His chest felt hot against her back, and she trembled at the raspy words, so close to the edge of detonation. His fingers found her nipple and tugged gently. His teeth scraped along the back of her neck, sending shivers flowing down her spine and hardening her nipples further into tight little peaks.
All the while, he rocked his hips, penetrating her shallowly, retreating. And when his hand continued its soapy slide down her front to find her clit, her entire body seemed to malfunction. Her knees collapsed, and his other hand still banded around her hip was the only reason she didn’t fall. She went blind and deaf and numb, all of her senses consumed with the tingling pleasure of the orgasm.
“Brace your hands on the wall.” His voice was rough, raw, and she did as commanded, helpless to do anything else. He urged her legs wider with his knee, and then he was sliding inside her, filling her, stretching her.
“Oh fuck, Sage.”
Something snapped inside him then, and he lost control, unleashing the intensity in him that had once intimidated her. But now she wanted it, craved it. Vaughn never did things by half, and that included fucking. He hammered into her, wet flesh slapping flesh, until they were both screaming. He wrung another orgasm from her before he thrust into her once, twice more and groaned with his own release.
Silence filled the shower stall, broken only by the water and their labored breathing. He folded his arms round her waist and rested his cheek against her spine as the water ran cold around them.
Finally Vaughn straightened and shut off the shower. Sage faced him just in time to see his wince. His bruises were worse than hers, with a nasty looking one along the ribs of his left side.
She started to ask if he was okay, but she bit the question back. He always got so growly when she asked that, and she didn’t want to ruin the moment.
He cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her forehead. “I need my toothbrush. Want yours?”
Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how desperately she wanted to brush her teeth. “Yes. Please.”
He disposed of the condom, then left the bathroom and came back a moment later with his toothbrush and toothpaste. He handed her the toothbrush they’d picked up from the motel’s front desk. It was a flimsy plastic thing, but it’d do the trick.
They stood together, side by side and both naked, brushing their teeth. It was jarringly intimate and ridiculous at the same time. She laughed. He glanced her way, mouth full of foam, eyebrow raised in question, which only made her laugh harder.
Vaughn just shook his head at her and bent to spit out the toothpaste. When he straightened, he spotted her chain on the counter and picked it up. “What’s this?” He turned the pin over in his hand, then held it up and gave the chain a little swing in front of her nose. “You sold it, huh?”
Heat climbed up the back of her neck, and she tried to snatch it, but he held it high over her head, away from her reach. “I didn’t want to give it back, okay?”
“Okay.” He moved behind her and clasped the chain around her neck. Resting his chin on her shoulder, he studied their reflection in the mirror.
She stared into the mirror, too. They both looked rough. Her hair was a giant knot she had no hope of untangling without the help of a bottle of conditioner, and the bruises across her torso stood out in sharp contrast against her pale skin. Vaughn’s wet hair clung to his forehead and more than a five o’clock shadow darkened his cheeks. They looked like feral mountain people, but there was no mistaking the glint of male satisfaction in his eyes as he straightened the pin and laid it flat between her breasts.
“Keep it,” he said softly. “It looks better on you.”
She raised a hand to it, traced the edge of the eagle’s wing. “What is it?”
“My trident. It’s what all SEALs get when they graduate BUD/S.”
A lump lodged hard in her throat. Being a SEAL meant the world to him, so this pin had to hold a special place in his heart. He’d chased her down for it, and now he wanted to give it to her? He couldn’t really mean that.
“No.” She started to take the chain off, but he stopped her. “Vaughn, I can’t keep this.”
“Yes, you can.”
“But…” Her heart was beating too hard. She pressed a hand over it to calm it, and the pin bit into her palm. “You chased me all the way to New Orleans to get it back.”
He closed his hand over hers and lifted it until the chain dangled between their entwined fingers, light bouncing off the gold trident. He smiled at their reflection. “Vixen, if you think I tracked you down for a pin, you’re not nearly as smart as I’ve given you credit for. I want you to keep it.” He returned it to its place between her breasts, then touched his lips to her shoulder, and planted kisses along the tendon of her neck. He nipped her earlobe. “I also want to make love to you while you wear it.”