Rhonda+Nelson+-+The+Soldier (10 page)

forgive?

After a moment, Winnie decided to ask. “Do you think you will ever be able to forgive him?”

Jana shook her head and indecision was written all over her pretty face. “I don’t know. I would

like to think that I could. But I’m just not sure at this point. It’s still too fresh, you know?”

Winnie nodded. She certainly understood that. “So where is Eddie?”

“He’s moved into the apartment over his parents’ garage.” She laughed. “And he’s lucky they

let him do that. His folks are furious at him. His mother has been reciting our wedding vows to

him, repeatedly. ‘What part of and keep thee only unto her did you not understand, son?’” She

shook her head. “If I wasn’t so angry, I would feel sorry for him.”

“And the cake?” Winnie asked.

Another ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. “Ah. You’ll be happy to know that I didn’t give it

to him at their anniversary party. I waited and gave it to him at the office the next day. In the

face. In front of his cheating whore of a secretary, who also got a little bite of it, as well.”

Winnie chuckled, impressed. “Excellent. I like that delivery better, too.”

Jana leaned against the counter. “What about you, Winnie?

Anything interesting happening with

you?”

Winnie started to shake her head, but a movement outside the front of the store caught her

attention. Bronze hair, broad shoulders.

Adam.

Her heart raced and her mouth went inexplicably dry.

He opened the door and sidled in. “Good. You’re still here. I was afraid I’d miss you.” He

nodded a greeting at Jana.

“Hey, Adam,” Jana said, her gaze darting significantly back and forth between the two of them.

“So…thanks for the petit fours, Winnie.” She gasped. “Oh, I have to pay for them.”

“You can catch up next time,” Winnie said. “I’ve already closed the register anyway.”

“You’re sure?”

“Sure,” Winnie confirmed.

“Okay, thanks.” She looked at Adam, then at Winnie and quirked a brow. “I’ll see you later.”

Winnie followed Jana to the door, then turned and looked at Adam. He wore khaki shorts, an

off-white T-shirt and the most purposeful, determined expression she’d ever seen.

It made her heart sing.

Winnie swallowed. “If you’re going to be here a few minutes, then I’m going to lock the door. I

technically closed five minutes ago.”

“I’m going to be here for a few minutes,” Adam said. He shoved his hands into his pockets and

strolled to the display case. A comical frown crossed his face when he spied the empty spot

where his cupcakes were usually stored.

Despite the tension in the room, Winnie felt her lips twitch with affection. She went back behind

the counter and retrieved his snack. “I always save you one,” she admitted. “Just in case you

come by.”

He smiled and gave his head a small shake. “You’re too good to me, Winnie.”

She nodded primly, anticipation making her blood sing. “I know.”

He chuckled softly. “So modest. It’s one of your best character traits.”

She smiled. “Well, since you’re not particularly familiar with modesty yourself, I’m actually

quite proud that you knew how to recognize it.”

He licked a bit of icing from his thumb and feigned being hurt.

“Ouch.”

“Ha,” Winnie told him. “Ouch my ass. It would take a helluva lot more than that to wound your

considerable pride, you great fraud.”

They’d settled right back into their familiar pattern. It was so easy to be with Adam. She felt

oddly safe in his presence. Stripped bare and laid raw, but curiously protected all the same.

His gaze tangled with hers and a strange undercurrent passed between them, one she didn’t quite

know how to name. An expectant silence settled in the gap and Winnie found herself

unaccountably nervous.

She swallowed tightly and felt her smile slip. “Was there something you wanted, Adam?”

He took a short breath through his teeth. “There was.”

She waited. “Well?”

He looked away, blew out a breath and lifted his shoulders in a fatalistic shrug. When he turned

back to her, his eyes were clear and thrillingly focused. He took a step forward, purposely

moving into her personal space, showing her his intentions.

Another electrifying jolt of

happiness whipped through her.

