Blurb
Former Army Sergeant Deacon Hunter is trapped.
Trapped in the friend zone. Longing for the woman who captured his heart when they were deployed in Iraq.
Former Army Sergeant Kelsey Ryder has scars, the kind of scars she hopes that no one ever sees. Working around the guys at the Pint, she’s reminded of everything she lost when she left the Army behind.
But some scars refuse to stay hidden.
One fateful night changes everything and neither of them know if their relationship will ever be the same.
All Deacon knows is that he’ll be there to catch her when she finally falls.
Excerpt
"Are
you okay?"
"Mostly."
I should present to be a rational adult and have a reasonable conversation.
Anything is better than the status quo, right? “I guess…sometimes things get to
me that shouldn’t.”
"Yeah.
I get that." I look up at her words, the frustration in her voice echoing
the tension clawing at my heart, locking the words I need in my chest. “It’s
hard, though. To say when something hurts.”
I say
nothing for a long moment. Letting her words sink in. Letting their possibility
wrap around me.
Then I
move. Silent and slow, I back her up against the wall. "You don’t have to
be strong all the time," I tell her softly. Her mouth is there, just
there. She is soft against me, soft in all the ways I remember.
Soft in a
thousand ways that will torture me for the rest of a lifetime.
"Neither
do you." She’s goading me tonight. Crossing boundaries I know she’s set in
place. I can’t figure out what’s changed. If it’s the fatigue I see in her eyes
or the mixture of that with too much to drink. I don’t know.
And part of
me doesn’t care. Part of me only cares that she’s here. That her body is
pressed to mine. That I’ve penetrated the space around her and she has not
pushed me away.
God, this
woman is fierce and amazing. She doesn't back down, doesn't break against the
threat anyone else would read in my body.
"I
will never forget what happened between us in Iraq. Or when we came home."
I reach for her then, cupping her face. Sliding my thumb along her full bottom
lip. Wanting so badly to taste her. To end this unnecessary distance between
us. “But we don’t have to keep suffering alone. Apart. It doesn’t need to be
like this.”
And goddamn
her, she presses her lips to my thumb. A gentle kiss. A thousand sensual
memories slash through me, ripping away any shred of my composure.
It takes
everything I have not to lift her, to urge her legs around my hips and grind
against her. I'm hard as a fucking stone. I know she can feel me, solid and
hard against her.
She's my
addiction. The one woman I dream about when I'm with someone else.
And she
knows it. She has to know it.
Her
barriers hurt us both.
"We
spent four weeks together when we got home and I don't remember any of them.
Except the nightmares." She cups my face, brushing her lips against mine.
"I can't do that again. I can't get lost in the alcohol and the sex.
Because it doesn't help me forget. It only makes it worse."
I lower my
forehead to hers, her quiet admission gutting me, ripping through me. That’s
why she’s kept us apart. That’s why she’s walked away and pretended there was
nothing between us.
Her words
hurt; they slice at me, reminding me of how fucking self-centered I was when I
first got home, wanting to do nothing more than drink and fuck, then drink some
more.
I had no
idea how much she was hurting. Because I didn’t bother to look.
"I
didn’t know." It’s a pitiful confession. So insufficient. I step back
then, releasing her from the wall.
Letting her
go when it's the last thing I want. She disappears up the stairs, quiet as a
ghost.
I lower my
forehead to the wooden shelf holding parts of Eli's extensive and very
expensive whiskey collection. We're a long fucking way from that bloodstained
container where Kelsey used to live.
But we
might as well never have left.
A piece of
my soul stayed back there, mixed in with the sand and the bullets and the
blood.
Forever
entwined with hers.
✦✦BUY LINKS✦✦
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