Chapter 13
13
For Hazard, PT wasn’t just something he did for fitness, to keep him honed for their missions that were always physical. No, it honed his mind too, freeing him for everyday mundane things that could possibly distract him. He incorporated his fin training on leg days, and he’d already finished lifting weights with Skull. Their fitness routine was responsible for the ease with which they snapped back after grueling missions. A good night’s sleep and training kept up their endurance and strength, and none of them even felt the effects of being on their feet for those thirty-six hours. A combination of conditioning and youth, he supposed.
He’d left Leigh sleeping in the room with Boomer guarding her. He had told her he was going to PT in the morning, but she would be covered by Boomer. She’d tensed up at first, then relaxed once he told her it would be one of his teammates.
Nothing against the Marines, but he only trusted his brothers to guard this woman, this rollercoaster of a female that had dropped him from heights and loopty-looped him in so many crazy eights that made him dizzy as hell.
Boomer was a beast and had already finished his own workout before he came to Leigh’s room to relieve Hazard for his PT. He might be their comic relief, but Hazard was confident Leigh was safe in Boomer’s hands. Besides, he had three older sisters and was especially close to them. He knew how to talk to women—how to comfort them. He wasn’t scared away by a few tears. It might just be what Leigh needed. Boomer was the kind of guy Leigh could perhaps confide in.
Leigh needed to open up. He wondered if he was too close to this situation, or if Leigh found it too difficult to unburden herself to him. He knew something was wrong, something she wasn’t telling him, and he wasn’t sure how much he should push her on the matter. He’d related all of this to Boomer only because, like he thought before, Boomer might be able to help Leigh by being a neutral third-party guy.
Then she’d asked about his routine, and he told her about swimming, and fin practice with his Rocket Fins, and teased him about him practically being an astronaut.
Hazard was in the pool with Skull, and Bones. The humans were working their ankles by finning laps back and forth, and Bones was perfecting his already badass doggy paddling. The fins they wore for combat swimming were larger and made of a stiffer rubber than normal scuba swim fins, the reason being that SEALs did want to go as fast as possible in the water, but they wanted to be able to power through currents, riptides, and other strong ocean forces to stay on mission timelines. His breathing was exactly what he used in any surface swim mission he participated in and got him through BUD/S training—kick off the wall to get some momentum for a few streamlining dolphin strokes, then right into their tried-and-true sidestroke of top arm, bottom arm, kick, kick, kick, and glide. He started his exhalation underwater, then fully exhaled when he broke the surface as he stroked through with his top arm, inhaling when he powered through with his bottom arm, then kept up a smooth momentum through the water.
He knew that mentally preserving Leigh’s independence was so personal and important to her. He never wanted to step all over that part of her nature, but last night, he had gotten a glimpse into her past, and clues as to why she acted the way she did. It was clear she developed her argumentative style of interacting with people, part of what made her a good lawyer, from her constant need to defend her actions against parents who only had one goal in mind—mold her to their likeness, no matter how Leigh wanted to structure and live her own life. They had just expected her to be a carbon copy of them, their crowning family jewel who would make them proud.
When she’d bucked their authority, quit her job to become a prosecutor, and had rejected their choice in her corporate fiancé in a very visceral way—hives—she had impugned their very way of life, and they had punished her with their ugly retribution. It’s clear they had never supported her wishes and dreams, and he wondered if she even fully knew what they were now. Even though what she did for a living was admirable and honorable, hitting back at her parents by doing something to punish them, he believed, wasn’t the answer for her. He hoped that she would discover her joy as he had in his own job choice.
He’d gotten pushback from his own mom regarding his selected career, but she had respected him as a son and man, supporting him through her own reservations about him putting himself in so much danger every day. Even more grateful for his mom’s guidance and love throughout his life, he could only want to be that kind of person for Leigh—beyond these mission parameters.
That’s when his thinking shifted and shocked the hell out of him. He messed up his breathing, and instead of exhaling and inhaling correctly like the seasoned professional he was, he breathed in water like a recruit. Choking, he pulled up treading water, his nose and eyes stinging from the chlorination. He swam to the edge of the pool and coughed until he cleared the fluid, his throat feeling raspy and his chest full.
