Honor n duty, p.18
Honor 'N' Duty, page 18
His body was hard and warm, his hips pistoning as he thrust faster. There was something so wonderfully possessive about how his magnificent body covered hers from head to toe. Like I belong to him. Did she want that?
Yes. Totally. Utterly. Completely.
She grabbed his buttocks and pulled him deeper inside her. With every powerful thrust, every surge of his hips, her breath came faster, in tiny gasps. As her body started to fly apart, she curled her fingers around his biceps. A scream rose in her throat, then Kade covered her lips with his. A second later, his body tensed. Together, they groaned their release, chest to chest, breathing as one.
Laia floated back down to earth, shattered, sated, and feeling more alive than she’d ever been in her life. A smile formed on her lips.
Even in her orgasm-induced haze, the reason for that was patently obvious.
She was falling in love.
Chapter Eighteen
This was how Kade always imagined it would be between them.
Life-altering.
As were the all-consuming, possessive, and protective urges taking hold. He rolled onto his side, taking Laia with him so that she lay next to him. Their chests still rose and fell rapidly, a testament to the intensity of what had just happened.
Before they went back inside, he had to have her again. Slower, though, so he could worship her body the way she deserved and like he’d always dreamed about.
Looking back, what he’d experienced with Laia six years ago was an instantaneous attraction, intense physical chemistry—a major crush. Granted, one that had haunted him ever since, but whatever this was between them now was so much deeper and more meaningful.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Mmm.” The mumbled word vibrated against his throat, tickling his skin. “You?”
He chuckled. “Oh yeah.” Better than okay, actually. He had enough energy buzzing through him to swim clear across the Atlantic. He skimmed his hand down the curve of her spine, loving the feel of her soft skin beneath his roughened fingertips.
She shifted, allowing him to curve his arm around her shoulder as they looked up at the sliver of moon and the stars twinkling overhead. “Did you ever dream we’d wind up here, like this?”
Again, he chuckled. “You mean naked on a beach?”
“No.” She laughed. “I meant the two of us, together.”
He began stroking her cheek with the backs of his knuckles. “I have dreamed about it, so many times I’ve lost count.”
“Really?” She giggled. “That’s nice to hear. You know, I dreamt about you, too.”
“I didn’t know that.” But he was damned glad to hear it. He turned to see a beatific smile on her lips and moonlight glinting in her eyes.
“I dreamed we were making love. Not necessarily buck naked on a public beach. Although now that we’ve done that, I think I want to do it again sometime.”
How about in five minutes? As soon as he was ready to rock ’n’ roll again.
She sighed, and he tucked her closer. “So, where do we go from here?” she asked.
“Anywhere we want to.” And he meant that. With her, he would go anywhere. He knew that as surely as he knew the sun would rise in the morning. “It doesn’t matter where as long as we go there together. You. Me. Rosa. And Smoke.”
She smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
He twisted a lock of her hair around his finger. “I may not have the right to say this, but I will anyway. I’m proud of who and what you’ve become.”
Laia levered up on her elbow to look down at him. “What makes you say that?”
“You’re strong. Protective. A loving mother.” And so much more, but the words got clogged in his throat.
“Sometimes I feel selfish.”
“Why? The last six years of your life have revolved around Rosa. How is that selfish?”
“I spend my days working, then—”
“Yeah, to put food on the table and a roof over your heads.”
“Right, but at night I’ve been studying and taking online courses so that I can apply to vet school.”
Yet another thing he admired about her. Her love of animals, and the desire to devote herself to healing them. All the road blocks she’d had to hurdle, yet she still managed to find time for her daughter and to pursue a life for herself.
“You’re amazing,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with having personal goals. Happiness comes from many places.”
“Are you happy?” she asked.
For most of his adult life, job satisfaction had been the source of his happiness. Now he knew how much he’d been missing. “I am now.” He rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him for a deep kiss, trying to pour his very soul into hers.
When she sighed, the sound shot directly south, and he could feel his balls tightening and his dick sparking to life all over again.
Slowly, she pushed from his chest, spreading her fingers over his nipples. Straddling his hips, she began rocking back and forth against him, and he went more vertical than a flagpole.
A shaft of moonlight illuminated the loveliest breasts in the world. He palmed them, rubbing his thumbs across the tight little buds.
“Mmm.” She arched her back, thrusting her breasts into his hands as she began rocking against him. “Wait!” Her eyes flew open. “I have a better idea. A much better idea.”
She wriggled, which naturally made him even harder, then to his horror, she climbed off him and stood. “I’ve never gone skinny dipping in the ocean. Have you?”
“Uh, no.” But why not? This wild-woman side of her was completely and utterly intoxicating. And ten shades beyond sexy.
Two seconds later, they were holding hands like teenagers and running into the waves, naked and laughing their asses off.
When the water was deep enough, he dove in, coming up for air a few seconds later beside Laia, who’d begun breast-stroking through the rolling surf. Moonlight reflecting off the water illuminated the smile on her face.
