The way he says my name, the way he looks at me like there’s something so much deeper building between us than just a casual date, makes me squirm in my chair. I look down at my whiskey glass, trying to clear my head. “You said ‘while I’m in town’ earlier, when we first got here. Does that mean you’re getting deployed again soon?”
I just met him, and I’ve got dreams of my own to pursue, but the truth is that I hate the idea of losing him so quickly after we’ve met.
But he nods, and I’m secretly crushed.
“I’m stationed in Italy right now,” he tells me. “Just here for a couple weeks of leave. I go back next week.”
I could be pregnant by next week, I can’t help thinking. I’ve got no business feeling this way about Nash, wanting him to stick around, because if he knew about my own plans he might not want to get involved.
But this is my last hurrah, my ‘me time’ before I dedicate my life to my future child, so I push the thought out of my head and do something spontaneous. I reach across the table and slide my hand into his. I look through my lashes at him and ask, “Do you want to get out of here?”
Nash and I burst through my front door, tearing at each other’s clothes before we’re even fully inside. It feels like I’m living in one of my mother’s romance novels, where things like this actually happen. They sure don’t happen to me… at least not until Nash came into my life.
“You are so fucking sexy,” he growls at me, his hands on my hips, squeezing and making his desire known. “I haven’t been able to tear my eyes off you for a minute tonight.”
“Do you want to tear something else off?” I ask as I kick the door closed.
He grins, but shakes his head. One hand comes up to my collar bone, his finger tracing down the plunging neckline of my dress. “I wouldn’t dream of tearing this pretty dress of yours, Nora.”
God, I love to hear my name on his lips.
He bows his head, tilts my jaw in his hand, brings his mouth tenderly down to my neck. I love that too. He kisses me lower, across the chest and down between my breasts as his hands caress and explore me all over.
Little electric sparks ignite everywhere he touches me, and I moan aloud as his palms come up at last to cup my breasts. Then he looks down at me, those warm eyes the color of brown sugar locking onto me and lighting me up. “I would like to slide off your book jacket, though, Miss Nora.”
I laugh. “Oh yeah?”
“Mm hmm,” he murmurs, his lips vibrating against my skin. “I might need to keep my glasses on, though.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because you are fine print,” he says, his hands going around to my backside and giving my ass a playful squeeze.
I laugh again, then grab him by the collar and guide him back up to my mouth. Before he can envelop me in those big, strong arms, before he can intoxicate me completely with his touch, there’s one little practical matter I have to take care of.
I’m having the best night of my life, but I’m just self-aware enough to remember that I’m ovulating, so this can’t happen without protection—or else Nash might get more than he bargained for.
So I loop my finger around his tie, pulling it loose from his jacket. I take a step backward and use it to drag him after me. The look in his eyes tells me all I need to know—he’s totally into this, and on exactly the same page as me.
“Come,” I command, turning and draping his tie over my shoulder as I lead him upstairs to my bedroom.
I let him go when we get there, then open a drawer in my dresser and toss a condom to him. While he rips the foil open, I undo the sash on my wrap dress, then let it fall open. Nash’s eyes drink me in, every inch of me. He’s not in a hurry and for the first time in my life, I’m not embarrassed by this kind of scrutiny.
Thank God Cass and Brooks insisted I go to that lingerie store! They were right about that—I feel hot as hell, partly because of what I’m wearing but mostly because it feels incredible to have Nash’s eyes on me like this, hungry for me.
I know it will feel even more incredible to have his hands on me, his body pressed against my own.
I walk slowly back over to him at the foot of the bed, letting my hips sway seductively as I watch him strip off his tie, then his shirt, and at last his trousers. His cock springs up, big and thick, with a bead of pre-cum wetting the tip.