Tangled Pursuit (37 page)

“Oh, much! Really, Wyatt, your hands are magical.”

He smiled and continued to move his fingers lightly across her skin. “We’re magical together.”

“Tonight, Wyatt, I want you in this bed with me.”

“Oh, I’ll be there,” he promised.

After another ten minutes, the swelling had been reduced by half. He rose. “Stay put. I’ll draw you that bath.”

Tal gave him a weary look. “Thanks. I sure like being spoiled.”

He halted at the doorway, hand on the jamb. “Hey, hasn’t a man ever done this for you?”

She shook her head. “No . . . never . . . but I sure like it.” Tal gave him a wicked, teasing look.

“Get used to it,” Wyatt said.

In no time, the bath was ready. Tal was surprised as Wyatt returned, scooped her gently up into his arms, and carried her into the bathroom. She threw her arms around his shoulders as he eased her into a bright yellow chair in her cream-colored master bathroom.

“I’m undressing you,” he told her in a roughened tone, kneeling down and beginning to unbutton her red silk blouse. Beneath it, she wore a very lacy black bra. Wyatt looked up at her. “Bet this wasn’t Marine Corps issue,” he said, and grinned.

She laughed. “No. Actually, I didn’t wear a bra when working.”

“Yeah,” he murmured, easing the blouse off her shoulders, “I know.”

“You couldn’t know that, Wyatt.”

He gave her a burning look. “Darlin’, I memorized your body years ago. I saw every little thing, like the jiggle of your breasts beneath those cammies you wore.”

“No!” she gasped, surprise in her voice. “Really?”

“Well,” Wyatt said nonchalantly, unsnapping the back of the pretty little bra, “I’m a sniper, too. I see details no one else does, darlin’. But then, you know that . . .”

She allowed him to pull the straps down her arms. “I thought no one could see,” she muttered. Her breasts were firm, the nipples standing up as the material brushed against them. She saw Wyatt’s eyes narrow upon them and Tal instantly felt heat quicken in her lower body. “I have to get into the bath,” she pleaded.

He smiled and dropped the bra on a nearby counter. “I know, but God, you’re beautiful to look at.” Standing, he helped bring her to her feet. “Undressing you is like eating dessert to me,” he said, opening her black wool slacks and easing them down over her hips. The lacy scrap of black panties barely hid anything and his hands halted midair. “You really know how to tempt a man, Tal.”

She laughed a little shyly and wriggled out of them, pushing them toward her knees and sitting down. Wyatt knelt and eased them off each of her feet. “Well, it isn’t like you haven’t seen me naked before, cowboy.”

“Yeah,” he said, holding up her lacy panties, “but you weren’t wearing lingerie like this. Stuff like this is enough to send me into orbit.”

“Just help me into the tub,” Tal laughed, and offered her hand to him. He snapped out of his mesmerized state, set the panties on the counter as if they were sacred, and took her hand. In no time, she had slowly settled down in the warm water with a groan of appreciation.

Wyatt brought over a fluffy white washcloth. Her favorite soap was from Greece, scented with narcissus, and Angelo always made sure she had it in good supply. Taking the white oval bar, she thanked him.

“Anything else?”

“No, I’m perfect. Thank you . . .”

He stood there, hands on his hips, critically watching her, his mouth pursed. “If you didn’t have that bum ankle, I’d be hauling your pretty little butt out of there and carrying you over to that double shower.” He pointed at it across the long, rectangular tiled bathroom. Tendrils of her black hair along her temples were curling slightly in the humidity. It gave her such a carefree look that Wyatt ached, literally, to love her here and now.

Maybe someday, if things worked out between them, he’d damn well do that, because this amazing woman was just too luscious to walk away from.

CHAPTER 20

“I
’M GOING TO
get used to you carrying me everywhere, Wyatt.” Tal grinned, kissing his jaw as he walked with her in his arms, into her bedroom. While she had taken her long, hot bath, Wyatt had stepped into the shower. When he emerged, he dried off, but then helped her out of the tub, took a soft orange towel, and slowly dried her. By the time he was done, she was desperate to lie in her bed and bring him close to her eager body.

“When you love someone, darlin’, you can’t lose any opportunity to tell that person how you feel about them,” he told her, his voice thickening with emotion.