Kade dove under again, breaking the surface directly in front of her this time and making her squeal.
“Don’t do that.” She laughed, then splashed water in his face and began swimming away faster than he expected.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Kade took off after her, admiring the graceful way her arms cut through the water. Eventually, he managed to snag her ankle, pulling her backward and into his arms. “You swim faster than a marlin.”
She laughed. “One of my hidden talents.”
Kade grinned. “I’ll bet you have a lot of hidden talents, and I’m looking forward to learning what they are.” All of them. In fact, every day he spent with her made him want to know everything there was to know about Laia Velez. Even if it took the rest of their lives.
For a moment, he froze. Specifically, his brain did.
He’d been fantasizing about her for years but had convinced himself that it couldn’t possibly have been love at first sight. That was the only way he’d managed to keep his feelings buried. But now he wanted more, and the word forever flashed brightly in his mind.
He pulled her closer for a deep, heart-zinging kiss that should have made the surrounding water sizzle from the heat of their bodies.
Unable to stand, she clung to his shoulders, then wrapped her legs around his hips. With her pressed against him and the sensual slide of warm ocean water lapping against his skin, his semi-hard erection responded by turning to granite and lengthening to the point of pain.
He hauled her tighter and brought himself snugly into intimate contact at the juncture of her thighs.
She maneuvered her hand between them, stroking her palm down his erection. “No shrinkage here.” She giggled, a sound that lit him up like a firecracker and had his dick pulsing with the need to bury himself inside her warm, wet body.
“You know, you’re right.” He skimmed his hand over her hard nipples, then leaned down to suck one into his mouth.
She let her head fall back while he administered the same treatment to her other breast. “One would think, living on an island for half my life, I would have gone skinny dipping before, but this is a first for me.”
“Me, too.” He kissed his way to the smooth curve of her neck and from there to her enticing earlobe. He could practically hear his grandpa’s words of warning in his ears: an officer doesn’t do anything unbecoming.
Like making love on a public beach. Or in the ocean.
Only Laia could make him toss aside the lifetime of rigid code and conduct that had been drilled into him.
She shuddered in his arms.
“Cold?” he asked.
“Not at all.” She looked up at the inky sky, dotted with twinkling stars. “Don’t you think there’s something so sensual and erotic about being naked in the ocean?”
“Uh-huh,” he breathed into her ear, snugging her tighter against his raging hard-on.
“This is entirely against my mother’s strict behavioral code.” Again, she giggled. “Breaking the rules is fun. I should have done this years ago.”
No, you shouldn’t have, he thought to himself as he stroked his hand between her breasts, continuing to her flat belly, then began rubbing the tip of his thumb against the hard little nub between her wet folds. She hissed in a breath.
Because if she’d done this years ago, it meant she wouldn’t have been doing it with him.
The thought of her doing this—or any other sexual act—with anyone else from this point forward had him gnashing his teeth.
She reached between them, nudging his hand aside, then curling her fingers around him. Now it was his turn to suck in a breath and groan like a wild animal. “You’re a mermaid, you know that? A seductress. I’d do anything for you. Anything.”
Her eyes glittered. “I believe you.” Then she gave him the sweetest, hottest kiss he’d ever experienced and began stroking him, her hand so warm and tight he nearly released right there in the water.
His abdominal muscles clenched and bunched against her fist as she continued stroking him, pausing occasionally to gently touch his ball sack.
“Holy mother of—” He pushed her away.
“You don’t want to come?” she asked.
“Of course I do.” He uttered a laugh. Coming was most definitely on his bucket list within the next five minutes. “But first I want to taste you. Float on your back.”
When she’d done as he commanded, he closed his fingers around her ankles and pulled her out to deeper water until his head was even with the surface. He spread her legs wide enough to stand between her outstretched thighs, then draped her legs over his shoulders.
“Kade, what are you—”
“Shh. Just relax.” He spread her folds and thrust his tongue inside her.
“Oh. Ohhh.”
Yeah, oh.
This was the hottest thing he’d ever done in his entire life. Pulling her tighter to his mouth, he speared his tongue deeper, fastening his lips on her warm, slippery folds.
Laia bucked against him, gasping and arching her back. She tasted of sweetness and sex. Passion and need.
Her chest rose and fell faster. Water sloshed over her breasts. She was close, so close he could feel her body start to vibrate, her inner walls contracting and squeezing around his tongue.
He shifted his hands beneath the water to cup her ass, hiking her higher into his mouth, enabling him to flick at and nibble on her most sensitive spot.
She moaned, turning her head from side to side, but he didn’t let up, wanting to draw out her pleasure as long as possible.
“Kade!” she cried, her glistening breasts pushing skyward as her body bowed.
When he was certain she’d fully climaxed, he tugged her against him, letting her slide down his chest. Along the way, his erection bumped against her belly, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, sinking fully on him and not stopping until he was buried inside her still trembling body.
“Oh, Jesus.” He threw back his head, staring at the heavens and feeling like he was already there. In heaven.
