Red, Hot & Blue 09 - A Prince Among Men (10 page)

She could only imagine how exhausted Ryan would be when he got home.

Ryan. The mission. Shouldn’t it be over by now? Ryan said they’d be back in the morning. Panic set in.

Frightened, Vicki rolled over to try and see the rest of the room—and came face to face not with a pillow, but instead with a large, hard, unmoving body.

As her heart kicked into overdrive, Vicki’s still-sleepy, caffeine-deprived brain tried to reason the situation out. She couldn’t see the other bunks in the room because of the shelves blocking her view, not that she would have been able to tell if the other two men were in them without her contact lenses anyway. But up close—and she certainly was extremely close—she could make out the features of Ryan as he peacefully slept.

Dark smudges marked the skin beneath each of his closed eyes, a testament to how much he still needed to sleep to make up for working straight through the night.

She’d gotten busy on her computer and hadn’t gone to bed until nearly sunrise, which had been about six that morning, she estimated. He had to have come home sometime after that. From how rested she felt, she must have slept for hours, so it had to be late morning or early afternoon by now.

When exactly had he gotten back and crawled into bed with her? She must have been pretty exhausted herself after working so late to have not woken.

A crisp, quick knock on the door startled her as she heard the words, “Sergeant Hawkins?” spoken outside. She held her breath and waited.

The rustling of bedding and a very deep male cough from across the room made Vicki’s blood freeze. She and Ryan were definitely not alone. She heard rather than saw Hawk rise from his bunk and open the door to speak with whoever was outside. There was a brief exchange and then Hawk shut the door. Vicki held her breath as she listened to Hawk get dressed.

The sound of Hawk leaving must have woken Wally, because the moment the door closed, Vicki heard a loud groan and what sounded like stretching as he got out of his bed. She smothered a childish giggle as he tripped and cursed while getting dressed. Then the door opened and closed again, and the hut was silent except for Ryan’s soft breathing.

Now what? With both of the other men gone, it seemed really inappropriate for Vicki to stay in bed with Ryan, but she didn’t want to wake him by getting up either. She was trapped between his body and the plywood and poster-covered wall of the hut.

As she reviewed her limited options Ryan let out a sigh in his sleep. The sound made Vicki smile until, still totally out of it, he reached out. She froze as he latched on to her hip and pulled her closer. Snuggling in tighter, he let out a long, low groan and then started to snore softly, his warm breath caressing her cheek.

Vicki swallowed hard. Ryan’s closeness, the touch of his big, strong hand possessively holding her—it was all too much, especially in her already sexually deprived state.

She took a shaky breath, trying to control her racing heart and her raging hormones. It didn’t work. Vicki felt the tug of longing deep inside her. Moisture flooded her lower region as she felt the desperate need to be touched. As if she had willed it to happen, Ryan shifted again in his sleep and pressed his body closer against hers. She closed her eyes and smothered a moan of frustration as she felt the outline of his arousal pressed against her.

Morning hard-on, she told herself. It had nothing to do with her. Hell, he was probably dreaming about his girlfriend back home or something. But damn, she’d give anything to be the one he was thinking about at the moment. More than that, she would give anything to feel that long, hard length pounding into her, releasing the unbearable tension building deep inside.

Vicki moved ever so slightly as she lay on her side facing Ryan. The shift brought the tip of him right to the apex of her thighs. She squeezed her eyes tighter and shivered when he brushed the place that so badly craved attention.

His hips moved and he pressed against her harder. It had been so long for her. Vicki realized that if Ryan moved like that a few more times, she’d be coming. She felt like a molester, taking advantage of him in his sleep, but God, it felt so good, and she wanted him so badly.

Apparently Ryan wasn’t unaffected by the contact either. While she watched, he unconsciously moaned low in his throat. He slid his hand down to grip her ass as he pulled his lower body tighter against hers.

Vicki sucked in a shaky breath, letting her eyes drift closed with the pleasure of the feel of him. She slowly, gently rocked her body against his over and over until a small sound of pleasure escaped her lips.

Afraid she’d disturbed him, Vicki’s eyes flew open to check, only to find Ryan had indeed awakened and was watching her from beneath heavy lids.