Tal was getting to see Wyatt in an entirely new light. At Bagram, they hadn’t had such luxuries. Time hadn’t been on their side. Now it was, and she appreciated how tenderly he cared for her. Before they left the bathroom, he once again lightly massaged her ankle. It was nearly normal-looking now. Tal had never seen her ankle look this good, and she attributed it to Wyatt’s love and care.

Everything felt better with love, and her body responded to him more strongly than ever. Each gift of love he produced gave her the confidence to open her heart, her mind, and her body to this breathtaking man.

Wyatt held her gently against him and deposited Tal on the silky Greek cover across her bed, appreciating her nude body. Going to the dresser, he looked through the colorful glass bottles she had sitting on a sterling silver tray.

“How about some almond massage oil?” He grinned, picking up a blue bottle. “That’s your first gift this evening.”

She sat on the edge of the bed, already feeling herself getting moist inside at the thought of his gentle hands exploring her body. “That sounds wonderful.”

“This is something I wanted to do the first time we made love at Bagram,” he told her, coming over and easing her legs up and onto the bed. Wyatt got her to roll onto her stomach. Adding a pillow beneath her lower legs, he knelt near her.

“The first time I saw you, darlin’ . . . ,” Wyatt murmured, easing his legs over her thighs, bracketing them, he and opened the bottle, “I felt like someone poleaxed me.” He chuckled a little, allowing the oil to pool in his cupped palm.

Tal closed her eyes, feeling her body simmering. His thighs were thick, hard, and hairy against hers, but the sensations were electrifying to her flesh, her muscles reactive. “When was that, Wyatt?” She closed her eyes.

“I was coming in off a patrol with my team, and I spotted you at Ops. You must have just come in from an op, because you were dirty, sweaty, and as exhausted-looking as we were.”

He rubbed his hands together and leaned forward, opening them and placing them across her shoulders. She was incredibly tense, even after that hot bath. Wyatt understood why. Tal was still working out the ordeal. People thought once a traumatic event was over, they were all right. As a combat medic, he’d learned that wasn’t true. People carried the shock of it for a long, long time in their body. And it could take years, sometimes decades, before the body released its reaction to that life-changing event.

As he moved his fingers knowingly across her shoulders, feeling those muscles beginning to surrender to his gentle nudges, he heard Tal give an appreciative moan.

“Feel good?” he asked, his voice thickening with arousal. Tal’s body had lost some of its overall muscle mass because of her ankle injury. She hadn’t been able to keep up with the exercise routines they all had to do several times a week in order to stay in top shape. He’d seen serious loss of muscle mass in her injured leg as well. After her ankle fully healed, Tal could get back into the gym and rebuild all of it over time.

“Mmmmm, your hands are magic,” she sighed, utterly surrendering to his fingers as they pushed, pulled, and made her feel as if she were melting into the bed. Tal was dissolving beneath his long, fluid strokes down her back as he gently kneaded those knots out along her spine. “I didn’t realize how tight I was,” she murmured.

“It’s the trauma,” he explained, his hands flowing to her lower back, coaxing those muscles to loosen up, too. She had a fine-looking ass, and he spread his fingers, bringing the oil up and over each nicely rounded cheek. He slid further down her limbs and then glided his hands across her shapely thighs. He heard her make a sound, part pleasure, part agony, as her thighs tightened. He was brushing so close to her wet entrance that she began to tense, preparing herself for their lovemaking.

Wyatt wanted to tease her, get her hot and ready for him. Inhaling her female scent only made him harder, made him want to thrust deeply into her, take her hard and fast. But that wasn’t going to happen. Not just yet, anyway.

Tal had been beaten up enough with her injuries, the constant PT, and then carrying the load in her new job as CEO. Wyatt could literally feel all that strain collected and living in her body. Right now, she needed TLC and a lot of ongoing gentleness. He was the right man to bring it to her, but it was tough to restrain himself, because he was yearning to be deep within her hot, tight body.

He worked his way down her thighs. Wyatt moved off her lower legs and knelt to one side, moving them apart enough to get those hamstring muscles releasing, but he allowed his fingers to follow the curve to the juncture, grazing those black curls that were already soaked with her juices, sending his cock into a throbbing ache. Her soft cries, the pleasure he knew he was giving her, made Wyatt remain in complete control of himself. And when she arched into his fingers as he caressed her wet entrance, he smiled, holding her hip in place so that he could continue to tease those soft, wet folds.

