Soldier, Come Home Page 6

  "Oh, I understand that. I can't even imagine what it's like."

  "You can't until you're over there, but you stick by your buddies. I couldn't leave them there." He leaned forward and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "And I did."

  She moved toward him, placed her hand on his shoulder. At least she didn't say anything. Words weren't what he needed. Normalcy was. A normal, sweet, sexy woman. "So, I came back to see you." He turned his head and caught her gaze. His breath came so much easier now that he was with her again. Her green eyes had turned blue with the swimming tears. He didn't care what color her eyes were, he loved them either way.

  Her gaze heated under his. He raised a hand to brush his fingertips across her cheek. "I don't want this to end. I want to see where it'll lead."

  She swallowed heavily and smiled self-consciously. "You do remember that I'm older..."

  "Do you think that makes a difference to me? Like I'm going to let a thing like that keep me away?"

  "I'm just saying..."

  "Is it a problem for you that I'm younger?"

  "It's not a problem, it's just different." She sounded resigned.

  He drew his hand around her nape. "Lorren, we're both adults. We can do what we want."

  "Yeah, that's right." Her worried smile became easy.

  "Yeah. Now, will you kiss me hello?"

  "Yes, I believe I will." She closed her eyes and leaned into him.

  Ever aware they were in public and it was broad daylight, he gave her a chaste, closed-mouth kiss, but, oh man, did her lips feel good. "Can we go somewhere private?" he asked when they came up for air.

  She jerked upright. "Oh, my God, I'm still on trial. I have to get back, damn it."

  He laughed. "That's right. I guess I forgot that little matter."

  "Say, how'd you find me?"

  "I asked at your office."

  "You went up there?"

  "Yeah."

  "I'll bet they're talking about that right this minute."

  "Sorry if I embarrassed you."

  "Oh, yeah, I'm so embarrassed that a tall, good looking cowboy went to my office looking for me."

  "How much longer will this trial go on?"

  "Closing arguments finish up this afternoon."

  "Why don't you call me when you're ready to go home, and I'll pick you up."

  ***

  Lorren forced herself to concentrate on the work. Her clients deserved all of her attention. She gave her carefully crafted closing argument that afternoon. The rest was in the jury's hands. She called him as she walked back to the office. He was out there in reception answering questions about Idaho and ranch life. So handsome and hunky and sexy. And he was all hers. For how long she didn't know.

  Finally, they escaped the office. She suggested they take the EL home. She lived a block from the train stop, and even though it would be quicker to take a cab, it would be more interesting for him on the train.

  He crowded her against the glass partition near the door. Nothing overt, just close enough so she could feel his erection pressing her belly as the train rocketed along the tracks above the streets of Chicago. She hoped she wasn't setting herself up for another heartbreak, but she wouldn't blame Jess. This was her decision, her choice. He kept coming back to her for a reason. He was making quite the spectacle on the train with his tall, hunky body, cowboy boots, and Stetson. She'd never seen any man on the train before even remotely as sexy and good looking as Jess.

  The minute they were inside her apartment, he pushed her back against the door. She held on tightly, her arms flung around his neck. The memory of his hard body crashed back over her, filling all the empty spaces in her heart with the heat and scent of him.

  His kiss was passionate and urgent. He lifted and re-angled his head, first taking her lips fiercely, and then sipping tenderly. He held her still against the door, his hands holding her chastely around the midriff. What he was doing with his knee, on the other hand, was not chaste by any means. He hiked her short skirt up, pushing his knee between her thighs.

  "Lorren," he murmured. "Christ, I missed you." He turned his head again and thrust his tongue into her mouth.

  "It was only the other night." She sucked his tongue, played with it, slid hers along side. Moaning, she fought to lower her arms to get to his clothing.

  "Any time away from you is too long. I don't want to take you like an animal. Against the door."

  "I don't care. I just want you so much. I want you inside me—now." Her growl turned husky.

  "Where's your bedroom?" He scooped her up in his arms.

  "Down that hall." She nodded her head while working on the buttons of his shirt.

