She grasped her keys tightly in her hand as she looked up at him. The uncertainty he saw in her face surprised him. He couldn’t imagine what she had to be nervous about and he hated the thought that he’d somehow put that look there.
“Do you want to come in for a little bit?” The words came out shaky and uneven and it took him a moment to realize she wasn’t nervous. Her cheeks were flushed and he was pretty sure it wasn’t because of the chilly weather. The tiny pulse point in her neck was going crazy.
She was turned on.
He went rock hard. “Yeah.” It was all he could push out.
Once they were inside her home, he was immediately enveloped by that cinnamon and fresh baked cookies smell. Before he’d taken two steps, she was on him. Her hands settled on his shoulders, gripping him tight as she leaned up and attacked his mouth. He groaned, his hips rolling against hers.
Grabbing her ass, he hoisted her up so that she wrapped her legs around him. The feel of her long, lean body grinding against him was almost enough to make his brain short circuit. Somehow he managed to walk them to her living room without knocking anything over. One of her blinds was open so the dim glow of an outside streetlight peeked in. She must have left the kitchen light on too because it spilled in, giving them just enough illumination to see each other. Though he wanted nothing more than to be on top, something told him she needed to gain control of the situation. Her slight aggressiveness was out of character and, for the moment, he didn’t mind handing over the reins. Whatever made her happy.
She was rolling her hips against his as they kissed, clearly wanting more, but her body was tense. As if her body wanted to take it to the next level, but she wasn’t quite sure. He collapsed onto her loveseat, letting her straddle him. Noel didn’t even pause. She had his sweater tugged off in seconds. When she went to kiss him again, she paused then pulled back, a smile playing across her face. The lust there was so vivid, it turned him on that she wanted him as badly as he did her.
“No more suits or clothes to cover all of
this
.” Her voice sounded so full of pleasure when she said it. And when she looked at him, it was as if she really saw him. The true him. The man beneath the tats and the piercings.
As she sat there tracing him with her hot gaze, he remained still. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders in soft waves framing her exotic face. Her normally pale eyes had turned molten and the way she nervously bit her full bottom lip had his cock straining against his pants. She reached out tentatively at first, then flicked that pale gaze to his, her eyes questioning.
He nearly laughed. “Honey, you can touch all you want.”
And she did. Her fingers were instantly drawn to the tribal designs on his chest. Her eyebrows furrowed as she ran her hands over his pecs. “This is more than a tribal design isn’t it?”
It was dark in the room and since most people never saw past the thick designs he was surprised she’d caught it so quickly. “Yeah, it’s words.”
“What does it say?” she asked, never removing her fingers from his chest. It was clear she liked what she saw, which made getting his next words out a whole lot easier.
It was hard enough thinking when she was straddling and stroking him, let alone finding the ability to talk. His throat tightened for a moment. “It’s from a letter my mom sent me. The last one she sent before she died.” Saying it out loud lifted a weight off his chest he hadn’t even realized was there. He almost never talked about his mother. He’d mentioned her once to Noel and that alone had surprised the hell out of him at the time since she’d been a relative stranger. There was just something about this woman that made him want to open up. The most basic part of him knew he could trust her.
“Lung cancer, right?” she asked softly.
Touched that she remembered, Travis nodded, settling his hands on Noel’s hips. His fingers flexed once. “Yeah. She died when I was twenty-two. Right as my first enlistment was about to end. I’d never felt so lost in my life so I extended my contract and signed up for another four years.” It had been the best thing he’d ever done too. The Marines gave him discipline and a place to let out all his rage and anger at a time when he’d needed it most.
“Is that when you got all your tattoos?” She looked at both his arms now, her gaze sweeping over him like a gentle caress
“I already had this one.” He lifted his right arm slightly, indicating the Force Recon tat he’d gotten with the rest of his team. A lot of the guys got Mako shark tattoos or different Maori symbols—mostly stuff centering around the sea. But he and his buddies had all gotten skulls with a scuba mask. It made him smile whenever he looked at it. “And this one, I got after my second enlistment was up.” He slightly raised his left arm then. He would have gotten it sooner, but the Marines had cracked down while he’d been in about what type of tattoos and how many they could get.
Her head immediately swiveled to it. She traced her fingers along the intricate swirls. “This is more words, isn’t it? Not just tribal designs?”
He nodded. Travis had nothing against tribal stuff, but just that by itself it was too boring for him. He considered the work on his body as art and he wanted it to mean something. “About four years ago I was on an op that went bad. We lost three guys. This is a poem one of my buddies wrote after.” His friend had read it at the private ceremony they’d had for their fallen friends and once his enlistment was up, the first thing he’d done was get part of it tattooed on his arm.
Leaning down, she softly pressed her lips to his bicep, then trailed her way down to his forearm. The feel of her warm breath and silk lips on him made his entire body shudder as he let those painful thoughts go. This woman had the power to bring him to his knees without even trying. It was like she knew exactly how far to push him. She never asked too many questions, just let him open up when he was ready. He had friends from high school who always wanted to know how many people he’d killed overseas. It was always the first damn question out of anyone’s mouth. Not Noel. She just seemed to care about
him
.
Slowly, she kissed a trail back up his arm, then down his chest and stomach, shimmying her way down until she was kneeling on the floor between his legs. As she reached for the button of his jeans, she looked up at him, her eyes bright and hungry. Yeah, he couldn’t stop her now even if he wanted to. He wondered what she’d think of his piercing and since he hadn’t actually slept with anyone since he’d gotten it… Fuck, she tugged the zipper down.
Travis couldn’t take his gaze off her. She bit her bottom lip as she stared at the outline of his cock. His boxers strained tight against his erection, outlining the metal ball at the top of his crown beneath the fabric. When she licked her lips, almost involuntarily, he groaned.
