JENNIFER DIDN’T BUY the “pleasure was control” bit Bobby gave her, no matter how tempting lying down and just letting Bobby please her might be. And Bobby could please her. She had no doubt. But she wanted him on her terms. That was what this night was about; that was how it had started and that was how it would end. Besides, exploring every delectable inch of his hotness wasn’t something she planned to miss. And he was hot, hotter than when he’d left—all man, all grown up, in all the right places. And she couldn’t do that exploring on her stomach.
Rotating around to face Bobby, both of them on their sides, Jennifer slid her hip under the jutted thickness of his erection as she urged him to his back. “I’m on top,” she insisted, reaching down to stroke his cock, sliding her fingers onto the sleek proof of just how ready he was for her. Her lips settled a breath from his. “Take it or leave it.”
He tugged her close, molding her to hard muscle. Their breath mingled, warm and tempting. “I’ll take you any way I can get you,” he said, his lips brushing hers, the soft caress sliding along every nerve ending she owned.
Barely containing a shiver, she whispered, “Good.” Then more forcefully, she ordered, “Now. On your back. Hands behind your head. You touch when I say you touch.”
He did as she said, cock standing up, engorged, inviting her to climb on top, to finally feel him inside her again. Instead, she scooted close to his side, flattening her hand on his abdomen, the ripples of hard muscle flexing beneath her fingers. Desire welled inside her.
Stretched out, he was six foot three inches of long, hard male, waiting for her next move. “What should I do first?” she queried mischievously, sitting up and running a hand over one powerful thigh.
“I’ll be happy to offer suggestions,” he said, his voice deep, raspy, his eyes raking over her nipples. They puckered instantly, the reaction spreading through her body and pooling heat between her thighs.
“I bet you can,” she said, her palm traveling up his hip, over his pelvis, teasing him with how close she was to the jut of his erection. “Like taking you in my mouth, I bet.” She knew how much talking turned him on. It did her, too.
“Suck me, baby,” he said. “Put those sweet lips around me and end my misery.”
She leaned in slowly. “Maybe I prefer you in misery,” she said, kissing his stomach, her hair spraying tantalizingly across his cock, teasing him. And she knew it, and enjoyed every second. She wrapped her palm around the base of his shaft, glancing up at him as she blew lightly on the tip.
“Witch,” he accused, his hips lifting toward her mouth.
With her tongue, she dotted the head of his shaft, and he moaned. “Wicked witch,” she promised, wrapping the width of him with her hand, when suddenly, he moved.
Before she knew what was happening, Bobby had the V of her body at his head and his mouth closed down on her. She gasped as he suckled her clit, her hand tightening on his cock.
She rolled into him, so that they were facing one another, on their sides, and drew him into her mouth, suckling him as he laved her with his tongue, teasing the sensitive flesh. His fingers slid inside her, stretching her, pleasuring her.
Jennifer suckled Bobby deeper, harder, her mind a rainbow of colors, all about need, want, desire—for more of Bobby. She moaned as little darts of sensation slid down her thighs, up her stomach, into her breasts. One hand held him firmly, the other grabbed his backside, pulling him into her, taking him deeper. He pumped against her slide, up and down his length. Faster, harder. His fingers stroked her inside, his tongue licked her, lips suckled her clit.
“Oh,” she moaned, the rush of heat coming over her in a sudden, intense blast. Unable to breathe with the pleasure building inside her, she let go of him with all but her hand. Jennifer collapsed against his stomach in a shuddered release that shot through her core and shook her body until she gasped with the final spasm that left her seeing stars.
“Damn you,” she whispered, lifting her head, so limp and loose, she could barely move. “I was—”
He cut off her words with actions, smiling and rolling her to her back, spreading her legs, braced above her as he slid his cock along her wet aching core. “On top,” he said, finishing her sentence. “Now I’m on top.” He slipped the head of his shaft inside her and then thrust deep. “And inside you where we both want me to be.” Slowly, holding her stare, Bobby slid his pulsing cock back down the sleek, wet canal of her body, until only the head remained. Jennifer arched her hips, reaching for him, whispering a plea. He was driving her crazy with anticipation. Bobby drove into her.
Sensation exploded in the depths of her womb and Jennifer gasped, her fingers curling on Bobby’s biceps, as he buried himself to the hilt. Without warning, emotion shoved its way to the surface. Bobby inside her. The man she’d once thought was her world. The man she would have said only two days ago, she never wanted to see again.
