Page 85 of Seal of Honor
God, she had to notice the way his body, battered as it was, responded to her touch. How could she not? His erection was at half-mast, right there by her cheek, straining toward her, all but begging her to turn her head and?—
“But not at the expense of losing you.” Her breath whispered over his cock before she kissed him, a light caress of her lips down his shaft. The contact jolted and sizzled through his nerves like electricity. As she opened her mouth and took him in deeper, it nearly broke every careful link of control he’d spent his life forging. Again. He couldn’t afford that, not now when everything was situation critical, not when it left him feeling so raw and exposed afterward.
He reached down, threading his fingers into her soft, wavy hair, his grip gentle but firm. He had every intention of pulling her away but instead cupped the back of her head and guided her movements. His instincts betrayed him, his body responding to her touch in ways he couldn’t control.
Her lips were soft and warm against him, her tongue making his breath hitch in his throat. With a shuddering gasp, he gave into the pleasure for just a moment longer. The hospital room was momentarily forgotten, the urgency of his mission pushed aside as he lost himself in Audrey’s touch.
But then reality crashed back in. He tightened his grip on Audrey’s hair and pulled her away gently but firmly. She looked up at him with those green eyes, now glassy and swollen from tears. There was a plea in them that wrenched at his heart. She let him go reluctantly, her hands slowly trailing up his thighs as she rose to her feet.
“You don’t have to go, Gabe,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from crying. She hiked her skirt and straddled his lap, sinking onto his throbbing cock with a shaky sigh. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she leaned her forehead against his, her breath warm against his lips.
“You’ve done enough. Let Quinn and the guys handle it.”
His hands found their way to her hips, gripping the soft fabric of her dress. Her perfume enveloped him, something tropical and sweet that made him want to bury his face in her neck and forget about everything else.
“I’m not that kind of commander.” Why didn’t she get that? He wasn’t going to sit safely behind the battle line while ordering his men to charge into the fray. If they had to put their lives on the line for the mission, he’d be right there with them, fighting shoulder to shoulder. “I won’t ask my men to do anything I wouldn’t do myself.”
She lifted herself off him, then slowly slid down again, the friction causing a low groan to escape his lips. “You’re not asking them. They signed up for this. This is what they do. But you… you think you’re invincible, but you’re not. You need time to heal.”
His fingers tightened on her hips as she began to move again, her actions far more persuasive than her words. But he was a SEAL, and SEALs didn’t back down from a challenge or leave a mission unfinished. Even when that mission was complicated by a woman who stirred feelings he hadn’t thought he was capable of experiencing. Feelings he didn’t have a name for.
It wasn’t love. Couldn’t be. Love was for people who believed in happy endings, not for men like him who’d spent years thriving in a world of violence.
“Audrey,” he groaned and gripped her rear, guiding her down. “We should stop.”
She gasped, and her head fell back in pleasure. The ends of her hair tickled his legs. “Oh, please, Gabe. I’ll be careful not to hurt you.”
He snorted a laugh. “You’re not going to hurt me. The nurse?—”
“Two pump chump, remember? I won’t last.”
God, he realized, neither would he.
Her eyes, still spilling tears, never left his, and he saw her heart there, his for the taking if he wanted. He did. Christ, did he ever want it, want her. So much that he ached with a sweet need to make her his forever. But he couldn’t. It was impossible. He couldn’t be the kind of man a woman like her wanted for the long haul.
Then she started to move against him, and Gabe strived for control even as coherent thought fled and sensation engulfed him. Every lift of her hips off his cock was a slow, painful death, and he felt the loss of her warmth in even the darkest pit of his soul. Every languorous slide down was his salvation.
Control. Yeah, right. With her, it was nothing but a pretty illusion, and he was already lost. In her eyes. In her body. In her soul. He’d never had any control when it came to her. She was drawing him in, pulling him under with her every movement, her every soft cry. He was drowning in her, and the terrifying part was that he didn’t want to fight it. He wanted to go with her, lose himself completely.
His hands moved of their own volition, sliding up her back and tangling in her wavy hair. He moved to catch her mouth with his, halting the words that tumbled out in a desperate plea for him to reconsider his choice. But it was too late for that; he’d made up his mind.
The kiss tasted bitter-sweet, tainted by impossible promises and unspoken goodbyes.
Because this had to be goodbye.
Savoring the softness of her lips, he let himself sink deeper into the kiss, his heart pounding a painful rhythm against his ribs. This was it; this was the last time he would hold her in his arms, feel her body wrapped around his. This was what he had to remember—her taste, her touch, her soft cries of pleasure. He’d brand her on his memory for all the lonely nights to come.
A warning tremor shot down his spine. He gave up all pretense of resisting and met her stroke for stroke, their bodies moving together in perfect sync, the hospital bed under them creaking in protest. His chest heaved as his climax neared, his grip on her hips tightening.
It was too much.
It was not enough.
“Gabe,” she whimpered, her hands tangling in his short hair, pulling him closer. Her body trembled as she hovered above him, her orgasm locking her around his cock like a vise.
He clenched his jaw against the surge of pleasure that rocked him to his core. He arched into her one last time before his release roared from him with a force that left him gasping against her neck. He buried his face in her fragrant hair, inhaling the sweet scent of her skin as his body shuddered beneath hers.
Then it was over, the aftermath as crushingly silent as the joining had been sudden and intense, leaving them twined together, boneless and gasping, his face buried in the crook of her neck, her cheek resting on top of his head. He could hear her pulse thundering, matching his beat for beat, and closed his eyes.
