Mission Happy (A Texas Desires Novel Book 3) (13 page)

He leaned forward to put one knee on the bed, and she adjusted her leg to place him right between her spread thighs. Her skirt drew up as she planted her feet on the mattress and rose to a sitting position. Julie began unbuttoning his jeans. He met her mouth as he shoved his hand underneath her skirt. No panties, and she was already soaking wet. Connor ghosted his fingers across her clit and Julie shuddered. He slid lower and easily slipped both fingers inside her entrance. She was hot and ready, and he groaned against her mouth, moving his other knee onto the mattress.

God love her, she continued to try to free him even as he made love to her mouth and drove his fingers into her in the same rhythm he created with his tongue. She pushed and shoved at the waistband of his jeans until he finally popped free. His dick knew the way. Julie wrapped her arms around his neck as he lowered her to the mattress and buried himself inside her hot, tight channel in one gratifying thrust. Julie broke from the kiss, her hand reaching out, clutching any part of him she could grasp as a small gasp escaped her lips. On the second thrust, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her hips lifted to meet his as he drove forward again.

He shoved his hand underneath her thin blouse, then up and under her bra until he cupped one breast, the nipple hard and protruding against his hand. His mouth watered to taste that delectable morsel. Connor lowered his gaze, looking down the length of her body as he continued the rhythm of his hips… The visual of this woman lying underneath him, moving along with him, tore away his resolve to take it slow. Connor’s mind was blown.

He dropped his forehead to her chest, between each bouncing mound, as he began jackhammering into her core. When her arms wrapped around his head and her whimpers turned to begging, the tingle building in his spine wouldn’t be contained through any force of willpower.