He wanted to be with Leigh beyond the current situation, like in the long run, like in figuring out how they could continue a relationship for real. Because everything about this woman felt real to him, culminating in the sex they’d had last night. He admired the hell out of her. Geezus, the way she fought to survive…it was incredible.
He swallowed back a groan. Just remembering how she’d brazenly stroked and squeezed his dick, then took him into her mouth made him sweat through the cool pool water. He pressed against the side, hardening all over again, needing solid contact against his pulsing hard on.
He couldn’t stop wanting her, no matter how hard he tried. His logical brain then filled in the gaps. That’s because you’re falling in love with her, genius.
That alarmed him even more, because he’d never been in love, and attributed his fumbling and stupid responses to her to that state of mind. He’d been blinded by lust whenever she was close to him. Excitement that had nothing to do with his dick and everything to do with this newfound knowledge surged through him, and all he wanted to do was get close to her again, burying himself deep inside her soft, lush body, and hear his name on her lips while he fucked her until she came.
She had been so goddamned mouthy, tough, courageous, and determined, he had missed all the mind-bending clues that not only was he so physically attracted to her, hence the lust, but his agile mind and thirst for new experiences wanted those arguments, confrontations, and debates. He loved every moment of tangling with her, even though through all those encounters she’d driven him insane.
He pulled himself out of the pool with one hard press of his arms, biceps bulging, then gained the deck in seconds. He went to his towel and wrapped it around him hurriedly to hide his now thick, throbbing, jutting dick.
“Hey, what happened there, bro? One minute we’re like sharks, and the next you’re coughing like a little boy with floaties.”
“Fuck you,” Hazard managed hoarsely.
Skull sat down next to him, and in true doggie fashion, Bones, who had been on his heels, shook his compact body, raining all that excess water all over them.
“Bones,” Skull said with a laugh. “You knucklehead.” He poured water in a bowl, knowing that both the chlorine in the pool and just being wet sucked moisture from the dog’s body. He was always thinking of his K9 partner. It made Hazard smile.
Bones’s pink tongue lapped at the water for several seconds, then he jumped up on the chaise lounge chair and suffered Skull’s long strokes and rubbing to dry him off, paying special attention to his paws. Hazard loved that damn dog. He swore Bones’s expression broadcast both indulgence and patience with Skull’s mommy attitude.
“Now you’re a foul-mouthed kid with floaties.” He gently went over Bones’s ears and eyes, then playfully grabbed his muzzle, and Bones play-snapped at him as he fended off the dog. “Wanna get in the pool again, and I’ll have Bones teach you how to doggie paddle?”
“Fuck you doubly twice.”
Skull chuckled, then looked at him, then looked at him more closely in that speculative way of his.
Hazard scrubbed a hand along his jaw and released a frustrated sigh.
A dark brow arched over one of Skull’s dark brown eyes. “What’s really up with you…” His eyes widened and he groaned and shook his head. “Oh, fuck . You had sex with her, didn’t you?” His voice carried and echoed in the large structure. Thank God they were the only two people in here. “ Geezus , now she’s messing with both your heads.”
“Why don’t you shout it, or better yet, put it through the comms so Ice, Preach, GQ, and Kodiak can hear you?” Hazard looked away and realized too late that by breaking eye contact with Skull he’d just answered all his questions with a strong, firm yes .
“I’ll be damned. They were right. When you fall, you fall.” Skull shook his head, a comment about another one biting the dust.
Hazard closed his eyes. Leigh was still thrumming against his heart, and how much he wanted to be there for her, and how much havoc she wreaked on his hormones. He shook his head hard to dispel the tantalizing image of her going down on him, that bone-melting sensation and sharp pleasure her mouth gave him. This woman was going to be the death of him, or he was going to fall so helplessly and hopelessly in love with her, making every day without her excruciating. He was sure he was going to die from the agonizing, all-consuming sexual tension driving him slowly insane.
“Man, you’re one of the fallen brothers now.” Skull followed that up with a smirk.
“Shut the fuck up,” Hazard said, unable to stop the goofy smile from surfacing. “I’m never going to hear the end of it.”
“Yeah, the ribbing is going to be intense,” he said, then more laughter. He sobered. “Seriously, bro. What happened? It’s not like you to, ah, give in to your baser needs.”