Holding her ass, he pulled out, then thrust deep again, already feeling the pulsing sensation at the base of his cock. Soon, the force of his thrusts whipped the water around them into a frenzied whirlpool of motion.
She clung to his back and shoulders, digging her fingers into his skin as he thrust faster. It wasn’t long before his balls began tightening. “Oh yeah, baby.” He gritted his teeth. “That’s it. Jesus, I’m going to come so hard inside you.”
“Do it. Do it,” she cried.
Her words were the spark that set off his fuse like a cannon.
A bolt of energy surged from his balls straight to the tip of his cock. He growled as the explosive orgasm took over, leaving him shaking and curling his toes into the soft sand beneath his feet.
The only sounds were their harsh breathing and the gently lapping water against their bodies. If it weren’t for the water’s buoyancy, he would have fallen to his knees and drowned. Although he already was drowning.
In her.
Laia pulled his head down and fastened her lips on his. They remained that way for several seconds longer. Her breath was his. His breath was hers.
“Wow.” She laughed softly.
“Yeah. Wow.” He chuckled, remembering Jamie’s offer for them to take the boat out. “No need for a boat.”
Laia snapped her head up. “Oh my God!”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” He turned them, twisting his head in every direction. If he’d missed a threat and Laia got hurt because he’d been so crazed by his need for her, he’d never forgive himself.
“The boat!”
“Where?” He kept looking around them but didn’t hear an engine and didn’t see anything.
“No, not here.” She clasped his face. “Josh did leave us something.”
“What?”
“The dinghy. Rosa’s dinghy.”
Chapter Nineteen
In the dim light cast by the SUV’s dashboard, Laia glimpsed the five o’clock shadow on Kade’s hard profile. Bristle that had left the skin around her lips burning from the last kiss he’d given her before they’d gone back inside the shack to update Jamie on where they were going and why.
She’d felt stupid for not having thought of the dinghy sooner. Josh had given it to Rosa when she was only three, then painted it in her favorite colors. Rosa had adored it from the moment she’d seen it.
Rosa was still blissfully asleep in her bed, but they’d taken Smoke for backup and Jamie’s police-issued K-9 SUV.
“We’ve got company.” Kade shot past her house without stopping.
“Who?” Laia twisted in the seat to look back at front porch of the duplex, but it was nearly midnight, and the porch was dark. “What did you see?”
“Two men in a car parked directly across from your house. One of them just lit up a cigarette.” Kade made two more right turns, then parked at the curb in front of the Millers’ house, her neighbors directly behind the duplex.
“Then how do we get in the front door without them seeing us?” They were so close to finding the missing evidence she could barely sit still.
“We don’t.” He shut off the engine. “Not through the front door, anyway. We need a distraction.” He picked up his phone and punched in a number. The numbers 911 soon lit the screen. When the dispatcher answered, Kade said, “I want to report a suspicious vehicle parked across the street from 241 2nd Avenue in Asbury Park. I’d appreciate it if you’d send someone to check it out.”
“What’s your name, sir?” Laia heard the dispatcher ask, but instead of answering, Kade hung up.
He leaned across her legs and pulled a small black flashlight from the glovebox. “Let’s go,” he said, opening his door and adding, “Try not to slam the door.”
Laia got out and quietly nudged the door shut with a soft click. The Millers’ fence ran the entire length of the duplex’s divided yard that she shared with Alvita. No lights shined inside or outside of the house.
Kade and Smoke waited for her on the curb. Her heart beat a little faster at the prospect of finding the ledger, but she couldn’t afford to get her hopes up. Kade lifted the rear door of the SUV, searched for a minute before pulling out a crowbar, then nudged the door shut.
He led the way up the Millers’ driveway to the six-foot-high wood gate that led to their backyard. “Wait,” he whispered.
A car turned onto the road and drove past but kept going. Kade flipped open the gate latch, hesitating when it squealed. Laia winced, then glanced up at the house, half expecting every light inside to come on, and the Millers’ cute but excessively yappy beagle puppy to wake up and start barking its adorable head off.
He eased the gate open enough for them to squeeze through. “Stay close.”
The only sound came from Smoke as he sniffed the dewy grass and stopped to inspect the swing set, seesaw, and other kids’ toys strewn about the lawn.
Laia’s feet were already soaked. Had she known they’d be trespassing then sneaking through her neighbor’s back lawn, she would have changed from her sundress and sandals into something more sensible. Like boots, face paint, and black camo.
Clouds had begun filling up the night sky. The only light in her backyard was a gentle glow from the partially obscured moon. She could just barely make out Rosa’s dinghy on the other side of the fence.
Unlike the driveway gate, the fence between hers and the Millers’ backyard was only four feet high. Kade quietly dropped the crowbar over the fence onto the grass. “Smoke,” he whispered, pointing over the fence.
Smoke charged to the fence and leaped. The dog was a dark, graceful shadow as he easily cleared the fence, then landed with a soft huff on the grass beside the dinghy.