As her fingers teasingly trailed the elastic of his boxers, his stomach muscles clenched. Imagining what her lips would feel like around him, sucking, licking—
The sound of glass shattering, then a car alarm blaring rent through the quiet atmosphere. Wait a minute, that was
his
truck alarm.
Noel pushed up. “What the hell?” she muttered.
Travis zipped his jeans up but didn’t bother with his sweater even though it was cold. “Stay here,” he ordered. With everything that had happened only days ago, he was still feeling edgy.
She snorted and he was aware of her following closely behind him. Even though it was probably just some kids vandalizing the neighborhood, he still pulled out the weapon he always kept strapped to his ankle, in case it was something worse. The cops might have taken his other weapon, but he had a permit and he didn’t go anywhere without a gun. It was like a limb and pretty much everyone who worked for Red Stone carried one. Considering the danger they saw every day on the job, it was stupid not to.
Carefully, he opened the front door and saw a big, burly man running away from his truck. That wasn’t a teenager. “Hey!” he shouted, but the guy didn’t stop, just sprinted faster.
Travis looked back at Noel whose eyes were wide. “Call the cops.”
For a moment, he contemplated running after the guy, but there was nothing valuable in his truck and he didn’t want to leave Noel alone. Hurrying outside, he glanced at his truck as he passed it. The passenger side window was smashed to bits and his glove box was open. Racing to the road, he saw the taillights of a vehicle disappear around the corner. He slid his weapon back into its sheath, his hands clenching into fists. Why the hell would someone target his vehicle here of all places? It was a quiet, fairly safe neighborhood. Not liking the dark foreboding sensation that weighed on his chest, he strode back to Noel’s house. The open glove box bothered him. He didn’t have anything valuable in there. Just his registration that had his home address and other personal information.
A couple hours later, after the uniformed officers had taken a standard report and he had a copy to send to his insurance agency, he was beat and he could see how tired Noel was. They’d had a long day—and not with the ending he’d hoped for—but he was glad it was his truck that had been vandalized and not her car. And he was glad he’d been here. If she’d gone outside by herself and that guy had decided not to run away… No, Travis couldn’t even think like that. The only thing still bugging him was that his registration had been taken. His condo was secure—with one of the best security systems out there thanks to Red Stone—but he didn’t like anyone knowing his home address. Sighing, he shoved that thought away. He’d talk to his boss later this week and see if maybe there was something going on at work that he should know about.
Noel shut and locked the door behind the officer and sagged against it. “I’ve never had to file a police report or even talk to cops then all of a sudden these past few days…” She shook her head and rubbed a hand over her face, looking as if she was ready to fall over on her feet.
He pulled her into his arms, tugging her flush against his body. She melted into him, laying her head against his chest. Travis savored the feel of her molded around him. He knew nothing else would be happening tonight and that was fine with him. The moment was over and Noel was too damn tired. He just wanted to hold her. “I’m not trying to invite myself over, but would you care if I stayed in the guestroom tonight?” After the break-in he didn’t like the thought of leaving her alone and yeah, he wanted to stay just because he couldn’t stand the thought of being separated from her.
She shook her head and her hair tickled his nose. “I was going to ask anyway.”
He wasn’t sure how long they stood there holding each other, but he eventually got out the words he’d wanted to say for a while. Considering they’d only been on one technical date, he told himself to hold off, but he just couldn’t. Some primitive, possessive part of him just wouldn’t shut the hell up. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding…” He cleared his throat and barreled on. “I don’t want to date anyone else, Noel. I know it’s soon, but I want us to be exclusive.” Did that sound as lame as he felt? God, he sounded like some asshole high school kid.
When she looked up, her eyes bright with something he couldn’t quite define, he knew he hadn’t screwed up. “Good because I feel the same way.”
Her words wrapped around him, settling over him like a blanket, making him feel peaceful in a way he hadn’t experienced in years. Part of him wondered when the hell everything was going to go wrong and when she’d be taken from him, but he shoved the negative thoughts aside and pulled her tighter. He already knew how precious life was. He wasn’t going to waste a moment of his time with her.
Reggie tucked his gun into the front waistband of his jeans before pulling his thick jacket down over it. He’d turned off the engine to his truck and without any heat he was starting to get edgier. His body alternated between cold and hot and he knew that had little to do with the weather. Adrenaline pumped through him at rapid speeds as he tried to get control of his emotions. It was damn near impossible, though. Christmas was only two days away and no one gave a shit that his brother had been murdered, or that Reggie was grieving. Dwight was dead and that asshole who’d killed him was just living his life without a care in the world.
Reggie had been trying to get close to Travis Sanchez for two damn days. He’d gotten Sanchez’s home address from stealing the guy’s truck registration from his glove box. Should have been easy enough to get to him after that, but the condominium where he lived had decent enough security that he didn’t plan to break in there. And he had a feeling the guy’s place also had a security system. It made sense from what little he knew of him.
He’d attempted to get close to the guy a couple times and he’d seen the outline of a weapon under Sanchez’s jacket once. The guy clearly carried a weapon even after shooting his brother, and while Reggie didn’t think he was in law enforcement, he had to have a tie to them or something. Reggie hadn’t been able to get any more information on the guy or about the night of the shooting.
Since Alisa was still in the hospital, getting to her during visiting hours had been impossible. There was always someone in her room and while he didn’t want to hurt her, he didn’t mind intimidating her as long as she was alone.
Rolling his shoulders once, he stepped out into the cool air. A couple holding hands and carrying to-go cups with steam coming off the tops strolled past him talking about how great the cold weather was and some other bullshit about presents. Shit he didn’t care about. Revenge was the only thing that mattered right now.