When he felt her quiver, Wyatt knew she was ready for him. Right now. Easing his fingers away from her entrance, he heard her breathing become ragged, her fingers digging into the bed covers. His heart swelled as he forced himself away from that area of her delectable body so he could move on down her legs.

Once Wyatt got to her injured ankle, he took his time caring for it. So far, it remained slender but was bluish and bruised, which was normal for this kind of an injury for months afterward. As he got to her feet, he nibbled lightly on each toe, hearing her make happy sounds in her throat. Smiling, he added almond oil to each one afterward. Tal gave a sigh of utter pleasure.

Wyatt stood up and put the almond oil away. Tal’s black hair was knotted with a gold barrette on top of her head. Reaching up, he released the barrette holding her long hair, watching it become a black waterfall cascading across her shoulders and upper back. The glinting strands slipped and flowed through his hands and fingers like ebony water. Wyatt set the barrette on the nightstand and slowly combed through those gleaming strands with his fingers. Sitting down near her hip, he moved his hands across her shoulders.

“That lovely oil’s already soaked into your skin, darlin’,” he murmured. “You need to take better care of yourself . . .” He eased a few dark strands of her hair away from her neck and leaned over lightly licking and then kissing her sensitive nape.

Tal responded with a contented purr until his teeth nipped her just deeply enough to send her to that pain/pleasure threshold.

He pulled her hair to one side, studying her profile in the heated silence, her cheek flushed, her eyes closed, her lips parted, and her breathing ragged. Wyatt enjoyed touching this woman. She was so damned responsive, so ultrasensitive to even his lightest pressure.

He leaned over and kissed her temple, inhaling her scent. “Feel better now?” he asked gruffly, watching her eyes barely open.

“I’m so hungry for you right now, Wyatt. I’m turning over.” Tal rolled onto her side, meeting his hip with her own. She reached out, trailing her fingers along Wyatt’s chest. “You’re
such
a tease, cowboy.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said proudly, catching her hand in his, opening it, exposing her palm, placing a light nip in the center of it, watching her eyes grow sultry with arousal. “But you love it.”

She sighed and patted the bed at her side. “I love you. Now come on. I want you . . . now . . . all of you . . .”

He released her hand, walked to the other side of the bed, and climbed out of his clothes. “You’ll always have me, darlin’,” he rasped, standing above her. Wyatt was constantly aware of that busted ankle and knew it couldn’t take a lot of jostling or stress being applied to it. That narrowed his options for loving Tal for now. Someday, it would be fully healed.

Sliding onto the bed, he rolled onto his side, placing his hand on her hip. “What’s the best position for you because of your ankle?” he asked her.

She wrinkled her nose. “Oh . . . that . . .”

“Yeah, that little ol’ thing,” he echoed.

“I don’t know . . . I hadn’t really thought about it. I hate that I’m not whole, Wyatt.” She pouted for a moment.

“It’s not fun for you. But I think you climbing on top of me is the best position for that ankle of yours. What do you think?” Her breasts were firm and those nipples were begging to be suckled. Wyatt restrained himself, waiting, allowing Tal to feel her way through his important questions.

It was tough for her to think when her body was insisting on release. “That’s probably best,” she agreed, her voice husky with arousal.

“I’d actually like to place you up on that bathroom counter and take you there, but I don’t think your ankle would stand it,” he teased, giving her a grin. He understood that she felt hampered and was a bit depressed not to be able to throw herself into their lovemaking.

“Lockwood, you are such a badass.”

Chuckling, Wyatt lifted her, hands spanning her waist, as he rolled onto his back, bringing Tal over him, her thighs settling on either side of his hips. “Oh, somehow, I think we’ll do just fine. We’re a good team, darlin’. Now, come on, ease down on me and see how your ankle feels about it.”

Wyatt really hated to think of having to use the missionary position. It was his least favorite, but Tal’s comfort came first and he’d do it without a word of protest if her ankle was more comfortable in that position instead. He’d see in a moment.

Tal slowly eased across his thick erection. Her hands slid down his hard abs, her lashes falling, a low sound in her throat as she connected with him, sliding against him. “Mmmm, fine . . . this feels . . . wonderful, Wyatt . . .”