I knew I would keep my baby. When I mailed that letter to you, I had no idea how you would respond. It really didn’t matter. I was doing what I thought was the right thing by letting you know. I was prepared to go solo regardless.”
“And now you don’t have to because I’m here.”
For how long? she wondered. He was still a navy SEAL and could get called away on a mission at any time. A mission he might not return from. She’d already had to deal with news of him dying once; there was no way she could go through it again. That meant she had to fall out of love with him. But how could she do that?
He had made it pretty clear that he wanted to see Laramie as often as he could. So she’d be seeing him often, too. In that case, how could she begin the process of removing him from her heart? There had to be a way and she was determined to find it. She had lost her mother, her father and her aunt. The three most important people in her life were gone. Now she had Laramie. She lived for her son and that would be enough.
“I’ll leave now so you can get some things done while Laramie is taking his nap. I’ll be back around four-thirty.”
“All right.”
She moved to walk him to the door, but he just stood there. Staring at her. More specifically, his gaze was fixated on her mouth. She saw it. Felt it. Her lips suddenly felt warm. Sensitive.
She knew she should turn away so her mouth wouldn’t be the object of his focus. But the truth was, she couldn’t. His assessing gaze was getting to her, and she couldn’t do a single thing about it.
Bristol knew what he planned the moment he took a step in her direction but she didn’t back up. She couldn’t. It was as if she was rooted in place. Then he was standing directly in front of her. His eyes penetrating hers. His features fierce.
“I thought about you a lot, Bristol. During those eleven months while being held hostage.”
His words made her heart flip several times. He had thought about her? “You did?”
“Yes. Thinking of you kept me sane...especially during those times I was being tortured,” he told her quietly.
Oh, God! Tortured? There was an intense searing in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t imagine what he’d endured.
“I would close my eyes and remember each and every time I made love to you. Every single time I kissed you. We shared a lot of kisses over those three days.”
Yes, they had. They’d shared a lot of things, including their bodies. He hadn’t been the only one who’d remembered, although her situation hadn’t been as difficult as his by any stretch of the imagination. Every time her child, their child, had kicked or moved within her womb, she would think of him. Mourn him. Grieve for him. She would also thank him for giving her his child.
“I need to kiss you,” he said in a husky tone, reclaiming her attention. “I need to kiss you as much as I need to breathe.”
And she needed to kiss him, as well. That was the shocking truth. No matter how independent she wanted to be, she needed to kiss him. Her eyes were focused on his lips with the same intensity that his had been on hers. She needed to feel the heat of her body against his.
She was succumbing to everything male that he represented.
“As you wish,” Bristol whispered. She was the one who made the first move, standing on tiptoe, leaning in close and placing her mouth against his.
Coop wrapped his arms around her and took over the kiss. The moment their tongues touched, getting reacquainted in the most passionate way, liquid heat seemed to spread through, burning him from the inside out.
His body leaped to life. He was now a man very much aware and filled with a yearning so deep it ached. Yet at the same time the yearning calmed the beast within him. Made him accept that Bristol could affect him in ways no other woman could.
He hadn’t counted on her kiss being as greedy as his, her need just as insurmountable. Their tongues were mating in ways that sent a crackle of energy escalating between them. From the very first, he’d known she was different. He just hadn’t known what role she would eventually play in his life. He had no idea that one day she would become the mother of his child.
He had given more of himself to her than he had to any woman. Even now he felt a need for her in every cell, in every pore. How could she get under his skin this way? To the point where he confessed to thinking of her while being held captive. Remembering her while being in pain. He’d never shared that much about one of his missions with anyone. There had been no one to tell. His parents hadn’t wanted to hear the gory details. And he hadn’t been able to open up to the psychiatrist the military had ordered him to see. Only his SEAL teammates had known the hell he’d gone through. And now Bristol knew. Not everything but enough.
They needed to come up for air, so he slowly ended the kiss, pulling his mouth away on a guttural moan. Still needing a connection, he used the tip of his tongue to lick her lips from corner to corner, before grazing his jaw against her ear.
He dropped his hands and couldn’t recall at what point his fingers had become buried in her hair. Now it looked unruly. Sexy as hell. The sight of her kiss-swollen lips made him even more aware of how much he wanted her. Desire pulsed through him and he felt hard as a rock.
He took a step back, because otherwise he would be tempted to sweep her off her feet and carry her upstairs to that bedroom he’d refused to enter earlier. “I’ll be back to get you and Laramie around four thirty.”
And then he headed for the door. He came close to making it out without looking back. But temptation was too much. Overpowering. He stopped and glanced over his shoulder. Bristol was standing there looking more beautiful than any woman he’d ever seen. There was heat in her eyes.
A hungry throb stirred inside him and he drew in a wobbly breath before forcing himself out the door and closing it behind him.
* * *
Bristol released a breath before burying her face in her hands. What on earth had she done? What on earth had she started? That kiss had made her come unglued. No, she’d lost her composure long before that kiss. The intensity of her sexual need had begun to affect her the moment Coop had walked into her house that morning.
She could no more deny the carnal attraction between them than she could refrain from breathing. And today, just a few moments ago in her living room, they’d both unleashed pent-up, held-back desires. Her body knew him, desired him, ached for him. Closing her eyes, she felt a surge of yearning trying to take over her senses again.
Opening her eyes, she refused to let it. At that moment she heard her cell phone ring and wondered who was calling. Coop had her number. Would he be calling her? There was no way he’d made it to the corner already. Maybe he’d decided dinner wasn’t a good idea after all and was canceling. If that was true then she agreed with him. Sitting in a restaurant across from him might push temptation to a new level. She wasn’t certain if their son would be enough of a buffer.
Pulling her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans, Bristol saw the caller wasn’t Coop but Margie. She quickly clicked it on. “Yes, Margie?”
“You okay? You sound kind of breathless.”
She swallowed. Did she? “I’m fine.”
“I called to see how things turned out with your soon-to-be ex.”
Bristol frowned, confused. “My soon-to-be ex?”
“Yes. You can divorce him on the grounds of desertion, you know. I can refer a good attorney you can use.”
“Desertion?”
“Yes. At least that’s what I call it. You thought he was dead. Granted I understand the military made a mistake, but if he had cared anything about you—even