Olivia’s gaze clouded. “You know, I thought it was odd that she suddenly seemed to warm up to me. When I’d see her in the shop, she seemed cold.” She shrugged. “But when she offered me this place, it seemed like a godsend. I didn’t think to ask if she had the right to sublet to me. Geez, I even helped her pack her things.”
Kyle rubbed his eyes, worn out from his trip yet wired from their earlier encounter. He looked up and found Olivia staring at him as if he were an ogre. The thought bothered him more than it should have. Surely she could see none of this was his fault?
“Look, Olivia, you’re not blaming me for this, are you? Becca took us both for a ride.”
“It’s not that. Of course I don’t blame you,” she said without hesitation, and something within him eased. “It’s just that, well, I’ve seen you before, in the coffee shop, but I never could have imagined meeting you like this.” She gave him a wry grin before focusing on her coffee.
He flushed, both with shame at how he’d manhandled Olivia earlier and with the arousal that refused to fade when around her. Damn, she’d been so tight, so wet around his fingers. And her breasts were even more perfect than he’d imagined.
He coughed and cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. “I’m, ah, really sorry about my rough treatment earlier.”
She blushed and stared a hole through her cup.
“I was having this incredibly erotic dream,” he said, unable to resist mentioning it. “Then someone bent my thumb back at an impossible angle.” He rubbed the tender digit. “I reacted to a threat. Had I known it was you, I never would have thrown you against the wall.”
He still couldn’t believe he’d done that. For the past nine months he’d been fantasizing about Olivia Cava. And
this
was what she’d remember from their first encounter in a private setting?
“Oh, your thumb.” She let go of her cup and leaned over him. Taking his thumb in her hands, she caressed him, gliding silken fingertips over the reddened knuckle.
Heat flared in his body, and a telling response rekindled the throbbing between his legs. She leaned down to get a better look under the diffused kitchen light, and her robe gaped. He could see the cleavage he wanted to explore with his tongue.
“I’m sorry about your thumb,” she said in a husky whisper that drew his attention.
She looked guilty. And highly aroused.
His heart rate increased. He wanted nothing more than to push her up against the wall, to plunge in and out of her until he had her screaming his name and coming all over him. But he’d made enough mistakes for one night. One more wrong step toward her and he chanced ruining something he finally had an opportunity to pursue.
With a heavy heart, he forced himself to ease away from her. “You know, it’s late, and we both need rest. What do you say we sleep on it and decide what to do about this tomorrow? I’ll take the couch.” Thoughts of the short couch made him want to groan, but he resolved to suck it up. A Marine credo rang in his mind—
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
. No, the couch wouldn’t kill him, but it wouldn’t help his aching body any. The last time he’d fallen asleep on the thing he’d been kinked up for a week. And that was without the hard-on from hell.
“It doesn’t seem right.” She shook her head, raven-black hair flowing like silk over her shoulders. “You said you just got back tonight?”
Her brows drew close with concern, the way he’d remembered so often while staring at the ceiling of his small quarters aboard ship. Her full lips parted, and her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip.
Sweat broke out at thoughts of that tongue.
“No,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll take the couch. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?” He smiled and turned, awkwardly hiding his erection. Before she could say any more, he stiffly left the kitchen and entered the living room.
An hour later, he lay on the couch with his legs hanging off the end, a wool blanket for warmth. But when he closed his eyes, visions of Olivia naked mingled with memories of her sexual response. He closed a hand around his turgid length and finally gave himself the respite he needed. Minutes later, he fell into a deep sleep, dreams of Olivia warming him throughout the night.
“What?” Olivia’s best friend, Maria, stared in shock. “You’re kidding! That man? The one you used to obsess over whenever he walked in here?” She opened the oven door and pushed in another tray of peaches ‘n’ cream muffins. “He’s been gone for so long I assumed he’d changed duty stations.”
“Apparently, he was on float. Because he’s back.”
Good Lord, is he
. Olivia’s cheeks heated as she remembered how she’d responded to Kyle when she’d thought him a dream. She couldn’t forget how very large he’d felt against her ass or how much she’d wanted to feel him inside of her, replacing those talented fingers.