And yet he was here, resting on his elbows, looming above her in all his naked glory. They stared at each other, his expression shadowy, taut, filled with torment that spoke of so much more than simple lust and passion.
Jennifer squeezed her eyes shut. No. This was sex. She could enjoy sex. She could walk away from sex. Sex did not leave her emotionally drained and hurt.
Determination formed inside her and Jennifer’s lashes snapped open. She arched her hips against his, her arms wrapping around his neck, chest pressed to his.
“Now, Bobby,” she ordered, knowing how close to the edge he had to be. How ready for release.
He didn’t argue with her demand. He gave her what she wanted, kissing her, claiming her mouth with a wild, hot kiss, and thrusting into her body. Emotion splintered into need, dissolving inside the shuddering ache blistering her inside and out. Bobby lifted one of her legs, angling her to drive harder into her, but still it wasn’t enough.
“More,” she whispered hoarsely, her lips pressing on his chest, his neck, his chin. “I want more.”
He drew back and stared down at her, something dark sliding across his face, before his mouth was on hers, his palm over her breast. On her body. Ruthlessly touching her, drawing her toward the point of no return. She could taste the change in him, the absoluteness of his need vibrating through the tension of his body. It turned her on, exploded inside her, the way she burned for him, too.
She bucked against him. She had to have more, more. “Harder,” she gasped.
He pressed her knees to her chest and gave her what she wanted. Hard pumps, fast pumps, deep pumps—his cock driving into her. Bobby driving into her. She needed Bobby. More. Now. She panted, trying to speak again but there were no words. Orgasm came over her in a sudden explosion. Jennifer fingers dug into Bobby’s forearms, her muscles clutching at his cock, shaking her entire body.
Bobby let out a guttural growl, pounding into her one last time, his head tilting back as the taut muscles in his body shook with release, warm heat spilling inside her. Jennifer was spellbound, watching him, riveted by the sleek lines of taut, defined muscle flexing with his release. The intensity of his expression. And yes, the bittersweet bliss of Bobby on top of her, inside her, with her.
He collapsed on top of her, head buried in her neck. She clung to him, too, told herself not to, but the minute she let him go, the minute they spoke or moved, the mood would shift. The reality would pierce the fantasy.
The air thickened with unspoken words—he felt it, too, she sensed that in him. The need to say something, to explain, to make the past better, when there was no possible way he could. But lying there, the heavy weight of him resting so erotically on top of her, she wished he could. Wished there were a way.
Long seconds later, Bobby eased off her, his gaze brushing past hers, as if he were afraid to look at her. And when she might have escaped, he pulled her back to his chest, strong arms surrounding her, his powerful leg sliding intimately over one of hers. His lips nuzzling her neck. And she let him. Let him move her, let him hold her. Let herself enjoy the moment. Until the moment was gone, and reality arrived.
“The night I left,” he said finally, “my old man was arrested.”
The announcement shocked her. His father had been arrested, and she had never known. She could hear her heart thundering in her ears as she thought about that evening—shopping with Marcie, lighthearted, having fun. Then the hours later when Bobby wouldn’t take her calls, when she feared something was wrong with him. And finally, when something deep in her heart had known he was gone for good, but logic had said she was insane—they were in love, they were getting married.
“He was drunk,” Bobby continued. “And he drove his truck into a house. A young mother and her son were inside, and barely escaped injury. I knew he’d had a problem for years. Hell, he was the reason I got good grades and a scholarship to college in Austin. I wanted out of San Antonio, out of that house. And I wasn’t about to be held captive by money. When I got out, I was out. I didn’t want to ever go back. And I made damn sure I kept you away from that world and, most importantly, my father.”
He drew a breath and Jennifer found herself letting out the one she was holding. Bobby continued, “But that night, when he called me from jail, I drove to San Antonio and I tried to help him. To convince him to agree to rehab. His attorney was backing me. That was when my uncle showed up. Joe. I never introduced you to Joe. He’s a drinker like my father. A real bastard when he’s had too much—which is pretty much always. Joe teamed up with my father, said I thought I was better than them. Joe said he’d been to college, too, and it wouldn’t save me. That I would end up like him sooner than later. It was a hot spot for me. My worst fear. What if I became like them?
