Page 14 of Skull
She was as relentless as a hunter, a temptation so uncontrollable it was inevitable. But he wasn’t about to let her jack him off and set the tone for whatever this was between them. He swallowed thickly and fought to gather what remained of his shredded control.
The woman did things with her mouth that he’d never experienced before. Especially the breath-stealing, mind-bending way she slipped and swirled her tongue around his shaft, all the way down, then back up in a long suctioning pull that shook his sanity and his restraint. His fingers knotted in her hair, and each time he came close to erupting, he thought of water torture at BUD/S—the unrelenting cold, the threat of hypothermia taking him out, the excruciating drive of the waves against his violently shaking, exhausted body, the need he had to keep himself in the chain of linked arms, utterly refusing to break it and fail the brothers on either side of him, the pain of sore, overused muscles, on the brink of human limits.
Fail his brother and the woman he loved. Hazard needed to have all of him at this time, and this was nothing but selfish indulgence.
That’s what saved him—the very basics that had built what was already his formidable strength. In that grueling, churning, threshing machine that was designed to separate the chaff from the wheat, he’d learned all about expanding his comfort zone to increase both his physical and mental toughness—the keys he needed to survive outside the wire. But in this case, it was proving to be vital in laying down his boundaries with a woman who seemed to have none. He suspected she projected that image, but there was a genuine, deep core inside this pretty quick-change artist, and allowing her to dictate how and when this intimacy would play out between them was a map for disaster. This map wouldn’t lead to that golden core, and with any mission, he wasn’t going to set himself up for failure.
That and the agony of his guilt chewing up his insides were the impetus that granted him the strength to reach down, slip his hands under her armpits, the scent of her arousal, and the unbelievable sensations of this amazing blow job driving him wild to keep her mouth on him and bring him all the way.
But she was lost to him, settling in a slow and steady rhythm, making the pleasure so intense for more excruciating seconds, and he lost his shit again, crying out at the exquisite pleasure. When she tightened her grip, adding a slick friction that had his hips instinctively thrusting in tandem with her strokes, his breathing turned harsh and labored, his body rigid with tension. He gritted his teeth and pulled. She protested with a curse and an angry growl. His dick popped out of her mouth, and he brought her flushed, startled face up to his, lifting her completely off her feet. Her lips parted on a shocked gasp of breath as he drew her to eye-level and gave her the fiercest I-mean-fucking-business glare. Her eyes were dark and filled with a desire that had gotten away from her, and…fear for a split second, her skin flushed pink with hunger.
Her chin lifted a fraction, solidifying that stubborn personality of hers. “What?” she managed through an agonized groan. “Why did you do that?”
He clamped his jaw tightly. “Two very distinct reasons. Hazard and Leigh need us, Hummingbird, and this isn’t the time for this. And, I thought I made it clear to you that I’m not this guy. We have commitments, and I’m expected—” His dive watch chimed, telling him he had fifteen minutes to get downstairs. “I have a debrief, and I don’t want our first time to be some one-sided quickie in the shower or have to explain to my hard-ass leader that I was getting head in the shower instead of showing up on time to save our brother and his fiancée.” He narrowed his gaze as she lifted a brow in a challenging manner, her defiant look giving him more glimpses of fear intermingled with her pushback. “That fucking pisses me off.”
She let out a hard sigh. “Fine. I’m sorry. I goaded you. You’re a gorgeous bastard, Cooper. So, I’m blaming you a little.”
“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” he snapped, still trying to recover.
She rolled her eyes and huffed. “It figures. Add modesty to your long list of appealing attributes. You don’t have a clue. When I look at you, I want to shut the world out and have you all to myself. You’re magnificent, and I’m just a woman faced with one hard, hot, fully aroused male. What did you expect me to do?”
For the first time in a situation with a woman he was attracted to, he was not only speechless but floored. Magnificent? Seriously? That was never how he’d thought of himself. He worked for his sweat, not to seduce, even though it was a perk he wasn’t about to pass up.
He snorted derisively and shot her a look of disbelief. “Are you playing me with thatmere womancomment? I’m-just-an-innocent-waif act?”
She stared at him, a slight, tenacious set to her chin. “I wish I could be that…detached, but you make it impossible with the way you’re built internally and externally.” Her eyes went sly, filled with a teasing glint. Her mouth lifted at the corner, and she ran her hands over his flexed biceps and forearms, her voice now breathless. “If you want, I’ll tell Iceman. I’ll even get a permission slip for you.” In a breathy, Marilyn Monroe tone, she teased, “Icy sweetheart, can I get your authorization to appropriate Skull for fuckery in between firefights, missions, and debriefs? Pretty please with sugar on top.”
“Goddammit, woman. Don’t you dare try to deflect this conversation with humor.” It took all his will not to smile. Just imagining that whole scenario nearly made him laugh, but he shoved the thought away. Too much was at stake right now. He had to be laser-focused, and she did, too.
“I was just trying to give us both a respite from everything. I caught Anna crying her eyes out downstairs, and I maybe needed a big distraction myself. So, sue me. I’m human. What a shocker.”
Realizing he’d won that round, and that she wasn’t going to argue any further, she yielded with a slight nod. “You really are a tough customer, and fuck me, I do love the way you won’t give me an inch. It’s sexy as hell.”
He set her down gently. “We’ve got to go. Hand me that towel for real this time. No more shenanigans.”
“But you incite such decadent shenanigans.” She pouted.
“Woman…” he began.
She sighed and snatched the towel off the rack, handing it over. “Now get out, you troublemaker, and let me do my job.”
“There better be some kind of raincheck, handsome,” she added with a mischievous glance down his body, biting her lip as she noted his semi-hard state.
“You bet your shapely ass there will be, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”
“Okay, taskmaster. I’ll be outside waiting for the shower. And by the way, mine’s broken. We have to share.”
He groaned softly. “Great.” He shooed her with the towel, and she scampered out, shutting the door with a hard click.
Skull dried off quickly, vigorously running the towel through his hair before giving it a quick comb. Then he wrapped it around his waist and passed her by—though she made no move to head into the shower immediately. Instead, she folded her arms over her beautiful chest. “Why are you such a Boy Scout?” she asked.
In his youth, as a sailor, the rough side of sex had been intriguing until it wasn’t, until it made him feel hollow and unfulfilled. That didn’t fit his rock-like attitude, and he couldn’t help thinking his dad would be so disappointed in him if he had climaxed in that shower, and he would have compromised himself in ways he wouldn’t have wanted to face. That guilt and the guilt of having such a grand time while his brother was suffering weighed heavily on him. “I don’t have time to discuss that, but I promise you, we will talk about it.” He grabbed clothes, rapidly stripped off the towel and dressed in a quickness that he’d learned in the Navy. Walking over to the kennel, he called Bones to him. The sleepy canine shook his whole body and joined Skull, sitting at his side.
“Man I was so exhausted, I didn’t even register the crate.” She gestured toward the kennel in the corner.
He laughed softly. “To be fair, it was obscured by the bed.”
“He really is a beautiful guy,” she remarked.
