chapter 14
SHE COULD WALK out the door, hop on her bike and get in a ten- or twenty-mile ride. And she could also stick a pin in her eye.
Lars waited patiently for her decision. There was a quietness about him as he stood, broad-shouldered, lean-hipped, his usually laughing eyes serious in his lean face. Her entire body tingled at just the sight of him. She felt a quickening in her womb, the slick wet between her thighs, the ache in her breasts.
She looked away from him, hoping to clear her thoughts. How was she supposed to think while they were standing in a bedroom together?
She worried her lower lip between her teeth. Perhaps she’d overreacted a bit earlier. Her bike would be here with her for the next three months while her...whoa, not her but the marine would be shipping out in a few short days.
There was caution, and then there was stupidity. She’d never been with a man who turned her on the way Lars Reinhardt did...and apparently she did the same thing for him.
She smoothed her hands down her thighs. “I suppose I could spare a hug.”
He opened his arms and it felt like so much more than a simple invitation to hug him. It was a hug and he was just another man, she reminded herself as she closed the distance between them. She stepped into his outstretched arms and embraced him. She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest, hearing his heart thudding beneath her ear. She inhaled his scent—a combination of sun, man and their earlier sex.
She nestled closer, her arms still wrapped around him. His arms tightened around her, but not hard, more as if she were a delicate treasure he didn’t want to let go.
His chest was hard against her tender nipples. His quiet sigh seemed to ripple from his body into hers on a wavelength of shared desire. Her whole body was a little tender, a little sore, merely heightening her sensitivity.
Lars rested his head against her hair. It occurred to her that this was the longest he’d been quiet since she’d met him. It was another side to the man who was spinning her world into something temporarily fantastic.
His lips brushed against her scalp as his penis pressed against her, evident despite the layers of their clothes.
Like a match tossed amid dry tinder, desire engulfed her in its flames.
There was something powerful in the silence between them. She wrapped her hands around his biceps and turned him around. Three steps behind him was the mattress. Walking him backward, she pushed lightly and he went down like a mighty oak.
He lay on the bed, looking at her like a man who’d just won the lottery.
Foolish man.
He held out his hands to her. “Delphi?”
She stepped between his open legs and placed her hands in his. Palm to palm, kneeling on the bed, she lowered herself to him.
Foolish her.
“Do you think everyone downstairs will know what we’re doing up here?” she said.
“Doubtlessly.” It wasn’t particularly what she wanted to hear, but at least it was truthful. And wasn’t that what she wanted? “But it’s okay. I think they’ve all had sex before.”
She laughed. “I think you’re right.” Besides, the whole town could know, and she wasn’t getting up and walking away now.
She smoothed her fingertips over the fine lines near his eye.
“Too many days spent squinting in the sun. Sunglasses only help so much.”
“The Middle East?”
“Yep.” He caught her hand and brought her fingers to his lips, pressing a soft kiss against them.
He didn’t want to talk about work and neither did she. It wasn’t the time.
She smiled, an unexpected tenderness welling inside her. “I like them. They add character.”
“I’d like to think I manage to have character on my own, Delphi.” Despite his teasing tone, a seriousness underscored his words. “These lines don’t mean anything except I’ve spent too much time in the sun. I could be the biggest bastard in the world and still have these.”
So she might’ve overreacted to his prolonged absence earlier, but he was definitely overreacting to this. Perhaps she unsettled him the way he unsettled her. She hoped so. And she truly didn’t want to overthink any of this—she just wanted to experience him...them, if he’d just quit talking. “Lars...”
“Yes?”
“Sometimes you don’t know when to shut up.”
“You’re in charge. I’ve got a couple of ideas as to how you could shut me up.”
She picked up a pillow, brandishing it as if she was going to put it over his face. Lars laughed lazily and grabbed her butt. Most men would’ve grabbed her hand or arm. Lars grabbed her ass. Which was just fine with her. She liked the way his big hands caught and held her rear cheeks.
“That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Delphi...”
She tossed the pillow aside and shifted on him, bringing her pubic area into direct contact with his erection.
Lars groaned. “Oh, woman, you are driving me...”
She hoped to distraction, because that’s how she felt.
Fully aware of how to satisfactorily shut him up, Delphi wriggled farther up his big, hard body until she saw her reflection in his irises.
She kissed him. Letting herself go, she indulged every kissing whim she felt. Tiny little butterfly touches of lip against lip. Sharp little nibbles. Slow, lazy glides.
He hadn’t shaved and his faint beard rubbed against her mouth and cheek. Her skin would be red afterward. Who cared? His mouth was too delectable and he seemed to enjoy kissing as much as she did. He alternately stroked her back and massaged her buttocks.
She tugged at his T-shirt and he nodded. There was simply no need for words. Together they stood, undressing without fanfare. Delphi was fairly certain it had something to do with their respective professions. He was used to being methodical and so was she. However, when she reached for the waist of her bike shorts, he caught her hand in his, shaking his head. “Leave them on. Please,” he tacked on as an afterthought. That’s right—she was the one in charge of this particular operation. She indulged him and left her bike shorts on. Who’d have thought those would be sexy? But apparently it really did something for him, judging by his jutting penis and the hot gleam in his eyes. And when a man looked at a woman the way Lars was looking at her, she’d feel sexy in a cloth sack. Woohoo for bike shorts!