“I got in the car and started driving again but not back to Austin. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was going. I blinked and I was five hundred miles away, somewhere near the Mexican border, and there was an Army recruiting office. It felt like a sign, the thing I was supposed to do. I was ashamed. I didn’t want you to know what had happened, or what I was destined to become. A random drunk in San Antonio would never make the Austin papers and I told no one. And so I made the choice to save lives so I wouldn’t destroy them. Or you. So I couldn’t destroy you. I loved you too much.” His breath caught, a long, tension-laden pause, before he added, “And I knew…I knew, Jen, if I saw you again, I’d be too weak to walk away.”
Jennifer lay there, unmoving, incapable of words, her heart lodged in her throat. Trying to digest what she really knew about Bobby. His mother had passed away from cancer when he was in his teens, and Jennifer had met his father several times, usually at the bar up the road from his shop. She’d known his father was a drinker, and she’d known it bothered Bobby. But yet, she had known nothing about how bad it was for him at home, about how bad the night he’d left had been. He’d shut her out. Maybe he’d never let her in, in the first place.
Jennifer could feel herself unraveling inside, wrestling with the heaviness in her chest, the thickness in her throat. Until an explosion of emotion burst from her, adrenaline sending her into action. Jennifer pushed out of his arms—or tried. Bobby held her too closely, the intimacy of seconds before now ringing more like captivity.
“Jennifer—”
“Let me up, Bobby!”
“Jen—”
“Let. Me. Up!”
He did. He let her go and Jennifer bolted. She whirled around on her knees, oblivious to her nakedness. She opened her mouth to speak and found she couldn’t. Not without crying. He’d never really given himself to her. He’d been looking for a reason to run and found it in his father.
“There hasn’t been a day—” he started.
“…you haven’t regretted leaving,” she finished for him, going cold inside. She’d spent seven years hurting over this man. Seven years hoping for a reason that would make sense besides that he needed an excuse out. “We just slept together, Bobby. The last time I checked, orgasm doesn’t require conversation.” She gave him a disdainful look. “But right now, I need to get back to Marcie. I’m in charge of the party.”
She scrambled toward the edge of the bed and just barely escaped as he reached for her. “So that’s it?” he challenged. “I’m letting it all hang out here, Jennifer, and you’re blowing me off?”
“Isn’t that what you did to me for seven years?” she asked, giving him her back. He didn’t respond, but he would. The air was thick, the tension crackling. But he was dressing, too; he was preparing to head her off before she departed. A confrontation was coming, and it wasn’t going to be all joy and bliss like being naked in that bed had been.
Struggling with her last boot, not about to risk the vulnerability of sitting on the bed where he might end up on top of her again—and Lord help her, she might just decide to rip her clothes off again, in the name of “she deserved every damn bit of pleasure he could give her”—Jennifer lost her balance. Bobby reached for her.
“Don’t!” she bit out, righting herself. “Don’t touch me, Bobby.” She glared at him, looking at him directly for the first time since she started dressing.
Before she knew what happened, he was there, pulling her hard against his body, powerful arms wrapping around her, his long legs entwining with hers. “I’m going to touch you, Jen. And kiss you and make love to you. I’m not asking permission either. I have less than two weeks to prove to you how much you mean to me, and I fully intend to succeed.”
Defiance rose inside her, the need to lash out, to find a way to protect herself. And running kept backfiring. “Of course you will,” she said, casting him a look from beneath her lashes, playing coy, her anger banked. “That’s why it’s called a fling. You please me. I please you. And then it’s over, and life goes on.”
His jaw set, his expression taut. His hands framed her face. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”
She could feel herself shaking inside with the challenge, but she tilted her chin up, challenged him. “Believe it,” she said softly, her voice edged with a hint of steel she couldn’t quite suppress. “Because, you see, unlike you, I know when to say goodbye. I mean it when I do.”
Suddenly, his lips were a breath from hers. “Then you’ve left me no choice,” he said in a silky promise. “I simply won’t ever let you say goodbye.” His mouth slanted over hers, a quick caress of his tongue against hers. “Now. Let’s go check on Mark and Marcie—together.”
Bobby grabbed her hand and led her to the door, giving her no time to object. Her mind was still reeling as they entered the hallway only to find Marcie giggling and hiccupping.
Bobby and Jennifer exchanged a look, and Bobby quickly reacted. “I’ll help her,” he said, scooping Marcie into his arms and carrying her toward her room.
“Bobby,” Marcie groaned. “Where’s Jennifer?”
“I’m here,” Jennifer said, rushing through the door of the bedroom that Marcie and Mark shared, and pulling back the forest-green comforter on the bed. Bobby settled her onto the bed, and Jennifer tugged off her shoes.
