse.

His dark realization was cut short when Kenna pulled up outside a greasy, dilapidated garage. “Tell me you don’t live here. Please.”

“Afraid so, Major.” She cut off the car’s engine. “Still want to come inside, or have you changed your mind?”

“I have not changed my mind.” Great. Finally, he gets her talking only to insult her home. “I beg your pardon, Kenna. I didn’t mean to come off rude.”

A smile entered her eyes. “You’re begging my pardon?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He looked back toward the garage, noticing the sign advertising break inspections was seconds from plummeting to the ground. “It just doesn’t seem safe for a girl living alone, is all. Doesn’t your father object?”

“I’m an adult, Major. I decide where to lay my head.” She shrugged. “Besides, I think as long as I moved out and gave Tina room to move in, I could have gone to the moon for all he cared.”

Beck experienced the same irritation he felt when the lieutenant general hadn’t thanked her for the beef jerky, and then again when Tina hadn’t offered her a drink. “I don’t like you being treated that way.”

She stared through the windshield for a moment before returning her attention to him. Gone was the forlorn quality in her expression. Invitation had taken its place. “You know, talking about this doesn’t put me in a sexy mood.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned across the console, casting a net of her incense scent to drag him under. Her hand landed on his thigh, but it might as well have been his cock from the way it immediately strained against his fly. “I want to hear more about what you want. What you told me back at the house…I liked it, Major. A lot.”

“You ought to start calling me Beck, now, Kenna.” Lord, her breasts swelled against her shirt as she leaned toward him. “Seeing as how you’re taking me home.”

Her hand skated higher on his thigh. “Okay…Beck.”

That was it. Kenna saying his name blew a fuse in his head, short-circuiting his self-control. A boomboomboom started in his ears as he yanked her across the console, dropping her firm, little backside onto his lap. Every second of resistance he’d managed back in that dining room demanded repayment and nothing could settle the debt, save her. Before he knew his own mind, he ripped her shirt open and upclasped her bra, growling as those rosy-peaked, bad-girl tits popped free. “I’m going to suck them. Need to suck them.” He bent his head and dragged her right nipple into his mouth, drawing on it with a loud moan. “Move around on my dick while I suck you, Kenna. I’m so hard. You make me so hard to be inside you. How is that possible when I don’t even know what it feels like?”

She turned in his lap to straddle him, one palm smoothing down the side of his face. “Take me upstairs and I’ll show you.” Her breathing was erratic, but she stopped after one mind-bending buck of her hips. “Don’t you know you make me just as achy?”

Awe and relief and lust battered him. “I want to see that spot where you’re achy. I want to look at you there, watch you touch it. I want to touch…your *. Want to lick it.”

Kenna fell forward onto his chest, forehead dropping onto his shoulder. “Beck, if you keep talking like that, I’m going to come before you get inside me.”

“I don’t think I want that to happen.” With an iron will she continued to diminish with every hot breath against his neck, Beck pushed open the passenger door and stepped out, smiling through the pleasure-pain of Kenna clinging to him like a lifeline. Ah hell, he liked that. Like her compact body wrapped around his like a missing piece, her curves accommodating his ridges, the valley between her legs, warm and inviting, settling on top of his throbbing dick. “Tell me where I’m going, darlin’,” he choked out.

She ran her open mouth up his neck. “There’s an alley on the left…staircase around back.”

Beck strode toward the alley, unable to ignore how poorly lit and deserted it was. Anger and worry trickled through the permanent heat she’d inflicted on him. “I don’t like this. I don’t like you here.” She tugged on his ear with her teeth and his stride faltered. Distracting me. It’s working. For now. He stomped up the staircase, groaning at the way she slid up and down his bulging fly with each step. “While we’re on the subject of things I don’t like, Kenna, I haven’t even kissed your mouth. You can be damn sure that’ll be happening before we go any further—”