She had mentioned that she hadn’t been with anyone since starting her clinic. He knew she’d been with the boy she’d loved, and he assumed there had been college boyfriends. But those were boys, and he would be her first man. He liked that.
After kicking his jeans to the side, he lifted Riley in his arms and carried her to the bed, dropping the condom packs on the bedside table. The lamp was on its brightest setting, and he dimmed it. Her gaze roamed over him when he knelt beside her, and he hoped she liked what she saw. She reached up and traced the Trident tat—an eagle clutching a U.S. Navy anchor, a trident, and a flintlock pistol—on his upper arm. He’d been proud when he’d made it through BUD/S, the SEAL training school. Only two hundred or so sailors out of a thousand made it through the rigorous course each year, and the first thing he’d done when he had was to get the tattoo.
Her eyes lifted to his when he pulled her pajama bottoms down. Every time she looked at him with those soft, desire-darkened eyes, he felt caught up in something he’d never known before, something magical, and he couldn’t tear his gaze away.
The yellow glow of the lamp fell on her hair, spread out over the pillow, making the red and gold highlights shimmer. He wondered what she’d think if he told her that her hair reminded him of a German shepherd’s coat. Coming from him, that was a high compliment, but he thought it wise to save that piece of info for some other time. It amused him, though, and a smile slipped out. To keep her from wondering what he was thinking, he kissed her. He’d been wanting to do that, anyway.
It was almost scary how attuned they were to each other without words between them. He hadn’t been searching for the one, and maybe there was something in the water at K2. He no longer cared why Riley had walked into his life at a time when he’d thought he least needed that to happen, only that she had.
Without breaking the kiss, he stretched out alongside her, and because his fingers were itching to touch her, he allowed them free rein to roam. She sighed into his mouth when his hands slid over her skin, and she arched into his palm when he cupped a breast. It had been much too long since he’d been with a woman, and this one, Christ, this one brought him to the edge of losing control.
There were so many things he wanted to do with her, and he would, but if he wasn’t inside her in the next minute, he was going to embarrass himself. He reached for a condom, tore it open, and rose to his knees. It was a turn-on watching her watch him put it on, and although it seemed an impossible feat, he grew even harder.
Moving between her legs, he put his hands on the insides of her thighs, caressing his thumbs over her flesh, a little surprised at how firm her legs were. But she was a runner, so she would be fit, another thing he liked about her. He pushed her knees farther apart, and took himself in hand, rubbing the tip over her, teasing her. She moaned, and he could take no more. In teasing her, he was torturing himself. He slid into her, pausing to let her get used to him, moaning at how hot and wet she was.
The discipline he’d learned as a SEAL was the only thing keeping him from going caveman and pounding into her with the insatiable lust of a beast. He had the feeling she could take that side of him, and they’d get around to crazy monkey sex soon enough. Tonight, though, he wanted gentle and tender, not only for her, but for himself. That was a first. He didn’t do tender. Not until Riley, anyway.
When her eyes slid closed and she pressed her head back into the pillow, he covered her mouth with his, swallowing the little noises she made. She hooked her ankles behind him and dug her heels into his ass. Her hands were all over him, as if she wanted to touch and know each part of him. His SEAL discipline failed him. He grunted, giving into his need for her.
Sounds of sex filled the air, and he didn’t want it to end, wanted to listen all night to their bodies slapping against each other and the mix of their harsh breaths. She squeezed her core muscles around him as her climax hit, and he hissed when the pressure that had built up in his lower back and groin gave way. As he sucked in air, he wondered if his entire insides were pouring out.
“Riley,” he rasped. He fell over her, catching himself on his elbows, and stared down at her. What was it about this woman that had him thinking of forevers?
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Riley pressed a hand over her stomach in an attempt to calm the butterflies taking flight. She looked out the window of Cody’s truck, watching as the houses became grander the nearer to the beach they got. Although she’d met his K2 friends, other than Maria, she didn’t know any of their wives or girlfriends. In her entire adult life, she’d never attended a party with a group of grown-up couples.