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BOOK OF THE MONTH: HOMEFRONT
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
She caught him before his head hit the floor, staggered under his weight, crashing into the center island on their slide to the floor.
It took a lot for Mel to panic but seeing Gale sink to his knees like a puppet that’d just had his strings cut was just the thing to do it.
She was pinned beneath his weight. He was solid and heavy and he wasn’t fucking moving.
Patting his cheek gently, she stomped on the panic that tore at her, terrified her into inaction. She didn’t want to call Jamie, didn’t want her daughter to freak out at seeing her dad laid out on the floor.
“Gale.”
His skin was clammy beneath her touch. He was breathing but his breaths were slow and shallow. She slapped him a little harder. His eyes rolled around beneath his lids.
“Damn it, Gale, if you don’t wake up I’m going to have to call an ambulance and Jamie is going to freak the hell out,” she hissed.
He made a noise deep in his throat. Then his throat moved again as he licked his lips and tried to swallow. He blinked slowly and opened his eyes. “Shit.”
Mel smiled at the disgruntled sound of his voice. “You fainted.”
He frowned, his expression still a little fuzzy. “Men don’t faint.”
“Exhibit A says otherwise.”
He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “What happened?”
She blinked and studied him silently. She didn’t want to go back to the argument they’d had a few moments before. The feelings were raw and aching, suppressed for a time beneath the panic but still there. “We were arguing. You fainted to win the argument.”
He scowled and pushed himself upright onto the heels of his palms. “I didn’t faint.”
“How else did you end up down here?”
She was enjoying teasing him. It was so much better than the fight they’d almost had that had sliced at her heart and attempted to rip it out of her chest.
“What were we arguing about?” he asked.
Upright, still sitting on the floor, he braced himself with his hands between her legs. He looked shaky. Uncertain.
“You don’t remember?”
He scrubbed his hand over his face then looked at her. “No.”
“Does this happen often? Where you faint and don’t remember things?”
He looked away. “No.”
She hesitated. “You’re a terrible liar, Gale.”
He scrubbed his hand over his face again. “I haven’t passed out before. This is new.”
“New and exciting medical symptoms with the added bonus of memory loss. Yay.”
He shot her a baleful look.
“What?” She blinked innocently.
“You’re making jokes.”
“That’s because I’ve learned to deal with abject terror with biting sarcasm.” She did something impulsive then, ignoring his earlier, cutting words. She cupped his cheek, her fingers dancing over the rough stubble on his jaw, and rested her forehead against his. “You scared me.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I’ll try not to faint on you again.”
She smiled. “I’d appreciate it. I have enough grey hairs from Jamie.” She paused. “And Gale?”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t deserve happiness ever again.”
She kissed him then, her lips brushing against his softly. It was meant as a gentle kiss, a hint of something teasing and light. But he captured her mouth, sucking on her lips before taking over and shifting to uncharted territory. A slide of tongues, a scrape of teeth.
His breath mixed with hers. It felt illicit, kissing him there on her kitchen floor. It felt dangerous, as if at any moment Jamie would walk into the kitchen and be scarred for life at the sight of her parents making out like horny teenagers.
But she couldn’t pull away. His earlier words echoed in her memory, taunting her with a hint of losing the thing that drew her to him.
She ignored it, shut it down and pushed it away and lost herself in his taste. The roughness of his skin, the heat of his mouth.
It was Mel who broke away this time. She swiped her thumb beneath his bottom lip. “I don’t think you should drive home tonight.”
He narrowed his eyes, studying her. His throat pulsed when he swallowed. “Jamie-”
“Doesn’t get a vote.” There was fear underlying that statement-the fear of an insecure girl looking back at her from the mirror of time-the fear that he wouldn’t want her enough to stay.
That she would have to leave him again to protect her own heart.
She met his gaze, hiding the fear beneath the very adult desires she let him see. This was heat. This was want.
This was her, wanting him like she’d wanted him for a very long time.
“Stay.” She traced her fingers across his cheek. “Because I am actually worried about you.”
His lips curled into a slow, sensual grin.
“What?” she asked.
“I was just thinking I had a great way to take your temperature.”
“You are a sick, sick man.” Mel covered her mouth and laughed. “You’re the one who fainted,” she said. “I don’t need my temperature taken.”
Gale’s laugh rumbled through the silence. Thick. Heavy. Filled with unasked questions and even more uncertain answers.
She knew what she risked by asking him to stay.
It wasn’t just her own heart on the line. She could admit that she’d never gotten over loving this man. But Jamie? What would happen to her when Gale left again? She knew how to face the fear she’d lived with each time he’d deployed. But Jamie was old enough to understand what war was. Had been since the last deployment. And the one before that. And telling your daughter about war and being unable to promise that her father would make it home was a shitty conversation to have. But she said none of those things at the moment.
Now she studied the man sprawled casually out on her kitchen floor. His arms braced behind him, his uniform snug across his wide, heavy chest.
