“Nothing yet. For some reason the commanding officer from the team’s base in Afghanistan—the one who oversaw their trumped-up discharge from the Army—is in town. And because he was friends with her father, he called Becca and asked to get together. She’s gonna do the meet tomorrow morning. They’re sending her in wired, just in case.” Becca Merritt was Nick’s girlfriend, the daughter of his Special Forces A-Team commander who’d died last year.
Worry curled into Jess’s belly. She’d gotten to know Becca over the past few weeks. She was nice and sweet and she smoothed Nick’s sometimes too-hard edges. And the woman had been through a fuck-ton already—way more than Jess, that much was for sure. “Man, Nick must be flipping out.”
“No doubt.” Ike tossed his phone to the mattress beside him. “I’m useless like this. I gotta get out of this bed.” He shifted like he meant to get up.
Jess planted a hand in the center of his red-hot chest. And not the good kinda hot, either. “Not ’til you’re better.” The fact that she was able to so easily push him back down proved he still needed to be in this bed.
He sagged back into the mattress and his eyelids fell closed. “Don’t like being apart from you.”
Even though she knew he meant that in the protective sense, warmth still bloomed inside her chest. “Want me to stay?” she asked.
His lids flipped up and those dark-brown eyes peered up at her. “Yes.”
He was sick and flat on his back, but something about the quickness of his answer and the intensity of his gaze sent a ripple of awareness through her body. “Well, then scooch over, ya big lug.”
“You say the sweetest things,” he said, voice like gravel.
“I know, right? I’m such a peach.” Jess stretched out beside him, just barely resisting the urge to curl into all that hard muscle and inked skin. But it wasn’t like she could still use the excuse that she needed to steal his body heat.
He stretched out an arm toward her and patted his chest. “C’mere.”
“I don’t want to make you too hot.” She said the words even though she really didn’t want him to change his mind.
“You make me feel good,” he murmured.
Jess settled right into the side of his body, not minding the heat radiating off of him one bit. She tried not to feel so pleased by what he’d said. She really did. But she was pretty much giddy inside.
The sigh he released was full of comfort and satisfaction. Because of her.
Gah!
Okay, Jess. Don’t be ridiculous.
She’d still been talking herself down from reading into his words and actions when she’d apparently drifted off to sleep…
Voices woke her. No, one voice.
Ike. Talking and restless in his sleep. She couldn’t understand the slurred words, so she turned onto her back and closed her eyes. Ike’s body followed hers. He turned on his side and curled himself around her—close enough to feel that his cock was totally hard against her thigh.
The heat that shot over her body had nothing to do with Ike’s fever.
God, he felt big and thick against her. Her hands itched to stroke him. She licked her lips, her mouth hungry to feel his heaviness on her tongue, against the back of her throat. She shifted her hips, her core clenching at the thought of feeling him penetrate her, open her, ride her. Hard.
Nearly holding her breath, Jess stayed still. His erection would go away and her heart would stop racing, and then she’d fall back to sleep and forget this ever happened.
As if. In the dark, she rolled her eyes at herself.
There were cocks and then there were cocks. This one did not feel forgettable, thank you very much.
“Jess,” Ike whispered.
“Uh, hey.” Because it wasn’t weird at all for them to talk while his hard-on was touching her.
No answer. And then: “Fuck, Jess.” His hips rocked, grinding his erection against her thigh. He released a rough breath and nuzzled his face against hers. His lips dragged across her cheek until he was pressing his lips against her ear.
Holy fucking shit.
“Uh, Ike?” she said. Was he awake? If not, did she want him to be?
A hand dragged up her stomach, pulling her tank top with it. He squeezed her breast, hips grinding, harsh breaths in her ear.
My God, she was gonna die from how fucking hot this was.
He mumbled something that sounded a helluva lot like “need you,” and Jess was pretty damn sure if he kept this up, she was going to come without him getting anywhere near her clit.
Not to mention, if he was dreaming about being with her and needing her, what did that even mean? Something? Nothing? Everything?
He didn’t give her time to debate it. Ike shifted, his body rolling partially on top of her. It was too much weight on her thigh and knee, which she forced up and out from under him—unintentionally putting her thigh under his waist and his big body between her legs.
He rocked against her, but this time his cock ground against the very top of her thigh. Fuck, so close to where she was absolutely throbbing for him.
She didn’t want this to stop, but she couldn’t let it go on, either. Could she?