Twice a Hero, Always Her Man Read online

  She wanted Colin to make her forget what she’d lost. She wanted him to make her forget the pain she couldn’t seem to outrun no matter how fast she moved.

  The pain that seemed to fade only when he was kissing her.

  With superhuman effort, he gently pushed her away from him. “Ellie, wait.” Stunned, Colin struggled to rein in his own almost overpowering reaction, his own fierce desire to let all this progress down its natural path.

  He was not about to take advantage of Ellie’s vulnerability unless and until she could really convince him that this was what she unquestionably wanted.

  She blinked, trying to focus. Her orientation was askew. “Why?”

  “Don’t get the wrong idea,” he warned. “I’d like nothing better than to have this go where I think it’s going. But I’m not going to let that happen unless I think that you really want this, too. That you’re not just doing it because things have gotten out of hand.”

  Ellie stared at him, her mind not fully processing what was going on. “You’re going to make me beg?”

  “No, not beg,” he said quickly. “Just convince me.” It was almost a plea on his part.

  The words were finally penetrating. She knew she should just back off, go home before she did something she would regret.

  But going home might just be the thing that she would regret. “Wow, are you asking for this in writing?”

  He couldn’t help himself. He was framing her face with his hands, his eyes communing with hers. “No, but I want you to be really, really sure.”

  Were men actually this good? Was he worried about her? She felt herself being drawn even closer to him. “I didn’t realize you were a Boy Scout.”

  “No, not a Boy Scout,” he assured Ellie. “Just a man who really doesn’t want you to feel like you’ve made a mistake in the morning.”

  Damn, that clinched it. Every inch of her just wanted him to hold her. To make love to her and make her feel that everything would be all right again, the way it once was.

  “Shut up, Benteen,” she ordered. “Shut up and kiss me.”

  Not waiting for him to comply, she brought her mouth up to his again. And then over and over again, effectively blowing his resolve into the same little pieces that hers had become.

  Weakening, Colin tried just one more time.

  “Ellie—”

  He got no further. He gave in to her. He gave in to himself. The next moment, Colin was kissing her back, kissing her the way he’d wanted to kiss her these last few weeks.

  Kissing her the way he’d never kissed another woman, because he’d never felt about another woman the way he did about her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “It’s all right,” Ellie whispered, thinking Colin still expected her to change her mind when he pulled back again.

  “It’s more than all right,” he answered, referring to the kiss that had just spun through his system, leaving him wanting more. “But not out here.”

  There was a time when he would have just gone with the desire pulsating through him, making love on any surface that was available. It was the act that was important, as well as the woman of the moment, not the location.

  But all that had been in a life that occurred BH—Before Heather. These days, no matter what his feelings were about anything else and no matter how urgent they seemed, his niece and her welfare always had priority. That included anything that she might encounter or see that could in turn affect her in an adverse way.

  “Heather might come out and find us,” he explained to Ellie. “This is not the way I want her to learn about the facts of life.”

  Ellie smiled, his thoughtfulness regarding his niece really touching her. “She’s ten. I’m sure she already knows. Girls grow up a lot faster these days.”

  Colin groaned, anticipating what he might have to deal with down the line—sooner than later. “Oh Lord, I hope not.” The next moment, he tabled that discussion by sweeping Ellie into his arms.

  “What are you doing?” she laughed, steadying herself by anchoring her arms around his neck.

  “Can’t you tell?” he deadpanned. “I’m having my way with you.” Then, before she could ask him anything else, Colin covered her lips with his own, all the while carrying her to his bedroom.

  He’d left his bedroom door opened. He made his way in now, then pushed the door closed with his elbow. After setting her down on the floor, he flipped the lock to ensure that Heather couldn’t just walk in on them, accidentally advancing her education further tonight in ways none of them wanted.

  Once that was out of the way, he gathered Ellie to him, dissolving any resistance, any second thoughts she might still be harboring about his intent by kissing her over and over. Each kiss was more passionate, more burning, than the last until the whole room seemed to be enveloped in a circle of heat—and getting hotter by the second.

  It had been more than two years since she’d known the touch of a man’s hand. More than two years since she’d felt this rush of desire, of heated anticipation coursing though her veins. Suddenly, she was a prisoner of her own yearning, a yearning that was all but pleading to be satisfied.

  Ellie stifled a moan as she felt his fingers working apart the buttons, one at a time, that ran down the front of her sweater. She felt her skin heating beneath his fingers. He coaxed the garment off her shoulders, then tossed it aside. Her slacks were next. He undid the button at the top, then slowly slid down the zipper with his fingertip. Ellie shivered, waiting.

  She felt the material being eased down along her hips even as his lips were slowly branding her mouth, her throat, then moving down to the swell of her breasts.

  Her own restraint shredded apart. Ellie began to urgently undo his pants, his shirt, desperate to get all the barriers out of her way so she could run her hands along his body, could feel his taut, naked skin against hers.

