The SEAL’s Ward Read online

  Breathless and panting, they pulled apart as footsteps echoed on the floor above, then a tiny voice called down from upstairs, “I’m going to bed now.”

  Jed stared down into Tess’s wide eyes and they both held their breath until the sound of Nala’s closing door echoed downstairs. Then they both busted out laughing.

  “I feel like a teenager who got caught making out in the basement,” Tess said between giggles.

  “I know, right?” Jed lowered his head and chuckled against the side of her neck. Soon, though, his humor fled in the wake of the feel of her body against his and the heat of her skin beneath his hands. “Except, we aren’t kids anymore, and this feels far too good to stop.”

  When she didn’t answer, he pulled back to look down into her beautiful eyes again. “Is this what you want, Tess?”

  Eighteen

  The question hurt him to ask, with his pulse thudding in his ears and his cock aching. He felt her responding to him, but if she wasn’t certain she wanted him, best to know now. All his old insecurities and childhood fears came rushing back full force. He’d let himself be open with her, let himself be vulnerable. In the past, all that had gotten him was a world of pain in return. He had no reason to believe it would be any different now.

  Except, this was Tess. Warm, wonderful Tess who’d never once given him reason not to trust her.

  She bit her lip and he tracked the tiny movement with his gaze. They were still locked together intimately, though several layers of clothing separated them. With every breath, every movement, she rubbed against him, driving his need higher. It had been so long, too long, since he’d been with anyone, let alone a woman like Tess who made him want to experience everything. He wasn’t ready to call this love yet, but damn. It felt so good, whatever it was.

  Finally, she gave a tiny nod and traced her fingers through the short, dark hair at his nape. “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?” he managed to croak out, passion making him sound more like a bullfrog than a man.

  “Yes, I want this.” She cupped his cheeks and gave him a watery smile. “I want you, Jed.”

  He kissed her again, joy bursting through him like fireworks. A tiny niggle at the back of his brain urged a warning, that this was too much, too soon, but he shoved it aside. Spontaneous wasn’t usually in his nature, but tonight he wanted to throw caution to the wind and have wild, sweet, hot sex with Tess. He wanted to make her cry out his name as she orgasmed and make her remember him and this night forever.

  With less grace than desire, he tugged her sweater off over her head and tossed it aside, before pulling off his own T-shirt. Then he removed her bra as well before pressing his bare chest to hers and savoring the feel of skin to skin. She gasped at the touch, arching into him and groaning softly.

  “We need to be quiet,” she whispered near his ear, making him shiver. “We don’t want Nala to hear.”

  He growled low, kissing his way down her neck to her collarbone then to her breasts. He gently licked and sucked one taut pink nipple while toying with the other with his fingers. “I’ll do my best if you will.”

  She dug her fingers into his shoulders and pressed her body closer to his, silently inviting him to do more. Jed was happy to oblige. He couldn’t get enough of Tess. Would never get enough.

  Tess felt overwhelmed. She was no blushing virgin. She’d lived with Theo after all. But it had never, ever been like this.

  The heat of Jed’s skin against hers, the feel of his touch on her body, the sound of the small growls low in his throat made her quiver with need. She reached down between them to stroke the outline of his hard cock through his jeans, unable to resist any longer. That move earned her a fierce groan, followed by an even fiercer kiss to muffle the sound.

  “God, Tess. When you touch me like that, you make me crazy,” Jed whispered, his warm breath fanning her face. “Keep doing it.”

  She couldn’t fight her wicked grin. “Yes, sir.”

  Undoing the button at his waistband, Tess slowly lowered his zipper then slid her hand inside to cup him through the soft cotton of his boxer briefs. Jed closed his eyes and pressed himself harder into her grasp.

