Page 47 of Save Me

The fall of her hair across his arm.

The sensual stroke of his tongue in the valley between her breasts.

The catch in her breath when he stretched out beside her.

The glitter in his eyes as he gazed down upon her.

The scars they bore were both outward and inward, but the bond between them was timeless, unbreakable.

He was the same, and yet different.

It wasn’t their first kiss...but it was the last remnant of regret for what had been.

“My darlin’ Lainie, you never quit me...even after I quit myself. Words do not exist to explain the depths of what you mean to me.”

He had that piercing-eye raptor look again, and she was his willing prey. “I love you, Hunt, and that is all.”

His heart was pounding as he moved over her, and then he was inside her. Hard as a rock, and throbbing from the blood rush, he began to move.

She closed her eyes, wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper. I am whole again.

It began like it always had between them—with a slow, steady stroke in perfect rhythm. Their bodies fit, like two halves of a perfect whole, turning up the volume as the need grew stronger.

Minute by minute, they chased the heat, always just a little ahead of them, until feel-good turned into need. Need turned into frenzy, and right in the middle of heartbeat, the slam of a climax, wiping out all sense of thought. In the aftermath, they became each other’s anchor until the final quake had stilled.

Still inside her, Hunt rolled onto his back, taking her with him, and within seconds felt the first drops of her tears on his chest.

His voice was but a rumble in Lainie’s ear.

“You’re crying. Please tell me I didn’t hurt you.”

“No pain. Tears of joy. Making love to you didn’t hurt. It healed.”

“Okay then,” he said, and slid his hands down the ridge of her spine and cupped her backside.

Lainie felt boneless. She couldn’t have moved then if she’d tried, and there they laid, heart to heart, as the minutes passed. She was almost at the point of sleep when she heard him groan, and then move within her.

He was hard again, and still inside her.

She raised up just enough to see his ice-blue eyes catch fire.

“What are you waiting for, Gator?”

“Permission to proceed, ma’am.”

“Permission granted.”

Three days later

LAINIE DIDN’T HAVE a way to thank each and every person responsible for the flowers from Hunt’s squadron, so she turned loose of her ego and had Hunt take a picture of her standing by the bouquet and holding a sign that read,

TO THE GUYS IN GATOR GRAY’S SQUADRON, AND THE 82ND AIRBORNE BATTALION IN FORT LIBERTY

THANK YOU FOR THE FLOWERS.

WITH LOVE—GATOR GRAY’S GIRL.

And then she posted it on her Instagram account.

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