Now that she was in a safe and familiar environment, that earlier adrenaline rush transformed into something else. A damsel-in-distress type she wasn’t, but that well-executed maneuver earlier had definitely revved her engine.
When she emerged a short while later in nothing but his shirt, she found him in the living area, clearing off the bench seat. Her heart dropped when she realized he was making himself a place to sleep.
Gone was the confident SEAL who’d taken her into his arms and kissed her like his life depended on it only an hour or so earlier. In his place was the shy IT guy who acted as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with a woman in his trailer.
“What are you doing?”
Heat flashed in his eyes as he took her in, raking his gaze from her head to her toes and back up again before his eyes shuttered. “I thought I’d bunk out here.”
“You’re angry with me.”
He exhaled and went back to removing boxes. “No, I’m not angry with you. I just don’t know what to think. More importantly, I don’t know what you think.”
Well, there was an easy remedy for that. “Then, ask me,” she said. She sat down in the only open chair, folded her hands in her lap, and looked at him expectantly.
“All right, let’s start with something simple. Now that you know about my family, do you see me differently?”
A small smile pulled at her lips. “That’s hardly a simple question. The short answer is, yes, I do.” His face fell, and she quickly added, “But that’s not a bad thing.”
“It isn’t?”
“No. In fact, it explains a lot. You know what it’s like. Even if I didn’t know you knew, you did. I think that’s why I felt comfortable enough to open up to you about some of my past. Trust me, that’s not stuff I typically share with anyone.”
She paused and crossed one leg over the other, feeling a frisson of pleasure when his eyes latched on to the movement. “Do I wish you had told me? Yes, but I’m also kind of glad you didn’t. Had I known, I doubt I would have accepted your field-trip challenge, and that would have been a shame. Ignorance can sometimes be bliss, especially if that bliss is only temporary.”
His lips twisted at the word temporary. “Fair enough. Why didn’t you tell me you’d decided not to fly back to California?”
“Also not a simple question. I’m usually pretty good at reading people, and the things Lenny told me, well, they just didn’t make sense. At first, I thought it was because I didn’t want to believe him, but the closer I looked, the more I realized he’d deliberately painted a skewed picture of the truth. I wanted to know why he would do that, and the only reason I could come up with was that he was the one with something to hide.”
Nick gaped at her. “So, you decided to follow him into the woods to find out?”
Heat rose in her cheeks. “Well, no, that wasn’t actually part of the plan.” Bree told him about going for a drive, ending up in Sumneyville, seeing Lenny exit from the bar, and then acting on impulse.
“That was really stupid. You know that, don’t you?”
Her first instinct was to say something in her defense, but he had been right. It had been stupid, blindly following Lenny into unfamiliar territory, alone.
“Yes,” she sighed as the truth sank in. She wasn’t, nor would she ever be, a good investigative field journalist.
“What would have happened if I hadn’t seen you on those cameras, Bree? If Lenny had found you instead of me?”
There was that SEAL again, peering at her through luminous green eyes, and it was then she knew. He wasn’t just angry that she’d followed Lenny; he’d been really worried. Scared that something could have happened to her.
Because he cared about her.
Warmth blossomed deep in her chest and radiated outward. She rose and walked over to where he stood, his hands on his hips, still as a statue.
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “But he didn’t. And you did.”
For a moment, he did nothing. Then, those strong arms enclosed her. She pressed her head to his chest and closed her eyes, basking in the solid warmth of his body and the steady beat of his heart. His hand began to stroke along the curve of her back. It felt so good that she sighed softly and melted into him.
Then, she began to pet and stroke him, too.
“Bree ...”
“Shh. No more talking. Let’s just have this, okay?”
Thankfully, she didn’t have to tell him twice. His head lowered, his lips meeting hers in a tender kiss that stoked the slow burn building in her core. He deepened the kiss; his hands roamed further south, reaching under the soft cotton fabric to cup her ass. Her bare ass.
Nick wasn’t the only one who could go commando.
He let out that rumbling growl she loved so much. She barely had time to appreciate it before he scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom, practically tossing her onto the bed.
“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice husky.
“Absolutely, positively, unequivocally—”
Her words were cut off when he knelt on the floor, grabbed her by the ankles, and pulled her backside to the edge. The motion made the cotton T-shirt roll up and expose her, which seemed to be exactly what he’d intended.
Placing his hands on her knees, he opened her to him, his eyes bright with lust. Starting with kisses to the inside of her thigh, he worked his way toward her center. She draped her legs over his arms, tangled her hands in his hair, threw her head back, and reveled in the feel of his lips and tongue working their magic.
Before long, she was clenching her thighs around his head and screaming out her orgasm.
Nick brought her down with gentle licks and soft kisses and then worked his way upward, raising the