He was solid. Not just in his body but in something more.
The man in front of her was the man she’d wished he’d been and she’d been too scared and too immature to wait for.
***
Gale sat on the edge of her bed, staring down at his hands. He couldn’t shake the knowledge that his daughter was upstairs.
In the same house.
On the same street.
And he was contemplating getting naked with her mother.
There was no contemplating. Desire, raw and powerful, rocketed through him as he sat there. He wanted Melanie. Had wanted her from the moment he’d crossed the threshold into her home.
Long before even that.
Everything he was had been building toward this. No, not the sex. That was something special, something to be cherished. No; tonight was about something more than sex.
It was potential. A potential he’d craved since the day she’d left him.
Maybe that made him a chump, pining after a woman who’d walked out on him, taking their daughter without so much as a backward glance. But he’d never given up on the girl he’d fallen in love with even when she’d given up on them. He had more faith in her than she did.
Tonight? He couldn’t screw this up.
He glanced toward the bathroom where Mel had disappeared. Light poured out beneath the closed door. He heard the water running as the storm broke overhead.
Rain beat on the windows, pouring down in sheets of water, but there was no thunder. Just violent rain drowning the world outside.
He supposed the sound of the rain would drown out any other sounds.
Jesus, when had he gotten so freaked out by something as simple as taking a woman to bed? Not any woman. Melanie.
He looked away, wondering if he should get undressed or just wait or… He grinned as a deviant idea popped into his head: he should strip off his clothes and stand stark naked in the middle of the bedroom. Maybe put a bow tie around his…
The laugh choked off in his throat.
This would have been so much easier if they’d simply fallen into it. Been consumed by passion and sex and need. Someplace mindless where he’d stripped away her clothes and her inhibitions and made her moan with his hands, his lips.
Then he wouldn’t have had to think. Wouldn’t have had to worry about the sounds they were making and what Jamie was doing right then.
He looked down at his hands again, one leg bouncing nervously.
He didn’t want to admit that the passing-out thing had freaked him out. He’d come close before. The panic was nothing new.
But he’d never passed out before. That was new.
And he wasn’t opposed to taking full advantage of Mel’s concern. But that concern had only gotten him as far as her bedroom. He still had to cross that threshold and… He just didn’t know how to do this.
He scrubbed his hands over his face and glanced toward the bedroom door, making sure it was locked.
Then he padded toward the bathroom door and hoped it wasn’t locked. The handle turned smoothly in his hand. He pushed the door open a crack and a wave of hot steam coated his skin.
He smiled. She was showering. And that gave him ideas that started with steam and ended with her hands gripping his shoulders.
He shucked out of his uniform quickly then stepped into the steaming shower.
She shrieked, covering her mouth before the sound fully escaped.
And then her gaze drifted down, over the water sluicing through the hair on his chest.
Gale was a big man. He knew it and he often took his size for granted. But he’d never felt as desired as he did right then. Her gaze lingered at his erection before trailing back up his body to meet his eyes.
He opened his mouth to say something light and teasing but nothing came out. Damn it, he was as inept as a nineteen-year-old private. Frustration was a sound in his throat as he reached for her, claiming her mouth before she could brace her palms against his chest. She tumbled against his chest, crashing into him. Her body was slick and squirming in all the right places.
The world tilted beneath his feet as he poured all of his desire, everything twisted and writhing inside him, into that kiss.
He let his hands drift from her cheeks down her slick body, pulling her closer until she was naked and writhing against him. She felt small against him. Small but perfect. She fit against him, her breasts against his chest, her hips against his erection. He closed his eyes and simply savored the feeling of Melanie in his arms and prayed that it wasn’t all just a dream.
***
There was something in Gale’s eyes that worried her. Uncertainty. Fear. She couldn’t name it. But when he pulled her close and kissed her, she went willingly into his arms. Wanting, needing to chase away anything that took away from this.
This was heat. This was passion. This was long buried desire swirling around them, slicking over their skin. Her nipples dragged against his chest, pearling beneath the rough wet texture of his hair.
She loved the way this man surrounded her. Held her against him like she was a precious thing.
He leaned back, brushing her hair from her eyes. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
She smiled. “So are you.”
“Men aren’t beautiful.”
“Men don’t faint either,” she said with a teasing smile.
“I’ll show you fainting,” he growled against her lips. He groped behind him, turning off the water.
He stepped out of the shower, dragging a towel from the rack. He was slow, but thorough, sliding the soft cloth over her shoulders. Down the swell of her breasts. Beneath their heavy weight. She’d never worried about their size but feeling Gale’s steady hand palming them, they felt swollen. Tight.
She arched into his palm. Wanted to feel his thumb flick over her nipple. To make her feel and help her forget the years of loneliness that stood between them.
Something warm and wet slid over one nipple. She opened her eyes to see his head bowed in front of her. He met her gaze, his eyes dark and steady. Locked on hers, he dragged his tongue around the edge of her tight nipple. His breath cooled the wet. Her skin prickled and swelled beneath his touch, the air caught in her lungs.