  “That’s it, darling. Touch me.” Using the play of emotions across his face as her guide, she began to work him through the material, tracing her thumb across the blunt head of his cock, the material damp from the moisture leaking from his tip. The need to taste him beat strong within her, but there’d be time enough for that later. Right now, things were too urgent between them to slow down. She traced her fingers down his length to cup his balls, loving the way his breath caught at her caress. She’d become something of an expert when it came to manual pleasure during her time with Theo. His stroke had made traditional lovemaking difficult, so most of the time things had been left in her hands. Literally.

  Having a fully functioning, and fully aroused male with her again was both thrilling and a bit terrifying. What if she’d lost her ability to orgasm from doing things the normal way? What if Jed found her lacking? What if….

  Before her analytical brain got too carried away, Jed muttered a curse under his breath and pushed away from her, standing beside the sofa to strip off his jeans and briefs before doing the same with her. The sight of his erection, long and thick and glistening at the tip with another pearl of moisture made her moan. Heat flushed her body and molten need pooled low in her belly and between her legs. She wanted him, wanted this, more than she could remember wanting anything for a long, long time.

  Jed picked his jeans from the floor and rifled through the pockets before tossing them aside. “Damn. Hang on a sec. Be right back.”

  The sight of his taut, firm, bare butt rushing from the room and the way he looked back at her over his shoulder with a smirk and a waggle of his brows made her giggle. He didn’t show it often around people he didn’t know, but Jed was a funny guy. It was one of the things she loved about him.

  That thought stopped her short.

  No. Not loved. This had nothing to do with love. It was two lonely people coming together to enjoy each other. That was all. They had a common connection, a common goal—Nala. Nothing else bound them together. Her job and her future depended on her remembering that.

  She took a few deep breaths and forced her tense muscles to relax. Tonight was about pleasure, about fun. The sight of Jed returning, strutting into the room wearing a condom, a grin and nothing else, reinforced that.

  He stretched out on the sofa beside her then leaned in for a long, lingering kiss, not the least bit rushed or worried. He stroked the hair back from her face then cupped her cheek forcing her to meet his gaze. “Are you okay with this? I don’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”

  Tess stared deep into his icy blue eyes and nodded. “This is more than okay.”

  Jed smiled as he kissed her again, this time plundering her mouth with his tongue, building the desire between them back to a fevered pitch. She couldn’t keep her hands off his body, tracing all his muscles and sinews with deliberate care as if trying to memorize every inch of him, before clutching his firm backside in her fingers. God, he really was gorgeous, all lithe male and sexy confidence.

  Slowly, he moved over her, bending to pay homage to her breasts again before moving lower to kneel between her legs. At the first trace of his tongue over her slick folds, she bit back a moan and closed her eyes. As he nuzzled her most sensitive flesh and inserted first one, then two fingers into her wet channel, she arched hard against him, her fingers sliding through his short dark hair to clutch him to her.

  Then her mind blanked as he licked and teased her swollen clit, bright surges of sensation zinging through her like sunshine. It was incredible, it was too much, it was….

  Her climax hit hard, making her shake and buck beneath Jed’s steadying hands. He moaned low against her, enjoying this as much as she was. He continued to nuzzle her through the last waves of pleasure, then kissed his way back up her body.

  He rose up onto
his arms, his hands pushing down into the cushions beside her and his gaze intense. “I need to be inside you now, Tess. Tell me you want this as much as I do.”

  The tip of his cock grazed her clit and she nearly climaxed again just from that. She twined her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a deep kiss before whispering, “Please, Jed. I need you too.”

  She bent her legs and wrapped them back around his waist, urging him on as he positioned himself at her wet entrance then entered her in one long thrust. Buried hilt deep inside her, Jed froze, resting his forehead against Tess’s, their breath mingling as they both adjusted to all these new sensations of his cock filling her.

  Then, she began moving beneath him, tiny movements at first, sparking fireworks of pleasure inside her. Jed quickly took her lead, withdrawing slowly almost to his tip before driving back inside her. Soon, he’d set up a steady rhythm that had them both teetering on the brink of orgasm far too fast.

