Advance to the Rear (Strike Force Book 3) Read online

  She pulled out an empty drawer then stood there, clasping her hands.

  My god, am I seventeen again?

  “It’s fine, Nikki.” Marc dropped his duffel and moved over to her, placing his warm hands on her shoulders. “Don’t worry about anything. It will all be okay. I’m glad you’re as out of practice as I am, so I don’t feel like an idiot and a fool.”

  She let herself relax and even managed a smile. “Okay. Um, would you like to shower?”

  The slow grin he gave her was positively lethal to her hormones. Heat flashed through her and the pulse between her thighs pounded like a drum out of control. She gave him a glance that was part teasing, part shyness.

  Marc looked at her, hunger flaring in his dark eyes. “Can I ask you to join me?”

  She gazed over at him, stunned, while hot and cold flushes took turns in her body. “I, uh, already showered. When I came home. Uh, that is…”

  Great. I sound like an idiot.

  Marc reached for her hands, his touch electric. She looked at him, aware that the hunger and desire they’d flirted with last time had roared up full steam. They seemed to have gone from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. She swallowed hard and her pulse skittered, and suddenly she felt as if the room was too small to contain them.

  He studied her with a mixture of emotions swirling in his eyes. Then he shook his head.

  “My bad. I’m sorry, Nikki. I’m really out of practice with this. I had plans to do all this the right way, to make this very special for you. But damn! It seems as if it’s all I’ve been able to think about since last time. The hunger in me has been building up all this time and I can’t seem to get it under control. Don’t be upset with me, okay? I’ll shower then we’ll do this the right way.”

  She stepped up and put her palms on his cheeks, looking hard into his eyes. There was something zipping between them she’d never thought to find again. This connection. This…whatever it was.

  Tell him. It’s time to move forward.

  Her lips curved in a hint of a smile. “I’ve been hungry for this, too. More than I ever thought possible.” She let out a slow breath. “I’d love to take a shower with you.”

  “You sure? Because—”

  She touched her fingers to his lips. “I’m sure. Positive.”

  “Come on, then.” He walked backward toward the bathroom, tugging her with him. “I really, really need a shower.” He brushed his mouth against hers, setting off tiny ripples of need in her body. “Bad. I might need you to wash my body.” His eyes bored into hers. “You should know I’ve been thinking about this while I was gone. A lot. About what it will be like with us.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered.

  “I don’t want to wait anymore. There won’t be any ghosts in the room with us, Nikki. All I’ve been able to think about is you and this.”

  Before she could think of anything else to say, she found herself in the bathroom with him. She watched, fascinated, as he stripped off his camo pants, T-shirt and dark green boxer briefs. His lean body was all hard, corded muscle, with a dusting of black hair on his chest, his thighs and his forearms. Not to mention the nest of it surrounding a cock that made her mouth water. Long and thick, it stood out from his body, the head a dark purple, a tiny bead of fluid winking at her from the opening on the soft dark purple skin.

  She reached into the shower and turned on the water, then, while it heated, pulled two thick towels from the linen closet.

  “Only one of us is shower-ready.” Marc’s deep voice washed over her like a coating of warm molasses.

  “Oh, um… Yeah, right.”

  She started to pull her T-shirt over her head but he moved her hands away.

  “I’ll do it.”

  He fisted the bottom hem of her top and drew it slowly up her body, pausing for a moment at her breasts before pushing it higher and finally up over her head. He raked his gaze over her, stopping at the sight of her in a lacy pink bra. He cupped her breasts in his palms, taking a moment to give her nipples a light pinch. They hardened and throbbed at once, a thread of heat shot straight to her core and she squeezed her thighs together.

  Marc had his gaze locked with hers as he unfastened the bra and tossed it aside. He stroked his fingers along the slope of her shoulders, then lightly down her arms and across to her midriff. Trailing the tip of one finger between her breasts, he reached the hollow at her neck where her pulse now pounded furiously in anticipation of what was to come.

