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  But here, making love to a woman who should be cherished, worshipped, and loved, dread rose up. Hurt and heartbreak were the last things she needed in her life. And if he wasn’t careful, if he didn’t make a clean break tomorrow—

  “Cade! Oh, God, Cade!” She released his face, grabbed his ass, and held tight to him.

  He felt the climax overtake her body. And he followed her over the cliff, into the place where orgasms reigned without reservation.

  After what felt like a lifetime of mind-blowing pleasure, he collapsed on top of her. He knew he should move, roll to one side, but his body refused to cooperate. Plain old missionary had taken everything he had.

  Beneath him, she wiggled and somehow managed to escape.

  “Going somewhere?” he asked, rolling to his side, wanting to see her if he couldn’t feel her beneath him.

  “I’ll give you five minutes to recover,” she said. “Before you join me in the shower.”

  Standing beside the bed, naked and sticky from the last round, she looked entirely comfortable in her own skin. The woman he saw now wouldn’t ride him with a bathrobe tied around her waist. She wouldn’t hide behind insecurities. And more than anything, he wanted her to hold on to that feeling with both hands.

  “You’re gorgeous,” he said. “But five minutes isn’t enough.” After that last round, he doubted he would be able to lift his pinkie toe anytime soon, never mind the part of his body she’d just worked out.

  “Are you sure?” She placed her hands on her hips. “It’s time for number one.”

  “We need to work on your understanding of the male anatomy.” He rolled to his back and stretched his arms overhead. “That’s just not possible.”

  “Ten minutes,” she said, her gaze lingering on his stomach for a second before she turned away.

  He tracked her movements and followed the sway of her hips as she bent at the waist and scooped her purse off the floor. The sight of her ass in the air…

  “I could be ready in eight,” he conceded.

  She picked a tube of lipstick out of her purse and walked over to the closet. She opened the door, revealing the full-length mirror inside. Then she used the lipstick to write their names on the mirror.

  “What are you…?”

  “Scoreboard,” she said. Beneath his name, she added two red lipstick lines. And under hers, she added three. “Eight minutes.” She placed the cap on the lipstick. “And then we even the orgasm count.”

  We’re already even. You’re forgetting about the gold-medal hand job.

  “The restaurant doesn’t count,” she said as if reading his mind. “That wasn’t on your list.”

  She walked out of the room without pausing, as if she didn’t have a shy, insecure bone in her body—which left him with only one reason to join her in the shower. He wanted to see her kneeling on the shower floor, the water running between her breasts as she pressed them together.

  He heard the water turn on and groaned.

  “Time is almost up,” she called.

  “Temptation’s a bitch,” he muttered, swinging his legs over the bed. He had a feeling if he offered that explanation to Natalie tomorrow, she’d threaten to end their friendship.

  The thing was that the more he learned about what had happened during Natalie’s time in foster care, he realized his tough-as-nails best friend needed him in her life, too. She might scare a roomful of drunken marines, but underneath that tough exterior, he had a feeling she’d shouldered more than her fair share of the grief over what happened.

  “Cade?” Lucia called. “Time’s up.”

  He ran his hand over his face, stood, and headed for the shower. “I’m coming, gorgeous.”

  One more fantasy. I better make this one count.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lucia knelt on the tile floor. A steady stream of water rushed over her shoulders and down her breasts. Maybe tomorrow, she’d let her body unwind again in here. But right now, anticipation threatened to twist her nerves into knots despite the warm water hitting her back. Left alone in the enormous bathroom, questions filled her mind.

  Earlier, with his head between her spread legs, Cade had hesitated. Had she pushed for too much? Was she crazy to want more beyond this weekend with a man she barely knew?

  He’d opened windows to his life, offered glimpses into his job and his team waiting for him back in Coronado. And he’d told her about his own parents’ haunted past. He tried to pass it off like it hadn’t affected him, but she saw a man grappling with loneliness. They both had their reasons for returning to an empty home at the end of the day—or deployment, in his case. But her reasons were slipping away the more time she spent with him.

  When she’d planned her trip, ordering the mask and selecting her clothes, she’d hoped to find a man who found her attractive. But Cade had introduced her to other must-haves. Things like safety.

  Until he’d walked into her Vegas fantasy, she hadn’t realized how much she needed someone who offered both physical and emotional security. He’d given her a place to feel beautiful and wanted.

  And he’d opened her eyes to the idea that desire ran deeper than perfect muscles. Sure, his abs packed a wow factor that she couldn’t ignore. But the way he’d picked out a set of paints for her left her seeing so much more in him than a weekend fantasy.

  The bathroom door swung wide, and Cade stepped in. She pushed her tangled mess of hair aside and focused on the very recovered SEAL standing on the other side of the glass shower door.

  “Gorgeous, I want to be clear about one thing,” he said, opening the door and stepping inside. “My drawings don’t do you justice. Your body is a work of art.”

  He stopped in front of her, his feet planted hip distance apart. He trailed his index finger over her scarred cheek down to the chin. Gently, he tipped her head back.

  “I will never forget the way you look right now, naked and on your knees, waiting for me,” he said.

