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29 Honor

I heard his Jeep crunching over the gravel in the driveway and my pulse immediately picked up. It’d been only hours since I saw Nathan last, but I missed him. He was never far from my mind the entire day.

My mother seemed to know it too. She kept giving me these knowing looks and asking coy questions about Nathan whenever she could work them into the conversation.

My father, of course, seemed oblivious to it all so I spent most of my time with him. I stayed through dinner and then drove home. I wanted to get here before dark… It gave me a chance to check all the closets and showers for anyone who might be lurking.

And yeah, I was totally anxious to see Nathan again.

Before he left, he said he’d be back tonight and he would take me to his place. Good Lord, his place. My body was still humming from what he did to me on that coffee table. But I was also hungry… hungry for more.

Part of me hoped we did very little sleeping in the king-sized bed he claimed to have.

I raced down the steps like an excited teenager barely able to contain my excitement when he knocked on the front door. Brisk air rushed inside and swirled around me when I pulled open the door, but I barely noticed the cold.

Nathan was standing there in a pair of loose-fitting jeans, boots, and a rust-colored T-shirt. Over top, he wore a grey fleece jacket that was zipped a little bit more than halfway. He’d shaved since I’d seen him last and his jaw was completely smooth.

“Hey,” he said, grinning.

“Hi.” I stepped back so he could come in and shut the door behind us.

“So, I did something,” he said a little sheepishly.

After I locked the door, I gave him a funny glance. “What?” I couldn’t help but notice the way he was standing with one arm sort of wrapped over his middle.

“I got you a present.”

“You already gave me a gun.”

He gave me a lopsided smile. “This is something you’ll actually like.”

I laughed. Something inside his jacket moved. “Ummm, please tell me there isn’t an alien baby inside your stomach, trying to claw its way out.”

He laughed. “Only a writer would think up something like that.”

“Hey. It could happen.” I said, still watching the lumpy movement beneath his coat.

Very gently, he reached into the inside of his jacket and withdrew my gift.

I gasped and stared at the little wiggly bundle in his palm. It was a puppy.

“You got me a puppy?” I said, staring at the fluffy little guy. The puppy couldn’t have been more than two pounds.

“Life’s short. No time like the present to get what you want,” he said. I could hear a tiny bit of wariness in his tone. Giving someone a puppy was like the gift that kept on giving. Giving poop and pee on your rug.

“Can I hold him?” I cooed, reaching out for the tiny little body.

“It’s a girl,” he said, handing her over.

“She’s precious,” I whispered, cradling her against my chest. She was white with a few light tan spots on her back end and on her nose. One of the puppy’s ears was tan and they both stood up and were bigger than her head, making her look like Dumbo, and they were fuzzy with long strands of ultra soft hair sticking out wildly around them.

I laughed and stroked her softness. “Hi,” I told the puppy. It made a little puppy sound and my heart completely melted.

I wandered up the stairs, still holding her against me, and then sat down on the living room floor in the center of the carpet.

“It’s a Chihuahua,” Nathan said, coming into the room. “She’s only eight weeks old. She was the runt of the litter and probably won’t even grow to be five pounds.”

“You’re just a tiny little thing,” I told her. She licked my chin.

I fell in love with her.

“She’s really mine?” I said, looking over at him.

“I sure as hell hope you want her. Can you imagine me walking that tiny-ass dog on a leash?”

I laughed. “You mean you’d keep her if I said no?”

“Well, I sorta already spent the whole afternoon with her. She likes me.”

The very fact that he was completely in love with this dog made her all the more appealing. “I’m gonna call her Lucy.”

“Lucy, huh?”

“Got a better idea?”

“I’ve been calling her Killer.”

I rolled my eyes. “This is not the face of a killer,” I crooned to Lucy, holding her up so I could look into her tiny face. She licked me again.

“Lucy it is,” Nathan said. “You’re going to be one of those women that dresses that dog up in pink sweaters, aren’t you?”

