Mercenary Trilogy - Willing Part 9

Did he want to make love right now, just like that?

Of course he did. She was his obsession. It wasn't the romance of the century or anything schmaltzy like

that.

Then another scent, one very different from Daniel, invaded her senses. Roses.

She lifted her head from his chest and looked around them.

The room was filled with flowers-red roses, white roses, yellow roses and even lavender roses. They

were everywhere. Swags of dried orange blossoms hung off the ornate head and footboard of the antique bed, too, but the thing that caught her attention and kept it was a white silk gown spread over the

burgundy velvet bedspread.

"Daniel?"

He looked down at her, the hardened mercenary she knew him to be not quite hiding the man who cared

enough to make this night special. "It's your first time. I want you to remember it for all the right reasons."Tears filled her eyes, and she couldn't get a sound out past the big lump in her throat.He let her down and stepped back, seemingly unconcerned by her display of emotion."I'm going to take a walk. I'll be back in a while. The bathroom is through there." He pointed to a door on the opposite side of the room. "Take your time getting ready. I'm not going to rush you tonight, in any way."

She was still s.h.i.+vering from the promise in that last comment when the outer door closed.

When Daniel came back to the room a half an hour later, the door to the bedroom was still shut.

How much longer would she be?

He'd promised not to rush her, but he wanted her with a hunger that left him feeling hollow and achy inside. Calling his need for her an obsession had been pure fact. If she had turned him down, he would have been on a collision course with spontaneous combustion.

The closed door mocked his promise of patience. He wanted to pound on it and demand to know how long it took to put on a nightgown, but he had just enough self-control left to keep him seated on the oversized Victorian sofa.

This was too important to mess up with impatience, even if it was born of desperation.

She'd waited twenty-six years to share her body with a man. After their talk in the park, he understood that better, but still found it difficult to believe a woman as s.e.xy and beautiful as she was could have remained innocent so long.

If Daniel had been one of the soldiers going through Tyler McCall's training camp, Josie would have gotten educated about men and their desires a lot earlier. He would never have allowed the older man's threats-slash-promises to deter him from pursuing a woman he wanted as much as he wanted Josie.

The handle turned on the door to the bedroom, and he surged up from the sofa. The door swung inward, and she came out, the sheer white silk gown clinging lovingly to her small curves.

His breath caught, and he had to clear his throat to talk. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you for the gown. It's the prettiest thing I've ever worn."

The exclusive boutique owner he had called earlier had followed his directions to a T. The nightgown was designed along the lines of a medieval dress. Its bell-shaped long sleeves floated gently around Josie's slender arms, and the skirt whispered against the smooth skin of her legs. The high waist tucked in just below her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, accentuating them.

He ached to taste the dark nipples peeking out at him from behind the sheer silk. He wanted to put his mouth right over each one, making the fabric wet and transparent and her nipples hard and tight.

Familiar sensations brought his s.e.x to full attention as the images in his head grew increasingly erotic. "It'l look even prettier off of you."

Her mouth dropped open, and she stared at him as if she wasn't sure how to take what he'd said.

"The need to see your body without covering is driving me crazy, little warrior.""Do you want me to take it off?" She looked as if she'd bolt into the bedroom and shut the door if hesaid yes.

He smiled a predator's smile, knowing his prey was within his reach, but shook his head. "Not yet."He'd bought it for her to wear, no matter what his h.o.r.n.y-a.s.s mind was telling him. She deserved to feelspecial about her first time. h.e.l.l, she deserved declarations and promises, but all he could give her was pleasure. He didn't know how to love a woman, wasn't sure he could even learn. He'd had too many years training himself not to feel in order to survive.

Her hands fluttered around her head, where her chin-length hair had been brushed into a silky dark

cloud. "I didn't know how to fix my hair to go with the dress.""It looks fine to me."She licked her lips. "You don't think I look silly like this?"He couldn't believe she was asking him that when his d.i.c.k was so hard from looking at her that he could drive nails with it. "No.""You don't say much, do you?"Did that bother her? "I talk more with you than I do other people.""I suppose you do. Dad doesn't talk a lot either."For some reason her cla.s.sifying him with Tyler didn't sit well. "I'm not your father."Her eyes darkened with unmistakable feminine arousal. "No, you aren't, and I'm glad."Not half as glad as he was. He couldn't stand the distance between them anymore. He had to touch her.

He moved toward her, relieved when she didn't back up or get all nervous. Some women had said hescared them in the bedroom. That he was too silent. Too intense. He didn't say things he didn't mean,which meant a lot of the time, he said nothing at all, but he doubted he was any more intense about s.e.xthan most men.

He reached out and cupped Josie's shoulders, liking the small hitch in her breathing at his touch. She felt delicate beneath his hands and incredibly feminine. His woman.