Lowering his hand from her breast, he touched her clit with one finger, circling once. Based on the immediate scream, she hadn’t needed much stimulation to come. Neither did he. He bucked wildly into her, shooting his seed as a primal roar ripped from his chest. Fisting his hand in her hair, he braced himself on his elbows and screwed his eyes closed to ride out the intensity. His hips wouldn’t stop moving. He couldn’t seem to stop coming until his body collapsed on top of her, Julie taking all his weight in the fall.

~~~

Two hours later, Julia lay sprawled across his massive chest, their legs tangled together. A deep, satisfied sigh escaped her lips when Connor lazily ran his fingertips up and down the sensitive skin of her back, across her shoulder, and then threaded them into her hair. Connor massaged her scalp in small, caressing circles with his fingertips. She could stay like that for the rest of her life. Thank God sex between them had been every single thing she’d remembered it to be—unbelievably great. She’d had to fight to keep her orgasm at bay. The slightest touch was all it took for her to come like she never had before. And that happened over and over, every single time. How was that even possible?

The thought made her well-used body tingle. The sensation almost too much after the marathon session they’d just shared.

“We finally remembered the condom,” she said softly, letting her own fingertips circle the definition of his pec. She loved his body. It couldn’t be better defined if Michelangelo had carved Connor himself.

“You mean, I did. You were mad I stopped,” he teased, moving those skilled fingers to her jaw, lifting her face as he leaned down to give her a soft kiss. “I wasn’t going to suggest we do this tonight.”

“Why not?” Shocked by his statement, she placed a hand on his chest and rested her chin there as she stared up at him. “We do this really well.”

He chuckled, and she reached up to thread her fingers behind his head and pull him forward to meet her kiss. He obliged, and then grabbed another pillow to shove underneath his head.

When he still didn’t respond, she asked again, “Why not do this?”

“I’ve got a lot of changes coming. I don’t want to lead you on or make you feel like I used you. I like our time together too much for that.” A seriousness descended between them for the first time in hours.

“Is that why your bags are packed over there? Are you really going home?” she asked, placing both her hands on his chest to rest her chin.

“Yeah, I need some thinking time, and all I seem to do while I’m here is drink. My team will be back soon. It’ll take the drinking to a whole new level,” he explained.

“Do you have any idea what you’re planning on doing? Is there an avenue to contest all this? It seems wrong to me.”

“It’s the military. My commander fought for me,” he said and lifted a hand to her hair, tucking a stray piece behind her ear. His index finger trailed a line down her cheek and she nuzzled against his touch.

“What happened to make this come up like it did?” she asked, trying to force her sated mind to remember this was an important matter when all she wanted was to snuggle against Connor and stay like that for the next year or so. The man was extremely addicting, but clearly, they weren’t on that same page about continuing the relationship.

Connor pulled the pillow from under his head and stared up at the ceiling. It took a second to remember the question that would cause such an action.

“You don’t have to tell me.”

His head popped up, looking at her like she’d lost her mind. “It’s not that. I seem to tell you more than anyone. It’s just that I’m not used to talking about any of this. I had a high security clearance. Everyone on my team does. I took that more serious than most. I love being a soldier.”

Not ten minutes ago, she was coming off her orgasm, thinking she was madly in love with this man. Her heart had fully connected, but when the ground had settled back under her feet, steadying her overly emotional heart, she’d decided that was just the incredible sex talking. Now as she listened to the pain in his voice and the deep sorrow of his words, she realized she was more connected than she wanted to admit.

“I wish there was some way I could help,” she whispered. He stared at her for several long seconds before grabbing the pillow and re-stuffing it underneath his head to keep him in that position.

“You help more than you could ever know. There’s always been this weight that stays on my shoulders. When you’re around, it’s completely gone. I know it makes no sense, and I’m not trying to get heavy…”

She beamed at his words, lifting off his chest to give him two or three quick, soft kisses before inching back down, his arm still draped over her back. Those words coated her heart and validated all the craziness going on inside her. “I like you, too.”

He brought his other hand up, petting her hair, but his dark eyes remained serious. He said nothing, just stared intently. She hadn’t known him long enough to decipher the meaning in that look. The only thing she knew to do was share something personal about herself to see if she could get him talking more about what had happened.

“Last year, I had a stalker. I mean an intent-on-really-hurting-me stalker. It’s how I met Bruno out there. I had to ramp up security. I lost a lot of privacy, but I needed the protection, and even then, my stalker was still able to break in.”

“Were you hurt?” Connor asked, that seriousness from a minute before turned up a notch. He moved his palm to her cheek, then caressed her chin. It was that kind of move that made Connor different from anyone she’d ever dated before. He seemed a man who would fight to the death to protect what he loved. She suspected he put that same effort toward his job, making his recent problems even more heartbreaking.

“My pride was, for sure. No one can explain how he got inside. None of the technology we installed shows him entering, nothing appears breached, and he’s not talking, not saying one single word about anything, but he was waiting in my shower, fully armed to hurt me.” She shook her head and let the safety and warmth of Connor’s arm around her help dispel the fearful memories. “He’s from my hometown. He was my biology teacher in high school. He used to keep me after school all the time, but he was never inappropriate. I had no idea.”

“How did you get away from him?” Connor kept his tone neutral, but his abdominal muscles stiffened as he asked the question.

“Bruno had moved into my house. He heard me scream.” She grinned broadly. “I won a screaming contest. It’s how I got my first movie role.” She’d always been proud of that achievement.

“Good.” He ran his fingers over her face as his brow furrowed. A second later, he urged her toward him to kiss his lips. “How did he take him down?”

No one but the police had ever asked that question. Of course, Connor would. “Bruno was hurt. My attacker—I refuse to say his name; it gives me peace not to say his name. After a year of terrorizing me, he didn’t plan on either of us—me or him—leaving that bathroom. Bruno was hurt in the fight, sliced up pretty good, but his brother rushed in. I was able to get to the panic button they’d had installed in every room. Bruno’s fierce, though. He didn’t go down like I would have. He kept fighting.”

“I like him better than I did before. What happened to your attacker?” He pulled her up a little, so he could put both arms around her and hold her right in place. The protectionary move made her unrealistically happy.

“He was in that weird transition where the authorities had to figure out what to do with him. He’s clearly mentally ill. He had pictures of me from birth all the way through the year I won Miss Flame for my high school. He had to be lurking around me my whole life. He had pictures of me sleeping, dressing, nude…at all ages.” She hadn’t dealt with so many of the emotions surrounding her stalker. Out of everything, the fact he watched her nude seemed the most invasive of them all.

Connor’s eyes narrowed, his scowl intensified, and his jaw locked. It took a minute of him staring at her before he took a breath and asked, “Miss Flame?”

Julia let out a small laugh. Of all the questions he could ask, she hadn’t expected that one. “Yes, it’s a firefighters’ pageant. I was supposed to compete nationally, but I won the scream contest and had to go be in my movie. For me, that took precedence…much to the irritation of my court,” she said, waggling her eyebrows as she remembered how they’d tried to oust her and give the crown to the second-place winner, Lori-Anne Collins.

“Keep going with your story. What happened to the stalker?”

“They ended up declaring him unfit to stand trial. He’s in a secure mental institution. My attorney fought and won extra security on him. The way he is right now, if he gets out, he won’t ever stop. He’ll come for me again. He’s made that clear, and he doesn’t like the way my career path has gone. He believes I’ve left him for Hollywood. That’s all per his ramblings in about twenty diaries they found when they searched his home after his arrest. To him, we’re two halves of a whole, and he needs to punish me for leaving him—do what it takes to have us together forever. It’s weird, I know. And you don’t have to worry about any of that. My attorney assures me he’s monitoring the situation,” she said. It had never occurred to her until right that moment that her stalker was potentially a ton of drama for anyone willing to date her.

“I’m not worried for me, if that’s what you’re implying. I’m worried for you. You seem to have adjusted well. Now I get why Bruno looks like he does. He didn’t fit the standard driver MO,” Connor said.

“I still get spooked, but I have all the measures in place to keep me safe. I honestly don’t think about it too much. I just wanted you to know something about me. I keep confidences and I’m trustworthy. I promise I won’t talk about what you tell me,” she said, pushing back on her knees, scooting closer to his chest. His arm wrapped around her again, his hand coming to rest on her hip. Those fingers that lazily stroked her back now ran along her hip all the way to the crack of her ass, then back up again.

“I didn’t think you would or I wouldn’t have told you as much as I have. I have some friends that opened a private protection company when they retired. They’re well versed in the latest in personal security and security equipment. They don’t take new clients, but I could call them,” he sweetly offered.

“I got Bruno from OverWatch,” she said. They were supposed to be the best, so when his brow furrowed, it was unexpected.

“That’s the company I was talking about. How long ago did all this happen? They haven’t accepted anyone new in years.”

“Ty hooked me up after we came out to slashed tires and a death threat carved into the side of his car warning him to stay away from me,” she explained.

Connor nodded and turned quiet again, staring up at her. She reached out a hand, sliding her fingertips across his lower lip as he moved his hand up to skim her breasts and then mold the shell of one with his palm.

“I’ve always been insecure about my body. You make me feel pretty.” She’d never sat nude with anyone. She was too skinny, her breasts too large. The contrast was too awkward to feel comfortable with anyone.

“You’re more than pretty. You’re perfect,” Connor said matter-of-factly, the words not intended to be the compliment they were. He meant them as the truth, and she liked that even more. She stared down at his handsome features. Those dark eyes boring into her, that full mouth slightly pursed as he studied her. His fingers moved, ghosting over her areola. Both her nipples hardened painfully, but it was the area between her legs that craved that exact same touch.