Page 9 of Devastate Me

Eliza snorted. “You would. If he and I were together, we wouldn’tneedtoys.”

Ophelia watched Eliza and Jennifer trade barbs. Miranda rolled her eyes with an indulgent smile and continued to drink her wine.

The conversation soon turned to other topics—children, ex-husbands, the latest local scandals of who was building some god-awful shed or who was not keeping their lawns up to code. Ophelia sipped her wine and gazed at Colt’s house, unable to avoid thinking about him and his bedroom and his imaginary sex dungeon and all the things that might happen there. She shouldn’t fantasize about him, she really shouldn’t, but it was hard not to with the images the ladies had put into her head.

Ophelia didn’t know what he would be like in bed, not from that one kiss, but she could imagine. The kiss had started soft and insistent, but he’d deepened it and his hands ... they had been everywhere. Possessive, cupping and stroking in an almost dominant way but not quite. Would he be the kind of man who wanted to tie her up and fuck her hard? Or would he be slow and sweet, taking his time to draw out an endless orgasm? The only thing she was sure of after that one kiss was that he would devastate her.

After her breakup with Jack, she wasn’t sure she wanted a man to have that kind of power over her again. And she hadn’t even been wildly in love with Jack. They had enjoyed being together, but it was more like companionship than love. And yet being dumped by him had hurt so much. The idea of liking a man even more than that? Of loving someone and getting her heart broken? That was the last thing she needed. Colt would have to devastate her only in her deepest, darkest fantasies.

* * *

Colt was determinedto be on his best behavior. He had made it a full two months now without kissing Ophelia since she had moved in. Everything felt almost normal.

Almost.

He’d gotten into the habit of taking walks in the morning with Noah, and one morning Ophelia had just sort of joined him. Now they’d been meeting up to walk every day since. Then it had seemed only natural that he’d come over to her house a few times a week to help weed her front flower beds. He’d also carried bags of mulch for her, since she was so damn small.

They’d had drinks at her place more than once, and he’d found himself talking about his past, his parents, the rough times he’d had as a teen, and how he’d ended up in the navy.

In turn, she’d told him all about her life back in Portland and how she’d gotten burned out working for a fancy fashion designer who’d yelled at everyone all the time. Colt had never laughed so hard as when she told stories about the fashion industry and all the crazy personalities involved.

They really had become friends, just as Ophelia had told him she’d wanted. Colt, to his own surprise, didn’t mind that at all. In fact, it gave him an incentive to get up in the mornings. Noah was crazy about Ophelia and had apparently decided that his training to stay in place or heel did not apply whenever Ophelia was in sight. Colt wasn’t mad—he could understand the dog’s desire to bound up to her and lick her. Hell, he had the same desire to run up and grab her and kiss her senseless. He had done nothing since the night of the kiss two months ago but fantasize about Ophelia naked and making love to her until she cried out in exhausted pleasure.

The fantasies didn’t stop there. He was not a man who was shy in bed. He could be rough and playful, sweet or dirty depending on his mood, and he kept running through every delicious scenario he could imagine of how he would taste Ophelia. Colt had never jacked off in the shower so much in his life as he had since she had moved in. He’d become as horny as some teen, getting hard at the sight of her just walking to her mailbox, or while she watered her potted plants in her backyard and he could hear her humming. The woman was a damn temptation, and if he didn’t keep his shit together, he would give in to his need.

In order to stay out of trouble, he’d been visiting the VA center almost every other day after work, and it was where he was headed now, to keep his thoughts decidedly away from the tempting girl next door.

“I think you’re coming here too often,” Nancy teased as he and Noah walked into the center.

“You can’t ever spend too much time with your fellow veterans,” he replied, and he meant it. The veterans in their country were always forgotten. They’d served and sacrificed and went silent while others whined about shit they wouldn’t even have if not for people like them who’d kept them safe. The irony was how that same tough silence meant they were increasingly overlooked—by the public and far too often by the government. The thought always made Colt furious.

“Hey, turn that frown upside down,” Nancy teased. “Tell me what’s going on. You’ve been amped up for the last couple of months.”

Colt leaned against the wall of the lobby, which had filled with veterans who came to visit Noah. “Just neighborhood shit,” he grumbled.

“Are those divorcées mowing their lawns in bikinis again? You poor baby.” Nancy’s playful sarcasm didn’t go unnoticed. “Have you ever thought about dating again? You would put off those nosy neighbors, and you might actually have a good time yourself. You weren’t born to be a monk, Colt. God gave you that body so women could enjoy it.”

He definitely wasn’t born to be a monk, but the woman he wanted didn’t deserve a casual hookup. Ophelia was the kind of girl a man married and worshiped the rest of his life, and Colt wasn’t sure he was ready for that after Talia.

“Nance, what Dean and Talia did—”

“It sucks, I know. But not every woman is like her. Most of us are pretty damn loyal and awesome.” She gave him a pointed look, and he curled an arm around her shoulders.

“You are awesome, Nance. Why don’t I just date you?”

She laughed heartily and nudged him in the ribs with an elbow. “I’m flattered, but you aren’t my type, honey. I like ’em with blond hair and blue eyes.” Her gaze betrayed her as she watched a tall blond-haired man roughing up Noah’s fur, much to the dog’s enjoyment. The man had one leg amputated below the knee, and he was wearing a prosthetic limb.

“Don’t tell me you’re shy?” Colt teased.

“Maybe a little, at least with that hottie,” Nancy admitted.

“Hey, bro!” Colt called out. Nancy gasped and tried to run away, but Colt held her in place. “Nancy here wants to go out with you.”

The man took one look at Nancy and came right over.

“I’m going to kill you, Colt,” Nancy warned before turning on her bright smile as the soldier joined them. Colt took the opportunity to retrieve Noah, and then they headed to the parking lot. He was just putting Noah in the truck when someone called his name. He closed his truck door and turned, expecting to see someone from the center.

Colt’s hands clenched at his sides as he recognized the man. Dean Griffin walked toward him, his hands held up, obviously hoping to avoid a fight.

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