The Major's Welcome Home

Beck’s mind was busy cataloguing what she’d revealed, not just about her relationship with the lieutenant general, but simply by the sad way she spoke about him. So busy, a slightly more pressing detail occurred to him only after they’d parked the car in the deserted lot. “And what are we doing here?”

Kenna pushed open the passenger side door. “Don’t be a surprise ruiner, Major.”

With a fortifying breath for what he was about to face, Beck climbed out. “I hate surprises.”

She stopped short at the bumper. “Me too. Maybe we have something in common after all.” Before he could address her implication that they only had one thing in common, she sailed toward the building. “Anyway, turnabout is fair play, since you surprised me the day we met.” With a jingle of her keys, the center’s door swung open. “I’m merely returning the favor.”

“You were surprised?” Beck asked, following her into the darkened lobby. “I expected a wet-behind-the-ears new recruit to pick me up. Instead, I get you.” He couldn’t resist skimming her body with a heated look, noticing the way her nipples beaded under his regard. Stop staring or you’ll fail. “In terms of surprises, I won the day.”

“You might have me there.” She gazed up at him from beneath her eyelashes. “Considering the way it ended and all.”

The memory of Kenna on her knees, taking his cock to the back of her throat, burned him from the inside. He tightened his fists in order to avoid grabbing her. God, she knew he was struggling. Her confident stride moved her ass in a way that dried his mouth. Left to right, over and back, beneath that utterly liftable skirt. Sweet hell. He’d set himself up for disaster, hadn’t he? Their footsteps echoed on the linoleum floor of the hallway, breaking off when she paused in front of a fogged glass door. Beck didn’t allow their bodies to touch, but couldn’t resist bracing his hands on the doorframe as she worked the lock, leaning down to smell her hair.

He smiled when she nearly dropped the keys. “You got a thing for my shampoo, True Blue?”

“I’ve got a thing for just about every part of you.”

“Well, then.” She nudged open the door and flipped on the overhead light. “That bodes well for tonight’s plan.”

Beck’s gaze scanned the massive room, narrowing on the in-ground hot tub Kenna was heading toward in the corner. With a sense of impending doom, Beck kicked the door shut, flipped the lock and followed, noting the lap pool to the left, adjacent to the hot tub. Off to the right was a tiled area where doctors performed therapy sessions. Oversized leather tables where he himself had been stretched after a hamstring injury during basic training, sat in a neat row, although the facility had certainly been upgraded since he’d been there.

Nice try, thinking about the new showers and sturdier tables. Anything to distract him from Kenna toeing off her boots by the edge of the water. Or the look she was sending him over her shoulder that said help me get these pesky clothes off, big guy.

“I reckon you think this is funny,” he said, voice gone gruff. There was no choice but to close the short distance between them, his body magnetized by hers. Kenna stripped her shirt off in response, but didn’t turn, so all he could see was her bare back. Although, he would go to the grave swearing a sexier back had never existed. Not on this earth. “You enjoy testing me, is that it?”

“Yes.” She hooked her fingers in the sides of her skirt and turned, giving him a mind-blowing view of her partially naked body. “I love testing you. I love it even more when you give in.”

The skirt hit the floor and Beck heaved a breath, reeling at the speed of which his body reacted. He’d seen her without clothes, but she’d been up close. From a distance, he could take her all in at once. Words hadn’t been invented yet to describe her curves, the angles of her hips and tits. In a word, she was devastation. And she’d just declared war.

“Get in,” he croaked, crossing to the control panel on the wall.

Watching him curiously, she stepped into the warm tub and sank beneath the surface. When Beck turned on the bubbles a second later, obscuring her luscious body from his view, she nodded. “Well played.”

Darlin’, you haven’t seen anything yet. Back in the bar parking lot, she’d tipped her hand and now he knew the rampant attraction wasn’t one-sided. The girl had dropped her guard and given him a weapon. He might have been shocked to realize that weapon was him, but he wouldn’t hesitate to use it. Hyperaware of her lingering attention, Beck took hold of his T-shirt and whipped it over his head, tossing it toward her pile of clothes where they lay in a heap on the tile. He unbuckled his belt, sliding it through the loops, before going to work on his zipper. Their eyes locked, and he noted hers had turned a darker shade of green, a perfect complement to the pink traveling over her cheeks.