“She’s going to need a coat,” I said. “And a collar, a leash, food, toys…”

“There’s food in the Jeep. I’ll go get it.”

While he was gone, I put Lucy down in between my spread legs, and she began to sniff me and the carpet. I couldn’t stop petting her. She was so precious.

A few minutes later, Nathan came back and set a small bag of puppy food near the stairs. There was a pink, fuzzy baby blanket draped over his arm, and I lifted an eyebrow.

“She likes it,” he said, shrugging.

Oh my God, he bought her a baby blanket.

I knew then that I was going to fall in love with Nathan Reed and nothing was going to stop it.

He stepped a little closer and Lucy’s tail wagged as she made her way over to his feet. His feet looked like boats next to her miniature white body. He got down on the floor with her and she licked his nose.

“Are you sure you’re going to let me have her?” I asked, watching him with the dog.

He nodded. “I plan to be around a lot, too.”

“I could get used to that.”

He leaned over and kissed me. Nothing else touched but our lips. We sat there in the center of the floor with Lucy between us, both leaning toward the other while our lips melted seamlessly together.

I would never get enough of kissing him. If he were the last person my lips ever touched, I would be amazingly happy.

Between us, little Lucy barked.

I laughed and pulled away to scoop her up. “Do you feel left out?” I asked, nuzzling her oversized ears.

“She probably needs to go out.”

“I’ll take her out in the backyard.”

The lower level of my house was comprised of a laundry room and a family room that I used as my office. Inside the room, all my book covers hung on the wall in poster size; a bookshelf lined the far wall and was filled with my books and the books that I loved to read. Also there was a desk and cabinet where I kept all my swag (promotional items) and a small couch where sometimes I liked to curl up and read.

“Is this where you write?” Nathan asked, looking around with curiosity on his face.

“It’s my office. I tend to sit at the kitchen table upstairs when I write. It’s closer to the coffee.” I slid open the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the very large piece of slate that was lying on the grass. I sat Lucy down and she sat there and looked up at me.

“Go pee,” I told her. She just sat there. “Lucy!” I said excitedly. “Go do your business!”

She waddled out into the grass, sniffing everything she could. I watched her as she explored.

Nathan stepped outside and wrapped his arms around me from behind. “How’s your ribs?”

“They hurt.” They hurt almost constantly. It was actually really annoying. “I’m going to take another pain pill before bed.”

“You should go inside. It’s cold out here. I don’t want you to catch pneumonia.”

“You can keep me warm.” I sighed and leaned into him a little bit more. Nathan pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “Thank you for Lucy. She’s perfect.”

“I wasn’t sure what kind of dog you wanted, but when I saw her, I thought of you.”

“I still can’t believe you bought me a dog.”

“Like I said, life’s too short to deny yourself the stuff you truly want.”

I turned in his embrace and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Does that go for all things I truly want?”

“And what do you want, Honor?”

“I want you.”

He studied me closely for long moments. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been so sure.”

“After what he did to you…” Nathan said, his voice taking on a hard edge. “I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t even want me to touch you.”

“I think I proved earlier that I like when you touch me.”

He chuckled. “That was totally hot.”

“I want more,” I whispered, ducking my face into his neck. “I want you.”

The muscles in his body contracted and he groaned. “You make it really hard for a guy to resist.”

I pulled back and looked up at him. “You want to resist me?”

“Oh, hell no, I don’t. But I want you to feel safe with me.”

“I do feel safe with you. I’ve never felt safer.”

He lowered his head to kiss me, but behind us Lucy started barking. I spun around and looked at her. She stood in the center of the small yard, looking at the privacy fence that separated my yard from the trail.

“Lucy,” I called, thinking her little puppy barks were awfully cute and not intimidating at all.

She glanced at me but then turned back the fence. The wind ruffled the single tree in the yard and golden yellow leaves shook free and spiraled toward the ground. Lucy took off after one, romping on it when it hit the ground.

“C’mon, you silly thing,” I called, laughing at her cuteness.

