Chapter 9
9
“Hey,” he whispered softly. “Hey.” His low, coaxing voice drew her. Holding on to her with one arm, he closed the door, set the lock, and wrapped her up in a tight, enveloping embrace. This room was lined with four showers and was private. No one would come down here and bother them.
His fingers tangling in her wet hair, he clasped her head against him as he brushed her forehead with a soft kiss. “Tell me what happened down there, babe.”
Sadie tried to speak, but her throat was so thick, she just couldn’t. Haunted by that one wrenching image, she had a hard time focusing on anything. But she wasn’t going to let him down. She took hard, aching breaths and cleared her throat.
What had she been doing all this time? Had she been waiting for this? All that emptiness, that hole inside her filled to brimming. It made her think about all her previous relationships and how giving of herself widened that hole inside. She had been the dutiful daughter, and over the years of that servitude, she had resented most of it. Now she was the dutiful sailor, still after all these years feeling the need to clean dirty wetsuits to fit into a club she was already a master in. This whole thing with her great-grandfather and Twister pushed her emotions to the surface—scary emotions she had repressed easily before but now were much harder.
She was beginning to see that she had true needs and emotions instead of being dominated by matching an image of what others needed. How much had she suppressed or denied about herself? How was this emotional reactivity hurting her? These thoughts were painful, even humiliating. She was beginning to think that her strategies were just desperate attempts to get people to love her. Exhausting herself over and over again, dismissing her needs. Was that nothing but pride in being irreplaceable unique? She had abandoned herself to focus on others because that was all she had ever known.
Now, here she was, confused as to who she was because after spending so much of her life trying to be what others wanted her to be, she had morphed so many times, she’d lost her true form. All of that was so ugly and negative, she immediately shied away from it and focused instead on Twister.
This man deserved her trust, a man who had an effortless way of filling this vast emptiness inside her with vibrant feeling. She lifted her head and met his eyes. A tear trailed down her cheek, and Twister’s gaze twisted with tenderness, making her heart ache for all the times she’d been alone without any comfort whatsoever. She was so grateful for the simple comfort he offered, to feel safe and secure, and suddenly to find that being alone wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, regardless of her reasoning. She had to wonder now if it was nothing but fear or her need to give and give and give until she was so fucking empty.
He cupped her face in his big, strong hands, and she breathed in the scent of man, ocean, and neoprene. His eyes captured hers. So soft. So comforting. So real.
Closing her eyes, she let that terrible vision go as his hands held her. “I was supposed to take leave after my duty at MDSU-1, before I went onto my next billet. But Warrant Officer Jason Chisholm specifically requested me for the dive. I have a hard time saying no, but I was on the verge of doing just that…because I needed a break, but when he told me the submarine I was asked to help salvage was the Kittiwake —” She opened her eyes. “My great-grandfather was the radioman on that sub, and my great-grandmother and my grandmother have been waiting seventy-nine years to find out what happened to him. When I found that bone…” Her voice closed down.
Tightening his hold, he turned with her, folding her even tighter in his strength and warmth, and Sadie clung to him.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered, his voice husky. “Take your time.”
Fighting to hold back a sudden swell of tears, Sadie moved deeper into his embrace, relief and tension mixing into a fierce surge of emotion. Her hands splayed across some impressive, thick back muscles as she pressed her face against his neck. “I just couldn’t stop that image of what happened to them after that explosion. It must have been so terrifying. So awful.”
Catching her by the back of the head, he kissed the curve of her neck. “That’s some terrible shit, Sadie. I’m so sorry about your great-grandfather,” he murmured huskily. “So, there was no comms interruption?”
“No, I made it up. They’ll pull me from this wreck, and I can’t handle?—”
“Shh, shh. I know. I get it. Tell me that you have everything under control because I almost lost my shit thinking something had happened to you. Can you keep it together?”
“Will you tell?—”
“Fuck, no. Of course not. Your secret is safe with me as my secret is safe with you.”
“I will keep it together. I promise. I have to do this, Twister.”
He looked so adorably worried, but his features evened out. “I trust you and your abilities. We all have lapses every once in a while. We’re human.”
She stared up at him, getting lost in the metallic sheen of those unique eyes. A slow, seductive awareness started to take hold of her. Such a strong face, somewhat in shadow, his eyes hot beneath black lashes. Her gaze shifted to his jaw, his shoulders, the curved power of his muscles, that easy strength, and an enticing line of hair from his naval disappearing beneath those flimsy shorts, and as she watched, that silky material grew and grew.
She went from relaxed to aroused, shifting restlessly, flattening her palms over his thick biceps. For long moments, they stood there like that, and she knew she couldn’t handle separating from this man for one moment. “How about we conserve water?” she said.
