Debbie Macomber - Debbie Macomber Navy Series Box Set

When he had nearly driven her to the limits of sanity, Rush moved his body over hers. In one unbroken action, he entered her.

They both gasped at the strength of the undiluted pleasure.

Their eyes met and locked in the darkness. He was buried as deeply inside her as he could go, and still he didn’t move. Lindy felt his limbs tremble as he struggled to gain control of his raging desire. She moaned in protest and squirmed beneath him, grinding her hips against him until he cried out her name in an agonized plea.

“Honey…please…don’t do that.”

“I can’t help it.” Once more she raised her bottom enough to experience the intimate friction she craved so desperately.

“Lindy.” He hissed her name again through clenched teeth. “For pity’s sake, don’t…. Every time you do that…oh, Lindy….”

She gazed up at his tortured face and lifted her head to kiss him. He responded by thrusting his tongue in her mouth while all ten fingers tunneled through her hair.

He started to move then in a long, slow stroke that plunged him deep within her. She whimpered when he withdrew, but he quickly sank into her again and again and again, bringing them to a shared climax several moments later. Together they cried out, their hearts sailed and they soared into a new shining universe as their voices shouted in joyous celebration.

Still sheathed inside her, Rush whispered urgently, “You’re mine, Lindy. Mine.”

“Yours,” she whispered in return. “Only yours.”

* * *

Lindy had never seen so many people gathered in one place in her life. It seemed the entire navy had come to watch the tugboats tow the Mitchell out of Sinclair Inlet.

Susan Dwyer stood at Lindy’s side on the long pier, looking at the huge aircraft carrier as it sliced through the dark green waters. Helicopters from the local television stations hovered overhead and small planes zoomed past to get pictures of the carrier as it was tugged away from the Bremerton shipyard.

“How do you feel?” Susan asked, shouting above the noise of the cheering crowd.

“I don’t know.” Lindy shook her head, feeling a little numb. A lump rose in her throat. When she’d kissed Rush goodbye, she’d felt the reluctance and tension in him, but no shrinking. As much as he wanted to stay with her, as much as he longed for them to be together, he longed for the sea more. He was going to leave her because it was his duty, his destiny. He belonged to the navy, and she had only been granted second rights.

“I’m not going to cry.” That much Lindy knew.

“Good girl.” Susan was dry-eyed herself. “You’re going to do just fine. We both are. These six months will fly by. Just you wait and see, and before we know it they’ll both be back, randy as hell and—” She stopped abruptly and heaved in a deep breath. “Who am I trying to kid? It’s going to be the pits.” Her gaze clouded and she bit into her trembling bottom lip. “I think I’m pregnant again.”

Lindy didn’t know what to say. “Does Jeff know?”

“Nope. I went off the Pill last month when they left the first time. There didn’t seem to be any reason to keep taking them when Jeff was going away for all those months. I forgot to take the stupid things half the time anyway. Then Jeff was home and I didn’t even think about it until yesterday morning.”

“Why then?”

“I threw up.”

“Oh, Susan. Are you going to be all right?”

“If I said yes, would you believe me?”

“Probably.”

Her friend sighed. “Well, don’t. I have miserable pregnancies. And I don’t think Jeff’s going to be pleased, either. We’d agreed to wait at least another couple of years.”

Lindy found a tissue in her purse and handed it to her friend, who quickly wiped the moisture from her pale cheeks.

“Tears are another sure sign with me.”

“I’d better keep track of these symptoms,” Lindy muttered absently.

Susan paused, blew her nose and turned to face Lindy. “What do you mean?”

“Rush and I weren’t using any birth control, either…. It wasn’t the right time of the month for me to start the Pill, and well, to be honest, we didn’t discuss it.”

“Oh, Lindy, how do we let these things happen?”

Lindy didn’t have an answer to that. Not once during the last two nights had she given any thought to the fact that she could become pregnant. It certainly wouldn’t be any great tragedy, but she would have preferred to wait a year or two before they started a family. Rush hadn’t said a word, either. It seemed improbable that he hadn’t thought of the possibility.

“You want to come back to the house with me and share a hot fudge sundae and a jar of pickles?” Susan asked seriously.

Lindy shook her head. “My brother arrived yesterday. We haven’t had much of a chance to talk.”

“Keep in touch.”

“I will,” Lindy promised.

* * *

Steve was watching the newscast that showed the Mitchell pulling out of Puget Sound when Lindy entered the apartment. He didn’t so much as look away from the television screen when she entered the living room, and Lindy paused, anticipating the worst.

“If you’re going to yell at me, do it now and get it over with,” she said, standing just inside the room. After saying farewell to Rush she didn’t need anything more to dampen her already low spirits.

Her brother leaned forward and pressed the remote control dial, turning off the television set.

“Dear God, Lindy, what have you done?”

“I just said goodbye to my husband,” she answered him, in a steady, controlled voice.

“Why’d you marry him?”

“For the usual reasons, I assure you.”

Steve wiped a hand down his face. “I wish to hell I could say how happy I am for you, but I can’t. I know you too well, Lindy. This marriage just isn’t going to work. You’re not the type of woman who’s going to accept the life-style the navy demands. How can you possibly expect to know a man well enough to marry him in three weeks?”

“I know everything I need to.”

“I suppose he told you about Cheryl?”

She squared her shoulders and stiffened her spine in a defiant gesture. She knew there’d been someone else, but Rush hadn’t filled in the details. She hadn’t told him everything about Paul, either.

“Did he?” Steve pressed.

“No,” she flared.

“You’re married to a man and you know nothing about his past.”

“I love Rush and he loves me. That’s all I need.” Lindy was painfully conscious of her brother’s adverse feelings toward her and Rush, but she was at a loss to understand his hostility. Unless his divorce had completely tainted his views on marriage.

Steve shook his head, his face pinched in a deep frown. “I’m afraid you’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, Lindy Kyle.”

She stepped into the room and sat on the sofa arm. “The name’s Lindy Callaghan, now.”

Chapter 11

Susan Dwyer met Lindy at the front door. “Welcome,” she said, bringing her inside the house. A group of women sat in the living room and smiled enthusiastically when Lindy entered the room. She recognized several of the faces from the restaurant where she and Rush had eaten their wedding dinner, but remembering all their names would have been impossible.

“Hello,” Lindy said, cordially nodding her head toward the others. She took the only available chair and crossed her long legs, hoping she gave the appearance of being at ease. Susan had invited her over for a late lunch the week before, but her friend hadn’t mentioned that anyone else would be present.

“I thought it was time you got to know some of the other wives,” Susan said as a means of explanation.