Page 60 of Operation Rescue
“I know I’m the one who left, the one who destroyed us. The one who thought Ethan and I would be better off if we weren’t always worried about it happening again. Weren’t always worrying that the next time, you might not survive.” She let out a harsh, short laugh. “Ethan’s answer to that explanation was that I might be a coward, but he wasn’t. That he wanted to live with you, wherever that was, and no matter how often he had to pack up and move. He obviously inherited your courage.”
He gave her a look then that she couldn’t quite interpret. Not happy, not now under these circumstances, but…pleased?
“Erin, I understand how bad it was, what you went through.”
And there he was, that kind, understanding Blaine, the gentle part that lived behind the tough, self-confident warrior. The Blaine who had ever been able to put her back together when she fell apart. Except for the time when she made sure she was too far away for him to even start.
She shivered slightly and lowered her gaze. “But there was one huge flaw in my grand plan.”
His hands slid down her arms and he clasped her hands. “What?” he asked.
She stared down at those strong hands wrapped around hers, those tough, protective hands. She drew strength from them, from his touch, as she always had. And it was that strength that helped her look up once more, and lock onto those beautiful blue eyes.
“The huge flaw was… I couldn’t… I never stopped loving you.”
“Erin,” he said, and it was a low, harsh, almost broken whisper.
And then he was kissing her, not the light, tender kiss of before but deep, fierce and absolutely luscious. She leaned into him, helpless to do anything else. This man, and only this man, had ever stirred her like this. The feel of him, the heat of him, the taste of him, fired nerve endings that had been dormant for so long she’d almost forgotten they existed.
It was like rereading a well-loved book that she hadn’t looked at in years. All the things she’d adored were there, but it had been so long it all felt new.
But when, half-dressed and just outside her bedroom door, he stopped and threaded his fingers through her hair to tilt her head back to look at him, and asked in that deliciously rough tone she knew so well but had tried fruitlessly to forget, if she was sure, she knew this was still Blaine. Her Blaine, and if she said no he would stop. Because that was who he was.
“I’m sure I don’t want to go another minute without you.”
“But how are you going to feel…after?”
“I’ll deal with that then. But I swear, I won’t take it out on you.”
The only time she felt any hesitation was when, after freeing her of the last of her clothes and putting her gently on the bed, he shed the rest of his and she saw the scars. Not because they repelled her, but because they reminded her. Not just of the horror of what had happened, but of how pitifully incapable she’d been of handling it.
Look at them as proof he’s a survivor.
The words of one of the Navy doctors who had noticed her state of mind came back to her now. She’d shoved them aside then, but now…
The moment he was on the bed beside her, hot, powerful and fully aroused, she forgot everything about those horrible days, and knew only how much she had missed this, the perfection of them together. From their first time she’d been stunned, but Blaine hadn’t. He’d merely smiled and said he’d always known it would be perfect.
And it was perfect now as the door on that knowledge she’d kept locked away burst open, and everything she’d learned about his body, about what he liked, and where he liked to be touched, stroked, licked and kissed, came flooding out. At the same time he made it clear he hadn’t forgotten a thing about her, either, and it was a reunion she’d never expected to have.
And more explosively spectacular than she could have hoped.
The moment he started to slide into her, she arched involuntarily, wanting that feeling of utter completion she knew would happen when he was inside her. And it did, and the groan of pleasure he let out when he was fully there told her it hadn’t changed for him, either.
She shuddered at the sensation and whispered, “Only you. Only you do this to me.”
“Because—” he began to move, to stroke “—we were—” he drove hard and deep “—made for each other.”
She could not deny it, didn’t even try.
And when she felt her body hit the peak, tightening around him until he let out her name on a gasp, she remembered how she’d always thought in this moment she understood him, because this was as close as she could get to flying.
Chapter 31
The signal from the Foxworth phone interrupted the sweetest dream Blaine had had in two years. Then he opened his eyes and realized it hadn’t been a dream. The faint, early morning light proved it. He was in Erin’s bed, she was snuggled up behind him, her arm draped over his ribs, and he was instantly hot enough to ignore the electronic sound and roll over and start anew that glorious joining he’d thought was gone forever.
Ethan.
He jolted upright, scrambling for the jeans he’d shed in such a hurry last night, digging into the pocket for the Foxworth device. Erin was awake now, so he put it on speaker so they could both hear.