Letting his fingers smooth down her arms, he drew her closer until their bodies were practically touching.

"Are you still nervous?" he had to ask, but wis.h.i.+ng he could keep his mouth shut because he didn't know what he would do if she said yes.

"No." She tipped her head back and met his eyes with hers, the message there one he didn't know howto decipher. "You went to a lot of trouble to make tonight special for me.""It is special."

"I know. You're special, too.""I'm just a man who wants you very badly.""You ordered flowers to fill the bedroom. That meant a lot to me...means a lot to me.""The flowers got rid of your nerves?""You could say that."He didn't understand, but he was glad. "I want to kiss you now.""Yes. Please."Sliding his hands to her small waist, he lowered his head until their mouths were a breath from touching. "

I am going to please you tonight.""Will I please you?" she asked, but not sounding worried as she had earlier."Oh, yeah."She lifted her mouth so their lips collided and flicked her tongue out to press at the seam of his mouth. He let her inside, reveling in her minor aggression. She'd brushed her teeth. He could taste the mint, but her

own sweetness overpowered any other flavor within seconds of their tongues mes.h.i.+ng.

He broke his mouth from hers, remembering something else he'd meant to do before making love. "

Champagne."

She looked at him with glazed green eyes. "What?"

"I ordered champagne." It was chilling in a standing bucket beside the sofa.

"I'd rather taste you."

And just like that his good intentions went up in smoke. He slammed his mouth back on hers, taking the

interior with all the grace of an invading army.

She didn't seem to mind, melting against him just like she'd done earlier, this time her hands rubbing over

his chest in a tactile exploration designed to send him over the edge before he'd even made it out of thestarting gate.He didn't try to stop the touching, though. It felt too good. He'd fantasized a long time about having her small hands on him, and the reality was light years beyond the dreams.

She undid his s.h.i.+rt with more speed than finesse, and a b.u.t.ton popped off. Neither of them cared as he allowed his hands free rein with her body, too. The gown was almost as smooth as her skin, and he ran

his fingers over every curve, memorizing her like a sightless man. Her nipples were rigid beneath the fabric, and when he pinched them, she moaned and ripped his s.h.i.+rt in agitation.

Then her fingertips encountered the naked skin of his chest, and they both shuddered. He cupped her

bottom, to pull her body into more intimate contact with his own, but her gown stopped him from getting

as close as he wanted. Giving up one conquest for another, he broke the kiss and lifted her higher until

her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were level with his mouth.

He closed his lips over one distended peak and proceeded to play with her with the tip of his hard tongue. It made her wild, and she squirmed against him, trying to close her legs around him and making small animal-like sounds. He moved to her other nipple, needing to possess every part of her body totally. This time when his mouth closed over her, she yelled. His name.

He liked it.

He pulled back, and she whimpered. "Don't stop, Daniel. Please."

"I'm not." But he wanted to see.

The silk had become transparent in the two wet spots over her stiff nipples. He could see every goose b.u.mp of pleasure through the now see-through silk that clung revealingly to her excited flesh.

"You're beautiful," he said in a guttural tone he had no hope of softening.

"I want you, Daniel. Now."

He brought her mouth back down to his level, needing to taste her again. She didn't wait for him to kiss her, but devoured his lips with her own, sucking on his tongue and moving her mouth against his ardently.

He felt pre-come wet his p.e.n.i.s inside his pants and desperately wanted to be out of them. Taking a firm grip on her round little a.s.s, he walked into the bedroom and headed for the big bed with one thought in his mind. Getting them both naked.

He ripped the blankets off the bed with one hand and tossed them on the floor. Then he put her on the big expanse of white sheet, coming down with her so their lips stayed connected.

Using one arm at a time, he tore his damaged s.h.i.+rt the rest of the way off and then went to work on the fly of his jeans. He shoved them off with his BVDs, glad he'd had the foresight earlier to take off his shoes and socks while he waited for her, or he wasn't sure he would have gotten his pants off before coming inside her now.

She arched up toward him, and the feel of her silk-clad mound rubbing against his erection brought a feral sound from deep in his throat.

If he didn't get inside her soon, he was going to come all over her pretty nightgown. He reared up off of her and started pus.h.i.+ng the silk up her legs. She helped him, peeling it off over her head and tossing it to the side, no virginal reticence in evidence.

Then she looked at him and stopped breathing, an arrested expression on her face. "Wow."

Chapter 7.

I t occurred to him belatedly he should maybe have waited to let her see him naked until after he had excited her to the point of no return.

"Is it always that big?" d.a.m.ned if she didn't sound intrigued by the prospect.

"Only when I'm excited."She rolled her eyes, her lips twisting wryly. "I may be a virgin, but I'm not an idiot. I knew that. I meant,are you always this big when you're excited?"

"I've never measured it."

"Oh." Her face fell. "So, you don't know how big it is?"