Their team was so close-knit they didn’t shy away from discussing more intimate things between them. They were still guys, though, and even if they did some of their best thinking out loud, they talked about everything. Pretty much nothing was off-limits, even sex. It wasn’t casual conversation, because these guys were his best friends. He was comfortable talking to them about personal finances, mental health stuff, or other monumental changes in their lives. They had earned that level of intimacy.
“I think I was a goner from the moment I met her. I was just thrown by her?—”
“Protesting, orders, demands, and sheer insufferable opposition, her courage, resilience, quick-thinking, and sheer balls?”
Hazard laughed, his voice husky when he replied. “Yeah.”
“Oh, that draws a soft yeah . Does she feel the same way…? Goddammit, Archer, I don’t want to see you jerked around,” he said fiercely. “That would suck.”
“I have no fucking clue. We haven’t discussed it. You know what it’s like when you are attracted to someone. Sometimes physical shit is easier than emotional crap. You know, the dick gets hard, leads you around, and you fucking go willingly.”
“It’s the Dick Disconnection Syndrome. Cuts through all the shit and crap you mentioned. The dick is the boss man.”
“Fuck, yes. That’s what it is,” Hazard groused.
Skull’s expression brightened. “He outranks your ass.”
“That explains the saluting.”
They both broke into deep laughter, throwing their heads back. “What a conversation. My mom and commanding officer would be so proud.” Hazard managed to get the words out around the laughter. His stomach hurt. He expelled the last of his laughter on a deep sigh, his eyes meeting Skull’s. “The truth is I’m so in over my head with her. I’ve spent like forever resisting her, sparring with her, lusting after her until it all culminated with bedding her. Somewhere along the way, she won me over so hard, I couldn’t escape the riptide.” He thought for a moment, and everything got more serious. “Beyond the intense desire and the aggravation she evoked in me, I think my body gave up before my mind got what the hell I was doing and feeling. What I feel for her is no longer hidden somewhere in my once-intelligent, overstimulated brain.” He couldn’t seem to find the remorse that should be there. He’d screwed up, yet it didn’t feel like any kind of mistake. “I’ve crossed over personal and intimate boundaries that should have never been breached. I even thought we had no future—West Coast, East Coast, Navy SEAL deployed all the time. I realized it would be crazy to get mixed up with her beyond that damn attraction, but being with her on a temporary basis didn’t feel good. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“I can’t say I do because I haven’t been in your boots, brother. But, apparently, every strong and valid argument you had with yourself didn’t make you stop wanting her.” He pointed at himself, then looked at Bones. “I pegged it. He can’t disagree. Can he Bones?” He grinned. “Yeah so, man, you’re fucked.”
“I am fucked, aren’t I?” he muttered as Bones gave him a hangdog expression. What the hell? Even their MWD knew the score. Why did it feel so damn good, then?
A huge grin curved up the corners of Skull’s mouth, and his eyes glinted with sympathy. “Ten ways to Sunday, man.” He patted Hazard hard on the shoulder. “Ten ways to Sunday.”
Twenty minutes later, he was relieving Boomer, who reported that she was still sleeping, a little restlessly. “Hey, bro. Isn’t she on your side of the room?”
“Yeah, she is.”
“Ha. Fuck me. Another one bites the dust.”
He shoved Boomer. “Go. I’m sure you must be starving and dying to out me to those four happily-ever-after guys.”
“Oh, yeah. You know it.” He sobered, then said, “But I always have your back, Haz. Women troubles aside.”
Hazard nodded, and they touched knuckles, then Boomer left.
He slipped into the suite and walked to the open door to his sleeping quarters. She was huddled on the bed, her arm thrown over her head, her delicate face turned toward him. Her bruises had dulled, but they were a deep, dark reminder of how much danger and trauma she’d been in three days ago.
The brass had gone crazy when they’d gotten word of the dual ambush, taking it hard that Patch, Jack, and all the others who supported their missions were dead. To top it off, that scum money guy had been murdered in broad daylight on his way to the airport, along with his Marine guard, pissing off the Corps and effectively cutting off any answers they wanted from the low-life bastard.
With Corporal Shaw’s death protecting Leigh and the Marine ambush, they were deploying Marine Raiders to this search under their leader, Captain Sean Ross. They were ready to go in any clime, dealing with unstructured, ambiguous territory and situations. They would be a great addition to the team. As to who was going to lead the military leg of this operation in Patch’s absence, Hazard didn’t know.
