“That was low of them, Sam. Seeing the bear must have torn you apart.”
Tension knotted his spine as he looked away. Instinct warned his hard-won control was ready to shatter like glass.
“There’s nothing I can do to bring him, or your parents, back. I wish I could. I’m sorry for all the pain you’ve suffered.”
Sam’s brow furrowed. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t set the fire, Kel. No matter what the council or anyone else says, I know you didn’t do it.”
“Maybe I didn’t strike the match, but I’m the one who insisted on you meeting me instead of spending time with your family. If I hadn’t, you’d have been there and could have saved them.” Kelly drew in a trembling breath. “All these years I’ve tried to save kids because it was my fault Pete died.”
Anger darkened his gaze as he lightly shook her shoulder. “Stop it. It was my decision. You’re not at fault. I tried to get to them in time, but the flames were too much. I should have found a way....”
“And you’d have died. There’s a reason you’re still here, fighting the good fight, Sam. Don’t ever forget that. They’d be so proud of you if they were here.”
“One of them is.”
She could only stare.
“My father’s still alive. I saw him.”
Words escaped her. Kelly blinked hard. “Impossible,” she managed.
“Very possible.” Sam punched a pillow and told her what happened.
Colton Shaymore, alive. And hating her people more than ever. Resolve began building. She’d stop it, fight for justice, fight to shut that bastard up before he hurt anyone....
And then she glanced over and saw Sam’s face.
Sam’s jaw locked so hard, he had to be hurting. Sam needed her, just as he had after the fire. She would not forsake him for her crusade.
Kelly covered his hand with hers. “I’m sorry, Sam. I can’t imagine how shocked, and disappointed, you felt.”
Silence draped between them. He heaved a sigh. “One day, maybe, I can forgive him for abandoning me.”
“But now he’s back in your life. If you want any chance of moving forward from this, you must forgive him.”
“He lied to me.” Sam looked shattered. “All these years I worshipped him, idolized him as a man of strength, honor and integrity. And then mourned losing him. His life has been nothing but a lie.”
“Was it? All the qualities you idolized in him, you sought those in yourself and that’s why you became a SEAL, right?”
At his nod, she continued. “He made a huge mistake, but he had a huge success...you. You brought those qualities to life. His life was not all a lie.”
Muscles tensed in his spine. “When I saw him, got over the shock...part of me kept hoping maybe my mother and Pete were alive, too, and all this had been a sick, fucked-up joke.”
Kelly waited.
“But they’re not.”
His haunted look wrenched her heart. All she could offer was meager comfort.
“No, they’re not. But I am. I’m not leaving you.”
Kelly wrapped her arms around him. Muscles locked and tensed. Then, with a small groan, Sam pulled her tight, his head buried in the soft curve of her neck.
When he lifted his head, his gaze softened. “I have to say something to you, Kel. About what I said back in La Aurora. All my years I had it wrong. Being tight with my team, fighting as a single unit, I thought it would fill all the empty spaces inside me. A real man was a navy SEAL—strong, courageous and willing to die for his country.”
Sam tucked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear. “Being a real man is much more. It’s being strong enough to know I was wrong, courageous enough to admit I am afraid and willing not just to sacrifice my life, but my heart.”
Kelly brushed his knuckles with a kiss. “I know what was missing in my empty places, Sam. Fill them again.”
“I need you badly, Kel,” he whispered. “I need to forget every lousy thing that happened today. I need you close, your arms clinging to me. I need to watch your face as I make you come.”
A sharp intake of breath as she imagined Sam’s face hovering above hers as they made love.
“I need you, gods, to help me forget everything I remembered when I saw my father standing before me.”
Desperate hunger shimmered in his gaze, twining with rage and grief. Kelly took his hand and pressed it to her cheek. “I can’t offer much, but I give you all I have, Sam.”
Nodding gruffly, he led her to the bedroom downstairs. This wasn’t making love as much as making each other’s pain evaporate, she realized.
They tore at each other’s clothes, sending them spilling to the bedroom floor. Kelly twined her arms around his neck and pressed against him, feeling the hardness of his chest muscles. Erotic need spilled through her as he kissed her, hard and deep, his tongue thrusting into her mouth as if imitating what his lower body intended. She was burning up now, the coolness of the air-conditioned room forgotten in the heat he created.
Smooth muscles flexed beneath her questing palm as she caressed his broad back. His penis was huge and hard against the softness of her belly. It twitched, as if impatient to be inside her once more. Kelly rubbed her breasts against Sam, feeling her overly sensitive nipples turn rock-hard again. Every kiss was hot and urgent, as if he wanted to devour her. Need pummeled her as she ground against him and felt his penis respond with another violent twitch. Kelly lifted a leg, curling it around one of his narrow hips. Against the wall, that would suffice. But Sam lifted her by the bottom and, still kissing her, gently tumbled her backward onto the bed.
He stood over her, breathing heavily, his gaze dark and focused utterly on her. With one powerful thigh, he nudged her legs open and then dropped to his knees and stared at her core. A faint flush ignited her cheeks. He looked at her as if she were the most beautiful sight in the world.
Sam rubbed her folds with a finger and then sank the digit into her swollen vagina. “Are you too sore for this?”
Unable to speak, she shook her head. A moan flitted from her lips as he licked her, a slow stroke of his wicked tongue across her soaked folds. He kept pleasuring her, teasing her higher and higher until her muscles contracted and her back arched. Kelly felt the climax shimmer out of reach, a distant star winking teasingly at her.
“C’mon, sweetheart,” he crooned against her soaked flesh. “Come for me. Come for me.”
The husky command pushed her over the edge. Fisting her hands in the tangled sheets, she climaxed hard, sobbing out his name.
Breathless, she watched him stand and backhand his mouth, his gaze filled with sharp sexual excitement. Then Sam bent over her and pushed his hard, heavy penis deep inside her.
Remaining frozen for a moment, his gaze fiercely held hers as her swollen tissues struggled to accommodate him. Kelly wriggled and he surged inside her, burying himself deeply and sealing them to the hilt. Every sensation seemed heightened, from the feel of his hard penis embedded inside her to his chest rubbing against her sensitive nipples to his face inches above hers, his fierce gaze searing her with heat.
Kelly dug her fingers into his thick shoulders, feeling sinew and muscle flex. She pumped her hips upward in a silent plea. He was hot inside her, and her body was burning.
Her fingers found his tattoo and stroked over it, over the bullet hole that had given him life. Sam’s big body jerked with awareness. Closing his eyes, he took a quivering breath. Then he began to move, pounding in her, hard deep strokes that she met with eager pumps of her hips.
His expression was fierce with arousal, his mouth tight as his hips jackhammered into her wet, pliant body. This was not lovemaking but a reclaiming of what he’d lost, the possessive stamp of a man whose primal urges indelibly marked her as his own.