His whole body tightened in the most delicious way, and desire darkened his eyes.
At the look he gave her, her skin tingled everywhere, hot and alive with sensation. Her breasts swelled, and her nipples tightened, the heat and male scent of him overwhelming her thoughts, arousing her body, and creating a heavy, tingling sensation between her thighs. She moved against him while his body was as taut as a bowstring, realization rushing over him.
He was so deliciously beautiful. She twined her fingers in his soft, thick hair, feeling breathless and dizzy and unable to even take a breath. She closed her eyes. This buildup of sexual tension was so provocative, so sexy as she slipped her fingers to the nape of his neck. When her lashes lifted, she pulled his head toward hers until her mouth brushed against his ear, her breath panting and needy. “I want you, Shane. Now. No more waiting.” She nudged her hips against him. “Let’s get wet.”
“Maybe later…definitely later,” he murmured.
“Wha-a-a-t?” Was he telling her no? There was something in his eyes that belied that thought, something feral and wolf-like that spoke to her inner little red riding hood. Oh, my. For a moment, she couldn’t look away, his eyes like metal, a gleaming bronze lethality that slayed her so intently, his lashes so thick. There was a dark side to this man, a warrior who took life, yet there was nothing for her to fear from him.
Then he smiled, and all that I’m-in-charge, bad-boy, heart-melting-knee-weakening power surged through her as if he was some type of dark spirit who could simply enter her body so she could feel everything earth-shattering about him. Or they had transferred to some other dimension, turning her inside out. It was so beyond anything she had ever felt in her life, any -thing, any -man, any -sensation, any -one. She had no idea it could be this….unbelievable, breathless, consuming, aching, drowning need. Nothing this good could be lodged in reality.
“I’m not going to fuck you in some small, enclosed space and risk a panic attack, distracted by water and position.”
He slipped his hand into her hair, his fingers curling into her strands and tightening. He drew her head back, her scalp burning. His kiss was savage, and it felt so, so good. He broke it, his breathing labored. “Oh, fuck no,” he growled. “I want to taste you, just you, not diluted, but potent and ripe and lush. I want to devour you.” The threat was inherently sexual and wholly exciting.
She couldn’t think of anything she wanted more, except… “As long as I get to taste you, devour you,” she whispered, placing kisses along his strong jaw.
He closed his eyes, his soft groan shivering across her skin, and when they opened, half-mast and flashing with a punch of desire in eyes that were already almost swamped with it, she groaned, getting lost in that liquid, earthy fire.
It was like Twister sucked the very oxygen out of the room with his raw presence whenever he was in it, taking her air but sustaining her regardless. She’d known men, but no one like him, not even close, and every inch of him was sculpted into layers of muscle and sinew, powerful legs, corded arms, broad shoulders, and a back that was a work of art, built by sheer grit and discipline to get strong, stay strong to survive in the places they went, the missions they were assigned. And all this freaking power was in her arms, surrounding her, warming her skin on the outside and triggering a meltdown inside.
Hoarsely whispering her name, Twister backed her into the shadows, then spread his hand wide in her hair and turned her head. His heart pounding in tandem with hers, he brushed his mouth across hers, and the surge of raw sexual energy was like the power of the sun inside her, heating her blood to molten.
She lifted herself higher and opened her mouth, needing the heat of him. Twister shuddered, grinding his mouth against hers as he crushed her even tighter. Their bodies fusing as strongly as their mouths, Sadie gave him everything, her need fired higher by his.
Everything she thought she was, especially her moderate level of sexuality, incinerated from that hot, wet, plundering kiss. Making a low sound that vibrated through her like a tuning fork, Twister roughly changed the angle of his mouth and thrust against her. The pulsating heaviness in her groin intensified. Desperate for more, Sadie sobbed and locked one leg around him, lost in a whirlwind of unbelievable sensations. He moved again and she clutched him, her senses disintegrating, desperate for more, much more.
Tearing her mouth away, she lifted herself higher, her voice barely coherent. “Please, Shane. Please,” she begged hoarsely, pressing herself helplessly against him. The unsatisfied pulse thickened, and she found his mouth, desperate for the taste of him, wanting him deep inside her, rocking her pelvis against him.
On a jagged intake of air, Twister caught her jaw and dragged his mouth away, and he slipped his hand to her butt, tucking himself farther between her legs, groaning and bucking against her. She kissed him hard, and he returned it with that feral wolf energy. Tugging her hands from their grasp on his hair, he pinned them to the wall beside her head. His mouth went to the zipper tab, and catching it, he pulled.
