Page 23 of Yankee in the Wind

He noticed the look she gave him. It was one of understanding. He held her gaze. “It’s been a lonely time, I admit.” When she seemed to move her head closer to his, he added, “And every day since that night, I regretted that I had to leave you. I missed you…”

“You broke my heart, Jack,” she murmured softly. “For a long time, I was so angry with you for leaving without a word…” She rubbed her fingertips over his cheek.

He took her hand and turned it so he could press a kiss into her palm. “I’m sorry that I hurt you. I wish it could have been different… but the visions I had, the things I saw, I needed to understand them, and Henry Sheppard gave me that. I was able to save lives, to prevent catastrophes because of what I saw. Had I not accepted Sheppard’s offer—”

She put her finger over his lips. “You don’t have to justify your decision. I understand now. I understand why you had to leave. I wish I’d known back then. It would still have broken my heart to let you go, but I wouldn’t have been angry with you.”

“Thank you,” he said, his heart warming with the knowledge that she was full of forgiveness. “Not a day went by where I didn’t think of you.” He pulled back, because the temptation to kiss her was growing too strong. “And as much as I wanted to be with you, I couldn’t ask you to live like this… on the run… always hiding. You have a life. A career. I couldn’t drag you into this.”

Lilly shook her head. “That was then. But now it’s different. I’m already in the middle of it. At least with you, I feel safe. I would be dead without you.”

She nudged closer, and Jack became more and more aware of the effect she had on him. Her nearness was fanning his desire for her, his need to have her beneath him, to feel her skin against his, her lips on his, his cock inside her.

“Lilly…” He dipped his head to hers. “You have to stop me, before it’s too late, because I can’t promise you anything. I can’t offer you the life you deserve.”

“I don’t care about that. I only care about you. About how you made me feel seven years ago. We had something. And I want it back. Please don’t deny me that. Jack…”

Lilly brushed her index finger over his lower lip. Her touch felt electrifying. His brain suddenly stopped working, and all he could think of was what her lips would taste like.

“I could never deny you anything,” he whispered against her lips before he captured them and kissed her.

She tasted sweet, and only now he took in her scent fully and realized that she’d taken a shower in his absence. Her mouth was warm and supple, but so very different from how she’d kissed him back seven years ago. The woman he held in his arms tonight was more demanding, not the almost timid girl he’d taken to his bed such a long time ago, but an experienced woman who knew what she wanted. He felt it with every fiber of his being, felt the passion and desire she now unleashed as if she’d stored it up for him all these years.

His own desire matched hers, because he too had felt something special back then. In truth, he’d been in love with her even before he’d ever met her. Thomas had talked so much about her during their deployments that he’d felt he knew her. He knew about her likes and dislikes, her compassion, and her dreams. Her dream of becoming a doctor and helping people, was one of the reasons he’d never tried to reconnect with her after he’d entered the CIA. She would have had to give it all up. For him. And he hadn’t wanted her to make that sacrifice. But circumstances had thrust them back together, and neither of them had a choice now. But he didn’t want to think of the difficulties that lay ahead.

He wanted to feel Lilly. With her in his arms, with her body pressed to his, he felt that the flame they’d ignited seven years earlier had never extinguished. It had burned beneath the surface for all those years. It flared up now and grew into a massive bonfire, one that could only be extinguished one way: by stoking it even higher.

Jack ripped his lips from hers. “Lilly…” He didn’t know what he wanted to say, because all he could think of was undressing her so he could feel her naked skin under his lips and hands.

“Take your clothes off,” Lilly demanded, her eyes locking with his.

“You first.” Jack started undressing her.

But she couldn’t be deterred. She opened the buttons of his dress shirt and ripped it open. When she put her hands on his chest, his heart seemed to go up in flames. He’d dreamed of her touch so many times in the past years without hope of ever having another chance at being with Lilly. He’d resigned himself to that fate. But now, he couldn’t accept it any longer. He needed her back in his life.

Jack pulled Lilly’s top over her head and tossed it on the coffee table. When his gaze fell onto the black lace bra she wore, his breath hitched. Her creamy flesh invited him to explore her. He dipped his head to her breasts, not giving her a chance to continue undressing him. He pressed kisses to the valley between her breasts, then cupped them with his hands, before sliding his thumbs underneath the fabric and caressing her nipples. They were hard little buds, responding to his touch.

Lilly gasped. “Jack…”

Impatiently, he pushed the straps aside so he could slide his hands fully beneath the cups of her bra, taking possession of her beautiful breasts. He kneaded them in his hands, loving the feel of making her moan with pleasure.

Lilly dropped her head back, surrendering to his touch, and he kissed her soft skin. The bra suddenly fell away, and Jack realized that Lilly had opened the clasp behind her back.

He pressed Lilly back so she came to lie on the sofa, then reached for her skirt, opened the zipper and pulled it off her. She wore only a pair of tiny panties. Lilly looked at him, beckoning him to take her. It took a few more moments, before he’d finally rid himself of his own clothes. His boxer briefs and her panties were the only barriers left now. He looked at her and drank in the sight, before he freed her of her panties.

Like an offering, she lay in front of him, completely naked, her nipples hard, her skin glistening. He could sense her arousal and dipped his head between her legs to taste her. She gasped, surprised, and her pelvis tilted toward him, welcoming his mouth and tongue exploring her. She tasted like a fresh spring morning after the rain, and he let himself fall into the fantasy that they would one day have a life together.

Behind his boxer briefs, his cock pressed against its prison, demanding to be freed, but he couldn’t allow it, despite his own growing need.

Beneath him, Lilly moaned and called out his name. He teased her with his tongue, swiped it against her center of pleasure and felt her arousal climbing higher. She rubbed herself against his mouth.

“Jack! Please, I need you inside me.”

He lifted his head for a moment. “Lilly, I can’t. I don’t have any condoms here.”

She lifted her head and stared at him. “Goddamn it, Jack.” Then she suddenly laughed. “I’m on the pill.”

He smirked. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”