  Finally, there was nothing left between them except red-hot desire. Clothing dispensed with, they merged in an embrace, melding themselves one against the other, seeking to pleasure each other, seeking to absorb the pleasures they rendered to each other so effortlessly.

  Within seconds, they wound up on Colin’s bed, rolling about on the king-size comforter, their limbs entwined as their anticipation rose to new, almost sizzling heights that threatened to consume them both.

  His arms were strong as they enclosed around her, making her feel as if she had found a new haven, somewhere where nothing could ever harm her, where nothing could find her. She gave herself up to the feelings, to the man who created them within her, stunned that this was actually happening.

  She’d given up hope of ever feeling this way again because she’d deliberately banished all feelings for fear of the pain that loomed in their wake—and yet here she was, experiencing all that and more.

  She was thrilled, even as fear still hovered along the outer perimeter of her consciousness.

  Her heart pounding, Ellie felt him press her back against the bed, his body just over hers. But instead of doing what she expected, instead of uniting with her body then and there, Colin slowly moved down along her body, covering every inch he came in contact with in moist, open-mouth, hot kisses.

  Thorough, he left no part of her untouched, beginning with her mouth, moving down to her chin, then to her throat. He continued, making his way down along her breasts, first one, then the other, his tongue artfully teasing each tip before forging an intricate trail down along her belly, which quivered as he slid his tongue along the area.

  His warm breath made her tremble in agonizing eagerness as he made his way down farther and farther until he was at her inner core, his tongue moving at a maddeningly slow pace, going back and forth—creating ripening, exploding peaks within her.

  Ellie grabbed fistfuls of his comforter, arching her back off his bed, first mo
ving with and then away from the exquisite sensation, trying to absorb as much as she could without crying out.

  And then the ultimate climax seized her and she scrambled, arching even higher, wanting to go on savoring forever what she was feeling—even as she knew that it was an impossibility.

  The intensity waned. Spent, Ellie fell back on the bed, her eyes widening in exhausted amazement as she looked at him.

  She expected that would be all.

  She expected wrong.

  The next moment, Colin moved his body up over hers, ready to become one with her. He’d held back for as long as humanly possible, held back because he wanted her to be ready, wanted the foreplay to show her that he was mindful of her needs, not just his own.

  But he couldn’t hold back his own need for her even a microsecond longer.

  Linking his hands with hers, Colin threaded their fingers together and was more than ready to complete the union.

  “Open your eyes, Ellie,” he whispered against her ear, then lifted his head as he told her, “Look at me.”

  When she did, he entered her and then the dance began, a dance as old as time, as fresh as tomorrow—as unique as they were to one another.

  The tempo was slow at first, but then the music in their heads increased. They went faster, then faster still, daring one another to reach that golden pinnacle, racing to get there, to bring the other along.

  They did it together.

  Colin squeezed her hands as the moment found them, culminating in a burst of fireworks before slowly fading into the sky of the world they had created together.

  Ellie hung on to the euphoria for as long as she could until there was nothing more to hang on to. She felt the tension leave his body, felt him roll off hers. To her surprise, he didn’t get up, nor did he turn over on his side and fall asleep. Instead, he gathered her to him as if she was something precious, something he cherished that he wanted to hold on to.

  Ellie moved her head onto his chest. She became aware of Colin’s heart beating beneath her cheek. She couldn’t explain why that comforted her, but it did. And that was enough for now.

  After a while—she wasn’t sure just how long—he raised his head to look at her, asking, “Are you all right?”

  The question made her smile. “I’ll let you know when I come back to earth.”

  “Fair enough,” he said, inclining his head, then adding, “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt you.”

  Hurt her? She laughed softly to herself. “You didn’t exactly toss me off a building.”

  “There are a lot of ways a person can get hurt,” Colin pointed out gently.

  Ellie turned her body to his, feeling a flicker of desire returning. The lights were off in his room but there was a full moon out and his window was right in its path, allowing its light to come in.

  He really cared, she realized. Something tugged at her heart. Ordinarily, that would have been an urgent warning sign, a signal for her to turn tail and run. But she was far too spent to run and far too naked to get very far. She remained where she was, where she wanted to be.

  Ellie touched his face, her fingers skimming along Colin’s cheek. A five-o’clock shade had already begun encroaching on his face. He had a kind face, she thought, and even as glimmers of fear raised their head, she was happy.

  To show him how she felt, because the words were just not coming, Ellie raised her head ever so slightly and brushed her lips against his.

  And then she did it again, because once was not enough.

  And before she knew it, they were doing it all over again, making love as if the first time hadn’t happened. As if they each needed to get their fill of one another again. Because once was not enough.

  * * *

  She knew she should be leaving.

  Ellie promised herself that the second he was asleep, she was going to slip out of bed, gather her clothes to her and get dressed in the bathroom so she didn’t wake him, then leave.

  That was her plan.

  But she fell asleep before Colin did, so she never got to execute her plan the way she wanted to.

