Chapter Nine
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It was very strange waking the next morning. There seemed to be a heater behind her. A very large, lightly snoring heater.
Rachel needed to pee. It had to be about six a.m. Even years after leaving the military, she still got up at the same time every morning. She glanced toward the nightstand but her vision was obscured by a big arm. Well, there was no help for it. She had to go.
Wriggling and pushing, she managed to get Dean’s heavy arm away from her shoulders. She was laying on his other arm. As quietly as she could she maneuvered her way out of the cocoon of her bed and padded to the bathroom.
When she returned, there was just enough light to see Dean’s sleepy face, smiling softly at her. He propped himself up on an elbow and watched her enter the room.
Rachel hadn’t thought he’d be awake yet, so she hadn’t bothered covering herself. Now she wished she had. When she reached for a t-shirt lying on the dresser, he sat up. “Please don’t. Just let me look at you.”
She was so thankful for the weak light coming in the bedroom window. It gave her some semblance of coverage. Dean seemed to see everything, though.
Without being self-conscious of his own stunning nudity he left the bed and crossed the room to her. Rachel held perfectly still, though her heart threatened to pound out of her chest. When he reached her, Dean stopped inches away. “You look like a seductress. Shadows and light playing across your skin.” He stroked the very tip of her nipple. “Are you trying to wake me up?”
Rachel glanced down the length of their bodies. “I think you already woke up,” she said softly, leaning into his hardness.
Dean chuckled and wrapped his arms around her back, backing her carefully against the edge of the bed. “Maybe…” he drawled as he lowered her to the mattress and rolled on the condom that he’d palmed from the bedside table.
Rachel shivered in the cool of the room. Or was it him making her shiver? Probably both. As he shifted his big body over hers and he became all she could see and feel and smell, she decided it was definitely Dean that made her body react like this.
When he pressed into her ready heat, Rachel moaned, unable to keep her body from tightening around him. And as he rocked into her, lean hips surging beneath her hands, she allowed herself to languish in the decadent nature of his arousal. He was massive in body and heart. Though she had some experience, she’d never warmed physically or emotionally to another man like she had with Dean. It was overwhelming, and just a little scary.
Already, she could tell that her heart was irretrievably wrecked.
Dean reached down, cupping her thighs and lifting her knees. Arching above her he looked down at her in the dim light. “Are you okay?”
Rachel nodded, panting. “Oh, yes. That feels incredible,” she sighed.
Dean seemed to think so as well because his movements began to speed up. His rhythm lost a little of its perfection, being overwhelmed by excitement. Rachel arched her hips, needing contact a little to the right. Oh, yes, right there. Her breath caught in her throat as the welling heat of her orgasm rolled over her. “Oh, Dean,” she cried out. Then she couldn’t say anything else.
Keeping the rhythm, he waited until her euphoria had eased before pulling out of her. Rachel blinked up at him in surprise, but he grinned at her. “Trust me.”
His broad hands carefully gripped her hips and turned her over, then he pulled her up onto her knees. Rachel would have been embarrassed if she could have seen herself, but the eroticism of the position supplanted her embarrassment. She felt Dean behind her, looking at her.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?”
Rachel nodded immediately. “I am. Just didn’t expect this.”
Dean ran a hand from her shoulders to her ass, pausing to draw a circle on the skin of her butt cheek. “You have a beautiful shape. I’ve thought about it way too much.”
Rachel snorted. “Really?”
Without answer he wedged his hips tight against her, his cock nestled between them. He rocked them up, spreading the moisture from her release. Rachel sighed as he shifted, the flared head of his dick slipping into her entrance.
Dean felt even harder in this position. More potent. Rachel braced her arms against the mattress, then one against the brown padded headboard for extra leverage. Oh, hell… he was stroking over her G-spot with every stroke. Rachel arched, shifting her hips slightly so that he was in a better groove. Yeah, he’d probably flipped her over for him, but she planned to enjoy the position as well.
Behind her, Dean began huffing out breaths in time to his pumping. Rachel wiggled her ass, teasing him, until he clamped his heavy hands around her hips to hold her still. “I can’t look at you like this very long without coming. You have such a beautiful ass.”
Rachel laughed, then gasped as he reached forward to cup her breasts in his hands. The bed creaked as he plunged into her, but Rachel could only arch back into him because he felt so good. As he surged deeper than he had before she cried out, making him pause. “No, it’s all good. Keep going, damn it!”
Dean picked up the rhythm and it began to change. The tension in his body leached into hers and Rachel felt her orgasm dancing just out of reach. Dean seemed to sense it because he managed to reach a hand down around to between her thighs. One thick finger glided between her soaked folds to lightly tap her clit. Rachel cried out and tightened around him. That was all it took for them both to plunge over the cliff.