Of course she’d seen him naked before, but last night, they had been at the lake. The sun had been going down and she’d just been too flustered to pay attention to details. And well, this morning, she’d had her head under the covers and then she’d been on her belly.
But now, now she had plenty of time and the sun was beaming in over the top of the lower café curtain.
She was fascinated by what she saw.
“Delphi?” He looked at her quizzically. “What’s wrong?”
She found a boldness she’d never known she possessed. It wasn’t as if they were dating or even had a potential future. She dragged her gaze up to his face. He really didn’t know?
“Lars Reinhardt, it’s a crime against women for a man to look this good. You were at the head of the line when they were handing out beautiful male bodies.” And she fully appreciated the amount of work he must put into maintaining his muscled, honed physique.
“Damn, Delphi...” he said. Good grief, he was turning a dull shade of red. Now it was her, however, who couldn’t seem to shut up. “If you were a patient, every nurse and female technician, as well as Rodney, who swings the other way, would be lining up to get a look.”
Shaking his head, he touched his hand to his temple. “Woman, please.” Nonetheless, she could see he was pleased, even if he was a little embarrassed. And it certainly hadn’t diminished that impressive joystick of his. “It’s not as if you haven’t been naked with me before.”
“Yeah, well...” She just didn’t need to go through the rest of that. “Good God.”
He grinned, his arrogance pushing aside his earlier embarrassment. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but if you insist.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her between his legs. In one smooth motion, he stretched out on the bed, pulling her along with him, on top of him. “Now find a better use for that mouth instead of talking me to death.”
“Ha. You’re one to talk...literally. Anyway, you can’t tell me what to do. I’m in charge of this mission.” She’d never been so lighthearted when she was naked with a man. It was usually pretty serious stuff, but with Lars, it was as if some dam inside her had given way.
“Look, Blondie, you can’t designate me a god and then still be in charge.”
“Oh, yes, I can. Those were the terms of this particular engagement. You can’t change the rules in the middle.”
He sighed as if he was being tested to his limits even as he traced the slightly puckered outer edge of her areola. The lightest of touches created a mind-blowing sensation that shot all the way through her. She sucked in her breath.
“Speaking of...” he drawled. “I’d say you’ve got all the makings of a goddess.” He caught her breasts up in his palms and seemed to weigh them, catching the tender points between his thumb and forefinger. “Definitely a goddess. That means you can be in charge of a god.”
It was all so silly, but erotic at the same time. She supposed that made her the goddess of bicycle shorts.
She ran her hand over his pecs. “If I’m in charge, why are you making all the rules?”
“Because I’m in charge of you being in charge.”
He was impossible, in a totally wonderful way. “Shut up, Lars.”
“I was about to tell you the same thing.”
Delphi knew just the thing to shut him up.
She caught the tip of his earlobe between her teeth, following the nip with a swirl of her tongue.
She whispered against his skin, “Two rules—”
“Rules?”
“Yep. The first one is that you can’t talk.”
“Dammit, woman.”
“I can always pack up my toys and go home if you don’t want to play.” She made a pretense of moving off of him. They both knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Okay, I won’t talk. What else?”
“You have to just lay there and let me do what I want to do, when I want to do it and how I want to do it.”
“You’re powertripping, Blondie.”
“Trust me, Marine.”
She thought he might give her the no-go, but he finally offered a tight nod.
He was 100 percent correct. She was powertripping...and she loved it.
She licked, sucked, nipped and kissed down the column of his strong brown throat. Her breath was ragged as she pressed openmouthed kisses along his shoulder. The man’s skin was like silk.
She devoured him, ravishing every inch of him. She swirled her tongue over his male nipples. His areolae were large and dark. She teased her tongue around the rim of his belly button.
She tasted his hip, inner thigh, the length of his velvety penis, the heavy weight of his sac, the heavily muscled quads. And with each touch of her mouth and hands, she felt him grow more and more tense, until his breath echoed harshly in the room and his big hands were tightened into fists.
Delphi straddled his hips and positioned herself against his cock, shorts and all. She cupped him in her palm. Hand on one side and her spandex-covered sex on the other, she “rode” him. She was barely in control of herself as she pushed harder and faster, her breasts bouncing with the rhythm she set. She had long ago drenched the crotch of her shorts with arousal. She knew he felt her slick juices and the fabric with each slide against his cock. And with each slide, her * was stimulated, over and over and over.
Lars’s face grew rigid and she thought each stroke would send him over the edge, but it wasn’t until she found her own pinnacle of pleasure that he came.
Delphi collapsed somewhat inelegantly on top of him. Something had just happened that was outside the realm of recreational sexual pleasure. Later, she’d think about all of it.
Lars tapped her shoulder. She dragged her head up to look at him. A fine sheen of sweat coated his face. He quirked an eyebrow. Still dazed, it took her a second to figure it out.
