Latched (Coronado Series Book 1) (9 page)

“That sounds great, I should be done at the shop in the afternoon. I can meet you at my house, just text me what time.”

They got in the truck and she watched him walk around and her heart made a little thump.
I hope I survive sex with this man and I don’t fall for him accidentally. I don’t think I could endure another broken heart.

 
He grabbed her hand and drove them home, she noticed he had nice wrists.
Is it weird that I like his hands?
“Thanks for a great night Mark, I loved the restaurant and the music. I liked spending time with you. You were not bossy at all - you were completely charming.”

He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “I had fun too baby. Thanks for coming out with me.”

They were parked in front of her house and they were making out like a couple of teenagers. She was afraid that she was going to break down and invite him in and pulled away. “I have to go in before I lose my resolve and invite you in.”
 

He ran his mouth down her neck and kissed her right under her jaw and could feel her shudder. “I don’t want you to lose anything, Birdie.” He kept the assault up and licked the side of her neck where he could see her pulse hammering away. He nipped her shoulder and then kissed it.
 

“Time to go - see you Saturday!” Birdie murmured.
 

“Why the rush baby?” He ran his hand down the side of her body and gently ran his fingertips over the top of her dress right under the swell of her breast and heard her take a deep breath in.

Birdie moved away to the door, “I am one second away from inviting you in. I don’t want to be a tart.”
 

“Ok let me come and help you out.” He held out his hand and helped her down. She slid down the front of his body, “That’s not fair Birdie.” She could feel the effect she was having on him - maybe it wasn’t fair to either of them.
 

She put her hand on his face and brought his lips down to meet hers, “Thanks for a great evening, see you Saturday.” She gave him a sweet kiss and walked towards her front door.

“Be ready Birdie, Saturday is when you get to use me any way you want.” She kept walking and waved goodbye. He got in his truck and looked over at her house. He still couldn’t believe what came out of that woman’s mouth.
I don’t think she has a filter between her brain and her mouth. Which was working out for him, there was not going to be any game playing with this one
. He felt damn lucky that he was the one she chose to break her rut….. damn lucky. The words from the song they danced to kept running through his mind. “I’m latching on, babe, now I know what I found.” He was definitely going to latch on to Birdie, he just needed to find a way for her to latch on to him.

CHAPTER SIX

FRIDAY

Birdie laid in bed exhausted. She had delivered the flowers for the wedding that was taking place tomorrow at the Hotel Del. Her client decided they wanted to have everything a day early. She scrambled to get it done and charged them an additional 20% for the inconvenience of hustling over the last two days to complete everything. She watched mindless TV and was almost asleep when she heard the phone ring. She picked it up, “Birdie girl, I’m at your door. Can I come in please?”

“Sure, sure, wait a second.” She got out of bed and looked down at her jammies. She didn’t look great but what could she do - it was 10:00 at night. She ran down stairs and opened the door, Mark looked awful. She drew him into the house and wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “Bad day at the office?”
 

He held on to her and took a full breath for the first time in forty eight hours. “If you could make this day go away for a while I would be really grateful.”
 

“Are you hungry, do you want something to eat?” She closed the door and was walking him to the kitchen then they stopped at the foot of the stairs.

“I’m not hungry, I haven’t slept in 48 hours. I didn’t want to go to my empty condo, so I came here.”

“Are you ok? You look so tired.”
 

“The training exercise was a goat fuck from the beginning. Everything that could go wrong, did. I also got news today that a buddy of mine from a team on the East Coast has been injured and it doesn’t look good.” He wrapped his arms around her tighter, “I just want to go to bed with you wrapped around me. I want to wake up in the morning and work on breaking you out of your rut. How does that sounds?”
 

“I wanted to be wearing something sexy and look good when all of this happened. Do I have time to transform myself?”
 

“I think you are plenty sexy just the way you are.” She led him upstairs into her room. Mark looked around and felt like he was home. She had a king size bed with white sheets and a white quilt. There were built - in book shelves in the corner with a small flat screen TV mounted in front. Birdie walked into the bathroom and looked in her cabinet, “Found a new toothbrush for you.” The bathroom had windows along the back wall with a small tub in front and a big shower with a bench and two big shower heads in the middle. He could think of some things to do in that shower… maybe tomorrow. “Do you want to shower? You smell good so you must have already changed.”
 

“I got cleaned up at the base after we got back.” He took his new toothbrush and they stood there looking at each other as they brushed their teeth, it was a surprisingly intimate moment. When they were done, Mark put his toothbrush right next to Birdie’s in the cup.
Try getting rid of me now, my toothbrush is right next to yours.

“Did you bring your go bag? Do you have pajamas?”
 

“Do I look like I wear pajamas? I sleep in my boxers if we’re deployed and I’m naked when I’m home. I don’t want to scare you so I’ll keep my boxers on tonight.”
 

Wow, this is really happening, I’m nervous and excited.
“Thanks, I appreciate that.” He took his clothes off and put them on the chair and could feel Birdie staring at him. He hoped she didn’t freak out about his collection of scars. She might not think he was so attractive when she saw them all at once. He heard her swallow and turned around, “You’re better looking than I first thought. You have the most amazing body.”
 

I guess the scars don’t freak her out.
“Birdie it’s only because I haven’t slept in 48 hours that I’m going to leave you mostly alone tonight. I don’t want to miss a thing when I slip inside you for the first time.”

She smiled and got under the covers, he slipped in and scooted close to her. She rested her head on his chest as he wrapped his arm around her side. “I’m nervous - I haven’t been in bed with a man in a very long time and I’m freaking out a little.” She ran her hand over his chest and enjoyed the feel of his skin under her hand and the way he smelled. If she got this and nothing else, she would be light years away from where she was last week.

