Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines) (49 page)

“It’s called a bustier. It’s like a
corset. I just thought it might help— you know— if we got this far.” Looking at
his face, blushing, she couldn’t quite tell what his stunned reaction said. “Do
you like it? Or is it too...”

“Oh no! It’s.... Yeah, it’s....” he
stuttered, yanking his jeans down over his hips. “I definitely like it!”

Since he was having some difficulty
getting his jeans over his hips, Hanna decided to assist him. She brushed his
hands aside, and efficiently unhooked the rest of the buttons on his jeans. He
was heavy and swollen, making it a difficult task. Carefully, she pushed them
over his erection and down his hips. When he was finally free of his jeans and
briefs, she curled her fingers around his sizeable arousal.

Magnificently naked, he grew larger
with each slow squeeze. Her free hand slid very, very slowly over his muscled
chest. He was gorgeous, and he was all hers, for the rest of her life! She
could barely believe her fantastic fortune.

“You keep looking at me like that,
Doctor, and....”

“And what? You’ll jump my bones?”

“Hell, yeah!”

Her hands wandered across his broad
shoulders, slowly along both biceps, down his dark haired forearms, over his
tight firm buttocks, then back around to his muscular thighs. She felt the
strength and power in them. Bending at the knees, she reached down to stroke
his kneecaps, his rock hard calves. The downward motion of her lace-clad body
rubbed sensuously against his naked one. She felt him shiver and tremble. She
kissed his stomach, then touched him with her tongue.

“Aw, Hanna, sweetheart,” he all but
purred. “I can’t take that right now.” He let her fingers stroke him once more,
then removed her hand with a sigh of regret and lifted her to her feet. “I’ve
wanted you too badly for the last two months.” Turning her, he fumbled with the
hooks at her back and groaned. “How do you get this thing off?”

Hanna reached behind herself to assist
him, laughing softly. “Oh, Colonel, don’t tell me you’ve lost your touch these
past two months.”

“There hasn’t been anyone to touch since
you, Hanna.” After dispensing with her corset-like top, he cupped his hands over
her breasts.

They fell together onto his disheveled
bed. Nick wrapped her in his arms and rolled with her until they were in the
center of the mattress, then he lowered his mouth to her collarbone. His lips
caressed the fading scar there with great tenderness.

Without lifting his dark head, his
mouth traveled the long length of her body. When he reached the edging of her
stretchy lace panties, he tugged them down over her flat stomach and lower, to
her thighs, exposing the vicious scar that marked the worst of her injuries.
The wound was long and jagged. His big body shuddered as he kissed the line of
pinkish-red stitch marks that marred her soft pale flesh.

Breathless, Hanna quivered and wove
her fingers through his short, dark, spiky hair. “Now I have battle scars like
you, just not as many.”

“I’ll never put you in a position to
get anymore.” He lifted his head and looked up at her fiercely, his voice rough
with emotion. “I’ll never forgive myself for causing that. You lost a kidney
because of my stupidity.”

She looked at him just as seriously,
which wasn’t easy with him poised between her thighs. “You need to stop blaming
yourself. I would have followed you even if you had refused to take me. And I
was trying to save your life, so losing a kidney was a small price to pay for
that. My second one is working just fine.”

Growling, he gathered her tightly in
his hard embrace, and then slipped one finger inside her sweet feminine passage
to begin a slow deep rhythm. When he dropped his head to her breasts, he
suckled them until she was writhing beneath him, calling out his name. “I can’t
wait, Hanna. I’m sorry, but it’s been too long.”

“It’s okay, Nick.” Her breathing came
fast and ragged. “Nothing feels as good as you buried deep inside me.”

Positioned where he wanted most to be,
he shoved into her in one long slow stroke. “Aw, Hanna, sweetheart, I love you—
now... forever....”  And with each plunge of his body, he told her he loved her
again.

