Embattled Minds (Military Romance) (Lost And Found Series) Page 8

  Ember didn’t wait for his hand to connect. She leaned into his touch, gasping as his thumb immediately started to stroke back and forth over her nipple. “Oh, God. More.”

  Zeke grasped a handful of her hair in his hand and tilted her head back for his kiss. Ember cried out as his mouth settled on hers and his other hand left her breast to cup her pelvic bone, grinding the seam of her jeans into her heat. She arched her hips into his touch, desperate for more. As his tongue swept inside her mouth, he tightened his fist in her hair, forcing her to accept every bit of him.

  Sensation overwhelmed her as his touch tried to burrow through the fabric of her jeans and inside her. His strong hand forced her up onto her tiptoes as he moved unrelenting fingers back and forth over her pelvic bone, and her clit.

  Ember whimpered against his mouth, afraid that the heat building in her body would burn them up. She tried to pull away, afraid of what he was making her feel, but he tightened his grip on her. She clutched at his face, knowing if he let her go she’d fall to the floor, boneless with need.

  “I want you to come for me, Ember. Give me that.”

  She rocked her hips against his hand, and that small concession was enough to trip the trigger. Release rocked through her body, making her cry out as she ripped her mouth from his. Her knees gave way, but he had already released her hair to wrap an arm around her back. He supported her as aftershocks rolled through her, one after another.

  When she eventually looked up, he grinned at her. His satisfied expression made her laugh. “You look very smug.”

  He laughed with her, pulling her into his arms. She felt him press a kiss against her head. She wrapped her arms around his waist to keep herself anchored, inhaling his spicy scent.

  “You know, I u-u-used to be really good at pleasing women. And that’s not ego. I had a lot of practice when I was y-y-young and good looking.”

  She pulled back enough to look up at him, intrigued. “Really?” She stepped back, holding one of his hands. “I think you need to show me. Again.”

  Zeke looked down at her hand in his own, then up to her face. “You n-n-need to be sure, Ember. And you need to be aware, this is n-not a one night thing. If you l-l-l-l-let me in now, I’m going to be here a w-while.”

  She continued to tow him through the living room and down the hallway to her room. “Good,” she whispered.

  Chapter Six

  Zeke didn’t know what scared him more: the look in her eyes or the realization that he was about to have sex for the first time in four years. Definitely the look.

  He could not have changed the course of his feet if he tried, though.

  Ember tugged him down the hallway, only pausing long enough to peek in at her sleeping son. She shut Drew’s door securely and when they entered her own bedroom, she engaged the lock beside the door knob. Zeke knew the flimsy little piece of metal wouldn’t be enough to keep him out, but hopefully it would a child.

  They stepped into the bedroom and his disbelief intensified. She was going to do it. Him. As if he were normal, and not some fucked up science experiment. She said the scars and the stuttering didn’t bother her, but he didn’t understand how they couldn’t. They sure as hell bothered him. Every damn hour of every day.

  She turned to face him at the edge of the bed. The light from the open bathroom door was just enough to show him the insecurity on her face. Her hands tangled in front of her stomach and he was struck with how nervous she was.

  “It’s n-not too late to change your mind.”

  She blinked up at him, and smiled. “I’m not going to change my mind, I’m just not sure how to start.”

  Taking his courage in hand, he stepped forward and settled his lips onto hers. She moaned, curling her fist into his shirt. He liked that one small action of hers, because it magnified how tiny she was compared to him. He dwarfed most of the population, and the attention that brought made him extremely uncomfortable now. During his football years, he’d relished the attention.

  Years ago. A lifetime ago.

  He loved impressing Ember with his size.

  Zeke rested his hand on the curve of her hip, his thumb finding its way beneath the edge of her sweatshirt. He pulled away from her mouth. “C-c-can I take this off?”

  She nodded and he peeled it up over her head. The sheet of her dark hair shone in the light as it swayed around her body. Without his urging, she reached behind herself and unfastened the white bra, flinging it aside. Zeke almost nutted in his jeans when he saw her plump breasts for the first time.