“Do that again.” Her voice was harsh, ragged.
A purely masculine smile curled over his lips. He shifted and dropped to his knees in front of her. He was big enough that his face was level to her ribcage. He looked up at her, and in that moment, she felt worshiped, cherished. After a moment, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his face to her belly.
He’d done this once before. The night she’d told him she was pregnant with Jamie. He’d pressed his face to her belly and simply held her.
The memory collided with the reality of this big man on his knees in front of her, tearing at the fabric of what was real and what was not.
He knelt there, his hair dripping wet drops against her skin. She threaded her fingers through it then, tipped his head up, edging her knees wider as she slid down his body.
Her legs wrapped around his waist. She met his gaze, saw all the uncertainty mixed with intense desire.
“Gale.” His name was a prayer on her lips.
He heard it, recognized it for what it was.
He kissed her then. And gave himself over to whatever this was for as long as it would last.
***
He was strong enough to stand with her legs still wrapped around his hips. His hands cupped her bottom, his erection teased her where she was aching and wet, their lips only parting when he rubbed against her where she was swollen and sensitive.
“Do that again.” A whispered demand.
He smiled against her mouth as his knee found her bed. “I’m not sure what exactly I did,” he said against her lips. “But I’m happy to repeat the experiment until I figure it out.”
He framed her hips with his hands, sliding them up the gentle swell of her sides to cradle her breasts in his hands. She was heavier than when they were younger. It wasn’t fair that he’d aged so well. She felt…
She looked at him then, his gaze dark and admiring as he lowered his mouth to her breast, tracing the tight peak with his tongue. She lifted her hips, hoping to find that delicious friction once more.
She knew what it was. She knew what she wanted. But Gale, damn it, had discovered some fascination with her breasts that was driving her slowly insane. She cupped his chin, dragging his attention away from her body until she could wrap her arms around his neck.
“I want you inside me.” An urgent request.
He grinned and kissed her. Something light and teasing in his expression spoke of darker plans. “I’m not ready yet.”
She narrowed her eyes, a mixture of denied passion and curiosity. “What does that even mean?”
He didn’t answer. He snagged her wrists and tugged first one, then the other over her head. “Leave them there,” he whispered against her mouth.
She arched one eyebrow at him as the position forced her spine to arch. She bent her knees to alleviate the pressure and his eyes darkened as he watched her body open for him.
He traced teasing kisses over her jaw. Down the line of the pulse in her throat. His fingers rasped along her ribs, the harsh pads of his fingers burning her skin.
She closed her eyes as the sensations rose up like a slow fire. She thought she’d been ready.
Oh, but she’d been mistaken.
His tongue traced down her body and she felt pure male pleasure radiate from him. She could have sworn he growled as he nestled against the dark hair between her thighs.
She tensed as his breath blew across her swollen sex.
“Relax,” he murmured.
Then his tongue flicked across her sex and she came up off the bed.
His laugh was pure male. And then he feasted on her. His hands held her hips captive. There was no place for her hands except in his hair, on his shoulders. Gripping, clawing as she arched and writhed beneath his sensual onslaught.
When he slipped a single thick finger inside her, she exploded in a flash of blinding passion, his name a gasp on her lips.
***
Only after he’d felt her burst against his tongue did Gale finally ease the sensual torment. There was nothing more beautiful than feeling her come on his mouth. But his body burned now, needing his own release.
It felt like coming home as he crawled onto the bed and settled his body against hers. The moment wasn’t lost on him as her arms locked around his neck and her thighs cradled his ribs. He was tempted, so tempted to slide inside her and just savor that first moment.
“I suppose we need to have the responsible adult conversation,” she said against his lips.
“I suppose we do.” He smiled, stroking his thumb over her cheek. “Should we go raid Jamie’s room for condoms?”
“That’s wrong on so many levels.” Mel broke out laughing, burying her face in his shoulder as the laugh rocked through her. When she could speak, she kissed him again.
He kissed her, rocking his erection against her slick, wet heat. He buried his face in her neck. “I want to be inside you right now,” he said against her ear.
Still. He wanted no regrets. No mistakes. He left her momentarily and pulled a condom from his wallet and rolled it on while she waited, spread and beautiful and his.
Crawling between her thighs, he framed her with his arms, threading his fingers with hers. “Melanie.”
She opened her eyes as he found her opening. Nudged a tiny bit. Felt her gasp and tighten, her body taut with liquid pleasure. She lifted one leg, hooking it over his hip. And with that single gesture, urged him inside her.
Urged him home.
When his orgasm ripped through him a short time later, he realized that he’d done more than start something new with his wife.
Something old had been reborn between them. As she drifted to sleep, her head on his shoulder, he wondered if she felt the same powerful emotions that kept him awake long into the night.
CONTINUE READING…
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