Cherishing each affirmation, she
raised her hips and locked her long legs, then her ankles around his waist as
tightly as she could. Nick took her with drugging passion and a ferocious
desire that Hanna met with equal ardor. Her body confirmed everything she’d
said to him on the beach. She had always loved him. She always would. Past.
Present. Future. Their bodies wound around each other’s until there was no
separation, only a rapturous joining that left them trembling, too overcome
afterward to do more than curl wordlessly in one another’s arms and fall into
sleep.

ON SATURDAY, they took Nick’s big
Harley up the Pacific Coast Highway to Camp Pendleton. After calling ahead,
Nick took Hanna to meet his commanding officer. They had lunch with General
Tyler and his wife, who were both elated to hear about their wedding plans. The
general was especially glad to meet Hanna since he, too, had heard quite a bit
about her.

When Nick told him that he was
withdrawing his retirement request, he was so elated he promised to find an
appropriate assignment for Nick at Pendleton or at one of the San Diego Naval
stations. He couldn’t promise to keep Nick completely out of Afghanistan even
though the Marines were getting ready to leave there, but he did agree that
Nick had been in the field, on the front lines, for far too long. It was way
past time to give him some safer assignments closer to home. And the general
also told Hanna that he would do everything he could to help her find
employment with one of the many military and civilian hospitals in the area.

Nick still had three weeks left of his
current assignment. Once that was completed, General Tyler also promised him
two weeks of leave to get married. He and Hanna had decided that they’d be married
as soon as he returned to Port George. Hanna was unwilling to wait any longer
than necessary. She had waited all her life for Nick, and she wasn’t going to
wait any longer than absolutely necessary to become his wife. It gave her
enough time to go home, give notice at the hospital and the college, and plan
her wedding.

When they got back to Coronado that
evening, they stopped at a grocery store and bought some things to fix dinner.
Over homemade lasagna and salad, they made a few preliminary wedding plans,
including Hanna’s decision to have Nick wear his Marine Corps dress blues,
which she’d never seen him wear in person.

“I’ll arrange an Arch of Swords,” he
told her, then explained what it meant. “It’s a symbolic pledge of loyalty to
the married couple from the Marine family. I’ll invite a few close officer
friends to be swordsmen, and ask Corporal Vincent to act as one of the ushers.
You know,” he said with a mischievous smile, “be prepared for the final
tradition as we walk under the arch. Right before we get to the end, we’re
stopped. Then the last sword bearer gives the bride a gentle tap on the bottom
and says,
Welcome to the Marine Corps
.”

Hanna thought it sounded delightfully
romantic.

It all seemed too good to be true, but
she didn’t question her good fortune. In bed, later, after making love for the
first time that night, they snuggled together and talked about where they’d go
for a honeymoon.

“I’ve been thinking about that all
day,” she confided to him. “I’d really like to sail from Port George, down the
Pacific coastline, to San Diego in my Emerald Mermaid. It might be challenging,
weather-wise, this time of the year, but we’re both expert sailors, so we
should be able to handle it. And we can dock every few days to relax and enjoy
that odd shaped bed of mine.” She met Nick’s raised eyebrow with a teasing
glint in her eyes, then kissed him from his Adam’s apple to his navel, while
her fingers wove just as teasingly through the thick nest of black hair at his
groin. “When we get down here, we’ll find moorage at one of the marinas, then
live on my sailboat until you get your final orders. I hope you get stationed
in San Diego. I love it here, and there are some great medical schools and
hospitals here, but I’ll go anywhere you do without complaint. Your career
comes first. Remember that. I won’t have a problem finding somewhere to
practice medicine.”

“The important thing is that we’re
going to be together,” Nick concluded. “But I’m taking you to get a good
reliable car after we get settled.”

“No more taking me to work on the back
of your Harley?” she teased.

“Are you going to let me keep it?”

“Hmmm.... I guess so.” She leaned over
and kissed him on his roughed cheek. “I know how much you love your bike.”