She didn’t listen, of course, but continued to attack the leaf like it was some sort of menacing object.

Nathan released me and stepped out into the grass. “Lucy, come.” He squatted down and she came running over to greet him.

“C’mon, Killer,” he said and scooped her up. I took her from his arms and kissed her head.

“Lucy,” I corrected.

He grunted and we went back inside, Nathan sliding the door shut behind us. “Did you write all those books?” he asked, motioning to my covers lining the walls. To date, I’d written ten novels. I was close to finishing one and then I was supposed to start another.

“Yeah.”

“I’d make a pretty good cover model, don’t you think?” he asked, striking a pose.

Actually, he would be great on a book cover. “I’ll take it under advisement.”

“Maybe you should just write an entire series about me,” he said as we went up the stairs.

I made a choked sound. “And call it what? Tales of an Egomaniac?”

He laughed.

“You know,” I said, putting Lucy down on the carpet, “I actually thought about writing about what happened to me.”

He nodded thoughtfully.

“I could add in the part about the heroic Marine who shows up to save the day.”

“You saved yourself, Honor,” he corrected. “You managed to get that phone. You didn’t give up hope. You fought like hell to get away from him. I just showed up to help.”

“You didn’t even know me. Yet you came.”

“Baby, I would go anywhere for you. I would drop everything and come running.”

“But you didn’t know me,” I insisted.

“It didn’t matter.”

I knew that he would have come regardless; he would have gone out there for anyone who was in trouble. I actually felt kind of lucky it was me.

Was that sick? Did I need therapy?

“What’s the matter?” he asked, studying my face.

“Do you ever wonder,” I asked, “why things happen? You know the saying: ‘there’s a reason for everything.’ Do you believe that?”

“I didn’t used to, but I’m starting to believe that now.”

“I do too.”

“So what’s your reason, Honor?”

“I think the reason I was kidnapped, the reason my texts went through to you, is because I was meant to meet you. You’re my reason, Nathan.”

The look on his face was sort of priceless. A million emotions crossed over him all at once. Shock, wonder… joy.

“You sure make it hard,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“Make what hard?”

“For me to keep my hands off you.”

“So don’t. I want them on me.”

This strained look came across his face, almost like he was in pain. “But what he did to you…”

“Stop thinking about what he did to me.” I didn’t want to think about it either.

“It makes me so angry, Honor,” he growled, clenching and unclenching his hands at his sides.

I finally understood the anger I always sensed that seemed to simmer inside him. He was still angry about what happened when he was deployed. He was angry at the lives his friends never got to live.

He couldn’t do anything about that.

But I could let him do something about what happened to me.

I stepped forward, closing the distance between us, and laid a hand over his chest. Tipping my head back, I stared up into his conflicted yet longing-filled navy eyes. “You can make it go away,” I whispered. “Your touch will completely erase all the times he touched me. Once you lay your hands on my skin, I won’t be able to remember anyone but you.”

He groaned and captured my face between his palms. Nathan held me firmly, keeping me utterly still while he had his way with my mouth. Heat pooled in my belly and the blood rushed from my head. Still holding me in place, he nipped and licked his way down my neck, lightly sucking the sensitive skin into his mouth. I moaned, my knees threatening to buckle, and he finally released me. His hands glided down the curves of my body and wound around until he was cupping my butt in his very capable palms.

He whispered my name as he picked me up, my legs automatically hooking around his tapered waist. His grip stayed on my butt, and I rocked against him, rubbing my swollen bud along his abdomen.

He took two steps back and came up against the wall, where he leaned his shoulder blades and fastened his skilled lips to my collar bone. I filled my hands with every inch of him I could hold. His pecs filled my palms and I took pleasure in squeezing them, pinching at his nipples through his T-shirt until they were rock-hard knobs.

A sound of desperation ripped from my throat when I tried to reach the hem of his shirt and was blocked by my legs tightly clasped around him.

