Page 27 of ELITE Justice
“Yes, you do.” He smiled back and pecked her lips. “And I’m in charge of seeing to your safety.” His smile broadened. “I put myself on the night shift.”
“Gwen,” Luis called from the kitchen, “order up.”
She pressed a brief kiss to his lips. “We’re slammed and I have a waitress out. I’ve got to get back to work. What do you want for supper?”
“I’ll be happy to eat you.” The picture of her spread wide, and naked, for him upstairs on her bed was all it took for him to grow hard.
“Later,” she promised. “Now, what nourishing food can I bring you?”
“Take my order at the counter in a few minutes.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You need to get back to work.” He took her by the shoulders and set her back a foot. Then stepped away to separate them even more. “See what you do to me?”
She glanced at his crotch and then giggled like a teenager. Sweetness coated his heart.
“Fine. I’ll serve you in a few minutes.” She closed the distance between them and rubbed her hand up and down his cock. “I’ll service this later tonight.”
He couldn’t wait.
CHAPTER11
Jonathan lovedthe way Gwen curled into him after sex. She got this tender, satiated smile on her pretty lips that remained red from his kisses for hours. She always fell asleep within minutes, sometimes moving from the depths of her orgasm straight into a good night’s sleep.
Tonight, their third in a row together, he’d licked her wet folds and sucked on her clit until she came twice. He’d finally allowed himself to slide into her hot sheath and take his own pleasure. They’d started earlier than usual, right after the supper crowd had thinned. She’d allowed her evening staff to close the diner, proclaiming she was exhausted. The cook and head waitress had simply grinned as they left together.
Gwen lay beside him, circling his flat nipple with her index finger. “Why do you leave my bed every night as soon as I fall asleep? You can protect me from five inches away. Besides, it would take a safecracker to get through the new security system Guardian installed.”
“I’m just not comfortable sleeping all night with a woman.” He’d admitted it, finally.
She stiffened and rolled away from him. “Then get the hell out of my bed.”
He didn’t want to go. Ever, if he acknowledged the truth to himself. “What’s wrong?”
She rolled back over and faced him, sitting up. “What’s wrong?” She repeated. “I guess I need to know where I stand, or more accurately, lay. We’ve spent practically every moment together for the last four days. Is this going anywhere other than to bed? Am I nothing more to you than this week’s fuck buddy, because that’s the way I feel!”
He sat up, facing her. How could he explain?
Reaching for her, she slapped his hands away. “You’re not going to distract me with round three. Answer the question.”
Fuck. This woman had been filling his heart since he’d kissed her on the rooftop. Maybe since she snatched the gun from Bitsy’s hand. He didn’t want to let go of what they had, what had been growing between them.
But he was afraid to spend the night in her bed. What if he hurt her like he had…
He wanted more from Gwen, so he had to tell her. He sighed deeply. “Back in Miami, I had…a long-term relationship.” Fuck, this was hard. “You know I was in the Marines.”
She nodded but said nothing, holding his gaze.
“I was involved in some real ugly shit over there and…sometimes.” How could he explain without sounding like an abusive bastard? He didn’t even know what he’d done, until he saw the bruises. “In my sleep, I must have had a flashback.” He swallowed hard and looked away from her pretty face. “The next morning, she…she looked like she’d been mugged. She had bruises…” he choked on the memory and fought self-disgust. Dropping his face into his hands, all he could do was shake his head.
“She told me she’d tried to wake me up when I started yelling in my sleep.” He stared past Gwen into the darkness of her bedroom and fought the heat behind his eyes. “I had attacked her.” He looked at Gwen’s tear-filled eyes. “I didn’t remember any of it. Not a fucking thing. Not the nightmare I obviously had, and certainly not hurting her.”
Gwen’s shoulders slumped as a tear fell onto the rumpled sheets.
“I could never let that happen to you.” He cupped her face and swiped away the tears with his thumbs. “You mean too much to me.”
She threw herself into his arms and let the tears flow. “It wasn’t your fault.” She repeated the phrase until she got ahold of her emotions. Sitting back, she dragged in a breath. “PTSD is a bitch, and comes in so many forms; often in night terrors. They should teach spouses and girlfriends how to awaken war veterans, especially you SpecOps guys. You’re the jumpiest bunch of men I’ve ever met, lethal even in your sleep.”