  Moving his finger again, he pressed it just beneath her chin to tilt her head upward and molded his lips to hers. The kiss was tentative at first, gentle, a light back and forth movement of his mouth. But then he increased the pressure and gently insinuated his tongue inside. Heat instantly blasted through her as she swept her own tongue against his in a dance that sent messages throughout her body.

  She was so lost in the kiss, in the heat of it, that she barely realized he had unsnapped her jeans and pushed them down past her hips. Only when his thumbs stroked her skin, pushing at the lace edge of her bikini panties, did she realize he was onto the next part of this strip show.

  His lips were still fused to hers, his tongue still dancing inside her mouth, as he eased his hands inside her panties. Cupping the cheeks of her ass, he gave them a possessive squeeze. She pressed herself against his naked body, swallowing a gasp as she came into closer contact with his hard, thick cock. She tried to slip a hand between them so she could wrap her fingers around it, but he stopped her.

  “Not yet. This is my playtime.”

  She groaned, already so turned on she was sure it wouldn’t take much to make her come.

  Marc dropped to his knees, pushing her jeans and panties down as he did and maneuvering them from her body. She shivered when he ran the tip of one finger the length of her slit. But then he eased her lips apart and followed the same path with his tongue. She had to grip his shoulders to steady herself, shaking as he licked and tasted, blowing little puffs of air on the damp curls of her mound.

  Nikki rocked forward, thrusting herself toward his mouth, but he held her in place so movement was difficult. She’d been so primed for him that mere seconds had her in a state of readiness.

  His low, rough laugh vibrated against her skin.

  “In a hurry, are we?”

  “Mmmm.” She dug her fingertips into his shoulders. “Been a long wait.”

  “For me, too. That’s why I want to enjoy every single second of it.” He rose to his feet. “Shower’s ready and I can’t wait to get to it.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered.

  He tugged her into the shower with him. For one brief moment, his features were cast in the look of tortured emotion he’d worn when she first met him. Then, as if swept aside by a broom, it was gone. He poured some of her body wash into the palm of his hand and worked it into a lather.

  “I thought about you every minute I wasn’t focused on the mission,” he told her. “It was a nice change to have thoughts of you filling my brain instead of all the dark thoughts about Ria.”

  “I’m glad,” she told him.

  “Not half as much as I am.”

  He began to smooth the foam of the body wash over her shoulders and worked his way down her arms. His palms against her skin sent more shivers through her and the pulse in her core was now beating a demanding tattoo.

  “Thinking of you—of us—kept me going during the missions.”

  He coasted his hands along her collarbone then palmed her breasts. His thumbs flicked at her nipples, the touch sending electricity straight to the center of her sex.

  “I—I’m glad.” Her ability to think and form words was rapidly disappearing.

  “Me, too. Do you know I love touching your skin?”

  “I like touching yours, too.” She moved his hands aside so she could stroke the hard plane of his chest, taking a moment to ruffle the soft hair there and use her fingers to outline his muscular torso.

  He braceleted her wrists with his fingers
. “Uh-uh. This is my show this time.”

  He went back to spreading the silky foam of the body wash on her skin, skimming over her breasts again before sliding over her abdomen and down to her pussy. Nudging her legs apart, he soaped the inside of her thighs, crouching to lather her legs from her thighs to her ankles then all the way up to the crease of her thigh and hip. When he cupped her pussy with his palm and traced her slit with his finger, she couldn’t help the little groan that escaped her mouth. She tried to urge him to slide his finger in deep—more than one finger—and rocked against his palm to force some friction on her clit, but he was way ahead of her, anticipating her and pulling his hand away.

  “I’ve thought about this every spare minute while we were gone. Dreamed about it. I’m not rushing anything, so just enjoy it, darlin’.”

