New Title 1 (17 page)

“Sure I can
’t persuade you?” he said, leaning down to bite my thigh.

“Quite sure, thank you. This forty-year-old woman needs her beauty sleep.”

He scowled. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, Caro.”

Jeez, had he always been this moody?

“Do what?”

“
Keep going on about your age. You’re older than me – I get it. And guess what? I don’t give a shit. I never did. I just wish you weren’t so hung up about it. It’s kind of annoying.”

I
was annoying
him? In what universe?
Oh, this one, probably.

I
realized my mouth was still hanging open in a most unattractive way.

“Feel free to say what you really mean, Hunter.”

He grinned at me. “Okay.”

I shook my head, half-amused, half-
irritated.

“So, we can go tomorrow? Start our road trip?” he said, his eyes glowing like a kid at Christmas.

“Well, I suppose so. But I don’t know how we’ll get my case on the back of your motorcycle.”

“Don
’t worry about that. We’ll just take what you need, and leave your case at my place till we get back.” He paused, his expression turning challenging. “So, can I stay the night, or are you going to kick me out into the cold, dark world, all alone in a strange city, where foreign women might try and have their evil way with me?”

“That
’s a sob story, if ever I heard one,
Chief
Hunter, although I strongly suspect it’s a highly edited one.”

“Is that a yes?” he said, hopefully.

“It’s a yes, providing sleep is what you had in mind.”

“Mostly. Good enough?”

I shook my head: he really was incorrigible.

“Fine.
You want to use the bathroom first?”

“No, go ahead.”

As I brushed my teeth hard enough to remove several layers of enamel, I wondered how I’d got railroaded
again
. I really didn’t seem to have the ability to say ‘no’ when it came to Sebastian. Had it always been like that between us? I thought back to some of the outrageous risks we’d taken ten years ago. Yes, I had to admit – it had always been like that.

When I
’d finished, Sebastian took his turn in the bathroom, and I climbed wearily into bed. I’d forgotten what a workout it was, having sex with him. My thirty-year-old self had trouble keeping up; there seemed even less chance I’d be able to keep up now. I reminded myself that according to the consensus of opinion, a forty-year-old woman was in her sexual prime, while a man’s was at the age of 19. Which meant Sebastian was already past his prime: although there was no evidence that anyone had told him that. Even so, it cheered me up slightly.

I enjoyed the floor
show as he strolled out of the bathroom, unembarrassed by his nudity, wearing just his dog tags and a big smile. He was either very comfortable with me, or he was just used to wandering around naked – did they have open showers in the Marines? Hmm, maybe some research was in order – strictly on the grounds of professional integrity, of course.

Instead of walking
around the bed, he deliberately sat on my side, then climbed over me.

“Sebastian, what are you doing?”

“Taking a shortcut,” he said, as his body hovered over mine, and he dipped down to kiss me.

He tasted of mint.

I reached up and pulled him deeper into the kiss before pushing lightly on his chest.

“Sleep! Now!”

“Sure I can’t change your mind?” he said, eyeing yet another erection, which was growing at an alarming rate.

“Oh, put it away! I
’m tired.”

He grinned at me and gave in, sliding under the duvet on the other side of the bed.

I stretched to turn off the bedside light and the room was plunged into darkness. I felt Sebastian’s hand drift over my waist, and he kissed the back of my neck.

“Night, baby.”

He fell asleep quickly, his arms wrapped around me, warming me and weighing me down. I listened to the sound of his quiet, even breaths, wondering if our differences would bring us together or push us apart.

It was barely light when Sebastian shook me awake from a confused and disturbing dream.

“Caro, are you ok
ay?”

I rubbed my face as his
worried eyes gazed at me.

“Oh, sorry, did I wake you up? I was dreaming.”

“It sounded more like a nightmare.”

“S
orry. Yes, I’m okay.”

In truth, I
’d been dreaming about Iraq again. It wasn’t something that happened often, but it was always frightening when it did. The recurring images stemmed from the time I’d visited Victory Base near Baghdad’s airport: the medical team had just heard that three ‘Category Alpha’ injuries were on their way. In my dream, it was the distinctive thrum of the medivac helicopters that filled me with fear.