“You can talk.” Good luck to him. She barely got that out.
“You can be in charge anytime.”
Delphi smiled as she closed her eyes and rested on his chest.
Yeah, it had been that good.
Thank goodness he was temporary, she thought sleepily. Otherwise she’d be in trouble. Serious trouble.
* * *
LARS LOOKED OVER at the woman who was conked out in his bed. He resisted the urge to touch her face. She was obviously wiped out. He’d caught a quick nap himself but he was damn near starving now.
He eased out of bed and dressed. She hadn’t stirred. He started out the door and then reconsidered. He found a piece of paper and a pen. No more misunderstandings like the one earlier today.
Picking up chow next door. Back soon.
He propped the note on the bedside table and eased out the door. Downstairs Jefferson and Dwight were exactly where he’d left them. He idly wondered if they ever got up to pee.
Dwight shot him a sly glance. “That was some five minutes there.”
Delphi might be pissed if she’d heard, but she was asleep upstairs, so no harm, no foul. Lars grinned. “Yessir, it was.”
He pushed through the connecting door to the restaurant/bar next door. Gus’s, the only chow line in town, was hopping. But then again, as far as he could tell, Gus’s was always hopping.
Bull, Merrilee and Dirk were sharing a table to the right of the pick-up counter. Lars waved but went and put in his order first. He had no idea what Delphi liked to eat, but he liked the moose burger and fries, so he ordered two. If she didn’t like it, he’d eat hers, too.
He wandered over to his people’s table and dropped into the empty chair. He was damn tired and all he’d done was lie there this time around. But a man should never underestimate the energy required to hold on until his woman came.
Merrilee looked at him, laughter dancing in her eyes. “Lean forward, hon.” He leaned and she plucked a white feather from his hair, or what little hair he had. It was from the pillow.
“Napping?” She laughed at her own joke and Dirk grinned like an ass. Bull shot Lars a sympathetic look, but he, too, had a glimmer of amusement in his usually somber eyes.
“Yep. Picking up some chow and then I’m just going to lay low this afternoon.”
“Catching up on some...rest?” Dirk smirked.
Damn, now that Big D wasn’t moping, he was full of himself.
“Since I’m spending tomorrow with your sorry ass, I figured I better rest today.”
“How’s Delphi?” Merrilee asked. “I haven’t seen her today.”
“She’s fine. She’s resting, too.”
Merrilee smiled. “Rest does a body good. And I think that young lady needed to catch up on hers. You boys have an early flight tomorrow morning. Y’all are leaving at eight. We’ve got a plane down and we’re waiting on the part, so Dalton’s got a busy day. He’ll swing back by the camp and pick you up somewhere around seven.”
“That works,” Lars said.
A pretty little redheaded waitress, aptly named Ruby according to her nametag, brought over his to-go boxes and two longnecks.
“I put extra ketchup in the boxes,” Ruby said, smoothing a hand over her apron front. “Liam likes lots of ketchup with his fries. I thought, you being twins and all, you might, too.”
“Good call. I like ketchup even more than Liam does. Thanks.” Lars smiled at her and a blush swooshed over her fair skin.
“No problem,” she said and hurried away, her face now bright red.
Delphi’s compliments on his physique came to mind and then he blushed.
“Still killing the ladies,” Dirk said without a whit of envy.
“Yeah, well, someone’s got to uphold the family name. Liam’s taken and you’re doing a piss-poor job, so it’s all on me.” Poor sot. Dirk was so hung up on Natalie, he didn’t even see other women.
A man would have to be blind to miss how pretty Ruby was. Lars didn’t want to think what would happen if Natalie’s visit was a bust, or worse yet, she canceled on Dirk’s lovesick ass.
He pushed away from the table and stood. “Okay, I’m starving, so I’ll see you all later.” He pointed at Dirk. “And I will definitely see you at 0800.”
The pretty little waitress smiled at him shyly on his way out and he smiled back, but it was purely a smile of thanks. He guessed Dirk wasn’t the only poor sot too hung up on another woman to be interested in Ruby Red Breast.
He willingly admitted it—to himself—as he climbed the stairs. Hell, yeah, he was hung up on Delphi. He’d never been so taken with a woman before.
And obviously he’d lost a few brain cells in their back-to-back sexual exploits. Because if he was thinking with all his faculties, he’d slow himself down, dial himself back. However, not only did he not want to, he wasn’t too damn sure that he could.
He opened the bedroom door and despite him being quiet, Delphi rolled over as the door clicked closed. She smiled sleepily, her eyes at half-mast, her face glowing pink. She sat up, the sheet falling to her waist, leaving her rose-tipped breasts bare. She tugged the sheet back up.
“Do I smell food?”
“Moose burgers and fries.” He held them aloft like a trophy. “And a couple of brews.”
A smile wreathed her face. “You are a god.”
And in that exact moment, he felt like a god. And he got it. He understood why his brother had married Tansy. He understood why Dirk couldn’t see past Natalie, a woman he hadn’t seen in years.
Lars understood because he’d found his goddess.
He was ass over end in love with Delphi Reynolds.