  Nikki closed her eyes and leaned against the shower wall while he stroked and caressed and teased every inch of her body. He danced his fingers through her hot slit, pausing to tease her hot little button, rubbing it until she wanted to impale herself on him. So many sensations rioted through her, not the least of which was the thrill of actually making love with this man. She just wished he’d hurry the process and get to the main event because she wanted him inside her now.

  When he’d covered every inch of her front with strokes more sensuous than she’d have believed him capable of, he turned her around so she faced the shower wall.

  He kissed one shoulder and put his lips close to her ear.

  “Brace yourself with your hands, feet apart, and close your eyes.”

  Seconds later she felt the touch of his fingers smoothing the creamy body wash over her back, moving in slow sweeps down to her waist then back up again. He paused to brush her hair aside and nibble at her neck, just enough to feel the electric current that crackled from the tips of his fingers and sizzled her nerve endings. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, reveling in the erotic feel of his touch, when he cupped one cheek of her ass and gave a gentle squeeze. Then he moved his hand to the other one, and before she could enjoy the feel of it, he slid his fingers into the hot crevice that separated them and stroked its length.

  Little tremors raced over her skin and she clenched her muscles, trying to hold him in place.

  He gave that low, rough laugh again that went straight to the center of her sex. He pressed gently with his finger, just barely touching her opening.

  “I think you like when I touch you here. I’ll have to remember that.” He paused. “For later.”

  Later? What’s he going to do now? She wanted him so badly after minimal foreplay that she wanted to scream. She could not recall another man affecting her that way, even her fiancé, whom she’d loved beyond anything. What would happen when this man was inside her at last?

  He turned her to face him again, rinsed his hands in the shower spray and cupped her cheeks.

  “I want to do so many things with you I don’t know where to start,” he murmured, then took her mouth in a kiss that singed her down to her toes. He traced his tongue over every inch of the inner surface, sliding it over her own tongue while he held her head in place.

  Not that she would have moved. He tasted so good, so utterly male. For a frozen moment, she wondered if everything was so heightened because she hadn’t had anything like this in so long. But in the next second, she realized she hadn’t had anything like this ever, not even with Jon. What they’d had was excellent, but maybe a person had to go through fire, like she and Marc had, to get to something like this. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight to her. The water spraying down on them couldn’t even begin to cool the heat blazing from them.

  Nikki coasted her hands down his body, stopping when she reached his thick, hard cock, hot where it pressed against her. She wrapped her fingers around it and began to slide her fingers up and down its length.

  Marc grabbed her wrist and held her hand still.

  “I want that.” His voice was thick with need, his lips still touching hers. “But I want the first time I come with you to be inside you.” Then he grinned. “But that doesn’t mean you have to wait. I’ve been dying for a taste of you and I can’t wait any longer.”

  He knelt on the tile, nudged her thighs apart and pressed open the lips of her pussy. One slow lick of his tongue nearly sent her over the edge. She gripped his shoulders to steady herself as he lapped her tender flesh, now adding light strokes to her clit until she was ready to scream.

  “Please,” she begged.

  In response he banded one arm around her hips to hold her steady and slipped two fingers into her hot sex. She clenched down on them at once, rocking hard as he set up a steady in-and-out rhythm. She closed her eyes, letting the delicious sensations wash over her. As ready as she was, it took only seconds before a climax roared through her, the walls of her pussy clamping down on Marc’s fingers. He pressed hard on her clit with his thumb and held her in place as spasms shook her and the walls of her sex convulsed over and over.

  By the time the tremors had subsided she was weak, her legs trembling with the effort to remain upright.

  “I didn’t get to wash you,” she pointed out as she tried to settle her racing pulse.

  “I’m saving that for next time.” He grinned. “I don’t want it to be hurried and right now I’m in a big hurry.”