As the zipper lowered, he slowly slid her arms upward until her body bowed away from the wall, baring her to him one excruciating inch at a time, the material splitting over her full, swollen breasts. He crossed her wrists into one large, fisted hand. She moaned breathlessly as he slowly peeled away the silky skin suit, the roughness of the zipper sliding across nipples that were achingly tight and sensitive.
“Have mercy,” he whispered, staring at her, that hunger in his eyes thundering through her, the rasp of his voice like a hot caress. He held her in sensual thrall while he looked his fill, then his gaze flicked to hers. “Fucking beautiful.”
He bent his head, simultaneously arching her back and closing his mouth over her taut, aching breast. He laved her nipple with his tongue before using his teeth to score the throbbing tip, then sucked her strong and deep until she felt that same seductive, twisting sensation deep in her core, his mouth sending heated ripples that thrummed across all her nerve endings. She moaned as he continued to torture her so well with his delicious mouth.
With a growl, he moved to her other breast, ravaging the rigid tip until she was almost mindless with pleasure, her skin tingling everywhere, hot and alive from his rough treatment, breathless and dizzy, wanting, needing, aching, and weak for him.
With another growl, he let go of her wrists, grasped the suit, and pushed it off her shoulders, down her body, and she supported herself against his broad shoulders as she stepped out of it. He tossed it away and then wedged his foot between hers, widening her stance. His hand slipped to her nape, holding her while the other slid down her ribs to her belly. She sucked in a hard breath, and her heart raced in anticipation of his touch. When his hand slipped between her thighs and his mouth returned to hers, his lips were hungry and demanding, trapped with him in this sensual bubble she never wanted to break. He parted her, sliding his fingers over her hot, throbbing clit, right where she needed him the most, and she cried out. He knew what he was doing. He strummed her almost to the breaking point but eased back before she could climax.
“Beautiful teasing bastard,” she murmured. “I can’t breathe, can’t think.”
“Don’t. We know how to hold our breaths,” he rasped, the pleasure in his voice soaking into her skin. Two fingers entered her, and she sucked in a breath at the dual assault, his thumb rubbing over her clit. She gasped and arched into him, the exquisite sensations spearing through her, rendering her speechless as well as mindless. She wanted to tip her head back, close her eyes, and just focus on feeling every sensation, every ripple of pleasure. But she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Waves of pleasure pulsated as he filled her, finally sending her head back against the wall as she panted for air, anticipating taking the promise of his hard heat all the way inside her.
His big body shuddered, and he buried his face against her neck, his ragged breath hot and damp against her skin. “Fuck me. So tight, so hot and wet,” he said hoarsely in her ear. “I want to dick you so deep and hard.”
“Oh, please, Shane. God, yes.”
He withdrew his fingers, and she ached with the loss, until he slid his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her off her feet. Her arms went around his neck, her nipples connecting with the hard planes of his slick chest, locking her ankles at the base of his spine, and she held on tightly as he carried her toward a wide, padded bench.
His hands went to the waistband of his skin shorts, but she reared up and covered them. She looked up into his burnished eyes flecked with gold, earthy with an aura of nature, strength, and security, with a glaze of rich, molten sheen. Something was happening between them that Sadie couldn’t define. As she reveled in the way he looked at her, his barriers seemed to dissolve, and his need for her body was overpowered by the way he spoke to her in the suspended silence, in a language that was ancient between a man and woman, slipping them both into an intimate place where those heavily emotional things happened: respect, longing, stunned speechless, confusion, and vulnerable, awareness that made a shiver ripple across her skin.
His muscles were hard velvet swells of bare skin. The provocative outline of his impressive erection, the fluid shape of his torso and hips, seduced her completely.
He stared at her, a strange, dazed, heated look, his eyes a tangled brush of dark lashes and pale gleaming metal. She opened her mouth on his ridged abdomen, tasting his hard, hot, bare skin, and power, so much power. She felt him groan, a rough note deep in his chest. She bit his skin. His taut muscles flexed, salty skin sliding past her tongue, and she wanted to give him the kind of pleasure he gave her.
“Let me,” she whispered between brief kisses. “Shane, you’re so magnificent. Please.” His hands trembled as he released her, those barriers still gone, unable to withstand her onslaught. She wrapped her hands in the waistband of the shorts and pulled. He popped gloriously free, his hard, thick erection curving up from his body. She didn’t hesitate. Flattening her hands on his strong thighs, she slid her palms upward. Her fingers traced the lines of his hips, then back down, then up again, but this time her thumbs brushed across the heavy sacks beneath his shaft until the fingers of one hand were wrapped snugly around the base of his heated flesh.
She glanced up the length of his torso, watched the rapid rise and fall of his chest, and finally met his gaze. His eyes were even darker, so intense and hypnotic, and when she stroked him all the way to the tip of his cock, then glided her thumb over the swollen head, he shuddered and jolted against her deliberate caress.