  Tess wanted this to last forever. She wanted him to make her come again before she exploded. She wanted to thank him for easing her loneliness and demand that he be with her like this every night of the week. In the end though, all she could do was hold him closer and tighter, forcing him to bury himself faster and deeper inside her body as her second climax loomed closer and closer and…

  “Yes!” she cried out softly in his ear before biting his shoulder as the universe around her shattered into brilliant shards of ecstasy.

  “Damn, darling,” Jed said, his voice low and husky with passion. “Wait for me.”

  He adjusted his angle of penetration, pushing her legs higher and allowing him to hit all the right spots inside her. Instead of ebbing away, the riptide of desire within her peaked again, her slick channel continuing to convulse around Jed’s cock, milking him as she came hard a final time.

  “Oh, God. Tess, darling. You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever been with,” Jed said, his thrusts growing more frenzied and fast as he neared his climax too. Finally, with a low growl, he drove into her hard one last time and came deep within her, his lips capturing hers to drown out his cries of passion.

  Afterward, sated and sleepy, they lay on the sofa for an eternity. Jed shifted his weight slightly to lie beside her of the sofa. The air cooled around them, the sound of the clock on the mantel mingling with their panting breaths.

  “Wow,” Jed said, kissing the side of Tess’s neck, the warm weight of his arm across her abdomen, oddly reassuring. “That was… mind-blowing.”

  “Yeah.” She blinked up at the ceiling, searching for the right words to describe how she felt. Cared for, beautiful, special. All of the above. But also unsure and unsettled. With Theo, and before in her past relationships, she’d always been the caretaker—the one in charge. Even now, technically, that was her job. To take care of Nala, and of Jed, by proxy.

  Having him take control of her passion and take care of her tonight was…different. Not unwelcome, but not quite comfortable emotionally either. Total relaxation in her body wooed her toward sleep, yet her mind continued to race. Her heart felt flayed open, completely vulnerable, despite her promise not to fall for him. Somehow, during her stay here, she’d become way more emotionally involved with Jed than she’d ever planned on.

  She glanced over at him and saw his eyes closed, his breath evening out. His fingers stilled against her side and his warm breath ghosted across her throat. He’d never once mentioned that tonight was anything more than sex, even if it had blown his mind, as he’d said.

  Tess couldn’t risk her future on that. Not again.

  She’d blazed through her relationship with Theo thinking that love would conquer all and look where that had gotten her.

  Old pain and new fears squeezed her heart.

  Nope.

  Any feelings beyond friendship she might feel for Jed needed to be packed firmly away. Yes, they worked well together. And yes, they were compatible sexually too. That didn’t equate to love or to any kind of a romantic relationship. Real and lasting weren’t words she could allow herself to use in regard to Jed and what had just happened between them.

  Tonight was fun.

  Tonight was temporary.

  Tonight was two lonely people enjoying each other’s company and bodies for a while.

  The sooner she remembered that, the better.

  Nineteen

  “What do you mean someone tampered with them?” Jed asked the worker from the gas utility company who had come out to check their lines after Tess and Nala had complained of smelling something strange that morning.

  “Let me show you something,” the guy said, motioning for Jed to follow him outside.

  Jed did as the guy asked. Good thing he’d chosen to work from home this afternoon, considering this was turning out to be more involved than he’d imagined. Just when he’d thought things were on the upswing too. Well, at least where Nala was concerned.

  He’d gotten a call that week from Owen, his former-SEAL buddy in the FBI, that the crash that had killed Nala’s parents was definitely no accident. Jed felt relieved that it wasn’t all in his head. His buddy had even received the go-ahead from his boss to open their own investigation into the deaths. That was all great news. Good thing too since things between him and Tess hadn’t been quite so stellar.