  He managed to keep her upright while he soaped his body then rinsed both of them off. Finished, he dried them both, then lifted her and carried her into the bedroom where he yanked the covers back on the bed with one quick pull and laid her down. In seconds he had opened his duffel and found the condoms he was looking for, dumping them on the nightstand. Then he was kneeling over her, the hunger blazing fiercely in his eyes.

  Nikki looked at him, read the same craving and want and need in them and realized that between the last time they’d been together and now, something had moved this situation light-years ahead. They had a connection that she was sure stunned him as much as it did her. They’d been looking for a way out of their pain and here they were on the verge of something astounding.

  “Yes, we are,” he told her, as if she’d spoken the words aloud.

  He grabbed one of the condoms and rolled it on with hands that she noticed were shaking the slightest bit. At his urging, she bent her legs and planted her feet on the bed, opening wide for him. He nudged her opening with the head of his cock, just that simple contact igniting the heat in her body again. With his gaze locked with hers, he eased himself into her. He was hot and hard and thick, and stretched her inner walls to capacity.

  “Jesus!” he breathed. “This is so fucking perfect.”

  It mightn’t have been the most romantic statement, but to Nikki it was better than anything he could have said.

  “It is,” she whispered, not moving her gaze from him.

  “Get ready for a hard ride,” he told her. “I’ve been dreaming about this the whole time we were gone.”

  He more than kept his promise. Slow at first, his thickness dragging against the walls of her sex, each friction setting more nerves on fire. Then easing into speed, not rushing, although she could tell he was holding back. In and out, thrust and retreat, her slickness easing his path. She tried to be aware, to memorize each sense and feel of him, but as he increased his movement, she became too lost in sensation.

  She wound her legs around his waist and locked her ankles at the small of his back, holding them together more tightly, allowing him to push into her even more. He increased his movements again and her orgasm began to rise from deep inside her. He still had not broken his gaze, locked with hers, and it was just she and Marc, looking deep into each other as the climax grabbed them. She could feel the pulsing of his cock as he came, feel her own body so tight around him.

  She didn’t even know at what point they stopped, only that they had crested a peak together and tumbled wildly down the other side. They lay there, panting, bodies slick with sweat again, hearts pounding. But Nikki was filled with a pleas
ure she’d never known before, a completeness. She wanted to find the words to tell him, but when she looked into his eyes, she could tell he knew.

  “Yes.” Just the one word, but it was enough.

  He eased himself from her body, pinching the edge of the condom to hold it tight, and made a quick trip to dispose of it in her bathroom. Then he was back, sliding into bed beside her and spooning around her.

  “We need to think about dinner,” she murmured, although at the moment she wasn’t sure how she’d be able to move.

  “Later,” he said. “For now, just this.”

  She smiled, thinking how nice just this was.

  Chapter Four

  Sunlight was slanting in through the louvers on the windows when Marc roused himself and blinked. A sweet lethargy gripped his body, as if he’d spent the night in pleasurably exhausting exercise. Which, as a matter of fact, he had, in Nikki’s king-sized bed, losing himself in her enticing, exciting body. It all felt so new to him. So arousing. As if hot sex had been invented just for the two of them and they were bound together with an emotional cord. And it was better than he ever could have imagined.

  It certainly seemed that way to Marc. Nothing in his life had prepared him for the way he felt. For the first time since that nightmare with Ria, he had focused only on the woman he was with, giving her pleasure and receiving it. The scent of her skin was still on him, sweet and fragrant, mixed with the erotic tang of her juices. He was sure he could spend forever in bed with her and never tire of it.

  But it was more than that. It was as if they’d both been set free after a long imprisonment, their ghosts exorcised, and they wanted to gorge themselves on each other. Well, they’d certainly done that and more. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt both so lethargic and so fulfilled and energized at once.

  Next to him, Nikki shifted and curled into his body, pressing back against him. His cock, which had awakened aroused and with new purpose, was hard as a rock in seconds just from the contact.

  “Somebody’s in a good mood,” she teased, her voice still soft with sleep even as she pushed back against him.