“You most certainly are,” she murmured, only realizing after the fact that she’d said it out loud.
He closed the distance between them in two strides, yanking her fully clothed body against his completely naked one and kissing her hard. It felt so wicked and so perfect, and it took her breath away. He tasted so good, and felt even better. Damn, she was practically vibrating with need. This must be what they meant when they said two people were sexually compatible because right now, she couldn’t imagine another man in the world who could make her feel like this.
The sensation of his now rock-hard cock pressing against her stomach was enough to almost drive her crazy, and she would have dropped to her knees in worship to it, but he wouldn’t let her. Instead he picked her up and carried her over to his bed. He yanked off her flip-flops and jeans and yet it still wasn’t fast enough to suit her.
A tiny part of her—the part that had nothing to do with helping Gage strip off her panties so he could flip her over on her hands and knees—wondered how she could possibly go from not even thinking about sex to wanting it so badly she didn’t care if he ripped her clothes to tatters. But one look at him as he took a condom packet out of the bedside table and rolled it on told her everything she needed to know.
Gage made it possible for her to act like this. She wanted him so badly because that was exactly the same way he wanted her. Like she was the only thing he could think about. Like she was as important to his survival as air.
When he pulled her ass closer toward the edge of the bed and plunged into her wetness, they both released groans of pure pleasure. His was a deeper—almost possessive—growl, but hers wasn’t any less animalistic. She wanted him to possess her completely, make her his in every way possible.
His hands firmly grasped her hips as he slowly moved inside her. With each thrust, he pumped harder and harder until he buried himself all the way to her very core. She was panting so hard she was almost dizzy.
The rush of her approaching orgasm didn’t surprise her. She’d learned last night that Gage could make her come almost anytime he wanted—and right now he wanted her to come right away.
Her teeth clamped down on the blanket covering his bed and she swore she could taste him on it. That thought, however crazy, only brought her climax on faster. She screamed into the bed, clutching the covers as her whole body shuddered violently. And when the first waves of orgasm passed, she got an even firmer grip. Because there was something else last night had taught her. Gage wouldn’t stop with making her come only once. He would take her like this until she was sure she’d pass out—then he’d make her come even harder.
***
Mac cuddled against Gage’s chest, running her fingers over the muscles and lightly tracing his tattoos. She’d never been into guys with tats, but he made them work. She’d seen the wolf-head SWAT tattoo during PT and when they’d made love the previous night. But she hadn’t gotten a good look at the other tattoo—the one he called his Ranger Scroll—until now. She traced her fingers along the black ribbon outline with its red inner line. Inside both lines were letters and numbers.
“Second Ranger, I get,” she said softly. “What’s BN stand for?”
It took Gage a minute to answer—he was pretty much comatose beneath her in his own post-orgasmic bliss. “Battalion. I was in the 2nd Ranger Battalion out of Fort Lewis.”
He said the words so quietly she wasn’t sure if she should ask him anything else about it. She remembered how he’d smiled in all the military pictures out on the wall, but looked almost somber in every photo after that. She wanted to know more about Gage, though. Hell, she wanted to know everything about him there was to know.
“I remember seeing in your public relations bio that you spent six years in the Army. Was all of it with the 2nd?”
“Not counting Basic and initial schooling, yeah, I was in the 2nd the whole time. I came in right after Desert Storm kicked off and was out by the middle of ’97.”
“I saw the pictures out on the wall. Were they your friends in the 2nd?”
Of course they’d been his friends—he’d taken pictures with them. But he seemed to understand what she was asking.
“They were more than that. They were like my family,” he said quietly. “First Platoon, First Rifle Squad. My brothers.”
Mac realized then that he’d never said a word about family until now, and when he did, it was in terms of the soldiers he’d served with.
“They sound like amazing guys. Do you stay in touch with them?”
Gage didn’t answer, and the silence stretched out until she lifted her head off his chest to look at him. His eyes were closed, and when they opened, she couldn’t miss the sadness in them.