  They were perfect. Dark pink nipples puckered in the coolness of the room, begging for attention. Reaching out, he brushed against the bottom swell, still half thinking he was in a dream and she was going to shut him down at any second. But she didn’t. She leaned into his touch just like she did before, moaning. Using both hands, he cupped her breasts, rubbing his thumbs over the tips. A shiver coursed through her and she grabbed his wrists.

  A bolt of mindless fear hit him, because he didn’t want her to push him away. If she wasn’t ready for this, he would force himself to step away, though it would quite possibly kill him. Instead, she pressed his palms to her even harder, making him thankful he’d found her all over again.

  He looked down as he pressed her breasts up and together. His mouth watered at the thought of taking her into his mouth.

  Zeke knelt in front of her, glad of his height because it put him at mouth level with her chest. Replacing his hands with his lips, he sucked her nipple deep into his mouth. Ember cried out and wrapped her arms around his head, scraping her fingernails back through his scalp. His stomach bottomed out yet again when he realized she had to be feeling the ridges of his scars underneath his hair, but she didn’t even seem to notice. She clutched him to her and pressed kisses to the top of his head.

  Zeke hesitated, letting her nipple go. Emotion made his eyes burn. The unrelenting loneliness he normally fought had been pushed away by her slender arms and the cushion of her body. He rested his forehead against her, wanting to soak in the moment.

  Ember seemed to understand because her movements slowed, then stopped completely, until she just held him to her.

  He felt like a pussy, letting her cradle him like this, but he’d missed being close to another person. Talking to them without the fear they were going to cringe from his looks, or history, or, God forbid, because they were uncomfortable.

  He hated feeling like he had to apologize for the way he looked. He’d served his country with pride, and done a lot of shit that nobody else would.

  The woman in front of him had never given him reason to feel inferior. In anything.

  Leaning away from her touch, he started to unfasten her blue jeans. She shuddered as his hands brushed against the smooth skin of her belly. Spreading the zipper placket, he pressed a kiss just above the elastic band of her underwear, then started to tug her jeans down over her hips.

  Beautiful. Exactly as he expected her to be. Her belly was slightly rounded and a few faint silver lines marred the perfection of her skin. He pressed kisses to everything he revealed. Desperate impatience threatened to speed his actions, but he was going to take his time. It had been years since he’d been with a woman; he planned to prolong this as long as humanly possible.

  As he dragged her jeans down her thighs, she rested a hand on his shoulder to balance when she stepped out of them. Zeke groaned as he caught sight of the wet spot on the light blue cotton of her panties. Unable to do otherwise, he gripped her hips in his hands and dragged her to his mouth, inhaling the scent of her earlier release. He ripped her underwear away and paused to dance his fingers through the dark silky hair. “B-beautiful.”

  Using one finger to part her folds, he groaned at the slick heat that encased him. There was no way on Earth that that kind of arousal could be duplicated, and it told him more strongly than anything else that she was attracted to him. No matter the scars. No matter the stuttering.

  He glided his finger forward in
her heat until he found her clit, distended and ready for more attention. Making slow, subtle circles, he taunted her as he refocused his mouth to her pouting breasts. Her hips started to shift in time with his movements, and he could sense when she neared her peak. Drawing his finger down, he angled it up into the depths of her body.

  Ember moaned and sagged against him. “Yes, that’s where I need you. Please.”

  Zeke plunged his finger into her body, focusing on the spot just behind her pelvic bone that caused so much pleasure. As her body began to move faster, nearing orgasm, he pulled away.

  He ached with need to taste her, to be inside her, but he wanted her release again. By the time he was done with her, she wouldn’t care what he looked like.

  Pushing to his feet, he lifted her in his arms and took the few steps to the bed. He laid her diagonally across the mattress, then stepped away long enough to rid himself of his own clothes. He was glad for the cover of night, because his body wasn’t what it used to be. Yes, he kept in shape, but the aftereffects from that explosion could be seen all over his skin.