Dean growled something against her but she couldn’t tell what. She was too busy trying to stay up on her arms as his full weight rested on her hips and his orgasm crashed over him.
Rachel moaned as the aftershocks consumed her. Dean’s head rested against the back of her own for a moment before he pulled away. Her body tried to keep him close but it didn’t work.
They both collapsed to the bed, sweaty but replete. Rachel couldn’t remember ever feeling so boneless yet satisfied. Her body thrummed with pleasure and her stomach twitched with aftershocks. The morning had lightened enough that when she looked at Dean, she could see the satisfied grin on his face.
“You rock my world, woman.”
Rachel laughed, curling on her side to face him. “You’re not bad yourself, Officer West.”
And it was so very true. If she could have anyone to fall in love with, Dean was an excellent choice. They just fit.
They spent a lazy morning showering and dressing, then Dean made them an easy scrambled egg breakfast. Rachel offered to do it but he waved her away. “Let me pamper you.”
That phrase kind of sat her right back down on her ass. Nobody had ever pampered her. Or if they tried she’d gone glacial on them. As she watched Dean move through her kitchen doing a job she had no desire to do anyway, she decided that she could accept a little pampering. It certainly wouldn’t kill her.
“I need to go to the range at some point today,” he told her, stirring the eggs. “We have qualifications next week. Would you like to join me?”
Rachel hesitated. Though she was mostly recovered from the crash, the thought of listening to that many guns going off in such close proximity to her wasn’t all that appealing today. And if she had a reaction to the noise, she’d rather it not be in front of Dean. “Not today, but thank you for asking. Maybe I can go with you next time.”
Dean smiled but he looked a little disappointed too. He left after he helped her clean up their dishes and as she watched his truck pull out of her driveway, Rachel was both a little sad and kind of relieved that he was leaving. It had been a long time since she’d been in a relationship and the constant companionship over the past day had been a little difficult to get used to.
She probably should have told him that range firing like that sometimes took her back to not so nice times, but the right moment to explain had escaped her.
Maybe she just felt a little squeamish about last night. He’d basically told her he wasn’t going anywhere and she wasn’t sure how to react to that. She’d taken care of herself for so many years. Did she want to be dependent on another person? Not necessarily.
Rachel picked up the apartment a little and tried to watch the news, but it didn’t keep her interest. She decided to drive into work. It was Saturday afternoon, but she knew somebody would be there. Maybe she could get in a light workout.
* * *
Dean practiced with his service weapon and grabbed more ammo for later. As he was walking to the counter to check out he noticed a jewelry display. Not something he’d ever noticed before. Curious, he crossed to see what might draw a woman in a gun store.
It was bullets. Actually, just the cap of bullets, where the caliber was imprinted into the metal. The primer at the center had been replaced with a small gemstone. Dean laughed as he looked at the variety of key chains, necklaces and earrings. Would Rachel be into something like this?
The longer he looked at the display the more he liked them. His gaze settled on a set of earrings with 9mm caps and diamond-like cubic zirconia in the center.
Or… there was another pair with real diamonds in them.
Damn. He’d been with the woman for a couple of days and was already buying her jewelry. She had him so bowled over … but he felt more centered and sure than ever before in his life.
Without fighting with himself too much, he went with the real diamonds. They weren’t huge, so it wasn’t going to break the bank, but they were definitely more expensive than the CZ.
“Those are nice,” the salesman told him. “I bought my wife a pair this past Christmas and it’s all she wears. Where’s the gun?”
Dean looked at him. “I’m sorry?”
The older man laughed. “Well, usually the guys are buying earrings to balance out the money they spent on the gun they weren’t supposed to buy.”
Dean laughed and shook his head as he signed the receipt. “I get you now, but no, no gun this time.” He paused in thought. “Maybe I should have gotten her a gun.”
The old man laughed out loud. “That’s not a bad idea. More men are doing that for their wives nowadays.”
Dean didn’t correct him on the wife part. Actually, it kind of made him happy that the guy had said it. No, Rachel wasn’t his wife yet, but he liked trying it on for size.
The old guy dropped the jewelry box into a bag decorated with the store’s name. “Good luck!”
Dean walked out of the store feeling like something big was about to happen. When should he give them to her? Should it be a big deal or kind of off-hand, in case she spooked? Maybe he should talk to Killian about it.
Realistically, he knew theirs was a young relationship. But it felt as though he had known her much longer than mere days. He’d been in relationships with other women, but none of them had made him feel this way. Maybe he would just take his time and see what developed.