Sally entered the room. “Is she okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” Jennifer answered. “But where is Mark? Why didn’t he carry her up?”
“Mark was playing dice with Scott. He said he needed his bride and his best man to jump out of some plane with him if he was going to be properly married.” She frowned. “I’m in the wedding, and I don’t remember anything about a plane.”
“No,” Bobby said dryly. “Not you.”
“Well, not the best man either because Scott said he’d rather streak naked at the twenty-four-hour grocery store than jump out of some damn plane.”
Jennifer’s eyes locked with Bobby’s as they both had an “oh, crap” moment. “Are you telling me,” Jennifer asked, “that Mark and Scott walked to the grocery store so Scott could streak?”
“Yeah,” Sally said. “Them and some other guys. They’re streaking all right.”
Bobby sighed and scrubbed his jaw. “I’ll go take care of it.”
“Thank you,” Jennifer said, so glad Bobby was there, the ever-steady hand in these situations, as he had been in the past. No. As they had been together. Together they’d been a good team. Her chest tightened.
Bobby nodded and turned away, Sally following, but not before Jennifer saw the shadows flicker across his face, the expression that had said “And you wonder why I’m so afraid of becoming a drunk?” The kind of look she’d seen from him many times and dismissed.
Guilt twisted inside Jennifer. She’d never pressed him beyond a gentle nudge to explain those looks, and she should have. She should have seen how badly he was hurting. Maybe he hadn’t shut her out. Maybe he simply didn’t know how to let her in.
BOBBY FOUND MARK, Scott and about five other guys gathered in the corner of the twenty-four-hour grocery store parking lot roughly three miles from the house and not a minute too soon. Scott was stripping off his clothes and was already down to bare feet and a bare chest.
With a quick turn of the wheel, Bobby pulled to the center of the circle the men had formed and shoved open his door. “Party’s over, guys.”
“Bobby!” Mark called out, holding up his open beer. “Thanks for the seat.” He hopped onto the hood of the car. “We were looking for you. Can you believe Scott is such a pansy, he would rather run buck naked through the parking lot than skydive. The little crybaby.”
“Get dressed, Scott,” Bobby said, snatching his shirt and tossing it at him. “We’re going home.” Bobby eyed Mark. “Where your wife-to-be is waiting on you.”
“I will be home to my woman just as soon as I get a picture of this,” he said, snatching his cell phone and getting it camera ready.
“Oh, nasty,” another guy Bobby didn’t know said. “No naked pictures of Scott.”
Another guy added an exaggerated, alcohol-induced laugh, and said, “Scott’s gonna make all the people in the store cry when they see his shiny white ass.”
Several others chanted. “Streak. Streak. Streak.”
“Get dressed,” Bobby ordered Scott, who was gulping a beer someone handed him.
“Get naked!” Scott yelled and down went his pants and underwear. He kicked them away from his already bare feet, and then he was running, or rather streaking.
Oh, hell. Bobby grimaced. Sirens sounded. Oh, double bloody hell. Bobby had seen plenty of drunk soldiers, but they knew when and where to drink, and how to stay out of trouble. At least, at the level of operation Bobby functioned in.
The entire group was freaking out. Except Mark who was more dazed and confused, with a big “grin before I pass out” look on his face.
Bobby quickly grabbed Mark’s beer, set it down and half hoisted him into the car. “You stay here and say nothing.”
Mark smiled. “Okay.” His head fell backward, against the seat. Well. At least, Mark was out of the picture. Or so he hoped. He could imagine the wrath of Marcie and Jennifer if he let the groom get arrested tonight.
Bobby eyed the cop handcuffing Scott, and wasn’t so sure he could save the best man but he had to try. He drew a breath and headed toward the scene of the crime.
One of the two cops, fifty-something and fit, with a buzz cut read like ex-military. Bobby showed him his military ID.
“You home to drink yourself into trouble, son, or what?” the cop asked Bobby.
“No, sir,” Bobby assured him. “In fact, I haven’t had even a sip of anything tonight. One of my close friends is getting married and I promised to keep her fiancé out of trouble. It appears I’m failing miserably.”
The cop arched a brow. “Bachelor party?” Bobby nodded. Then the cop asked, “The streaker’s the groom?”
“The best man,” Bobby said. “The groom’s in my car and smart enough to stay there and let me handle it. And I have to tell you, I feel to blame. I dared them all to skydive, and the best man said he’d rather streak than jump out of a plane. I turned my back a few minutes, and they were gone.”
