“It would have been rude to leave.”
He stepped closer, hands shoved in his pockets, and I caught a whiff of citrus. His shower gel? My pulse sped up, and I battled with the rampant lust threatening to take over my body. He was a gorgeous guy, that’s all. I’d met hot guys before, even dated a few. Yeah, and none of them had tangled your panties as rapidly as he did. Or as thoroughly.
Zack cleared his throat. Had he spoken? I’d been so intent on the stomach-tingling scent drifting from his skin that I’d missed his words. This was ridiculous. I was a grown woman, not a horny teenager with her first boyfriend. If I wanted him, wanted to risk my sanity and peace of mind by scratching this very delicious itch, I should just say so. He would only be here one more night.
And then back on deployment, whispered the dark part of my soul. He might never come back. You might be the last woman he ever has.
He looked amused, rocking back on his heels, the corners of his lips curving. “Bacon sandwich okay?”
“Is it dangerous?” I blurted the words out and immediately wanted to drag them back.
His brows tugged together, confused. “The bacon?”
Yep, way to make a fool of yourself, Holly. “I don’t know why I said that,” I mumbled, my gaze fixated on the tabletop. “I feel stupid.”
“Don’t.” There was an urgency in his voice, and I risked looking up at him. He wasn’t smirking or trying not to laugh. He looked serious, the smile retreating as though it had never been there. “You mean Afghanistan?”
I nodded.
He blew out a short breath, slid one hand through his hair, and sank into the chair next to me. Tension simmered in the air, visible in the set of his shoulders and the tightness of his jaw. “I could spin you a line. Tell you this might be my last night on earth, all that shit.” He placed both hands on the table, palms down, just inches from mine. “Or I could tell you it’s mostly boring, that we patrol endlessly and rarely encounter any trouble.” So close, the citrus scent intensified, and my pulse skittered. Would he taste of orange if I kissed his chest?
His voice was husky. “So tell me. Which story would you prefer?”
“How about the truth?”
Chapter Seven
Zack stared at his hands. “I guess it’s somewhere between the two. Hot, dirty, and exhausting with bad food for the most part. We’re peacekeeping, trying to bring stability into the region, and that feels kinda weird. We train to fight, but we’re more like bouncers, breaking up trouble.” He turned his hands palms up, but left them where they were. “I joined the army because I wanted to stand up for the little guy. My stepfather thought it was fun to push me around, and I swore I’d never behave like that. I wanted to stop people like him.”
His eyes closed, and he curled his hands into loose fists. “So yeah, I’m doing the job I always wanted to, and we’re making Afghanistan a safer place, but man. It’s fuckin’ hard sometimes.” He stared directly at me, but it felt as though he was miles away. Was he even seeing me?
I’d always been a touchy-feely person, and that’s why spontaneously hugging Zack had felt so right, and why it now felt perfectly normal to close my hands over his. He hesitated, and then shifted his position to tangle our fingers. It felt good, and unbidden little tingles ran up my arms and down my spine.
“I saw my best friend blown up by a roadside bomb. He was ahead of me in the convoy, and I couldn’t get to him until we’d secured the area.” His fingers tightened. “He survived, but he’s done now. Lost part of his leg.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s just so fucking random, you know?” He huffed out a little breath. “I’m sorry. My language is disgusting. I just… I’m just…” The words trailed away, and it was my turn to squeeze his hands.
“What do you do between deployments? You don’t spend all your time there, do you?” I could have been a genial host at a dinner party, polite and friendly, careful to divert the subject to something more neutral.
“No.” He paused, as though searching for the right words. “I’m based at Linton when I’m in the country. I live on camp.”
“Linton.” I frowned. “Isn’t that north of here?”
“Yeah.” His voice was clipped. “Only a couple of hours’ drive.”
“At least you were close to Marnie. Did you get to see her much?” I smiled at him in a way I thought was reassuring, but his frown returned, darker than before.
“That’s just it. I didn’t.” He closed his eyes and dropped his head. “I didn’t get on with her boyfriend and so I didn’t visit. And now I can’t. It fuckin’ sucks hard, Holly.”
“It does,” I agreed softly. My words had been less than helpful, and a need burned in me to soothe his pain. I leaned toward him and rested my cheek against his stubbled one. The skin contact zinged through me, and Zack’s eyes snapped open, his gaze meeting mine. “Time is precious,” I whispered, “and I don’t want to waste a minute of it.”
In daylight, his eyes were a dark chocolate brown with a light blue ring around the iris and amber flecks in their depths. I could stare at them all day, and I watched the emotions fly across them. Surprise. Desire. A dark heat that matched my own. I wanted him to kiss me again, to claim my lips and make them his own.
As though he heard my thoughts, he leaned toward me, his mouth brushing over the corner of mine.
Yes. Much as I liked holding his hands, I wanted more. I released him from my grasp and slipped my arms around his neck so that I could lean in to him, to press myself against that hard body. The moment my breasts met his chest, my nipples rose to attention, aching for his touch.
There was a heartbeat of hesitation, and then he dug his hands beneath my bottom and lifted me out of the seat. Surprise stole my breath but, before I could even squeak, I sat in his lap, facing him. Oh. He tunneled one hand into my hair while the other steadied my back, but I’d never felt safer in my life.
“Your hair is beautiful.” He played with the end of my thick ponytail and wrapped it around his fist. “All I could think of last night was holding this while I fucked you.”
The breath caught in my throat, every nerve ending lighting up as though he’d held a match to me.
“What are you doing to me, Holly Jacobs?” Something like pain flashed across his face, gone so quickly I almost missed it. He ducked his head and nuzzled the side of my neck. “I could make it so very good for you.”
I knew he could. I just needed to say yes.
My legs fell to either side of his solid thighs, and I was sitting right over his dick. I felt it jerk beneath me, and my panties dampened even further. Had it suddenly gotten very hot in here? I was melting and couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.
“Do you want me, Holly?” His lips a heartbeat from mine, his whisper made me tremble, and there was only one answer I could give.
“Yes.”
His huff of breath scorched my skin, and he made a growling noise deep in his throat. I felt him pull on my hair, not hard, just enough to lift my chin and tilt my head back a fraction. Warmth bathed my throat as Zack breathed on me, then pressed a hot kiss over my pulse. A whimper escaped me, but he held fast and trailed his lips up to my jaw, the stubble rasping against me. The rough of his bristles and the softness of his lips combined into a sensual high I’d never known before. I squirmed on his lap, definitely wet between the legs and hungry to feel his hands on my flesh. My skin felt too tight, my breasts ached, and while I moaned he took his time feasting on me. His lips traveled down again, hitting the V at the top of my cleavage. I gasped. Surely he’d touch me now? No, his hands stayed still, one burning the small of my back, the other fixing me in place.