Chapter 15
River's laughter is as effective as a scalpel.
I can’t move. Can barely think as I listen to her.
She's a heat-seeking missile without even knowing it, and I was the unsuspecting target.
"Come on," she says, words husky, eyes bright with laugh-tears. "It's funny."
How foolish I was to think I could keep defensive walls up when under a full assault by a woman like her.
No, not like her. Her.
I don't laugh. Some part of me is caving in as she continues to giggle. The sound wrapping around my chest, tightening, making breathing difficult in ways life never has before.
Even with my career, the deployments, the ups and downs that a SEAL faces, nothing has impacted me this way. This is a special kind of hell and heaven all in one bomb blast.
All of this thanks to a pink shirt and the ridiculous dress boots.
I'm a six-foot-six inch former SEAL for fuck sake. But I already know I'll wear pink a thousand times over if it makes her this happy.
I used to make fun of guys like that.
"Karma is a bitch," I mutter.
Because I will... would... be just like that, doing whatever it took.
"What's that, pretend cowboy?" she teases.
"Pretend?" I growl. "Careful with assumptions, River."
My hands find her waist, fingers spanning the curve of her hips
With a growl, I jerk her forward, eliminating the space between us. Her chest hits mine. Her breath hitches out, brushing over the skin where my shirt is open down to the first button. And that little hit of warm air turns my dick to a steel pipe.
When I let her see how hungry I am, her laughter dies.
Lips parted, blinking, she looks up at me and my entire world coalesces into one painful point inside my ribcage.
Diesel, you've done it now.
Heat floods her cheeks with color that has nothing at all to do with laughter.
“There’s something you should know about the kind of trouble I bring,” I warn with my vocal cords riding tight over my words.
I lean down, close enough that my breath brushes her ear.
“I’ve never been jealous.” I swallow a prickly pear cactus. “Until you. When Stone was looking at you earlier, I wanted to throat punch him.”
River's very still except for the rapid rise and fall of her breasts in that damned dress.
"Well, you don't get to do jealous now, either. I'm not yours to be jealous over."
She tries to push me back. My hands tighten on her hips.
“Every man in that ballroom is gonna look at you and want what they can’t have. And I’m gonna have to stand there and try not to break their faces.”
Her lips curve into a smirk. “Good thing you’re tough. Even in pink. I'm sure you can handle it.”
“Oh, I’m tough.” I tighten my grip just enough that she feels it. Letting my body issue the warning and promise. “I’m also strong.”
She gasps when I pick her up, hoisting her over my shoulder.
“Take a break, Dee Dee.” I call over my shoulder as I carry a squirming woman down the hallways toward the break room.
“What! Are! You! Doing!”
“Getting you alone.”
I kick the door closed and spin around. Dropping River to the floor between me and the door.
She’s breathing hard, her ponytail is half loose. I’m half animal and about to rip my pants off and throw her on the floor.
“Diesel…” she breathes.
“Yeah. Right here.” I tilt her chin up and lower my mouth until we’re an inch apart. “And you’re right where I want you.”
She trembles beneath my hand as I slide it up her thigh, hooking my thumb in the hem of the dress, lifting it a few inches.
God, her skin is so smooth.
We’re exchanging air, mouths so close I can taste her already.
“I’m done waiting,” I rasp as I wrap my hand around her thigh. “This dress was the final straw. Yes or no, River, tell me.”
“You’re a maniac,” River’s laugh is husky and disbelieving, but she loops her arms around my neck, arching into me, rough sounds coming from her throat. “Here? C-can we?”
“Stone’s guarding the perimeter. Dee Dee won’t say a damned word.”
“Then kiss me, my bodyguard.”
Fuck. Yes.
I sweep in for a rough kiss, yanking the dress upward until I can get a handful of her tight, smooth ass cheek. “Goddamn, angel, you’re made for my destruction.”
River climbs right up my body when I lift her, wrapping those cowgirl-strong thighs around my waist.
“Legs like these have endurance,” I grit out, my body shuddering against hers. “You’re gonna need it, beautiful, because I’m going to fuck you ten ways to Sunday.”
“Oh god…” she cries. “You’re filthy, Diesel.”
“I am, and you love it. Can’t hide the way those pretty eyes burn when I talk like that to you.”
She blushes the hottest shade of pink. “Maybe,” she whispers, her thighs going tighter around my hips.
“This doesn’t lie either…” My fingertips are looped around both of her butt cheeks, teasing that sweet, wet center as I thrust upward, my cock trying to rip out of the tuxedo pants they made me try on. “You’re burning up, juicy as fuck for Daddy, aren’t you?”
Her head tips back welcoming my mouth to her neck. “I wanted to hate you. I really did. And I’m not calling your Daddy.”
“You may still hate me, but I’ve got a hundred bucks on your calling me Daddy before the week is out.” I laugh against her neck, biting down, loving the way she squirms and rocks against me.
“You devil. Just don’t stop. Please don’t stop. I’ve been dying for you to touch me. You’re unfairly hot in these clothes.”
I tug down the neckline of the dress, tasting the spot between her breasts for the first time. Warm, sweet perfection. The moan in my throat is involuntary, and vibrates all the way to my dick.
“Like I said, this fucking dress… Did. Me. In.”
I take my time tasting her collarbone, her neck, the corner of her lip, kissing her thoroughly, gliding my tongue through her mouth over and over again as her body goes languid in my hands, her pussy getting wetter and wetter.
“You on the pill, cowgirl?”
“Yeah, yes.” She shudders as I drag a fingertip backward from clit to her delicate back entrance.
“Good, because the condoms Gray stocks this place with are too fucking small.”