  “And wet,” she said, moving her hands up her body to her breasts. She cupped one in each palm and held them up, allowing the water to splash off them in every direction. “Very, very wet.”

  His gaze narrowed, clearly bypassing humor and heading straight for fuck-me-now lust. “Earlier, you said, ‘don’t hold back.’”

  “And I meant it.” With her breathing bordering on panting, she took in the magnitude of this moment. Cade. Here. Unrestrained. Completely hers. “But you should know, this is a first for me.”

  “Let me show you.” His hands covered hers and drew her breasts down, pressing them together. “Hold them right there.”

  He wrapped his hand around the base of his cock and slid it through the wet valley. He pressed his free hand against the glass wall at his back. “Lean into me.”

  She tilted her body forward a fraction of an inch.

  “Just like that,” he gasped.

  And then he began to move, his hips rocking back and forth. The tip of his cock peeked over the top of her cleavage before gliding back down.

  “I don’t know what it looks like from your angle, gorgeous,” he said, his voice like gravel. “But from where I’m standing, this is a dream come true.”

  “Your number-one fantasy is everything you hoped for and more?”

  His hips stilled, leaving his erection buried between her breasts. His gaze lifted to her face. “No.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “There’s something you want more than this?”

  “You.” He took a hold of her hands and drew them away from her breasts. “I don’t want to end the night on a fantasy.”

  “Oh,” she gasped, confusion rushing in as he moved to the shower door.

  “Don’t move,” he ordered. “I’ll be right back.”

  She closed her eyes and waited. Over the shower’s white noise, she heard footsteps and a tearing sound.

  “Lucia.” He said her name as if it were a benediction. “Lucia, look at me.”

  She blinked away the water and stood and moved
to the glass wall and watched as he covered himself with a condom.

  “I want to take you any and every way you can imagine. In public or hidden away, if it turns you on, I want to try it. And one way or the other, we’ll end with you screaming my name. But right now, I don’t want number one or number eleven on my list or yours.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  He opened the shower door and stepped inside. “Let me make love to you. No games or Post-it note plans. Just you and me.”

  “Yes,” she said, her voice loud and clear over the shower’s spray.

  He wrapped his hands around her hips and guided her back until she felt the shower wall behind her. His hands cupped her bottom and lifted her up. “Wrap your legs around me.”

  She obeyed, savoring the feel of his powerful arms as they so easily suspended her above the shower floor.

  “This is it, gorgeous,” he said, thrusting inside her, filling her completely. “This is the moment I’ll take with me.”

  She held on tight, her thighs pressed against his hips as he began to move in and out.

  I’m not going to leave you alone with memories for company. You deserve more, too.

  And tomorrow, she’d tell him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “You forgot to text,” Natalie declared, bypassing “good morning” or “hello.”

  “It’s eight in the morning,” Lucia said. “I had a long night. And I assumed you did, too.” She pinned her phone between her shoulder and ear. She used the tongs sitting beside the doughnuts to select a Boston cream, a chocolate glazed, and a powdered sugar from the buffet, then carefully moved them to her to-go container. “And I don’t have much time to chat now. There’s six feet plus of orgasm-inducing male perfection asleep in my bed, and I plan to tempt him with doughnuts.”

  “Oh my God, he trades sex for doughnuts?” Her sister’s shrill voice left her wishing she could end the call right now.

  “Probably.” She closed the cardboard box and headed for the coffee station. “But I’m hoping he’ll agree to talk in exchange for a Boston cream. I plan to discuss our future. Together.”

  “No, Lucia,” her sister said. “You can’t keep seeing him.”

  She set the doughnuts on the counter with more force than she’d intended as she reached for a paper cup. “You can stop worrying. And let go of this sudden interest in my life. You don’t know me. Believe me. Until this weekend, I barely knew myself.”

  “And sex with this virtual stranger changed everything?” Natalie snapped.

  “Yes, it did. With Cade, I feel beautiful and alive. And I think he feels something for me, too.”

  “What happens when he ships out for months on end to God knows where?”

  “I wait.” Lucia reached for the creamer and filled her cup to the brim. “I’ve endured a lot worse.”

  “If you want my advice,” Natalie said, “you should get the next flight to Tennessee and forget you ever met him.”

  “Look, I know you’re trying to be a good big sister. And I realize I shut you out in the past, but I know what I’m doing.” She picked up the box in one hand.

  “He’s going to break your heart.”

  “You don’t know that.” She reached for the coffee. She and Cade would have to settle for sharing one cup. She couldn’t manage two.

  “Yes, I do.” Natalie let out a sigh. “I need to go. But please text me when you’re home. You’re the only family I’ve got. I know I’ve screwed up in the past. A lot.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.” Lucia paused in the hotel hallway outside the bustling buffet and closed her eyes. It always came back to the incident. “Stop feeling guilty and just be my sister for once.”

  “I’m trying. I swear, I am,” Natalie said softly. “I just hope you’ll forgive me one day.”

  The line went dead. Lucia opened her eyes and moved to the windows looking out over the resort pool. She’d never blamed Natalie for what happened. Never. Why couldn’t her sister accept that?