Nathan pushed away from the wall, one hand cupping my bottom and the other splaying across the small of my back as he strode along the hallway. As he walked, he reclaimed my lips in a searing kiss. His mouth was insistent and demanding; there was a possessive ferocity in the way Nathan kissed.

I began to slide down his body because my legs were so wobbly that I couldn’t keep them tightly around him. I was dangerously close to turning into a giant puddle of need.

I slipped a little lower and his arm slid around my ribs. I jerked at the sudden jolt of pain, and he quickly laid me across the mattress. “Damn, baby, did that hurt?”

I nodded. “Real bad,” I said, my voice so deep I barely recognized it.

Nimble fingers caught the hem of my paisley print top and he bunched it up beneath my armpits. I wasn’t wearing a bra today because the pressure of the straps hurt too much. Thankfully, my breasts weren’t large and I didn’t really need a bra.

Of course, right about now, I wish I had more for him to look at.

I dared a peek up at his face and saw the way he was staring down at me. There was a reverence in his gaze that made me feel powerful. It made me feel desired.

Slowly, he stretched out alongside me, feathering the tips of his fingers across my belly and dancing them up a little higher. His eyes darkened until they looked like midnight as he took in the swelled area and the splotched bruises.

“If I could take this away from you, I would,” he murmured and then ducked low, sprinkling barely there kisses across my torso.

I moaned and arched up off the mattress. I was beyond feeling any twinges of pain. Desire for him was in the driver’s seat and my body knew exactly what it wanted. I palmed the back of his head and guided him upward, past my ribs to the softly mounded peaks that awaited his attention.

He fastened his lips over the one closest to him, drawing in the hardened pebble and nipping at it with his teeth. An animalistic sound ripped from his throat as he took me just a little deeper into his mouth. I held his head there, silently begging for more sweet torture.

Nathan was a thorough lover and what he did to one breast, he did to the other. My entire body was boneless as he worked his magic over my flesh and my legs fell open and my legs twitched, like he was scratching an itch I never realized I had.

When my breasts were pink and slightly swollen from all the lavish attention, he began to work his way down, dragging his teeth along my hipbone and then sliding his tongue down the little indent where my leg met the apex of my thighs.

He pulled away only long enough to settle between my knees and stripped away everything I was wearing until I was completely naked lying against the sheets. “I’ve never in my entire life seen a sight that takes my breath away until now,” he whispered, caressing the skin of my inner thighs and causing my toes to curl into the sheets.

Nathan dove into my moist heat like I was an all-you-can-eat buffet and he was starving. I lifted up off the mattress, crying out with the first flick of his tongue over my clitoris. He slid his arm beneath the small of my back and tilted my hips up off the mattress, giving his mouth even more exclusive access.

I couldn’t help but move against his mouth, small little thrusts that slid his tongue along my inner folds with mind-blowing perfection. I felt the exploration of his finger, and I caught my bottom lip in my teeth, waiting for the feeling of him slipping inside. I didn’t have to wait long as two thick fingers worked their way into my opening and slid inside my body.

Breath hissed between my teeth and all thought left my brain.

Sensation after sensation tingled through my body and the blood that pumped through my veins felt like it had caught fire. A fine blush broke out over my body, and I started murmuring incoherent words that didn’t make sense at all.

“Honor, baby,” Nathan whispered as he curled his fingers forward, scraping against the inner wall deep, deep inside me.

My entire body rippled with the orgasm that stole over my body. For very long, blissful seconds, everything fell away. There was nothing but the roaring pleasure that I felt in every single ounce of my body.

My mouth fell open in a soundless gesture and I collapsed against the bed, still quaking occasionally from the aftershocks of whatever the hell he just did to me.

God, I hoped he would do it again.

Nathan collapsed on the bed beside me, breathing heavily and letting out a little growl. “I almost came right there in my jeans.”

That reminded me. He was still fully dressed.

I pushed up onto one elbow and stared down at him. “It’s my turn.”

Both his eyebrows rose up his forehead. “I’m all yours, sweetheart.”