Fly With Me (Wild Aces #1)(34)

I padded to the kitchen, following the smell of coffee, not sure I was ready to face Noah, but definitely sure I couldn’t handle getting pounced on again. I figured the odds of Easy walking in on us would help keep us away from each other.

Fingers crossed.

I hit the kitchen and caught sight of Noah leaning against the countertop, draining a giant sports drink, his Adam’s apple bobbing in a way that had my gaze going straight to his tanned neck. And then lower . . .

Jesus, take the wheel.

Apparently he’d gone for a run—was he human?—and lost his T-shirt somewhere along the way. His chest was bare, a pair of low-slung athletic shorts clinging to his thighs. A glimmer of sweat coated his skin.

I took a step back.

Another round would kill me. We needed space. And public places.

Noah set the drink down, his gaze settling on me, a slow smile spreading across his gorgeous mouth. He took a step toward me.

I took another step back. I lifted a hand in the air.

“No more sex.”

He stopped, his hands on his hips, head cocked to the side, a different sort of smile playing on his lips.

“What?”

I shook my head. “I need a sex break. A moratorium. A hiatus. A chastity pact. And you need to stay in your corner.” I gestured toward the cabinets. “Space, good. Touching, bad.”

The smile widened. “You’re sexy as f*ck when you’re being neurotic.”

No. No.

“I’m serious. I think you broke my vagina.” And my back. Not to mention my freaking neck. And there was this twinge in my hip . . . maybe that was what the hobbling was about.

Noah exploded into laughter, and in a flash his arms were around me, burrowing me against his muscular, sweaty, f*ck . . .

“Do you need me to kiss it and make it better?” he whispered in my ear, his voice teasing.

I groaned. “I need you to not have sex with me for twenty-four hours. I mean, twelve. Okay, fine, eight.”

He pulled back, his eyes dancing with amusement. “How about I jump in the shower . . .”

Roll tongue back into mouth.

“And then I take you to breakfast. There’s a really good pancake place a few miles up the road.”

My gaze drifted down the impressive abs, held, and then back up to his face again. “You eat pancakes?”

This time he leaned into me, brushing my hair off my face, pressing his lips to the top of my head.

“No, but you do. And if I can’t keep you satisfied with the tools at my disposal . . .” He flashed me a wicked grin that brought a little spasm between my thighs. “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.”

His lips were on me again, all too brief and fleeting, and then he was gone, walking down the hall to take his shower. I stood in the kitchen, my gaze glued to his back and the ass that I kind of wanted to bite.

It really was a snowy day in hell when pancakes were starting to look like the consolation prize.

They so were.



NOAH

I held Jordan’s hand as we walked toward the restaurant, our fingers linked, the same smile I’d had since I saw her this morning still on my mouth.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d dated a girl that I’d smiled this much around, if ever. Or that I’d felt this way about. Maybe it was fast, but I knew without a doubt that I wanted to move this into the relationship zone.

She was f*cking hilarious. Smart. Sexy as hell. Gorgeous. Kind. She was everything I could have ever wanted in a girl and a few things I hadn’t realized I wanted, but now that I had them, I wanted to hold on tight.

I had no idea what the future held, but this was the kind of girl I could see myself having a future with. The kind of girl who would greet me when I returned home from deployments with her arms and legs wrapped around me. This was the kind of girl that if you were smart, and played your cards right, you changed your life for.

I held the door open for her, unable to resist admiring the view despite her no-sex edict. She’d gone for casual, but considering the way she filled out her jeans, casual made a statement.

The restaurant was packed when we arrived, and I went up to the hostess station and gave my name, and then we stood in the corner of the entryway, waiting for our table to become available.

I squeezed her hand. “Hungry?”

Jordan nodded. “Starving.” She tossed me a quizzical look. “So what do you normally eat for breakfast?”

I shrugged. “Oats. Fruit. Yogurt.”

She grinned. “Way to live dangerously.”

I matched her grin, my voice becoming a parody. “That’s right. I am dangerous.”

She burst out laughing at the Top Gun reference. “Cute. I thought you hated that movie.”

“I don’t hate the movie. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen when I was a kid. I couldn’t figure out why he wanted to spend so much time with that girl, though.”

“And now?” she joked.

“Now that I’ve been inside you, I can see the appeal. Apparently some things are better than flying,” I answered, my tone completely serious.

Her cheeks turned pink.

“You totally can’t say things like that to me in public.”

I grinned, unable to resist the urge to kiss her.

Jordan pulled back with a breathless sigh, her arm tight around my waist. I stared down into her brown eyes, a pang in my chest as I realized that she would be leaving tomorrow, and I had no idea when I’d see her again. I literally had months of vacation days accumulated, but taking leave was another thing entirely. We were always busy, seemed perpetually undermanned, and even when I gave plenty of notice, there was always some commitment that came up and prevented me from leaving. Joker was a good guy, and he definitely appreciated the importance of taking care of your personal life, but I wasn’t sure he could spare me so soon after Red Flag. Especially since we had a TDY to Alaska coming up.