“You,” he said simply. “I want you, Winnie. I, uh…I don’t have the strength to stay away from

you anymore.”

Joy in its purest form rushed through her. A shaky breath left her lungs. “You don’t have to,

Adam. I’m yours for the taking. I always have been.”

An instant later, his hands were cupping her face, pushing her hair away as he slanted his lips

over hers. “Good,” he murmured against her mouth. She tasted his surrender—her victory—on

his lips. “Because I’m about to take you.”

8

DETERMINED THOUGH HEwas—not to mention literally aching for her—Adam McPherson

was nervous about being with a woman for the first time in his life.

Was it Winnie? he wondered. Or was it because he hadn’t been with anyone since the accident?

Probably a combination of both, he decided, feeling her lithe body mold instantly to his. An

unfamiliar emotion rushed through him, leaving a bittersweet sensation in its wake and the burn

of desire running through his blood quickly seared away most of his uneasiness.

Most of the time his prosthesis felt like an extension of himself—

strangely familiar now—but

there was always the risk that he could move the wrong way and his foot not react accordingly.

Dammit, he should have thought about that before he came here.

They needed to be careful.

He’d feel terrible if he hurt her.

Furthermore, he really should have made more of an effort to make this more special for her—

take her to the beach or to their favorite secluded spot in Magnolia Park. Or hell, even McKinney

Point. When he’d left his place, he’d had wonderful intentions of doing just that. But the instant

he’d looked at her all of those noble objectives had simply evaporated, scorched away by the

need he could no longer deny.

He wanted. He ached. He burned. And the desire to put himself between her thighs was quite

honestly beyond anything in his experience—the drive, the sheer force of their chemistry

demanded instant gratification. He would make it up to her, Adam thought. He would—

Winnie’s hot breath sighed into his mouth and her pert breasts pressed against his chest. Her

fingers traced the planes of his face, almost lovingly, then pushed into his hair and kneaded his

scalp. She fed at his mouth, tangling her tongue around his, suckling, sampling, molding and

with every brush of her lush lips across his, Adam felt more and more like a man and less and

less like an amputee.

He inwardly marveled at the change, savored the cleansing swell of emotion washing over him.

Desire, fierce and unprecedented, chugged hotly through his veins and his dick hardened to the

point just shy of pain. Tension coiled in every muscle and the only relief seemed to come from

feeling her against him—her sleek little body and delicious rump.

He absolutely loved her ass, Adam thought, as he shaped it with both of his hands, giving her a

gentle squeeze.

“Adam,” she said breathlessly, tugging at his shirt. Her warm fingers brushed his belly, making

him inhale sharply.

“Yes?” he asked distractedly.

She licked a path up the side of his neck, then breathed gently into his ear. “Ideally this would

have happened in a bed—”

He laughed against her mouth. “Haven’t you been listening? Sex and beds aren’t mutually

exclusive.”

She chuckled, acknowledging the reminder, then licked another wicked path up the side of his

neck. “Right, so the floor should appeal to your tastes.”

He didn’t give a damn where it took place—hell, he’d take her against the pastry case if she

suggested it—so long as he got to be inside her, could bury himself in her heat right now. He was

suddenly desperate, mindless with the need to feel her little body around him, her hands on his

naked skin. He wanted to lick her from one end to the other, dust powdered sugar over her

breasts and remove it with his tongue.

He was thankful that the back of the pastry case wasn’t clear when Winnie tugged him down

behind the counter, stripped his shirt over his head, then pushed him back and followed him

down. Ah…Her hands slid over his chest, mapping every muscle and ridge while she kissed

him—his mouth, his neck, his chest. She laved a nipple and he bucked beneath her, his breath

hissing out between his clenched teeth.

But that gave him an idea…

Adam found the hem of her shirt and worked the navy blue cotton fabric up and over her

shoulders and head, then tossed it aside. Her bare breasts, her pouting nipples were suddenly

before him.

“No bra?” he asked, pleased. “Nice.”

