She sat down on the platform, content to watch him turn the scope this way and that, twisting a knob here, fiddling with a ring there. He looked so comfortable, so in his element.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the stars,” she admitted quietly. “I think that’s what I dislike most about living in SoCal. I can so rarely see them. But I can see the moon. It’s pretty incredible that we can look up and see the same thing as someone on the other side of the world. In that one moment, it’s like we’re connected or something.”
“Same,” he said, peering into the lens. “The moon, the constellations—they’re always there. When I was in the Navy, no matter where I was, I could look up at the sky at night and find something familiar. Now that I’m stationary, I find I still like looking at them.”
She tried to imagine the strong but gentle, capable yet shy man before her in unfamiliar, potentially unfriendly territory, seeking comfort in the night sky. “How old were you when you joined the Navy?”
“Eighteen.”
“Just a boy.” She’d been twenty-three and had a couple years of college and work under her belt when she moved to the West Coast, and that had been a difficult adjustment.
“Old enough. Here, take a look.”
She moved closer and put her eye to the scope, aware of his nearness, her pulse quickening.
“Keep your eye to the northwest,” he said, his voice soft.
She tried to concentrate on the stars and not so much on the man beside her. A ball of light streaked across the sky. Then another.
“I see them!” she exclaimed, turning away to find him right there, grinning at her.
His smile began to fade when she continued to look at him instead of turning back to the scope. A sudden, unignorable urge to kiss him overwhelmed her. She went with it, leaning forward to press her lips to his.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bree
At first, he tensed and did nothing for one interminably long heartbeat and then another. Mortified, she began to lean away, only to feel his arms pull her closer as he deepened the kiss. Her body relaxed in relief. Her hands gripped his shoulders and then moved to his neck and tangled in his hair, still damp from his swim, super soft, and oh-so pullable.
The kiss lasted forever and was over in an instant.
“I’ve been wanting to do that all day,” he whispered.
“You have?”
He nodded.
“And now?”
“Now,” he said, his eyes a deep, glowing green, “now, I need to do it again.”
Anything else he might have said was lost as his mouth once again came down on hers. His large hand curled around the back of her neck in a possessive grip, sending shivers of want and desire along the length of her spine.
The man knew how to kiss! By the time he pulled away, her lips were tingling and protesting the loss of his. She was about to beg him for more when he moved those talented lips over her jaw and down the column of her neck, making her shiver. The possibilities thrilled her.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispered against her skin.
Her nipples, already firm, grew even harder, craving some of that skillful attention. She arched toward him, guiding his head toward her aching breasts.
“No.”
He immediately went still. “No?”
“No, don’t stop,” she clarified, gripping his face in her hands and punctuating her intent with a kiss and a nip to his chin. “Please.”
He growled softly, a purely masculine sound that intensified her desire. He lifted the hem of her shirt, revealing the satiny cups beneath. He traced the lines with his tongue, ratcheting her desire. Needing more, she reached behind her and undid the clasp, shrugging her shoulders to loosen her bra and give him a blatant nudge.
He hummed his approval and wasted no time in replacing the cups with his hands. The roughened calluses scraped across her skin, increasing the wetness between her legs as he kneaded and explored. She thought she might die of pleasure when he closed his lips around one hardened peak and sucked before tonguing her tortuously. Clearly, there was a direct line from her breasts to her core that she hadn’t realized because every sensation was felt in both places.
He took his time, savoring one breast with his mouth while stroking and lightly pinching the other with his fingers, creating an erotic rhythm of near pain and absolute pleasure. It was wondrous, so much so that she was close to coming from that alone, which would have been another first.
As pleasurable as it was, it didn’t get her close enough. She needed more. When he continued his glorious onslaught and made no move to do more, she once again felt compelled to take matters into her own hands and nudge him along. Placing her hand over his, she guided it between her legs and then boldly reached between his. She found him large and hard—two of her favorite things in that moment.
He made a strangled sound but got the hint, deftly unfastening her jeans and slipping his hand inside. Her eyes crossed when she felt the pads of his fingers parting her slick folds, teasing the tight bundle of need close to exploding.
“More,” she rasped into his mouth.
She lifted her hips impatiently. His eyes glowed with hunger as he pulled her jeans off completely, taking her panties with them. His gaze raked over her with undisguised lust, making her feel both desired and powerful.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he growled.
Bree started to lean back, but he grasped her around the waist and lay back, tugging her over him. Completely naked, poised above his fully clothed form on a platform in the trees, she felt like a sex goddess, uninhibited and free, especially when he looked up at her with such stark hunger in his eyes.
He guided her down onto his face and began a new onslaught of oral warfare.