“Ryan.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say after he’d basically caught her humping him in his sleep.

The discovery of what she’d been doing didn’t seem to bother him, quite the opposite. Ryan touched one finger to his lips before closing the already narrow space between them. “Shhh. Hawk and Wally,” he whispered.

He cupped her face with one of his hands as he touched his lips tentatively and much too briefly to hers. Pulling back, he watched her.

She wrapped her arm around him. “Wally and Hawk left already.”

Ryan let out a low groan and smashed his mouth back against hers.

Vicki flung one leg over Ryan’s hip, pulling him in closer to where she needed him to be. With that, his kiss became more frenzied. His tongue parted her lips and she welcomed it with her own. At the same time, his erection worked its way between her lower lips, and although she wore sweatpants and he wore shorts, the friction was enough to have her moaning with pleasure.

Ryan echoed the sound with a groan filled with longing.

“I want you.” His voice, gruff and sexy, cut through her to the core.

“Oh, God. Yes, Ryan.”

With a sharp intake of breath at her response, he was on top of her with one smooth roll. Then he winced as if in pain. “Ow. Shit. Fuck.”

“What?” She looked down to see how she could have hurt him.

“Forget about it. It’s nothing. Tell you later.” He pulled the waist of her pants down and moved his hand back up to stroke the newly uncovered skin. She couldn’t continue to wonder or worry as he traced his fingers across her hip and continued on to slide them between her thighs. He moaned again as he delved inside, testing her.

“You’re already wet.” Ryan’s throat worked as he swallowed hard over his discovery.

His weight on top of her. The desire clearly written on his face. The long, roughened fingers that lingered, stroking her, stoking her own need. Vicki couldn’t wait any longer. She reached between them and slid her hand beneath the waistband of Ryan’s shorts, freeing his straining erection from the confines of the fabric.

Vicki could see the shiver run down Ryan’s spine at her touch. She stroked him one more time, a long, slow movement, up and down. The sharp breath he drew in sounded almost painful. Not like his “ow” had before. More like painful in a good way—in the if-I-don’t-have-you-right-now-I’ll-die way. She knew how he felt. They’d both been tortured enough.

She angled his tip at her entrance. “Now. Please.”

“Condom.” He rolled to the edge of the mattress.

“You have one? Here?” Vicki frowned.

“Wally travels with them. Don’t ask me why, but I’m not gonna complain about it.” He rifled through a box near Wally’s bed and was limping back to her in an instant.

Covered and ready, he rolled onto her again. She was so slick and he was so hard, it took only one shift of his hips and Vicki felt him plunge blissfully deep inside her.

Somewhere in the back of Ryan’s extremely happy brain, he knew they were in danger of being discovered. But his even happier cock was too busy pummeling into Vicki’s warm, wet and welcoming body to care.

Reaching beneath her, he lifted her hips off the bed and achieved new and amazing depths. Her muscles tightened around him as he watched the rapture on her face. The very male part of his pride took immense pleasure in knowing he was doing this to her, bringing her so much pleasure that she couldn’t catch her breath.

He angled his stroke and immediately saw her reaction as he bumped her G-spot. Eyes closed, mouth open, Vicki threw her head back against the pillow…

And then he heard the door open.

If he thought his heart had been beating hard before, it was nothing compared to now as, while Ryan remained buried hilt-deep inside Vicki, someone walked into the room.

Vicki immediately stilled beneath him. Whoever had walked in had entered while Ryan was on the down stroke. Ryan was sunk inside her about as deeply as he could get, and he remained there, afraid to move a muscle. The man moved to Hawk’s side of the room, telling Ryan it must be his leader rather than Wally. He couldn’t decide which would be worse—having Hawk or Wally catch him buried inside Vicki. He’d prefer to have neither, so he barely allowed himself to breathe as he waited.

To Ryan’s over-heightened senses, the room seemed to reek of sex. He couldn’t believe Hawk wouldn’t smell it even from the other side of the room. He slowly, silently, lowered his weight onto Vicki, hoping that if Hawk peeked around the shelving to check on him, it would look like he was sleeping on his stomach beneath the blanket.

