Rick lifted his head and his thoughts back to the crispy fall moment. “Never discount the obvious help just because it’s not full guns blazing.”
Hmm. Could that be a subliminal slip?
Sitting crossways on his lap, Nola rested her head against his shoulder while the swing creaked back and forth on the thick branch. “I would have thought you would be all about the firepower.”
“We make use of anything we’re given.” He hated self-pity, but he couldn’t shake thoughts of what he’d lost, memories of the man he’d been when she’d seen him five years ago, pumping push-ups on the floor.
Heaven knew he was digging deep in his arsenal when it came to impressing this woman. Maybe he needed to take some of his own advice on looking for ways to make a contribution without quite the same level of firepower. His training for pararescue might be parlayed into something less adrenaline-pumping, but maybe just as useful if only he could clear his head from the weight of frustration to figure out what in the hell that might be.>Think.
“Wallet,” he continued in between working serious magic on a newly discovered erogenous zone at the base of her neck. “Table.”
“Ah. Right.” Now she saw it resting by the lamp and thank goodness he’d thought ahead because, heaven help her, she surely hadn’t.
Leaning, Nola reached, so grateful he stayed with her during the whole stretch of foreplay, never breaking the amazingly shivery contact. Her hand slapped to rest over his wallet, grappled until she fished out the thin packet.
Straightening again, she ripped open the birth control and sheathed him in a smooth sweep that sent his arm twitching around her, muscles taut.
“More?” she teased.
He slid two fingers home inside her. “More.”
Much more.
He teased her again and again with a familiarity he couldn’t possibly have remembered from before yet somehow he seemed to know just what she enjoyed most. When she thought she couldn’t take any more without finishing here, now, he slid both hands to her back, down to cup her bottom and grip. A slight shift and lift upward brought her mouth to his again for a deeper kiss, more kissing while they continued. More intimacy. Her heart raced faster along with her breath threatening a hint of hyperventilation, because with the joining of their mouths, she adjusted her body to accept…
Yes…
His body moved into her hers again with a familiarity that washed away the awkwardness and yes, the fears, too.
A second healing pulsed through her veins, throughout her entire body, her mind, her soul. A cure beyond what could be found from any doctor or medicine.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, gripped deeper into memorable muscles to anchor her in the moment.
“Okay?”
“Totally. You?”
He throbbed inside her.
She grinned against his mouth, tickled to her toes again that two such chatty people could be reduced to one-word responses by the power of their response to each other. Nola leaned in for another kiss, rocking her h*ps as he thrust up. This would be okay, fun and normal and wonderful. She could have this part of her world and body back.
More sensations tingled to life again along every inch of skin. Shivery and alive and building as they rocked in synch. Bedsprings squeaked in harmony with their movements, echoing the growing riot within her. She dipped her head to taste his skin, beads of sweat popping along his collarbone, her fingers finding the pebbled hardness of his nipples.
He throbbed inside her again, his growl rumbling against her oversensitized chest. Power trilled through, knowing that she brought him as much pleasure as he gave her.
She opened her mouth to give him another of those one-word encouragements only to find even that much speech had dried up in the fire of her response. She could only throw back her head and savor, hold, shake. Surely it was only because she’d gone so long without.
A little voice in her head told her otherwise.
But then she told that little voice to hush up. She was busy right now enjoying the most amazing, freeing sex of her life, soon to be the most awesome completion. Building now and she didn’t want to risk dulling the edge from the finish. Or worse yet, lose her focus and lose the moment…
“Shh…” His voice and hands soothed over her skin as his body thrust. “I’m with you and I’m not finishing without you, like the two of us taking the leap together. Have you ever done a tandem parachute jump? It’s freaking amazing.”
She liked the image of their bodies locked like a joined freefall jump from an airplane. What a lovely vision of their two worlds mingling. He’d found words when she needed them, when she needed him. She believed him, trusted him.
And…oh…her body convulsed so completely around his, her arms locking him so tightly to her, she couldn’t draw him any deeper as she soared into the sensation.
So amazing. Beautiful. World rocking.