  He followed her directions, plopped her down on the bed, and landed right on top of her.

  She giggled. At the same time, she reached again for his buttons until the shirt was open and off. "God, you're beautiful." She could never deny the magnificence of his chest. Hard muscles, loads of sexy chest hair sprinkled in a T shape. She pinched his nipples between thumb and forefinger.

  He grunted.

  She glanced into his eyes. They were closed in ecstasy. A victorious feeling washed over her. She turned the man on, there was no doubting that.

  He didn't let her have the control for long. In a wild flurry of arms and legs, he got their clothes off and tossed on the floor. She felt so small under him, his chest and shoulders dominating. They were all she could see. Until he dipped his head and traced hungry lips down her neck and chest to kiss the breast he cupped in his palm. His lips delicately smoothed over her skin. She arched her back in the silent plea to suck her nipple.

  She looked down at the top of his head, gripped it, speared her fingers through his hair, and clenched them. "Uhh—suck it."

  "Suck what, baby. Tell me what you want."

  "You bastard. You know."

  "Ohh, strong language." He chuckled. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Maybe I want you to say the words for me."

  He hovered over her breast, his moist breath now bathing her nipple. She needed his mouth on her. "My nipple, please, please put your mouth there, you torturing son of a bitch." She stated her command word-for-word clearly so there would be no confusion.

  "Oh, all right," he said with a smirk. "Since you ask so nicely." He latched on, drew her into his mouth, and suckled like a baby.

  She arched higher and uttered a high-pitched mewl. "Oh, God, yes. Yes."

  "Did you miss me?" he muttered between suckles and gentle bites.

  "Yeah, yeah, do the other one."

  "Oh, right, I'm not being a good boy, am I?"

  "Ahh," was all she could get out. After that, she had no more complaints. He concentrated on her nipples, and she concentrated on not shrieking loudly enough to disturb the neighbors.

  He dropped her nipple with a wet pop and drifted down over her belly, kissing the quivering skin until he came to her mound. He pressed heavy kisses moving closer to her clit. Shifting his body downward, he spread her thighs and raised her knees angling them out, opening her pussy.

  She watched him, her heart thundering in fascination with what he was doing to her.

  He rubbed his thumbs over her lips, brushing the sides of her clit as well.

  She felt it swell and tighten with its own throbbing heartbeat. "Oh, God," she moaned. She couldn't arch up, he was holding her hips down. But she wanted his mouth on her clit. "Please," she begged.

  He licked. One long swipe. Over. Around. "Tell me." He pointed his tongue and teased the underside of her clit.

  She whimpered.

  "You know I need to be told," he commanded. He continued to tease her clit this way. His thumbs massaged their way to her vaginal opening, circled there, stroking rhythmically.

  She held her breath and was just able to eke out, "You're a funny man. Now suck my clit. Please." The dual sensation, his teasing words and fingers, kept her on the edge. Not knowing when he would do it drove her mad with anticipation. He hadn't done this the last time they wer
e together. Oh, please let him be good at it, she begged God.

  He compressed her clit between his lips.

  She shrieked and clenched her fingers in his hair.

  He suckled.

  "Jesus! Yes!" She knew his fingers were still there, but all her focus was on her clit. On his lips sucking wetly. Her hips pumped, but they couldn't move far, he held her still. Her heels dug into the sheets.

  He thrust two fingers, it had to be two, inside her.

  She squeezed her vaginal walls around his lovely, thick fingers, coming instantly. The quickness of it startled her, but she couldn't stop the tiny thrusts of her imprisoned hips.

  He didn't let her off. He drove her up again. Somehow, mysteriously, instinctively, he knew about the underside of her clit and how sensitive it was, because his tongue dove and speared there while his fingers plunged in and out and spiraled and twisted inside her. He didn't stop until he'd brought her to climax two more times. It might have been more. She might have passed out somewhere along the line.

  She woke up spooned, her backside against his front side. Yes, she had passed out. The fingers of his hand fanned across her belly, the other arm lay straight out under her neck. She closed her eyes again and felt his chest move in and out with measured breaths. He must have fallen asleep too. She shifted.

