Reckless Pleasures Read online

  Regret and guilt and love and need bled together deep within her, making her dizzy with the intensity. She stepped closer, pressing her body into his. The only time she felt a hundred percent okay was when he was inside her, forcing everything else out.

  She budged her hand down his chest and stomach until she found the outline of his erection through the thick khaki of his pants.

  He groaned into her mouth.

  With quick movement, she opened the catch and pushed his pants down, careful not to cause him more pain as she maneuvered around his cast. Then she jerked his T-shirt up over his head, flinging it to land on the other side of the room even as he worked his fingers up under her tank, cupping her breasts in his palms.

  Air hissed through her lips as he gently plucked her tight nipples and then bent to run his tongue along the length of one breast, then the other.

  Desire rushed through her bloodstream and then back again, coalescing in a deep pool between her thighs.

  The shadow of someone walking past the window reminded them the possibility of being seen existed. Dari leaned slightly away, stripping her of her tank before moving to close the curtains and switch on the air conditioner while she checked to make sure the door was locked as she stepped out of her own pants.

  They faced each other and Megan couldn’t help thinking they weren’t merely physically naked, but emotionally as well.

  This was one place she didn’t have to pretend. She loved Dari. With all her heart. She had from the first moment their eyes met. And she loved him even more now.

  She allowed that to show as she gazed at him in the dim light.

  She wasn’t aware he had moved until she felt the back of his knuckles graze against her sex.

  She gasped, automatically spreading her thighs to allow him better access.

  He didn’t disappoint. He turned his hand around, stroking the length of her swollen flesh with his fingertips before dipping one into her slick opening and then rubbing her own juices over her throbbing clit.

  “Yes,” she whispered, dropping her head back and losing herself in sheer emotion….

  12

  THERE WERE TIMES when Dari touched Megan that he thought he might spontaneously combust. On her face, he witnessed such naked emotion he felt compelled to look away, but couldn’t. Never had he shared such a connection with another human being before. And during those few violent moments in the Afghan mountains, he was afraid he never would again.

  That she was standing before him now, stripped of clothes and pretense…he knew he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Not just because he was with her physically, but because she opened to him in a way that set off a series of emotions he couldn’t begin to identify but which took him to a place he sometimes wished he never had to leave.

  She bore down against his hand where he stroked her wetness. She was always so ready for him it was often difficult to suppress the desire to thrust into her to the hilt, forgoing foreplay altogether. But he loved to watch her face when he took his time with her.

  Speaking of which…

  He leaned back and with his free hand, switched on the lamp, sending her shadowy form into soft relief.

  She blinked and turned her head away. “Do we need that?”

  He squinted. She’d never objected before. In fact, she was more often the one to reach for the light.

  “I want to see you,” he said.

  He watched her swallow and tilted her chin toward him even as he removed his fingers from between her legs. Still, she refused to meet his gaze.

  He knew a moment of fear. An alarm not much different from the one that had shot through him right before the translator stepped on that IED.

  Then she raised her eyes to his and he instantly relaxed. “You always were a perv,” she whispered.

  He smiled and then kissed her deeply, not stopping until she melted against him, her nipples pressed against the wall of his chest, her hips swaying against his.

  Before he met Megan, he’d thought he knew what love was. He’d been in three long-term relationships and nearly married his high-school sweetheart. But what he’d found with Meg…well, everything that came before paled horribly by comparison. She made him feel as if he’d sprouted wings and could fly.

  But he’d sensed a distance in her since his return.

  He had several Marine buddies who had suffered the ultimate in separation: the death of love. In many cases, absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder, it made it grow cold.

  He’d seen it happen on both sides.

  Then there’s what went down when an injury was involved…

  No matter how serious, often the very real possibility of death sometimes caused a loved one to react in self-defense.

  He’d never seen any of it happening to him and Megan. They were both veterans of some of the most hellish military actions. They’d forged their relationship during one of them. Witnessed what happened to others. And as such, could safeguard themselves, their relationship, from suffering the same fate.

  But there were times since his return he swore she was avoiding him. Then they’d be alone and he knew he still had her heart.

  Her fingers snaked around his erection, causing his breath to hiss between his teeth. Did she have any idea how profoundly she affected him? He used to think she did. Before he left. Now…he wasn’t so sure. It was as if she held everything that was him in her capable, probing palm—to nurture…or destroy.

  “How’s your leg?” she whispered.

  He swallowed hard, barely capable of thought when she touched him like that. “What leg?”

  She smiled.

  Dari groaned and grasped her hips, lifting her to lie across the bed where he followed. She spread her thighs wide and he fit perfectly there, his pulsing length cradled in her slick folds. But he resisted the desire to breach her threshold, no matter how much she wriggled and tried to encourage penetration.

  Instead, he kissed her deeply, stroking her hair back from her beautiful face, then ran his lips along the line of her brow, down over the curve of her cheek, tracing the outline of her collarbone, then dipped lower to draw a taut nipple into his mouth…

  Megan immediately let her approval be known, bucking her hips off the mattress and renewing her search for a deeper meeting.

