Soldier's Christmas (Wingmen Warriors 8)

"Both, as long as you're looking at me. Most of all I melt over the way you look at me. The way your eyes turn a different shade of green when you're seeing me, just me. I didn't notice it at first. I just thought," she babbled in a litany of near indiscernible encouragement, "that...they were always this color.

But then I started watching you too and I realized they were different for the rest of the world, more kelly-green."

"And what about when I'm looking at you?"

"They're darker, emerald. Hot." She leaned to kiss him, her molten brown eyes staying open. "Warming me all over."

"Keep talking," he growled.

"I remember," she purred against his mouth, phrases and kisses alternating, "the first time you kissed me." "Oh, yeah?" "The day our rotation in Cantou officially ended."

"And we weren't working together directly anymore." His initial pursuit of her in the bar had been stalled once they were paired together for war missions. But he'd known it was only a matter of time until their rotation ended. Then he would make his move, because every day he spent with her made him more

determined that she would be his.

"You were heading back to England and I was returning to North Carolina." Her hands traveled over his shoulders into his hair while she talked, kissed, rocked, a master at multitasking and driving him crazy.

"You met me at my plane and right there in front of God and the whole squadron you asked..."

"Want to go get a drink sometime?" he said, repeating his words from more than a year ago, the past and present merging in a mating dance even more important now with the stakes all or nothing in this their last chance. "Preferably just the two of us this time. Although, if you want to ask the whole damned squadron along for drinks, too, I can deal with that, because when you walk in a room it's not like I even see anyone else."

She stilled, her eyes wide, her heart hammering against him. "You remember." "I remember. And you answered..."

"It's a date. I'll meet you in the Azores." Islands halfway across the Atlantic, the midway point between them at that time, and somehow those thousands of miles seemed easier to cross than the emotional distance between them lately. "I didn't think there was a chance it could work. But then you kissed me."

He stroked her tousled hair from her face. "Right there in front of God and the whole squadron." "And then I knew it had to work." Her words sent his heart hammering as hard as hers.

He had to touch her, more of her, all of her. His hand skimmed down, parting her, stroking lightly. He couldn't think about much of anything except the scent of her damp, satiny heat against him, her moans and sighs and yes, more pleadings.

A passionate flush spread along her skin, an unmistakable sign of how close she was to completion. A good thing since he was about to lose it and he hadn't even been inside her yet.

Better not think about being inside her.

Even with the need to finish thundering through him, he kept himself in check, in the moment, so damned grateful for the chance to touch her again he vowed not to squander even a second. Anything with Alicia was better than everything with anyone else. And this was more than just anything.

He tried to scrounge words to keep her talking to distract her from thinking too much. Words were tough to find. Maybe he should have spent more time distracting her out of bed, too, so she wouldn't have pushed him out of her life.

She was anything but pushing away now. The flush along her body darkened and he stroked her higher and higher until...

Her whole body tensed, bowed, the velvet heat clamping and massaging her release along his fingers.

The sheer honesty of it all threatened to hurtle him over the edge with her.

In this moment, at least, she was completely his.

The afterglow swallowed Alicia completely. She sagged against Josh, grateful he still had the ability to hold her up because her sated, mellow muscles weren't working all that well at the moment.

How could she be so glad and scared at once? And why did she have to think? She wanted to enjoy her hot, na*ed husband.

Alicia traced bunched muscles along his back. "I can feel you smiling against my neck." "Is that a bad thing?" His steamy breath caressed her.

A much-needed laugh broke free. "Not really, I guess. I'll give you thirty more seconds for your macho-male testosterone victory dance."

He raised his head and chuckled into her mouth with his kiss. "I'm just happy for you."

"I'm happy for me, too. And we're about to be really happy for you as well." "Oh, we are?"

His laugh and smile untwined fears and tension working to coil inside her again. Light and simple was good. Before, sex with them had been so intense. She enjoyed his sense of humor and yet they'd never brought it into the bedroom with them, an odd oversight.