  She mentally added fix relationship with big sister to her list for the future, turned away from the windows, and followed the bright carpet through the casino floor toward the elevator bank. Before she fixed the past, she needed to talk to Cade about her future.

  As she stepped on the elevator, she caught a glimpse of her scars in the mirrored interior.

  When she’d put on the mask that first night, she’d never expected to find a man who wanted the woman hiding behind it. She’d never dreamed a man who looked like a movie star would take one look at her and label her gorgeous. But he’d proved it with every touch, every kiss, and every thoughtful gesture.

  “For once, I met someone whose actions line up with his words,” she murmured, stepping into the empty hall.

  She balanced the coffee cup on the doughnut box and used her key card to unlock her door. She moved quietly, hoping to let him sleep a little longer. But as she gently closed the door behind her, she heard his voice come from the sitting area by the window.

  “Don’t you dare tell her,” he said. “It won’t do any good, believe me.”

  She remained in the entryway so as not to interrupt his call. Heck, she ought to get out of there so that she wouldn’t be eavesdropping—

  “It ends today, Natalie. She never needs to know you sent me.”

  Natalie.

  No, it couldn’t be. He would have told her. She’d asked him if he knew her sister and he hadn’t said a word. But the pieces fit. Coronado. SEAL. Her sister’s calls and texts. Natalie’s concern. He knew her big sister.

  She released her hold on the box, and the doughnuts tumbled to the carpet. The coffee followed, and the lid popped off as it hit the floor. The light and sweet liquid mingled with their breakfast.

  What a mess.

  “Fuck me,” he said.

  Never again.

  His words hit her hard. Her hands formed tight fists, desperate to lash out. But then she realized Cade had stopped speaking, and when she looked up, she saw him watching her, regret and resignation right there in his eyes.

  “Natalie,” he murmured. “I have to go.” He lowered the phone from his ear and tossed it on the sofa, then reached for his boxer briefs and jeans. Smart man. This was one conversation they couldn’t have naked. “Lucia, let me explain—”

  “You. Know. My. Sister.” She enunciated each word to beat back the hysteria that threatened to overtake her voice. “And she sent you to find me?”

  “Yes.” He grabbed an undershirt off the floor and pulled it over his head. The white fabric clung to his muscular chest.

  She walked through the doughnut disaster and headed for the bed, leaving a powdered-sugar trail of footprints.

  The moments flashed through her mind like still images from a movie. She’d thought she was part of a love story fueled by passion. But instead, she’d been starring in a comedy/horror film. And she’d been cast in a familiar role—the girl everyone felt sorry for.

  Had it all been a sham? She knew the weekend was supposed to be all about fantasies, but to think that nothing that had happened between them was real…

  She sank onto the bed and buried her face in her hands. A spectator looking in might laugh at the naive woman who’d clung to the fantasy that a Navy SEAL wanted her, that he desired her. But it felt like a nightmare. The whole thing had been a lie. His reason for approaching her. For being with her. For wanting her.

  “Why?” she demanded as she lifted her face from her palms.

  “Your sister was worried about you,” he said. “Natalie thought you’d follow through with your plan.”

  “She told you I was looking to meet someone,” she said, putting the pieces together. “But if she wanted someone to babysit me, why did she send you? Or was seducing me part of the plan?”

  “No,” he said firmly, his hands on his hips. “Natalie made me promise to keep my hands off you. But I saw you in that red dress and I wanted you.”

  She stared at him. She didn’t k
now if she should be relieved her sister hadn’t sent a man to have sex with her or horrified that he’d felt so damn sorry for her that he’d broken his promise.

  Horrified. There was no space in this room for relief. All along she’d believed Cade was different. Being here, with him, she’d no longer felt like the girl people pitied. When the truth was, she’d been on the ultimate pity date and she hadn’t even known it.

  “I still don’t understand why she chose you. Did she want you to string me along without touching me for the entire weekend? Did Natalie assume I’d be so grateful for your attention, I’d follow you around waiting and hoping for more?” The questions rose up one after the other.

  “I’ll admit your sister seems clueless when it comes to the fact that you’re fucking gorgeous—”

  “Cade,” she protested. She wanted to erase the charade. She didn’t need pet names or praise. Not now.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said, his voice firm. “Maybe some people don’t see it. But I do.”

  “Natalie thought I would melt at the sound of your voice, didn’t she?”

  He sighed. “You sister asked me to come because I was already headed to Vegas to see my dad. And because she trusts me.”

  “Why?” she demanded. “Are you her best tipper? A regular at the bar? Natalie doesn’t let people in. Believe me. So why did she pick you?”

  He looked her straight in the eyes. “Natalie’s my best friend. We met when I first moved to Coronado. Two people who struggled to let others into their lives and had a commitment to remain single—we hit it off. Plus, I wanted a dog. But I’m gone a lot, so I needed someone to watch him while I was away. Natalie agreed, so we adopted from the pound.”

  It was as if she’d broken a dam. Now that she knew the truth, he was ready and willing to share the complete picture. How they’d grown close, their pet…