“I love you more,” he murmured,
turning into her lips, and then pulling her into his arms. Hanna cuddled
against his wide naked chest and teased him with her fingertips, doing things that
gradually increased the tempo of his breathing. He finally caught both her
wrists, raised them above her head and tucked her long naked body beneath his.
“No more talk for now, honey.”

Locking her in his arms, he rolled
with her back and forth across the mattress, tickling her, wrestling with her
until they were both gasping with playful laughter, which soon turned into more
serious and erotic love play.

THE NEXT MORNING, they were both
soundly asleep when Hanna was roused by someone insistently and loudly knocking
at the Nick’s front door. Finger-combing her hair out of her eyes, she rose on one
elbow and shook Nick awake.

“I think someone’s at your door.”
Groaning, he looked at his watch, rubbed his eyes, gave her a quick kiss, and then
swung out of bed, naked. “Nick, don’t answer the door like that!”

Still half-asleep, he recovered his jeans
off the floor, then yanked them on and headed towards the door in the other
room.

Hanna heard Lance come into the living
room. She hurried out of bed and pulled on her long silk robe. After running a
quick brush through her hair, she went out to greet him.

Lt. Commander Sharp stood slightly
behind him. Both men looked tired and hung over. Standing there in nothing but
a robe, Hanna felt a warm blush creep into her cheeks. Bare-chested, dressed in
only his jeans, Nick glanced over his shoulder at her, took a step backwards,
and hooked an arm around her waist.

“So, I take it you’ll be asking me to
be your best man?” Lance inquired, eyeing the two of them and their obvious
happiness. “When?”

“Three or four weeks. Hanna’s going to
set the exact date.” Nick smiled broadly and gave her a squeeze. “I’m going to
be stationed either here or at Pendleton, too. My reassignment is a wedding
present from General Tyler. Guess he figured he better let me stay close to my
bride or see me retire.”

It still amazed Hanna that Nick had
actually been ready to retire for her.

Ty Sharp stepped over to shake his
hand. “Congratulations, buddy. It’s about time they took you out of the field.”

“General Tyler thinks he can get Hanna
a job at the one of our hospitals in the region, too.”

“Trauma surgeons are always in
demand,” Ty Sharpe commented in approval.

Hanna didn’t want Nick worrying about
her career. Once he got his realigned, she’d be just fine.

“They couldn’t find a better one,”
Lance said, smiling broadly.

 “Did you survive the weekend?” Nick
asked his brother. “You look a little bleary eyed.”

“Barely.” Lance chuckled. “Ty and his
SEAL buddies really know how to tie one on and where to go to have a good time.
Corporal Vincent might not be worth a damn for a day or two yet. But I’m going
home tonight. Hanna?”

Hanna looked at Nick regretfully.
“I’ll be on the flight. If we’re going to be married in three or four weeks, I
better start making the arrangements.”

“Mom will gladly give you a hand,”
Lance stated, laughing. “I can just imagine how crazy it will be around the
house for the next few weeks.”

Hanna walked over to him and embraced
him. “Thank you, Lance. You saved my life.”

“Mine, too, bro,” Nick added, reaching
for Lance to give him a quick hug and a slap on the back. “Thank you.”

Lance stepped away and picked up his
bag. “I’m glad you’re both happy. Of course, everyone at home will be elated.
There will be no living with Mom now. She’ll be in full command mode with these
wedding plans. Good thing, you’ll be out of the way, bro.”

“I’ll be home as soon as I finish this
assignment— three weeks.” Nick saw Hanna’s beaming, dimpled smile, and bent
down to kiss one of those dimples.

Lance and the lieutenant commander
chuckled, then turned to walk to the door. Nick and Hanna followed, their arms
intertwined around one another. Outside, Corporal Vincent waited behind the
steering wheel of the staff car, tapping his fingers to the beat of some piece
of very loud rock music which was heavy on the bass. When he saw his commander
standing shirtless in the doorway of his quarters, he waved.

Nick shook his head. “Impudent kid. I
can tell he’s been around you, Ty. Now he’s waving instead of saluting.
Thanks.”