Sebastian definitely didn
’t need to know what my nightmare had been about.

I shi
vered and sat up, the duvet slipping down to my waist. Sebastian’s expression changed, and I realized his eyes were hungrily fixed on my breasts.

“Your eyes
are going to fall out, Hunter,” I muttered.

He grinned guiltily, acknowledging that he
’d been caught staring.

“Just looking, boss,” he said.

I didn’t bother to reply. Instead, stretching stiffly, I shuffled off to the bathroom with the bathrobe pulled tightly around me.

I contemplated the bags under my eyes and frazzled hair, searching for any gray ones that I could ruthless
ly root out. And then I realized the truth: this was as good as it got. I was never going to get younger, or more toned, or less wrinkly. And maybe there would be a day, sooner rather than later, when Sebastian would want younger flesh under his expert hands. And if that happened, there was less than fuck all I could do about it. But right now, he wanted me. It was
my
body that made his eyes pop out of his head, and
my
body that had so aroused him last night. He’d said again that he didn’t care about the age difference, so what was my problem? Maybe I should just sit back and enjoy the ride, so to speak.

Perhaps I was having a breakthrough:
he didn’t care
, so why should I?

I prodded my puffy eyes again. Nope, still luggage-laden. Then I remembered something: something Sebastian had said to me ten years ago; something we
’d never done.

Hmm. That had interesting possibilities. I wondered if he
’d let me… one way to find out.

It would certainly take my mind off my inadequacies and, well, hopefully it would take Sebastian’s mind off of everything.

Sebastian was lying back on his pillows with his hands behind his head.

“Hi,” he said, his eyes glowing.

“Hi yourself.”

“You seem better.”

“Why, Chief Hunter, what masterful skills of observation you have.”

He grinned at me. “Yeah, much better.”

“Well, now you mention it, I am in a much better mood, although I’m rather hungry.”

“Do you want to go down for breakfa
st or shall I call room service?”

“Let me think about that for a minute.”

Slowly, I untied the belt to my robe and pulled it out of the loops, winding it through my fingers.

I dropped the robe to the floor
, and watched Sebastian’s eyes as he followed its descent.

“I was thinking
about eating you, Chief, but as you’re such a stubborn, annoying man, who makes me pissed with every other sentence he utters from between his beautiful, badly-behaved lips, I thought I’d better tie you up first. What do you say?”

Sebastian
’s mouth dropped open.

“I
’d say, where is Carolina Venzi and what have you done with her?”

I smirked at him. “I
’m just taking your advice, Chief.”

“I don
’t know what advice I gave you, but it must have been damn good.”

“Let
’s find out, shall we? Put your hands on the headboard.”

“Yes, ma
’am.”

He wrapped his hands through the metal framework
, and I crawled up the bed and across his body. Kneeling over his chest, I threaded the belt through the headboard and tied both his wrists tightly.

“Have you done this before?” he breathed out, his gaze heated.

“Only in my dreams, Hunter. Now, be quiet, or I might have to gag you, too.”

“Fuck!” he whispered.

“Maybe later.”

I whipped the duvet off him in the same way that I
ripped off wax strips from my legs. I wasn’t surprised to see he was beautifully erect.

“Now that
’s a sight for sore eyes, Sebastian. Maybe I should just leave you here: the hotel maids might appreciate that. Or, better still, maybe I’ll take a photograph of you on my phone. Don’t worry, I won’t post it on the internet, it’ll just be my screensaver.”

“Caro!” he said, a serious warning in his voice.

“Spoilsport,” I said, pouting at him. “No sense of adventure.”

He grinned back, but his expression was slightly wary. He flexed his arms, testing the knots. I was delighted to see he couldn
’t move them. I placed a gentle kiss on each of his biceps before sliding back down his body.

Oh, I was going to enjoy being the one
giving the orders. Maybe I’d teach him how to be a good soldier and take them.

I knelt down on the bed
, and ran my tongue from his balls to his tip; he groaned loudly. Nope, that wasn’t going to work.

I
clambered off the bed again.