"You believe that?"
"I do. But I'm not asking you to agree, only for you to understand. I'm a SEAL, Piper. I'm not sure I'd know myself by any other definition. Serving is something I have to do until a time comes when I can't." My thigh twitches, reminding me of the ever-present ache. "Maybe the time is now."
She nods, focusing in on my chest. After a moment of tracing a path of chills over my skin with her eyes, she looks up. "Lux in Tenebris?"
"Light in darkness." If I had known it would grow to have a deeper meaning for me, I may have broadened the font, made it more prominent than the small ancient script.
Even as I drown in darkness, she is my light.
"Truth?"
"Every word, all the time," I say, watching her bring her gaze back to mine.
"I like kissing you."
Fuck. Blood rushes to my dick, and I don't give her a chance for rebuttal. My mouth is on hers, deep and searing, a tangle of tongues and promises I hope to God I keep. Her lips are firm and hungry, but I'm hungrier and we fight for control, a wet, hot struggle to destroy the unspoken truth keeping us from taking the last step forward. I want to make her mine, sink my teeth in her flesh, slay the fear that prevents her from taking the plunge into unfamiliar waters with me. I fight for it, holding her hips as I grind between her thighs and we become a writhing, panting mass of need.
Reason returns and I break the kiss, pulling away to find her swollen, pink lips parted.
"I want to touch you," she says.
I groan. I groan and pin her hands behind her back. She's killing me. "I want that too, but no."
Piper struggles to free herself and growls through her frustration. "Got a small dick, Popeye? Afraid I'll be disappointed?"
I grab her neck, holding her in a possessive but tender grip as I shift and slide her fingers down my abdomen until they're pressed over my erection. "Feel me, sunshine? That's nine inches of pure commitment. Let me know when you're ready for deep and hard and forever. Once you let me inside, I'm not going anywhere."
She smiles. A lazy grin peels across her face until it ends in a dimple, and she squeezes my cock.
"Piper," I warn through clenched teeth.
"Shh. We won't fuck, but I like how I feel with you."
She stands, snapping the waistband of my pants as she goes. With her eyes latched on mine, I lift my hips and she tugs, slipping them down my legs and then tossing them to the floor. I suck in a breath when she palms me, cupping my head and pressing her thumb against the sensitive pad beneath my crown. Pleasure ripples across my stomach. She holds my gaze while shimmying out of her shorts. Shit. God. Damn. My heart thuds as she climbs up, a knee on either side of my thighs.
"Christ, Piper. I can't . . . fuuuck," I moan through the feeling of her pussy slipping against my dick.
"I want to make you come, Caden Lawless."
I nod, licking my lips. "God, those are the best words ever strung together in the history of the English language."
She laughs, but it's short and choked off when she rocks her hips, moving enough to spread her open and for my cock to slide between her wet lips. At the first full pass, my crown hits the ball of her piercing and we both moan.
I lose my shit the second time and grab her hips, helping to direct pace and motion. And oh, fuck, looking at me through long lashes, Piper sheds fear like a cloak, dropping it to the floor as she pulls the pins from her hair and shakes it out. All that's left is a carnal, ripe woman falling apart above me. I can do nothing but focus on the slick, wet heat surrounding my cock.
And when she touches her lips to mine, open and breathing in the same breath I pant out, I lose my mind. I lose all sense of self and time, and any distance between us is destroyed with each grunt and groan. I jab my hips up to meet the press of hers just as the tip of my tongue reaches into her mouth to strangle the sounds driven from her with each stroke. The chair rocks beneath us. I shift lower, providing more room for her to slide wet and hot down my length. She bucks against me, frantic and sinking her nails into my shoulders, dragging them into my hair as she arches and groans for more and faster, please.
I give it to her. I'd give her anything. I'll give her my everything. I bite the swell of her breast and then find her tit, sucking it through the cotton of her tank. Sucking her so hard she squeals and jerks her hips harder, grinding down on my cock so brutally I see stars, and my balls draw up into an aching knot of need. She whimpers. She whimpers and the last ribbon of my control is cut.
"Come. Fucking come all over my dick, right the fuck now, Piper." I grab her hair, pulling her forehead to mine while I plow up and into her clit, once, twice. "Now, fucking come."