Cambria Hebert - Text

“I still can’t believe you bought me a dog.”

“Like I said, life’s too short to deny yourself the stuff you truly want.”

I turned in his embrace and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Does that go for all things I truly want?”

“And what do you want, Honor?”

“I want you.”

He studied me closely for long moments. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been so sure.”

“After what he did to you…” Nathan said, his voice taking on a hard edge. “I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t even want me to touch you.”

“I think I proved earlier that I like when you touch me.”

He chuckled. “That was totally hot.”

“I want more,” I whispered, ducking my face into his neck. “I want you.”

The muscles in his body contracted and he groaned. “You make it really hard for a guy to resist.”

I pulled back and looked up at him. “You want to resist me?”

“Oh, hell no, I don’t. But I want you to feel safe with me.”

“I do feel safe with you. I’ve never felt safer.”

He lowered his head to kiss me, but behind us Lucy started barking. I spun around and looked at her. She stood in the center of the small yard, looking at the privacy fence that separated my yard from the trail.

“Lucy,” I called, thinking her little puppy barks were awfully cute and not intimidating at all.

She glanced at me but then turned back the fence. The wind ruffled the single tree in the yard and golden yellow leaves shook free and spiraled toward the ground. Lucy took off after one, romping on it when it hit the ground.

“C’mon, you silly thing,” I called, laughing at her cuteness.

She didn’t listen, of course, but continued to attack the leaf like it was some sort of menacing object.

Nathan released me and stepped out into the grass. “Lucy, come.” He squatted down and she came running over to greet him.

“C’mon, Killer,” he said and scooped her up. I took her from his arms and kissed her head.

“Lucy,” I corrected.

He grunted and we went back inside, Nathan sliding the door shut behind us. “Did you write all those books?” he asked, motioning to my covers lining the walls. To date, I’d written ten novels. I was close to finishing one and then I was supposed to start another.

“Yeah.”

“I’d make a pretty good cover model, don’t you think?” he asked, striking a pose.

Actually, he would be great on a book cover. “I’ll take it under advisement.”

“Maybe you should just write an entire series about me,” he said as we went up the stairs.

I made a choked sound. “And call it what? Tales of an Egomaniac ?”

He laughed.

“You know,” I said, putting Lucy down on the carpet, “I actually thought about writing about what happened to me.”

He nodded thoughtfully.

“I could add in the part about the heroic Marine who shows up to save the day.”

“You saved yourself, Honor,” he corrected. “You managed to get that phone. You didn’t give up hope. You fought like hell to get away from him. I just showed up to help.”

“You didn’t even know me. Yet you came.”

“Baby, I would go anywhere for you. I would drop everything and come running.”

“But you didn’t know me,” I insisted.

“It didn’t matter.”

I knew that he would have come regardless; he would have gone out there for anyone who was in trouble. I actually felt kind of lucky it was me.

Was that sick? Did I need therapy?

“What’s the matter?” he asked, studying my face.

“Do you ever wonder,” I asked, “why things happen? You know the saying: ‘there’s a reason for everything.’ Do you believe that?”

“I didn’t used to, but I’m starting to believe that now.”

“I do too.”

“So what’s your reason, Honor?”

“I think the reason I was kidnapped, the reason my texts went through to you, is because I was meant to meet you. You’re my reason, Nathan.”

The look on his face was sort of priceless. A million emotions crossed over him all at once. Shock, wonder… joy.

“You sure make it hard,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“Make what hard?”

“For me to keep my hands off you.”

“So don’t. I want them on me.”

This strained look came across his face, almost like he was in pain. “But what he did to you…”

“Stop thinking about what he did to me.” I didn’t want to think about it either.

“It makes me so angry, Honor,” he growled, clenching and unclenching his hands at his sides.

I finally understood the anger I always sensed that seemed to simmer inside him. He was still angry about what happened when he was deployed. He was angry at the lives his friends never got to live.

He couldn’t do anything about that.

But I could let him do something about what happened to me.

I stepped forward, closing the distance between us, and laid a hand over his chest. Tipping my head back, I stared up into his conflicted yet longing-filled navy eyes. “You can make it go away,” I whispered. “Your touch will completely erase all the times he touched me. Once you lay your hands on my skin, I won’t be able to remember anyone but you.”

He groaned and captured my face between his palms. Nathan held me firmly, keeping me utterly still while he had his way with my mouth. Heat pooled in my belly and the blood rushed from my head. Still holding me in place, he nipped and licked his way down my neck, lightly sucking the sensitive skin into his mouth. I moaned, my knees threatening to buckle, and he finally released me. His hands glided down the curves of my body and wound around until he was cupping my butt in his very capable palms.

He whispered my name as he picked me up, my legs automatically hooking around his tapered waist. His grip stayed on my butt, and I rocked against him, rubbing my swollen bud along his abdomen.

He took two steps back and came up against the wall, where he leaned his shoulder blades and fastened his skilled lips to my collar bone. I filled my hands with every inch of him I could hold. His pecs filled my palms and I took pleasure in squeezing them, pinching at his nipples through his T-shirt until they were rock-hard knobs.

A sound of desperation ripped from my throat when I tried to reach the hem of his shirt and was blocked by my legs tightly clasped around him.

Nathan pushed away from the wall, one hand cupping my bottom and the other splaying across the small of my back as he strode along the hallway. As he walked, he reclaimed my lips in a searing kiss. His mouth was insistent and demanding; there was a possessive ferocity in the way Nathan kissed.

I began to slide down his body because my legs were so wobbly that I couldn’t keep them tightly around him. I was dangerously close to turning into a giant puddle of need.

I slipped a little lower and his arm slid around my ribs. I jerked at the sudden jolt of pain, and he quickly laid me across the mattress. “Damn, baby, did that hurt?”

I nodded. “Real bad,” I said, my voice so deep I barely recognized it.

Nimble fingers caught the hem of my paisley print top and he bunched it up beneath my armpits. I wasn’t wearing a bra today because the pressure of the straps hurt too much. Thankfully, my breasts weren’t large and I didn’t really need a bra.

Of course, right about now, I wish I had more for him to look at.

I dared a peek up at his face and saw the way he was staring down at me. There was a reverence in his gaze that made me feel powerful. It made me feel desired.

Slowly, he stretched out alongside me, feathering the tips of his fingers across my belly and dancing them up a little higher. His eyes darkened until they looked like midnight as he took in the swelled area and the splotched bruises.