He tested the weight of them in his hands, then touched the tip of his tongue to the crest of one

nipple, before he pulled the whole bud into his mouth.

Winnie gasped and her eyes fluttered shut. “It’s b-built in,” she said.

He thumbed the other nipple then sampled it as well. “What?”

“The b-bra. It’s b-built into the sh-shirt.”

If she still had the presence of mind to explain her undergarments, then he clearly wasn’t doing

this right, Adam thought. He smiled against her then suckled harder.

A startled little choking noise came from her open mouth and she flexed her hips over his,

aligning the softest part of her with the hardest part of him. His dick strained against his shorts,

looking for the relief that was right there, but still inaccessible.

Time to rectify that, Adam thought.

He drew her down, then slid his hands down her back, beneath her shorts and over her bare ass.

His fingers encountered tiny strings and the idea made him smile.

“Thong?”

“No panty lines,” she said, kissing his cheek, the edge of his mouth. A shiver seemed to run

through her as he swiftly removed the tiny undies and shorts. And finally, he had what he so

desperately wanted.

Winnie…naked.

Gloriously, utterly naked.

His eyes feasted on her and the sight made his chest tighten with some unnamed emotion, made

his hands unaccountably shake. Bikini lines left the smallest bit of pale flesh and for reasons he

couldn’t begin to explain, he found this strangely sexy. He was suddenly hit with the urge to lick

all those lines, to trace them with his tongue.

But Winnie had other ideas. Without warning, she reached down to unbutton his shorts and the

feel of her small hand that close to his dick made it stand at attention. Though he wouldn’t have

thought it possible, he hardened even more. He snagged a condom from his pocket before she

could remove the shorts, thankful that he’d had the presence of mind to get a package from the

drugstore before coming over.

Winnie scooted down, then carefully started removing his shorts.

Adam toed his shoe off, then

helpfully lifted his ass so that she could finish the job. He knew a moment of uneasiness when

she started to pull them down his legs. His clothes had a tendency to hang on his foot. Suddenly

uncomfortable, he leaned forward to help, but she ignored him and smoothly handled the task

without batting a lash.

An instant later, her hand was on him, working the slippery skin against her palm. A mere

fraction of a second after that, he was in her mouth.

Adam sucked in a ragged breath and he set his teeth so hard he thought he heard a crack. He

curled his hands into fists at his sides as the pleasure bolted through him.

Her mouth. On him.

Sweet hell, he didn’t think he’d ever felt anything quite so wonderful. Winnie flashed her

eyes—those beautiful dark blue orbs he’d seen in his dreams for the past year—at him, and the

satisfaction he saw in her gaze made him want to preen with male confidence.

She lowered her lashes and took the whole of him into her mouth once more, savoring his taste

on her tongue. She wore the same expression as when she ate something sweet—blissful and

satisfied—and the knowledge that she was thoroughly enjoying herself, that she wanted to taste

him, made him want to beat his chest and roar with primal satisfaction.

Winnie licked the length of him again, then picked up the forgotten condom, tore into the packet

and swiftly rolled the protection into place.

Then she slowly—with agonizing precision—lowered herself onto him.

Adam’s breath hissed out of his lungs as her moist, tight heat closed around him. Her lids

drooped with the weight of pleasure and she sank her teeth into her ripe bottom lip, as though the

feeling of having him inside her was almost more than she could bear.

He knew that feeling well, could claim it in every cell of his body.

A curious sensation swelled

in his chest, momentarily preventing him from breathing and, though he knew it wasn’t entirely

plausible, he’d had the strangest inkling that everything in his life was tied to this moment—his

past, his future, his very existence. Everything that made him, him, was bound to her.

She was his anchor.

Winnie bent forward and kissed him again, the merest brush of her lips over his and something

inside him simply…let go. Her eyes went all soft and melting as she lifted her hips and settled

onto him once more.

Adam moved with her. Shaped his hands over the sweet swell of her hips and felt her feminine