“Olivia?” Maria gave her an odd look, the one that said,
I can read your mind
.
“The man is living here and will be for the foreseeable future,” Olivia said quickly, groaning at Maria’s knowing smile. “We agreed to talk today about the living arrangements.”
“What’s to talk about?” Maria wiped her hands on her apron.
“What’s to talk about? It’s his house. And he’s the one Becca warned me about. Tall, dark, and noncommittal, remember?”
Maria snorted. “Yeah. She’s also the jackass who left you in the lurch with an invalid lease. Didn’t Kyle say she cheated on him? That’s not what Rebecca claimed happened. You ask me, she’s a liar
and
a slut.”
Olivia couldn’t help grinning. “You never did like her, did you?”
“No. I used to watch her ogle half the men who entered the shop. She had snake eyes, small and beady. The one time she flirted with Mike, I almost lost it.”
“As if your husband would ever cheat on you,” Olivia scoffed, knowing how her brother felt about Maria.
“Yeah, well, you can only push a man so far. You know most of them think with the wrong head.” She chuckled, and Olivia’s laughter soon followed.
“That’s the truth. Just look around town at any given time. The unbalanced ratio of males to females around here is mind-boggling. An easy case of too many Marines, not enough eligible women.”
“Yeah, but the odds are in our favor. Then again, you wouldn’t know about that, would you?” Maria shook her head. “You need to get a life—a social life, Olivia. You’re too centered on business and profits. What you need is a nice man. No, change that. What you really need is a good fu —”
“Mike, how nice to see you.” Olivia hastily changed the subject as her brother entered with raised brows. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Obviously,” he said dryly and glanced at his wife. “I know the sign says closed, but I wanted something to start the day.”
Maria handed him a bagel and a kiss. “Now get to work. It’s almost zero six!”
Mike rolled his eyes. “You can say six A.M., honey. I tell you, Livie, Maria should have been the Marine, not me.”
“Well, I do like to play ‘General’ at home.” Maria winked when his face reddened. “Now get to work and leave those muffins alone! They’re for the counter.” She laughed at something he whispered in her ear and escorted him out the back door of the kitchen.
Olivia watched the interaction with a smile. Having her best friend marry her brother had been a dream come true. Now she finally had the sister she’d always wanted.
And her new sister did more than even-out the male influence in the family. She worked part-time in the mornings at Cava’s Java. Maria helped Olivia open the coffee shop and assisted in the baking.
It was hard to imagine life in the shop before Maria. The woman had tons of energy and a mouth that wouldn’t quit. Speaking of which...
She scowled as Maria rejoined her. “I cannot believe you were going to say I need a good fuck in front of my brother.”
“I didn’t see him, so sue me. The truth is the truth.” Maria calmly cleaned the counters and began itemizing the disposable coffee cups and lids. “This situation with Major Hunk might just turn out for the best.”
Major Hunk. The perfect description.
“Cute, Maria.”
“I notice you aren’t arguing the man’s attractiveness.”
“I’m not interested,” she lied. “But I’m not blind.”
Maria gave her an overly sweet smile. “Well then. Enough said, hmm?”
Olivia spent the rest of her morning and afternoon unable to get
Major Hunk
out of her mind, not that Maria would let her.
His eyes were so green, not a light shade, but a deep forest green that hinted at hidden depths. Used to the Marine way of life, Olivia preferred short hair on a man. His cropped chocolate-brown strands would be soft and thick, and she wanted nothing more than to run her hands over his hair while she kissed those hard, uncompromising lips.
A customer interrupted her thoughts, and she chatted and made change. Her teenage help, Emma, soon arrived, signaling the end of the school day and giving Maria her cue to leave. Emma gave Olivia plenty of time to work on her books in the back, and to think more on Kyle Waters, just what she didn’t want to do.
After futilely refiguring the same numbers again, she sighed and leaned back in her chair. Closing her eyes, she once again recalled Kyle’s dangerous magnetism.