  And when she did wake up, with hints of sunlight beginning to tiptoe through the bedroom, the thought of making an escape somehow just wasn’t appealing. So when she finally slipped out of his bed and padded her way to the bathroom to get dressed, she did so with the intention of making breakfast.

  Somehow, it only seemed right to her.

  Ellie crept as soundlessly as she could through his bedroom. Coming to the door, she worked the lock slowly, moving it by fractions of an inch until she had it in the unlocked position. When she finally had it unlocked, she eased the door opened, looking carefully from one side to the other. The last thing she wanted to do was run into Heather as she was leaving her uncle’s bedroom.

  Yes, she thought, girls knew a few more things at ten than she had at that age, but she didn’t want to put that to the test, just in case Heather was still as sweetly innocent as she looked.

  Relieved when she saw that the door to Heather’s room was still closed, Ellie let out the breath she’d been holding and quickly made her way into the kitchen.

  Once she was there, breakfast got under way.

  She moved as fast as she could without making any noise. She was so intent on being silent that she didn’t hear him until he was directly behind her.

  “Morning, beautiful,” Colin said, threading his arms around her waist from behind and hugging her to him.

  Ellie jumped, stifling what amounted to a yelp.

  “Hey, easy, now—it’s me. Who did you think it was?” he asked her, laughing.

  Spatula in hand, she turned around to face him, her heart still hammering wildly in her chest. It felt as if it was about to break out of her rib cage at any moment.

  “I thought you were still in bed,” she cried. It sounded almost like an accusation.

  “I was, until I saw that it was empty. I thought maybe you’d taken off,” he confessed, then added with an approving smile, “This is a much nicer surprise.” He meant finding her in the kitchen. Then he looked around, taking in the broader picture. “What are you doing?”

  “What does it look like?” she replied. “I’m making breakfast.”

  “I could have made breakfast for us,” he told her. It seemed only right after she’d spent half of yesterday cooking for Heather and him. It seemed even more so since she’d given him an unimaginable night that he wasn’t going to ever forget.

  But Ellie shook her head, vetoing the suggestion. “After the way you described it, I thought we’d be better off if I made breakfast.” Mischief glinted in her eyes as she told him, “I have no desire to spend the day after Thanksgiving in the emergency room, having my stomach pumped.”

  “It’s not that bad,” he protested. And then he shrugged, conceding the possible validity of what she’d said. “But it’s not all that good, either.”

  Ellie nodded, sliding the eggs she’d just made onto a plate and then quickly taking out two slices of toast from the toaster. She buttered them quickly before cutting the slices in half and putting them on either side of the eggs.

  “I like a man who knows his shortcomings,” she told him.

  He grinned, fighting the urge to forget about breakfast and just take her back to his bed. “As long as that word doesn’t apply to last night.”

  “No,” she assured him with feeling, “definitely not to last night.” Changing the topic before she weakened, she said, “I’ve got coffee.” Ellie indicated the coffeemaker over on the far corner of the counter.

  “I’m more interested in something else you have,” he told her, the corners of his mouth curving in a wicked smile.

  “This morning is PG rated,” she reminded him, nodding toward the hall beyond the kitchen.

&nb
sp; The next moment, Heather came in, looking as if she hadn’t fully woken up yet.

  “That smells good,” she said, taking a deep breath.

  “Thank you—yours is coming up in a second,” Ellie promised.

  Heather’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her, then down at herself before slanting a glance at her uncle. “How come you’ve got different clothes on?” she asked her uncle. “Ellie and I are wearing the same clothes we had on yesterday.”

  He was relieved that instead of questioning why Ellie was wearing the same clothes she’d had on yesterday, Heather had turned the question around, wondering why he was the odd man out.

  “Well, um, I spilled some gravy on my shirt and decided to put on a complete change of clothes,” Colin told his niece.

  Her eyebrows drew even closer together as if she assessed what he’d just told her. “I didn’t see any gravy on your shirt.”

  “That’s because it happened seconds after you fell asleep,” he said without missing a beat.

  “Oh, okay.” Both Colin and Ellie thought they were out of the woods—but then Heather looked at her and asked, “Did you sleep here last night, Ellie?”

  Ellie wasn’t comfortable with lies. Lies always led to complications. So instead, Ellie told her, “You have a very comfortable couch,” hoping the little girl would just make the leap.

  “I fall asleep on that all the time,” Heather confided, pleased that they had something in common.

  “Heather, don’t forget to feed Pancakes,” Colin spoke up, reminding his niece of her responsibility. As she went to get the dog food, he whispered to Ellie, “I noticed you didn’t answer her question.”

  “Not directly,” Ellie agreed, whispering back. “It’s called a nonanswer.”

  He wondered if she was putting him on notice. Should he anticipate nonanswers from her, as well? The next moment, he just let the thought pass.

  Heather returned and placed the filled dog’s bowl down on the floor. Pancakes immediately dived in and began to eat, making short work of her breakfast.