“Baby, we can take all the time you need. Just ignore my instant reaction to you.” He felt her small hand running up and down his chest and shuddered. He felt himself harden instantly and shifted so her leg wouldn’t rub against his hard on. He slipped his hand under her shirt and ran a finger along her side until he felt the underside of her breast. Running his finger over her nipple he enjoyed the feeling of it harden with his attention. He heard her take a deep breath in and rolled over to pin her beneath him.
Finally she’s under me. It’s a hundred times better than I imagined.
He braced his arms on either side of her head and kept his weight off of her by leaning on his forearms. Dropping his mouth he took control of her mouth and kissed her deeply. His kisses started out slow and gentle and then became ferocious. He felt Birdie pressing up against him, she probably wasn’t conscious of her hips pressing into him. “Baby are we going to wait until morning when we’re both awake?”

 
She pulled back, her pupils were dilated and it took her a moment to process what he was asking. “Let’s wait until the morning. This is a big deal for me and I want to be awake when it happens.”
 

She rolled onto her side away from him and he adjusted himself as he curled his big body around her. He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her head, “Night Birdie girl.” He slipped his hand under her shirt and held on to her breast, “I don’t want to lose you in this big bed.”
 

If he keeps touching me and kissing me, my mind will blank out and I won’t be able to freak out.
She slowly felt herself relax and soon fell asleep. Mark listened to her steady breathing and relaxed for the first time since he met her
. This is where Birdie needs to be…. wrapped up in my arms.
Mark fell asleep wrapped around the woman who was stealing his heart.

CHAPTER SEVEN

SATURDAY

Birdie woke up on a hard, warm, hairy surface, Mark’s chest to be precise. She smiled as her hand moved across his broad chest. “Hello,” she whispered against the warm skin of his chest.
 

“Morning baby, how did you sleep?”
 

She didn’t say anything and rolled into him and kissed him over his heart. He pulled her up a little and whipped her shirt over her head. He was so fast she didn’t even see it coming. He was more than ready to help Birdie get out of her rut and hoped in the process she would start falling for him.

He rolled on top of her, started kissing her and dipped his tongue into her mouth. He couldn’t get at her fast enough - he wanted to feel and taste everything at once. Kissing his way down the curve of her neck, into the hollow of her shoulder, he discovered a nerve she didn’t know she had. “I’ve been thinking about getting you under me since I met you and now I have you here.”

He moved his hand down her neck and trailed his fingers over her breasts. Then leaning down he kissed each one and pulled her hard nipples into his mouth. She moaned as his erection pressed into her thigh. “Are you ready to use me to break your rut?” She couldn’t form words so she grabbed his head and brought it up to hers and kissed the hell out of him. All of her pent up desire poured out of her and Mark had trouble keeping himself in check. “I’ll take that as a yes. You have the softest skin and you smell fucking amazing.” He ran his mouth down her neck again and licked her neck where he could see her pulse beating. He felt her shudder and trailed his mouth down to her breasts and took his time learning what made her moan. He wanted to catalog all of her responses and file them away.
 

His big hand slid down her thigh and she felt him slide her underwear off. His hand ran over her hips, then he stopped and rolled her over. “Birdie what is this patch?”
 

She looked over her shoulder, “That’s my birth control patch - it stays on for three months. Which reminds me I better get the box of condoms I bought the other day.”
 

“Baby, if you are on birth control, we don’t need condoms. I can enter you bareback.”
 

“We haven’t exchanged health certificates. I can go downstairs and get mine, but where is yours?” He rolled her under him, and somehow in the process, he’d lost his boxers.
 

“I promise, I’m disease free. We get tested all the time for everything. I haven’t had sex since before our last deployment and I got tested when we got back home several times.” He rocked his hips into her as he said it. “I’ve never been inside a woman without a condom, I want to be inside you without a barrier.”

“All right, but you have to show me your results later on today. If you’re lying, I will kill you or have your friends do it for me.” He captured her mouth again and, and as his fingers slid between her legs, she closed her eyes at his touch, “Oh …wow.” The feel of his big hands against her skin made every nerve in her body jump. This man could command her body with no problem at all.
 

He kept kissing her and stroked her over and over, then he slid his finger inside and made her body jump from pure pleasure. “Tell me when it feels good,” he whispered in her ear and heard her moan. He laughed, “No, when it feels really good” and moved his finger to curve inside of her. “Here?” She shook her head. “Wait” and slipped a second finger in. He moved higher this time until he hit something so good that she jolted against him and moaned.
 

He slid down her body and licked into her, finding her center with no problem at all. He pressed her down into the bed as she mindlessly moved against his mouth and hand. Her pleasure built until she felt the first surge in her blood. She cried out shuddering against his mouth and felt her mind slip away. He let her come down gently as she lay there letting her senses seep back in. “I didn’t even know that was possible. We could stop right now and I would definitely be out of my rut.”

 
He crawled up her body, “Baby we just got started. We have a lot more to do to get you out of your rut. We need to do it several times to make sure that was just the warm up.”
 

She pushed him over on his back and for the first time saw him completely naked, he was breathtaking. Laying back against the white sheets he was so hulking and muscular. He was tan and had a thick mat of brown hair covering his big chest, narrowing down to his groin. Lord, he was big; he was a large man and he had the large parts to go with it. “I didn’t realize you were so big. I’m not sure it is going to fit.” She reached out her hand and felt like she was touching steel, but it was warm and felt soft at the same time. His hard on twitched under her hand and as she stroked him up and down, she was smiling at him and staring.