The cop chuckled. “Amazing how the idea of jumping from ten thousand feet will make a man get naked and stupid,” he said, “when half the military is begging to get airborne and these civilians are scared to jump.”
“I’d say a few beers added to the naked and stupid problem. Which was why everyone’s keys were kept at the door. But they walked.”
“You made everyone leave their keys at the door?”
“The groom did,” Bobby said. “He’s a good guy. Even made the guests leave cab fare at the door. He was prepared.”
“Well, then,” the cop said. “That is admirable.” He studied Bobby. “How long you been in the Army, son?”
“Seven years,” Bobby said. “Five in Special Forces.”
“I was in fifteen,” the cop said. “First Cavalier down in Fort Hood. Where you stationed?”
“Depends what day of the week you ask me,” Bobby said, accepting his ID back and slipping it in his wallet.
“Is there a woman behind the pain I felt in those words?”
“What makes you think there’s a woman?”
“There’s always a woman, son,” he said. “That’s why I got out. I didn’t want her getting cold at night and finding someone else to warm her up.” He eyed the other officer talking to Scott, whose bare backside was staring them in the face, the rest of the guys all sitting on a curb where they’d been ordered. He glanced back at Bobby. “Now, I go home after a night of scary bare butts and hug my wife.”
“And?” Bobby asked. “Are you happy?”
“You take the good with the bad, the bare butts with the bank robbers. I’ll load these guys up and follow you to the party—after I scare the living shit out of them so they don’t do this stupid crap again. But you keep them out of trouble the rest of the night.”
The cop turned away, not giving Bobby a chance to thank him. Bobby realized right then, he had to figure out what he would do with himself outside the Army. He had to have an identity, a plan. He had to figure out who he was if not a soldier. Hard to do when his orders, to check out this Rocky guy and his Texas Hotzone skydiving operation, meant incorporating duty into the wedding event. Bobby scrubbed his jaw. One thing was for sure, he wasn’t going to chase bare butts or bank robbers. But neither was he letting anyone else warm Jennifer’s bed.
THREE HOURS AFTER Jennifer discovered Marcie in the hallway, Marcie finally slept, and Jennifer rested in the overstuffed chair in the corner. Bobby had long ago brought Mark, Scott and several other members of the wedding party back, after barely saving them from the police. Since then, the party had cleared, and Mark was passed out on the couch where Bobby had left him.
Jennifer curled her legs in the chair, and rested her head on the cushion when a shiver of awareness washed over her at the sound of footsteps approaching, the sounds of Bobby’s loose-legged swagger, impossible to miss. Jennifer looked up as he appeared in the doorway.
“How’s Marcie?” he asked, leaning on the door frame.
“She’s okay, but she’ll have a rotten hangover tomorrow,” Jennifer said. “I guess fun comes with a price. At least she’s resting now.”
He cast her a heavy-lidded inspection. “What about you?” he asked. “Don’t you need to rest?”
She rubbed the back of her neck, fighting the weariness weighing on her. “I figured I’d stay here in case she needs me. It’s not like Mark can help her. He can’t even get up the stairs himself.”
He narrowed his gaze, his scrutiny intense, his presence seeming to swell in the room. “Not because you’re trying to avoid me?”
She drew a deep breath, too tired to analyze how she felt, or why. “I’m not avoiding you, Bobby,” she said softly. “You were wonderful tonight. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here…to help.”
His expression didn’t change; he didn’t move. But the silence was rich with implications, with a connection of two lovers lost, now found. Silence slid between them, weaving strands of the past with the present, alluringly warm, impossible to deny, let alone escape.
Bobby pushed off the wall and sauntered toward her. Her heart thundered in her ears, her body thrummed with anticipation of the moment he would speak, the instant he would touch her. He stopped beside the chair, towering over her.
“You’re not avoiding me?” he asked again.
She shook her head, barely finding her voice. “No. I’m not avoiding you.”
“Then you won’t mind if I stay right here with you,” he said, sitting down in the oversize chair with her and maneuvering her under his arm, against his chest.
Jennifer relaxed into Bobby, his strong arms and body warming her inside and out. She was too tired to fight the intimacy, too tired to keep her walls up, to protect herself from getting hurt again. Jennifer rested her head on his chest and let her eyes slide shut, vowing to get things back on track and all about sex tomorrow.