  No. That wasn’t exactly true. Two weeks had passed since their night on the sofa and since then, they’d seemed to get along better than ever. In fact, for the first time in recent memory, the house felt like a real home. He and Tess had fallen into a sort of happy couple routine, teasing each other and helping each other out with Nala and even handling household chores together. And the sex. Well, that was plentiful and pretty damned perfect. He’d never met a woman like Tess—smart, funny, quirky, caring, and unafraid of expressing her needs and wants between the sheets. She was everything he’d ever wanted in a partner and that was the problem. Because this thing with Tess couldn’t last.

  Relationships never did for him. No reason to think this one would be any different.

  Besides, she was his employee. She was there for Nala, not him. She’d never once mentioned wanting anything more from him than what they were already doing. He supposed most guys would be thrilled about that, he probably should be too. After all, no long-term ties, no commitment meant he wouldn’t have to deal with the fallout once things eventually ended, and he wouldn’t have to deal with the look in her eyes when she discovered the truth about him—that he was, in fact, unlovable.

  If he’d learned anything from his parents growing up, it was that.

  So, yeah, pulling away now emotionally from Tess was the best thing he could do for both of them.

  Brisk autumn air slapped his cheeks as he followed the worker outside and around to the side of the house where the utility boxes were located.

  “Look here,” the man said, pointing toward the gas line hook-up. “This here’s been tampered with. Hose don’t belong. It’s way too small for code. Speeds the volume of gas entering the house.”

  Jed crouched beside the guy and stared at the foreign tubing. From the scratch marks at the connectors, the hose had obviously been rigged on there. But why? And by who? His pulse accelerated a bit. He’d not seen anyone suspicious around his home, nor had Tess or Nala mentioned seeing anyone. Images of the drawing Nala had done flashed back into his head, along with a sinking feeling that maybe this was a new event in the string of incidents Owen was investigating. Then again, he didn’t want to jump to conclusions either. His SEAL training told him to wait, assess, gather all the facts before making any assumptions. “Any idea how it got there?”

  “I was gonna ask you the same thing,” the man said, squinting at Jed. “Tampering with utilities can cost lives. I’ve already called the police about this.”

  “Good.” Jed straightened and exhaled slow. “I’d like a full investigation into what happened here.” He gazed in through the window nearby to see Tess and Nala working on her homework in the living room. His chest squeez
ed with warmth at the sweetness of it before he tamped those feelings down. “I’ve got a kid and a woman inside. The last thing I want is for anything to happen to them.”

  The worker stood up as well. “Yeah, that’s a nice-looking family you’ve got there. My daughter’s about the same age as yours.”

  “Oh, we’re not…” Jed started, then stopped himself. He didn’t know this guy and given the situation with Nala’s parents and the investigation, it was best not to get into details at this point. “Thanks.”

  By the time they’d reached the front porch again, a squad car had pulled up to the curb. Two officers got out and walked up to Jed and the gas company worker. It was the same cops who’d come by the night of the break-in. Perfect. Given how that had turned out, they probably already thought he was a crackpot.

  Jed forced his tense shoulders to relax. “Officers.”

  Detective Davidson gave him a terse nod before turning toward the worker. “Want to show me what you got?”

  The quartet walked back around the side of the house, and Jed waited off to the side while the cops asked their questions and wrote out their preliminary report.

  “And you have no idea who might have put this hose on here, sir?” Davidson’s partner asked.

  “None.” Jed blinked hard against the breeze, his eyes watering. The sun had been out earlier that day when he’d gone into the warehouse to check on things, but now it was overcast and dreary, a perfect fit to his mood. He shoved his hands into the pockets of the jeans he’d changed into, grateful for the warmth of his sweatshirt. “Do you think it might have anything to do with the break-in attempt here a few weeks ago?”

  The cops exchanged a look.

  “I doubt it, sir,” Davidson said. “That was determined to be a robbery attempt, as you know. Never met a robber who bothered to come back to mess with someone’s gas lines.”