  He gripped her more tightly. "Where're you goin'?" he murmured.

  "You're awake?"

  "Uh, yeah." He flexed his hips, prodding her bottom with his hardening penis. "Why don't you just lift that leg." He helped her. "And let me in." He slid his cock inside her pussy.

  The velvet slide of his ramrod stiff cock filled her, every tissue deep inside still sensitive from his earlier ministrations.

  They groaned in tandem, hers ending in a whimper.

  "Okay?"

  "Oh, yeah, but I can't move."

  "No need to. Just let me." His words ground out in her ear. He withdrew and thrust slowly, sucked at the tender skin on her shoulder.

  She tried to respond, to push back. It was like he wanted her imprisoned. It drove her mad not to move. Her fingers strayed to her clit. His fingers followed, replaced, and he strummed her, building her up, adding the final dollop of pleasure. Once her muscles began their pulsations, the interior stroking of his stiff cock, the heat of the coming climax bathed her skin. She dug her nails into the arm across her belly and whimpered, long and low. He came then too, intense jets flooding into her womb, throbbing inside her, his spurting massaging her anew.

  "I think I'm going to like Chicago," he murmured.

  Chapter Ten

  "Mm, you know what I'd love right now?" Lorren murmured.

  "I know what I'd like," Jess responded with a thrust of his hips.

  "A hot fudge sundae."

  "Pardon me?"

  "A hot fudge sundae. You know, food, chocolate, stuff like that. We haven't had a thing to eat, and I'm starving." She rolled out of his arms, turning to face him.

  "What do you have in mind?" He traced her lips with a fingertip.

  She sat up, shifted her legs over the side of the bed, turning her back on him.

  He drew his finger down her spine to stop at the top of her crack.

  "There's an old fashioned ice cream parlor around the corner. Margie's. It's famous."

  "It's eleven o'clock!"

  "They're open until one." She stood and turned to look down at him. "You look so delicious lying there, but now that I've got it in my mind, I absolutely have to have hot fudge. They have burgers there if you'd like something more substantial."

  He chuckled and swung off the opposite side of the bed. "Well, the cowboy motto is to give the little lady what she wants, so let's go." He donned his jeans, shirt, and boots in quick order.

  She also dressed quickly in jean shorts and a tank top. "Come on, you ole cowpoke," she said as they left her apartment.

  "I'd rather be poking you," he murmured into her ear.

  "We'll get back to that right quick, pardner. Food first for the energy." She leaned into the shelter of his arms and sipped a soft kiss from his lips.

  Nightfall hadn't cooled the city down one bit, so they slowly strolled toward the bright lights of the ice cream store. No one gave them any special looks this time. Without his Stetson, he didn't look so cowboy, but in her eyes, he was the sexiest god there. They waited only ten minutes for a booth, slid in, and ordered—she ordered the hot fudge sundae she'd been hankering for, he ordered a cheeseburger and fries.

  "Are you deliberately trying to drive me crazy with that chocolate?" he grumped.

  "Uh huh," she admitted. Sliding down a little on the bench seat, she skimmed her foot up his leg and in between his spread thighs. Then taking a long, sensual lick of her ice cream off the spoon, she pressed her bare toes against the round, growing bulge of his erection.

  He kept chomping on his burger as if nothing unusual was happening, but his warm cocoa colored eyes gleamed with an erotic menace promising retaliation. She couldn't wait.

  But first she asked the question burning in her mind, "Are you going to leave again?" She was absolutely nuts for forcing this issue right now, but for some reason she needed to know about the future.

  He didn't answer right away.

  "Because I can't deal with—I mean we don't owe each other anything. There are no commitments. It's just that..." She stopped, realized where her foot still lay, and lowered it.

  "I thought about you a lot when I was over there," he responded, replacing his burger on the plate.

  "But you barely knew me."

  "Then why was it so important to come back to you?" He leaned forward, elbows on the table.