His sheer physical strength had surprised her. When she’d first seen him over a year ago, she’d tried not to stare since he’d been holding hands with Becca Morris. He regularly visited in the mornings and on and off in the evenings, always friendly but slightly aloof, especially if he was with Becca. He’d come dressed casually in a collared shirt and jeans or in uniform, which had her drooling like nobody’s business.
His forearms and legs were sculpted with muscle. It had been difficult not to ogle the man. He had masculine features, too rugged to be called handsome but too striking not to draw notice. Unfortunately, his association with Becca put him beyond her reach, if not beyond her fantasies. One rule Olivia strictly adhered to—
thou shall not poach.
Becca had complained about him when she’d given her lease to Olivia, though at the time Olivia hadn’t put
landlord
and
ex-boyfriend
together as the same man. One remark that had struck her, one she typically noticed in the men she herself had dated, was that Becca’s ex had no desire for a permanent relationship. Becca had made other negative remarks in a tone Olivia could only classify as bitchy. Not wanting to pry and make Becca feel worse, Olivia had kept her thoughts to herself.
Then out of the blue, Olivia suddenly noticed her fantasy man had disappeared. Soon after, Becca moved away from Swansboro. Disappointed, Olivia gradually thought less and less about him until he appeared only in her dreams. She’d convinced herself he hadn’t been that attractive, that his character surely detracted from his overall appeal.
Seeing him last night, his chiseled pectorals and delineated abs, those impressive biceps and sinewy thighs, made her want to forget about his deficiencies. She wanted to touch all of that silken skin.
She flushed, recalling the strong steel that had prodded her backside. His large frame was evenly proportioned,
everywhere.
The temperature seemed to rise, and she reluctantly turned back to her books. Plucking at her shirt and waving it against her skin, she sighed with gratitude when Emma knocked at the doorway, interrupting her erotic daydreams.
“John and Tina are here, Olivia. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Olivia waved her off with thanks and glanced at the clock on her desk. Already six and she needed to get home—correction, she needed to return to
Major Waters’s
house—for that discussion she’d been dreading.
She left the office and locked the office door behind her then let John know she was leaving.
“I have my cell if you need anything.”
John nodded while Tina took care of the next customer. Though small, Olivia’s shop maintained a steady and loyal customer base. Surges came and went, but in the three short years of doing business, she’d struck even. Her books were just beginning to hit the black.
From seven to nine Monday through Saturday, Olivia’s business thrived. In both warm and cold weather, locals and tourists flocked to her shop. She couldn’t have asked for a better location, sitting on the Intracoastal Waterway in historic Swansboro, North Carolina. Minutes from the Marine base and right on the ocean, she’d found the place she wanted to call home.
She stared out the back door at the water. Exiting, she inhaled the smell of ocean, the tangy sea air that refreshed her even after a full day of work.
Olivia glanced down the street and saw a laughing couple holding hands as they took an evening stroll. Without warning, Maria’s words rang in her mind, tainting her small moment of contentment.
You have no social life
.
Olivia turned and took her time walking back to the house. Who cared about a social life when she had a business beginning to thrive? It was easy for Maria to be preachy. The woman had lucked out by marrying a man—and a military man at that—capable of fidelity, compassion, and a deep and abiding love.
One day Olivia would find true love. She knew it in her heart. But right now she had a business to run and no wish to be dragged around the country at the behest of a spouse. Maybe once Cava’s Java made a healthy profit, like in another five years, she’d expand to New Bern or Wilmington. At least in one of those cities she might have a chance at meeting a decent man, preferably a civilian, one who wouldn’t have to move every three or four years.
She kicked at a pebble and slowed even more as the house loomed before her. Olivia loved the Marine Corps. Her father had retired from it, and both her brothers now served their country as Marines. But she’d seen the toll it had taken on her family, the constant moves, the long separations.
Though her father and brothers were decent men, she’d seen too many friends get their hearts broken by wandering warriors. Her mother loved her father dearly but cautioned her about the challenges in loving a Marine. And her brothers fiercely warned her away from any of their friends. According to them, no one on the base was good enough for their little sister.