  Dari grasped her hips, holding her still while he dropped wet kisses along her trembling stomach until he was where he’d planned to be all along….

  Her sweet, musky scent filled his senses as he used his thumbs to part her swollen folds, revealing the pink, delicate flesh just beneath. He fastened his lips to the tight nub of her clit, and flicked his tongue back and forth. She moaned and twisted the bedsheets in her fists, coming almost immediately.

  Rather than abandoning her, he laved her leisurely, prolonging her crisis, reveling in the shivers that continued to ripple through her muscles. Only when she was completely relaxed again did he lick his way back up to kiss her.

  She draped her arms around his waist, pulling him close. “What you do to me…”

  He pulled back slightly. “If it’s a fraction of what you do to me, then it’s impressive, indeed.”

  She smiled and kissed his neck, shifting her hips so that his almost painful erection was cradled in her dampness.

  “Are you sure you’re ready?” he asked.

  “Baby, for you, I’m always ready.”

  That’s all the incentive he needed.

  Grabbing a condom from the nightstand, he sheathed himself and positioned the head of his shaft against her tight portal. She bore upward, taking in an inch. He gladly sank slowly up to the hilt.

  Sweet angels, she felt so damn good. Tight and wet and responsive. There was no place on earth he felt this way, nowhere else he’d rather be than right here, her soft muscles contracting around his thick hardness. He withdrew and sank down again, pain forgotten, doubt erased, leaving nothing but pure, hot sensation in its wake.

  Megan crossed her legs behind his
back and tilted her hips forward, taking him in deeper still.

  “Yes…”

  The whispered word coming from her lips sent his blood pressure soaring. He increased the rhythm of his strokes, not wanting to rush it, but unable to help himself.

  She ran her fingernails down his back and cupped his backside, hungrily meeting him thrust for thrust, her breasts swaying with each move. He leaned down to kiss her and paused, counting backward from ten to ward off his crisis. But when she ground upward against him, he groaned, holding her still as he thrust into her again…and again…

  “Oh, yes, baby, yes,” she whispered, shuddering around him.

  Dari strained to keep up the rhythm as the force of his own climax hit him hard, threatening to paralyze his movements. Somehow he managed to keep up, riding the billowing waves, continuing even after she’d gone still, and his own shuddering subsided.

  “I love you,” he murmured.

  Her arms tightened around him. “I love you more.”

  That’s when the moment he’d been waiting for presented itself. He’d thought about it nonstop since the ability to think at all was nearly stolen from him.

  Reaching for his pants, he took out the velvet pouch in his pocket, wishing he could have gotten the box he’d wanted first, but not willing to wait another moment.

  She watched him through the fringe of her lashes. “What are you doing?”

  “Hush and give me a minute.”

  He awkwardly got down on one knee next to the bed. By now she was curious enough that she moved to a sitting position, staring at him quizzically.

  “Dari?”

  “Not yet.”

  He closed his eyes, summoning the words he’d imagined he’d say. But he found them hard to come by.

  He smiled and gazed into her shocked face as he raised the velvet pouch. “From the moment that IED exploded, all I could think of was you, Megan,” he said quietly. “And the fact that I’d never told you how I felt.” He chuckled. “Okay, maybe I mean I’ve never showed you.” He took the three-carat diamond solitaire from the pouch. “Never officially asked you to be my wife.”

  She looked so surprised he wondered if she’d heard a single word he’d said.

  Then she launched herself into his arms.

  After a few moments, he pulled back so he could kiss her and was startled to find her cheeks damp.

  She was crying.

  He knew a moment of fear so profound he didn’t know quite what to do with it.

  “Megan? Are you okay?”

  SHE WAS OVERWHELMED…

  Megan crawled back up into the bed and rolled onto her side, curling up into a semi-fetal position, laid completely bare by Dari’s lovemaking—and his impromptu proposal. All barriers tumbled down. She was unable to hide from him anymore. Especially when she saw the pained expression on his handsome face, the tenderness and concern in his eyes.

  It was ironic somehow that the very elements that had brought them together two and a half years ago were now what threatened to pull them apart. In the swirling chaos of violence, Dari had emerged a rock to which she could cling. He’d grounded her when she was afraid she might rocket away from all that made her human. Reminded her what it was like to touch, taught her what it meant to love.

  Introduced her to a feminine, nurturing part of herself she had never known existed much less explored.

  A wartime romance with a modern twist. An intense fling. That’s what she’d tried to label their time together overseas. She certainly hadn’t expected it to last beyond a return stateside.

  Not only had they lasted, they’d bonded even further, becoming a true couple in every sense of the word. She’d often felt that where he left off, she began. Instantly related to every corny word of every love song she’d once taken great pleasure at scoffing.

