To Tempt a SEAL (Sin City SEALs 1)

“Temptation’s a bitch,” he muttered, swinging his legs over the bed. He had a feeling if he offered that explanation to Natalie tomorrow, she’d threaten to end their friendship.

The thing was that the more he learned about what had happened during Natalie’s time in foster care, he realized his tough-as-nails best friend needed him in her life, too. She might scare a roomful of drunken marines, but underneath that tough exterior, he had a feeling she’d shouldered more than her fair share of the grief over what happened.

“Cade?” Lucia called. “Time’s up.”

He ran his hand over his face, stood, and headed for the shower. “I’m coming, gorgeous.”

One more fantasy. I better make this one count.

Chapter Seventeen

Lucia knelt on the tile floor. A steady stream of water rushed over her shoulders and down her breasts. Maybe tomorrow, she’d let her body unwind again in here. But right now, anticipation threatened to twist her nerves into knots despite the warm water hitting her back. Left alone in the enormous bathroom, questions filled her mind.

Earlier, with his head between her spread legs, Cade had hesitated. Had she pushed for too much? Was she crazy to want more beyond this weekend with a man she barely knew?

He’d opened windows to his life, offered glimpses into his job and his team waiting for him back in Coronado. And he’d told her about his own parents’ haunted past. He tried to pass it off like it hadn’t affected him, but she saw a man grappling with loneliness. They both had their reasons for returning to an empty home at the end of the day—or deployment, in his case. But her reasons were slipping away the more time she spent with him.

When she’d planned her trip, ordering the mask and selecting her clothes, she’d hoped to find a man who found her attractive. But Cade had introduced her to other must-haves. Things like safety.

Until he’d walked into her Vegas fantasy, she hadn’t realized how much she needed someone who offered both physical and emotional security. He’d given her a place to feel beautiful and wanted.

And he’d opened her eyes to the idea that desire ran deeper than perfect muscles. Sure, his abs packed a wow factor that she couldn’t ignore. But the way he’d picked out a set of paints for her left her seeing so much more in him than a weekend fantasy.

The bathroom door swung wide, and Cade stepped in. She pushed her tangled mess of hair aside and focused on the very recovered SEAL standing on the other side of the glass shower door.

“Gorgeous, I want to be clear about one thing,” he said, opening the door and stepping inside. “My drawings don’t do you justice. Your body is a work of art.”

He stopped in front of her, his feet planted hip distance apart. He trailed his index finger over her scarred cheek down to the chin. Gently, he tipped her head back.

“I will never forget the way you look right now, naked and on your knees, waiting for me,” he said.

“And wet,” she said, moving her hands up her body to her breasts. She cupped one in each palm and held them up, allowing the water to splash off them in every direction. “Very, very wet.”

His gaze narrowed, clearly bypassing humor and heading straight for fuck-me-now lust. “Earlier, you said, ‘don’t hold back.’”

“And I meant it.” With her breathing bordering on panting, she took in the magnitude of this moment. Cade. Here. Unrestrained. Completely hers. “But you should know, this is a first for me.”

“Let me show you.” His hands covered hers and drew her breasts down, pressing them together. “Hold them right there.”

He wrapped his hand around the base of his cock and slid it through the wet valley. He pressed his free hand against the glass wall at his back. “Lean into me.”

She tilted her body forward a fraction of an inch.

“Just like that,” he gasped.

And then he began to move, his hips rocking back and forth. The tip of his cock peeked over the top of her cleavage before gliding back down.

“I don’t know what it looks like from your angle, gorgeous,” he said, his voice like gravel. “But from where I’m standing, this is a dream come true.”

“Your number-one fantasy is everything you hoped for and more?”

His hips stilled, leaving his erection buried between her breasts. His gaze lifted to her face. “No.”

She raised an eyebrow. “There’s something you want more than this?”

“You.” He took a hold of her hands and drew them away from her breasts. “I don’t want to end the night on a fantasy.”

“Oh,” she gasped, confusion rushing in as he moved to the shower door.