Chapter Sixteen
Juniper
O h my God, a beer ?
What was I doing?
This was a bad, bad idea.
Especially after today. Especially since this was Reena’s place. And super, extra, insanely especially so because I knew nothing about this man except that he’d put his SUV between me and bullets, and he claimed to be a SEAL.
Or I inferred he was one.
His rank could mean he was something else. His uniform could be fake. He could have a gun for about a million horrible reasons. This whole thing was beyond dangerous—which was usually what I got off on.
But not at Reena’s house.
I didn’t even know if she’d left for certain yet.
Maybe she was in airport purgatory, or somewhere with that blond god, or simply hadn’t turned on her cell or set it up yet. All I knew for sure was that while I was in the SEAL’s SUV, I hadn’t seen her, that black sports car, or gotten any texts.
And when I went to her house earlier today, before we went to that shitty bar, the entire place looked like it’s been wiped clean of her existence. Like she’d never lived there. Not that she’d had many possessions. In fact, she barely had more than me. It was something I kinda thought we’d bonded over the first time I saw her place. No extra stuff. No clutter.
But this morning, there really hadn’t been any clutter.
There was nothing except one big suitcase and the futon couch.
Even the fridge had been empty when I’d put the six-pack of Yuengling in it.
Now I was wondering how my life had turned so upside down that I wasn’t thinking about how I could’ve died in a drive-by shooting. I was wondering if I’d made a horrible mistake by letting Reena leave with that lethally frightening man, while I stood with another version of the blond god at my back, waiting for me to open the door.
Fumbling with a key I’d never actually used, I was struck with a truth as grating as the key blade’s teeth fighting to fit into the lock’s tumblers.
I couldn’t have stopped her earlier today any more than she could stop me now.
But her key might. Stuck half in, half out, it mocked me.
“Problem?”
His voice deeper than the darkness, it sent chills up my sweat-slicked back. “No.”
I’d barely gotten the reply out when a sudden shadow fell over my shoulders, blocking the unnatural yellow hue from the back porch light as a ridiculously muscled forearm reached around me.
A flashback of him grabbing my shoes from his SUV traitorously played in my head, and I sucked in a breath that was all clean musk and dominating man.
I was stupid enough to think I couldn’t sink any further into this man’s orbit. Then his hand covered mine, and he effortlessly slid the key in.
My already-primed body betrayed me as heat shot up my arm, and desire pulsed between my legs. Then my mind joined the mutiny, and I went to that place I hated but craved.
Really, really craved.
With a flick of his wrist, he turned the deadbolt.
My other hand was already on his.
Like he knew the language of my sickness, he didn’t pull away.
He didn’t move at all.
Impossibly tall and strong, standing at my back like both sentry and sin, his stillness was like a drug.
I confessed. “If you open this door, we’re going to have a problem.”
I felt a slight movement behind me. Then his left hand appeared by my side with his gun drawn. “What kind of problem?”
“Not that kind,” I barely whispered.
“You want to be fucked.”
It wasn’t a question, but even if it was, humiliation was stealing my voice as his breath coated the back of my neck with need, and I couldn’t answer in the negative if I wanted to. Not even if he put his gun to my head.
Especially not if he did that.
Flashbacks of him with his gun in the SUV played like a reel, and the situation only got worse.
I should’ve seen this coming.
Hell, I should’ve realized I had a problem the second he jumped the curb, threw open the car door, and demanded I get in. I saw his uniform. I saw all the ink. I recognized what was in his eyes. I knew he was career military. He had to be with all those medals. I also knew he had a dangerous edge, and I should’ve taken my chances with the drive-by.
But I didn’t.
I also didn’t let him walk away.
I just couldn’t leave it alone, not after today, not after he’d practically landed in my lap like the universe was finally giving instead of taking, even when I knew that never happened. Not to me. But I’d justified it anyway. One stupid beer, and I’d tell him to leave, or I’d leave, but now this wasn’t that, and it hadn’t been when I asked him to wait.
Asked .
Oh my God. I didn’t ask.
I’d yelled after a decorated hero to stop walking away from me like I was something worthy of staying for, and now I was here.
Inhaling his soap and musk and years of service like I was inhaling my past, and all I could do was shiver against the solid presence of him. Right before I drowned in the fact that he was still perfectly, intoxicatingly, maddeningly, dominantly still.
He hadn’t left.
He hadn’t said no.
And he hadn’t holstered his weapon.
I closed my eyes. Then I resigned myself to my fate because I was either going to get fucked or killed, and either way, I’d be humiliated.
“Yes,” I whispered. But then I clarified because I’d heard the exact way he’d used his words, and I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding. I didn’t want to just be fucked . “I want you to fuck me.”