Yeah, right. Fat chance of Hawk believing he was just sleeping on top of Vicki, but there wasn’t much else Ryan could do without making a ton of noise and drawing more attention to them.

The small shift in weight had an unexpected result. Ryan felt the contraction of Vicki’s muscles grip his cock. Her breathing quickened. Under the blanket, she grabbed both cheeks of his ass and held him against her hard.

Vicki was starting to come. He could only hope she wasn’t loud when she did, because judging by the intense pulsing gripping his cock, it was going to be a big one.

He pressed his shoulder against her mouth and she bit down hard as her insides went wild around him. Ryan bit his own lip to keep from reacting aloud. Squeezing his eyes shut, Ryan felt every rippling contraction inside her, felt the decadently sweet pain of her teeth as they sank into his skin, all while listening to Hawk moving around on the other side of the room.

Finally, Ryan heard the door open and close. He let go of the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and allowed his body to do what it wanted to so badly. While Vicki still quivered around him, Ryan thrust hard and fast, plunging deep until he felt the tingle in his balls that heralded the point of no return. With a stifled shout into the pillow, he came harder than he thought possible.

Good thing they were alone, because there was no way he could remain silent during the orgasm that shook him.

It left him weak and wobbly above her. Unable to hold himself up, he collapsed, landing most of his weight on the mattress next to Vicki. They both lay there panting for what seemed like a long time, until Vicki rolled her head toward his on the pillow.

“You’re back.”

He laughed at her statement of the obvious. “Yup. Safe and sound.”

“I’m glad you’re safe. How did it go?”

This was not his normal pillow talk, but considering the time and place, he guessed it wasn’t unexpected. The blush that tinted her cheeks told him she wasn’t feeling as casual about this as the conversation let on.

“It was long, I kind of fell down a mountain and sprained my knee, but we all came home alive so it was a success.”

She frowned. “You fell down a mountain? That’s horrible. You could have been killed.”

“It sounds worse than it was. Really. I only slid about twenty feet. I’m fine.” He made light of it. There were much better things they could be talking about. Like the incredible sex.

He stroked Vicki’s face with the back of his fingers. Her expression softened and then her eyes opened wide. “You must have been exhausted when you got back, and I was in your bed. I’m so sorry.”

They’d just had the best sex he’d had in recent memory, if not ever, and she was apologizing for being in his bed?

He shook his head. “Don’t worry. Really. It’s fine.”

She winced. “But still…I’m sorry.”

An evil grin tugged at Ryan’s mouth. “Well if you’re that sorry, I’m sure I can think of a way you can make it up to me.”

His dick began to rise just from the thought. Surprise and then just plain desire showed clearly on her face. “I was going to ask if you were still tired and wanted me to leave you alone so you could sleep, but I guess the answer to that is pretty obvious.”

He let out a low growl in response and moved on top of her, prepared for another wild, toe-curling ride.

Lifting her T-shirt, he sampled one dusky nipple with his mouth. He was tired, yeah, but he could sleep when he was dead. What he had in mind to do to Vicki, he definitely had to be alive for.

It was pretty surreal since she was sitting in the war room of a firebase somewhere in Afghanistan, but Vicki hadn’t felt this good in…how long? At least a year. She tried not to think about that too much. She really didn’t like the connotations she kept reading into that fact, because she also hadn’t had a romantic relationship in a year. The cause and effect was not one she was willing to accept. She was smart, moderately successful, mostly satisfied with her lot in life—so why did it take a man to make her feel happy?

Although Ryan was not just any man. And what they’d shared together had been really, really great sex. Still, the feminist side of Vicki refused to admit it took a man to complete her.

Then Ryan walked into view and her breath caught in her throat. She felt her face flush. Maybe it didn’t take a man to complete her. Maybe it took Ryan.

He smiled the moment he saw her. She couldn’t stop the huge smile that crossed her lips. He winked at her, and a schoolgirl giggle threatened to well up from deep within her chest.

Right here in the war room, surrounded by soldiers, Vicki felt her heart get suspiciously squishy. She clamped down on it hard. This was neither the time nor the place for her to start to fall for Ryan, no matter how cute he was or how good the sex had been. They were at war in Afghanistan.