  Shrapnel scars, surgery scars on his thigh where they’d inserted the rod.

  Those worries faded away, though, as she opened her arms to him. He took long enough to sheath himself with a condom from his wallet and he was on her. Kissing her lips, he nibbled his way down her neck and chest, relishing in her scent, then down the center line of her abdomen. Zeke felt her breath catch as he hovered over the moist heat at the apex of her thighs. She shifted beneath him, her body hungry for what he could provide. Shifting further down, he used his palms to spread her lean thighs.

  God she was beautiful. The light from the bathroom glistened on the soft pink folds of her sex, and his mouth watered. Shifting, he laved his tongue up the length of her slit. She tasted as wonderful as he’d dreamed.

  Ember shifted her hips on the mattress. Zeke leaned to the side to make room for his hand. As he fondled her clit with his tongue, he rocked two fingers deep into her body, stroking her G-spot hard.

  With a wailing cry she tried to stifle with a fist, she convulsed on the bed, fighting to pull away. Spanning her hips with his forearm to hold her in place, Zeke continued to swirl his tongue, sending her crying into another release. As aftershocks shuddered through her body, he kissed his way up to her mouth, aligning their hips. His cock seemed to sense where it needed to go, because it slid to the hilt with one easy push.

  Zeke paused above her, afraid to move. With that one immersion, he was on the edge of oblivion.

  Ember wrapped her arms around his head and pressed kisses down his jaw to his neck. Her delicate teeth nipped the skin of his clavicle and he knew he had to move. He pulled back, then surged into her again.

  In response, she wrapped her sleek legs around his hips and rocked her pelvis up into him. She moaned and he felt the ripple of her internal muscles as she orgasmed yet again, and he was done. With three hard surges, he let the billowing heat consume him, unable to stave it off any longer. The hardest, purest pleasure he’d ever experienced arched his back and he tried to muffle the shout in his throat.

  Pure white light overwhelmed his vision as he rode out his body’s movements. His arms eventually gave out and he buried his face against her hair as he tried to drag oxygen into his quivering body.

  “Holy hell,” Ember whispered. Her voice was raspy and he took immense satisfaction in that.

  An aftershock rippled through her body, tightening her sheath around him. Zeke groaned as his relaxing cock twitched and he had to surge into her again. She was just too damn good. But the need hadn’t been appeased. Already, he could feel the want building inside him for a second round.

  She pressed kisses to the side of his neck and jaw, and Zeke knew she wanted him to turn to her. Hardening his heart, preparing for the worst, he lifted his head enough to look her in the eye.

  She had one of the most sublime, perfect smiles on her face. Even with the bruise shadowing her cheek, she was beautiful.

  And she was looking at him as if he’d hung the moon.

  Zeke shifted, uncomfortable with her scrutiny, even after what they’d just shared. Or maybe because of what they’d just shared.

  “I had no idea,” she murmured. “That was phenomenal. You were phenomenal.”

  He blinked, unused to hearing anything of the kind for years. He disengaged from her body and sat on the edge of the bed, his reality shifting in his mind.

  “Are you okay?”

  He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I am.”

  And he truly was. When he’d been younger, it had been no big deal to sleep around with whomever he’d wanted. But all of those girls faded into obscurity as he looked at Ember curled on her side behind him. She was backlit by the bathroom light, and the hourglass curve of her hip made him want to reach out and feel her smooth skin. There was a blemish on her belly and another on her neck. He scraped his hand over his beard in guilt.

  He stood up from the bed and padded into the bathroom to dispose of the condom, then turned to stand at the vanity. His ugly mug looked the same, but he certainly felt different. As trite as it was to think, something had shifted inside him. Or maybe it was just the release of actual sex for the first time in forever.