  "I don't know," she whispered.

  "Come on," he said, standing up and offering his hand. "Let's go for a walk on the beach."

  "Now? It's midnight."

  "Yeah, I want to get out of here. Out in the fresh air."

  ***

  "Haven't you had your fill of sand?"

  Man, yeah, he'd had his fill of sand. "Not this kind. Not the kind with the lake on one side and the city on the other." They'd grabbed a cab to the lakefront and strolled hand in hand along Oak Street Beach.

  The wind had picked up during their ramble along the beach and whipped her hair around her face. She brushed strands out of her eyes, holding them flat to her head. "I love the wind like this," she said. "Hot and lashing. Makes me feel wild and free. I love the fury of the waves crashing over the sand."

  She twirled in a circle with her arms in the air like a goddess worshipping the moon. He smiled at his fanciful thoughts. A wild woman was his favorite kind.

  "It feels like it's going to rain. I guess this is a lot better than Afghanistan especially with the rain," she said.

  "Yeah." He turned silent, remembering things he didn't want to at this moment. "But this time I have a beautiful, sexy woman—" He swung her around to pull her against him. "—in my arms and no reason to duck. Except for this." He dipped his head and nuzzled her neck where it met her shoulder.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and canted her head back to accept his kiss. "Mm."

  "You feel so tiny in my arms. While I was over there, I guess I ravished you every which way in my imagination."

  "I guess," she responded. "You're well on the way to doing it in person."

  Her chuckle sounded warm and inviting to his ears. He slipped a hand up to cover her breast, closing his eyes with the pleasure of the soft cushion in his grasp. "I'm sorry about the nightmares."

  "I wish I could help you."

  "You do, just by being here." He brushed his lips along her jaw to her chin, then captured her lips. "Mm." He circled his tongue, sweeping it across her lips, slowly embedding it in her mouth. "Mm," he sighed again when she suckled it, drew it in. Yes, yes. He felt her hands press flat on his back, felt her fingers flex, grip his shirt. Then he lost himself in her mouth, slid a hand up to cup her nape to tilt her back so he could get at every inch of her.

 
She dug her arms from around his waist and raised them to wrap around his neck, fiercely clutching his hair. They were locked thigh to thigh, belly to belly, chest to breast, and mouth to mouth. All the places he wanted most to be.

  "You overwhelm me." She panted when he released her.

  "It feels pretty good to me too," he responded.

  "You never answered my question. Are you leaving again?"

  "I don't want to."

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means I want to stay." He pursed his lips and kissed her eyelids, her nose. "I guess it's up to you." She placed her palms flat on his chest, the heels of her hands abraded his nipples. The sensation in them had never been so strong. "We fit. It's something that we shouldn't let get away from us. I'd like to spend time here in Chicago, but I'd like to take you back to Cataldo to meet my family and see my ranch. Would you do that?"

  She arched her neck and met his eyes. "I don't know what you want, what you're saying to me. We're so different."

  "Not where it counts. And don't bring up the age difference thing again. It doesn't matter to me. You may be older in years, but I'm not exactly a kid. We're not exactly Demi and Ashton."

  "But a woman your own..."

  "Don't say it. If I wanted a woman my own age, I wouldn't be crazy about you."

  "You're crazy about me?" She gazed up at him, her eyes wide with wonder, like a little child gazing at a cotton candy machine.

  "Yeah." He took her mouth, nipped and nibbled on her lips.

  When he stopped, she whispered, "I've always wanted someone to say that to me."

  "How do you feel about me, Lorren?" He wrapped both hands around her neck and propped her chin up on his thumbs. It was dark, but with the streetlights, he could see her eyes searching his. He felt like a fool, he was so gone on this woman. After what he'd gone through in the Middle East, he discovered he was more than ready to settle down. Lorren intrigued him. Hell, tell her how you feel.

  "Before you say a word," he began. "Your age means nothing to me. I know what's important and what's not, and you could be ten years older than me instead of four, and I'd still be attracted to you."

  "Yeah?"

  "I fantasized about you."