  Understood why her father had loved her mother so completely, even long after her death—at the expense of having any meaningful relationship with his only child, his daughter.

  And here she had gone and destroyed it…

  “What is it? What’s the matter?”

  She shook her head, incapable of words.

  He curved against her back, holding her close. She held tightly on to where his arms were wrapped around her, wishing they could stay like that forever…

  Afraid that she didn’t have long before they were gone altogether…

  13

  THE FOLLOWING DAY Dari was so distracted by his worry for Megan, he barely noticed the throbbing of his leg. He and Jason were paired up again. Despite his contention that he could lead a search team on his own, his old pal and partner insisted that they go out together.

  He didn’t argue.

  They were all on the outskirts of their search sites just before dawn, the sky above the color of an old bruise. He and Jason and a couple of the more experienced Lazarus members were to follow a path close to where the girl’s bike was found. The others had been placed at twenty-yard intervals. It was a pretty good bet that the sheriff’s deputies would be arranging for citizen volunteers to search the same area, so they wanted to get a head start.

  As for the FBI, Linc had indicated that they’d already swept and cleared the area, turning up no further evidence. But their search area had been limited, so the Lazarus team was to assume that something still might turn up.

  They were two hours in and the sun had fully risen, turning even the forest air stale and hot. They passed the place where the bike had been found some time ago and he and Jason kept close while the other two team members were some yards ahead.

  “You okay?” Jason asked.

  Dari’s back teeth ground together. “I wish everyone would stop asking me that.”

  His friend raised his hands. “Hey, excuse me all to hell and back for caring.”

  Dari grimaced, fighting to concentrate on the area around him. There was still far too much standing water around for his liking. Some areas were covered up to his shins, making for slow going and impossible search conditions. Anything could be under the murky surface. And the chance existed that their tramping might send a key piece of evidence deeper into the muck at the bottom.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “Didn’t mean to bite your head off.”

  “No harm no foul. So long as you answer my question.”

  Dari stretched his neck, using an expandable metal poker, not unlike those used by people who collected litter to probe the deeper puddles.

  “It’s not me I’m worried about,” he said quietly.

  Jason didn’t immediately respond, so he thought maybe he hadn’t heard him. Which was just as well. He’d never been one to discuss personal problems with friends or family.

  “It’s Megan,” he continued without planning to.

  Jason looked at him.

  “She’s… I don’t know. Something’s wrong. I don’t know what. I’m almost afraid to ask, but…”

  His friend remained silent as they made slow but steady progress.

  “Something’s not right.”

  “I’m sure everything’s fine,” Jason said. “She’s happy to have you back.”

  “And I’m happy to be back. Despite the circumstances. But…”

  Jason chuckled as he checked under a low-hanging branch. “What’s the saying? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?”

  That made him smile. “Doesn’t that refer to bad dental care?”

  “More your area.”

  “Kind of like not asking an attractive woman with bad teeth to smile.”

  His friend gave an exaggerated shiver. “God, makes me think of that one girl in Omaha. Remember?”

  “I remember you bitching about it. I also remember it didn’t stop you from sleeping with her.”

  His friend went silent.

  They continued their forward movement without speaking for a few minutes.

  Then Dari cleared his throat. “Did something happen while I was away?”

  Jason stared at him. “What do you mean?�
�

  He shrugged and watched his footing through a patch that was flooded to his knees. His right foot hit something and he winced. “With Megan. Did something happen?”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Did you notice anything different while I was away?”

  “She missed the hell out of you. I know that. And she pretty much shut herself off from everything else outside work.”

  “Really?”

  “Really, what? That she missed you?”

  “No. That she shut herself off from everything.”

  “Yeah. It surprised me, too.” They were close enough that Jason slapped his hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. Probably emotional overload. You know chicks. Your being hurt. Coming home. This case and the odds of the girl being found alive dwindling. Hell, isn’t there a full moon tonight?”

  He chuckled. “Then there’s that.”

  They fell silent again. But what refused to be quieted was the small voice in the back of his head telling him something was wrong. And it wouldn’t be right again until he found out what it was.

  LATER THAT EVENING, Megan cleared the dinner wrappers in the command center. None of the search teams—theirs or the sheriff’s—had turned up anything noteworthy. Dari had gone with Linc and a couple of the guys to catch a beer at a nearby bar. Seeing as it was a Friday, most of the team had done the same, leaving her and a couple of stragglers behind. And now even they had left.

  She’d been relieved when Dari had agreed to join the guys for a beer. Ever since last night she’d been an emotional wreck. While there had been hope that time might heal all before, after crying in front of him she knew he’d be like a dog with a bone between his teeth. And the way he looked at her now…

  She swallowed hard.

  Distracting him with sex had been a great idea. Right. What she hadn’t counted on was what would happen when they made love.

  Or when he proposed.

  She’d found the exquisite diamond ring he’d tried to give her on the bedside table along with a note: “You don’t have to give me an answer now. Keep this until you do.” Signed simply, “Dari.”