There was a rumor they were sending another heavy-hitting leader to them. It was understandable the brass was out for blood. And Hazard now got why Leigh was so determined to see this through. She’d lost a boss, colleagues, and friends. She had a right to that determination, no matter how much he wished he could keep her out of harm's way. And there was something wrong with her. She was hiding something from him. He knew it in his gut, could feel it in the way she’d put him off after that nightmare that had brought him awake with her blood-curdling screams. It had taken seconds to rouse her, even as the horror that had shadowed her dreams lingered, keeping her trapped in her nightmare.
He was so fucked in more ways than he even thought. They hadn’t mixed well, like C4 and blast caps. Once they got together, they’d ignited an intense and fiery explosion of passion that had burned hotter than anything he ever could have imagined. In the aftermath, that passion smoldered in the ashes of their fire, ready to spark all over again.
He wanted to be practical and rational, there was so much more at stake than keeping her safe. There were already too many emotions on the line here, bonding them in ways he’d never felt with any other woman, and he should have kept his distance. Making love with Leigh had tipped the scales and there was no going back, at least, for him. There were most likely going to be two hearts broken here when reality intruded, and they had to go their separate ways.
Pulling the door closed to a sliver, he went to the bathroom and started the shower, leaving the bathroom door open so he could hear her if she needed him. He’d let her sleep until he got ready to go, then he’d get her up and moving.
He stepped beneath the spray and started to wash his hair. Before he could finish, soft hands glided up his slick back and slipped into his sudsy strands. She pressed her bare breasts against his back and whispered. “Lean back,” and he dropped his head and let her work the lather into his thick locks.
“Rinse,” she murmured, and he turned around, closing his eyes as her hands went to his chest, over his hardening nipples to his abs. He got rid of all the soap, then opened his eyes to find her stark naked, her eyes going over him inch by inch with a kind of lazy, intense roving that made his body hum. “Wow, you are so freaking beautiful, Archer,” she said, cupping his heavy balls into her palm, the velvet feel of her caress making his dick ache and pulse with surging blood. He was captivated, held in her thrall, unable to do anything but helplessly thrust his hips, and moan as her hand slipped around his dick and she jacked him with slow, tight flicks of her wrist. “So beautiful…a definite hazard, and slippery when wet,” she whispered as she looked up into his face, at the pleasure she was generating, and the way she watched him only hiked him higher. She leaned forward and laved the tip of his nipple with her tongue, then sucked him hard, running her thumb over the head of his cock, the suction meant to make him remember how her mouth had felt last night when she blew him, then she bit down hard on him, and he cried out.
His hands went to her, but she pushed them up and away. “Grip the shower head and don’t let go. I want you so much. I want to explore every inch of you.” She met his eyes, a sense of urgency and impatience building in her, hotter and more vital than anything he’d ever experienced. It made his head spin and his erection throb and pulse.
“Please, Hazard, let me have you. All of you.” In response to her words, his balls drew up hard and his cock jutted painfully toward his belly, aching with the need to be buried to the hilt inside her, to feel her convulse around him as he came.
He dropped his head down, the answer to the question clear in his aggressive, soul-searing kiss. “Take me, all of me. Everything,” he growled.
She made a low, desperate sound and twisted her head, her mouth suddenly hot and urgent against his jaw, small kisses peppered there, then trailed down his neck as her hands went into his hair, pulling at the short strands. She bit him, then licked him, taking time with his collarbone as he grasped the shower head and tightened his grip. Her mouth was ravenous as it moved lower to his chest, biting the thick muscles of his pectorals, molding her hands up and down his back, then over his backside. She grasped his buttocks and pulled his hips to hers, so that his erection nestled right at the crux of her thighs—right where she was slick, hot, and ready for him. She lifted her leg and twined it around his, aligning them even more intimately.
“Leigh,” he groaned as he loosened his hold.
“No,” she said. There was so much longing in her voice, the kind that could easily cut a man’s knees out from under him, give her anything she wanted. He curled his hands back around the shower head.
Her fingers wrapped around his erection. “Don’t thrust too hard,” she murmured. “Just the head. I want just your head. Show me that legendary control.”