Unable to stop herself, she lowered her head and teased him with slow, languid licks and wet swirls of her tongue. Tortured him with her open mouth along the side of him. The heat and desperate longing to cherish and hold him spread to her body—she burned where she touched him, a hot ache that coursed from the fierce possession of her mouth down to her breasts and deep into the core of her—a pleasure that bloomed between her thighs and made her move and press and mold to him as if she could make him part of her.
His fingers slid into her hair and cupped the back of her head, gently urging her to take more of him, all of him. Parting her lips, she drew his shaft into her warm, wet mouth as far as she could, loving the taste of him, withdrawing slowly with enough suction and twist of her tongue to rip a helpless moan from his throat.
She cupped his rock-hard ass and rode him in quick succession. He cursed and pulled himself from her mouth, his tone a tortured rasp. “Goddammit, woman, you are driving me crazy mad to come, and I’m not quite ready for that,” he growled, the light in his eyes possessive and bright with desire.
He abruptly pressed her back, going to his knees, and fitting his shoulders between her thighs, he clamped his hot, damp mouth on her core, swirling his tongue in a sensuous path up to the pulsing center of her. She moaned as he licked her clit in a hot, searing stroke. The pleasure was sharp and riveting and stole her breath. A low throbbing began in her belly, then spiraled down to her sex, and she grabbed handfuls of his hair, wanting more, needing more…
That wicked tongue gave her no quarter, and unable to hold back, she let out a cry and arched sinuously against his mouth as she came in a burning wave that shook her entire body.
Without giving her a chance to recover from her orgasm, he moved up over her, the slide of his muscled body against hers making her pulse leap higher and faster. She reached down to touch him, and when her fingers fluttered over the broad, velvet head of his shaft, he sucked in a hissing breath. Grasping both of her wrists, he pulled her arms up and pinned them above her head, giving him complete control.
He settled more fully on top of her, his thighs forcing hers farther apart, and then he was sliding his hard shaft intimately against her, nudging his way in, stretching her, setting her body on fire. She caught a glimpse of his dark, fierce expression before he crushed his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply, passionately.
Their moans mingled, and once he began to move, there was only a spiraling need between them, stretching for completion, and mind-blowing pleasure. He plunged into her, fast and deep and strong, a rich, seductive rhythm that pulsed as vitally as her heartbeat. His hips ground against hers with each driving, impaling thrust until she felt him go rigid, and his lower body arched into her high and hard, pushing her up and over yet another crest. She came again in a blinding climax of intoxicating speed and delirious sensation.
A low growl erupted from his chest and vibrated against her lips as his body jerked violently against hers, and he finally gave in to his own blistering release. They rode out the exquisite pleasure of their bodies fusing, hips pushing and straining, inner muscles clenching, and the overwhelming heat consuming them both.
Twister held on to her, enveloping her in his strength and heat, his body shuddering against hers, and Sadie clung to him, so emotionally exposed that she felt stripped inside. It took a long time for all that emotional turbulence to settle, and the first thing she was aware of was how securely he was holding her. She released some of the emotional overload by expelling the air in her lungs, then cradled the back of his head and hugged him fiercely.
Twister inhaled unevenly, then turned his head and kissed her on the curve of her neck. Sadie could feel his heart hammering against hers. “Are you all right, woman?” he whispered, his voice rough with emotion.
She nodded, burying her face against his neck with a smile. “I’m so good it should be against the law,” she said.
Drawing one arm from under her, he braced his weight on it and looked down at her. With the dark stubble shadowing his strong jaw, his heavy-lidded eyes, and his tousled hair, he looked dark and dangerous and very male. He smiled that piercing, gorgeous smile and just stared at her. His barriers were still down, and she marveled at that.
“I find myself helpless against your generosity, helpless against your beauty, and undone by my own raging needs. Needs I’ve suppressed for a long time. I feel a little lost here. Weak.”
“You’re not weak, Shane. Not by a long shot. Caring about someone isn’t a weakness.”
This vulnerable man baring such intimate thoughts to her twisted her heart in such a way, she wasn’t sure it would ever be right again.
He dropped his head. “No, you make me weak,” he murmured into her hair, her body still on fire from everything they had done. She didn’t want to let him go.
“I’ve never met anyone like you, Shane.” She tried to ease the contraction in her throat. “You are…so special.” He smiled, but this time it was more boyish, giving her a glance like a secret shared between them, brief and heartrending. It sparked a pleasure so swift and fierce that she felt bruised inside.
She would never forget that dark hunger in his eyes, something so intense it would haunt her until no man but him would ever do, ever again. God, she was in so much trouble.