  Turning on the cold water, he washed his hands and splashed his face, trying to delay returning to the bedroom. She would be waiting for him, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about what just happened. Yes, he was satisfied. Kind of. The stirrings for another round of play were getting sharper. Emotionally, he didn’t know what he felt. He wanted more, definitely. But he was struggling not to feel indebted to her for fucking him. Clothes hid the worst of the damage to his body, but his face was out there for everybody to see. Yet she’d still taken him. Why kept echoing through his head.

  Straightening, wishing he had an ounce of the confidence that he did when he was a kid, he walked out of the bathroom.

  Ember was curled up on her side, the sheet draped over her lightly. Her hands were folded beneath her unbruised cheek, eyes closed. They fluttered open when she heard him come out, and his heart jumped in his chest at the way she smiled at him. There was no guile there, that he could see.

  He heard a familiar beep coming from his jeans pocket, and he scanned the room for a clock. When he spied one on her bedside table, he cursed. “I was supposed to be at work half an hour ago.”

  Ember frowned and seemed upset as he started to move around the room, gathering his clothes. She sat up on the side of the bed and dragged the sheet around her. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  He grabbed his phone from his jeans pocket as he slid them up his legs. Chad, asking where he was.

  Ember blinked up at him, and he felt like an ass. “I’m s-sorry. I didn’t exp-pect to do this tonight. I have to get to work.”

  Giving him an understanding look, she nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry you’re late.”

  He shrugged, turning his face away. “No big deal. Chad will stay until I get there.”

  She sat cross-legged on the bed as he pulled on the rest of his clothes. She didn’t nag at him or force him to talk, and as he prepared to leave, he knew she wouldn’t say a word if he walked out the door without acknowledging her at all. But he couldn’t do that. Crossing to stand before her, he leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead. She tipped her mouth up, though, and his lips landed on hers. Need surged, and it took everything he had to pull away. “I have to go.”

  She sighed, smiling up at him. “Okay. But before you do I need you to know that tonight was very special to me. I’ve never felt anything like what you gave me. Didn’t even know it was possible. So, thank you.”

  Zeke tipped his head to her and walked out the door, too overwhelmed with emotion to form a response. Satisfaction fought with relief that he’d been able to bring her pleasure. It had been so long he’d feared not being able to satisfy her. Locking the front door behind himself, he jogged to his truck through the swirling snow, feeling almost joyou
s. Lighter than he’d felt in a very long time.

  Chad grinned when he saw him pull into the LNF parking lot and get out of his truck. Ants marched across his scalp and he felt color surge through his face at the scrutiny. Hopefully, the night concealed most of it. “What?” he demanded.

  “I’m not going to bitch at you because it looks like you had better things on your mind than a boring stakeout. I hope you tucked her into bed nicely before you left.”

  Zeke snorted and grimaced in spite of himself. “Kind of.”

  Chad nodded as he handed over keys to the nondescript black Crown Vic they’d been using for surveillance on the Malone case. “It was quiet, as always. Our contract is up soon and her ex is going to be pissed we have nothing to report.”

  He nodded his head in agreement. “I know. I’ve n-never seen anything going on there. That woman lives like a h-h-hermit.”

  Chad rubbed his hand over his face and looked at the office building. Snow swirled through the vapor light. “Well, we’ll work the contract and file our report, but he’s isn’t going to like what we have to say.”

  Zeke shook his head, gathering his lunchbox from the truck. “Nope.”

  “You still on for next Monday?”

  The bottom fell out of his stomach as he remembered the date. Fuck. It had slipped his mind. “I g-guess.”

  Chad smacked him on the shoulder. “I’ll be right there with you.”

  He nodded, throat tight. It was amazing that he’d found this group of men, willing to take him in, warts and all, so to speak. Chad kept better track of his schedule than he did. The fact that he’d remembered Zeke’s surgery and Zeke hadn’t was disturbing.

  The quiet night gave him too much time to think about what had happened with Ember. They’d moved too fast, he knew that. But for the life of him he didn’t think he’d change it if he could go back. She’d rocked his world. In spite of all his misgivings, she hadn’t made him feel like a pity fuck.