He closed his eyes and groaned, not sure he had that kind of willpower.Her fingers knotted tighter in his hair, she thrust her hips toward him, the tip of his cock slipping against her velvet core. Her sex was full and engorged, and he parted the plump folds with a slick controlled slide, his body trembling with his need to thrust all the way inside. She cried out and arched her hips against him. “Yes,” she whispered, just like that. Oh, God, Archer, don’t stop.”
His controlled movements were nonetheless relentless, concentrating on doing as she asked with heat and possessive intent. “ Archer …Hazard…oh, oh, yes ,” she breathed, her mouth open on his skin, kissing his chest, licking his skin as if she would devour him.
She inhaled sharply, jolted against him in shock, then gave herself over to his erotic assault. Before long, he felt her thighs quiver, felt her legs buckle as her orgasm crested, heard her erotic moan as she tumbled headlong into that powerful rush of sensation rippling through her.
She was as determined to complete him with her mouth, and he fought against it because he wanted his cock deep inside her, but he knew he’d lost the fight as she protested and shrugged off his hands when he reached for her.
“Don’t,” she whispered, gasping for air as her beautiful breasts heaved. This was a study in torture, but he gave in. She ran her hands over his biceps, then pushed them up again, and he complied, aching and almost mindless with need.
Her hands were on him again, her fingers thrumming over his rippled abs as she played with them, her nails periodically clawing at the top of his groin, sending an instigating ache through his veins. His breathing was out of control, his chest heaving with the spiraling pleasure she inflicted on him.
When she dropped to her knees in front of him, his heart raced in anticipation, and desire tore through him. He needed her. “Leigh, I can’t.”
“You can,” she whispered. “I’m going to lick you, and taste you, and take you deep inside my mouth.” He groaned savagely as she leaned forward, setting her mouth on his abs, licking them, kissing them until she reached his jutting shaft. She clasped his hips, her thumbs riding along the heavy muscle just above his hip bones, making a soft, low sound of pleasure.
She grazed the head of his dick with her mouth. Need ripped through him, and it took every ounce of restraint he possessed not to push her against the side of the shower and take her hard, fast, and deep. She looked so incredibly sensual with her sleek, wet skin and ribbons of steam eddying around her.
She shivered and exhaled a breathy sound, curling her tongue around him, licking, barely using her teeth, laving much too slow and sweet until he was writhing wildly against her mouth, and at the first suctioning pull of her lips, and the wet heat of her mouth, he thrust as she took him deeper, adding enough suction and friction to rip a hoarse, helpless groan from him.
A bolt of pure, raw sensation rolled through him, as she quickened her tempo, increasing the fierce way she sucked him, making him mindless with the excruciating pleasure she was generating. His hands flexed on the shower head, his body tense, careful as he rode her mouth. He groaned at her tenacious grip on his shaft and the sluice of warm water, and her mouth created a slick, suctioning sensation that made him crazy-wild to come. She made another savage sound of pleasure, her fingers digging into his hard butt, dragging him into a fast rhythm that was going to bring him to orgasm, his breath coming hard and fast.
His back hit the wall, his knees almost buckling at the sharp, pulsing sensation wrapping him in mind-bending, searing heat until he was panting and moaning from the onslaught. There was now nothing slow and sweet about the way she rode that tantalizing mouth over him.
The white-hot sensation jolting through him was so intense, he could barely remember to breathe. With a ragged groan, his head fell back against the shower, his hands releasing to slip into her hair, gently grabbing a fistful of the damp strands as she took him. Over and over she drove him to the brink, only to ease back just enough to keep him right on the edge of what promised to be an explosive orgasm.
The coil of desire wound tighter, and tighter inside him, and before long there was no holding back the pulsing orgasm rising to the surface. He tried to issue a raspy warning, tried to pull free from her mouth, but instead of stopping, she merely moaned and slid his shaft all the way back inside.
A haze of pure ecstasy fogged his mind, and he uttered a curse as he fell headlong into something so strong, his entire body clenched at the beginning of the hottest, most intense release he’d ever had.
She swirled her tongue over the crown of his dick, then gently sucked just the head, using her tongue against the sensitive tip, before plunging deep, encompassing every inch of him in that hot, clever, and determined mouth of hers and fucked him, fucked him, ah, geezus , fucked him until he came in a hot, wringing blast.