The Right Stuff

“No questions,” she said in a mysterious voice that sent anticipation jolting up his spine.

Daniel watched her butt sway as they climbed, past the second, the third, the fourth floors, the fifth, apparently headed for the roof. Her high heels tapped seductively against the cement. The sight of her firm fanny moving beneath the thin cotton material of her dress heated his dick as surely as the caress of her hand.

No way was he going off to D.C. leaving Taylor in Texas to finish up her odd double major in theatre and human biology without at least getting engaged. They belonged together and he wanted everyone to know it.

The stairwell was warm, airless, and so was Daniel’s brain.

Four months they’d known each other, having met at a campus mixer. Not long enough, most people might say. But in his heart, he knew she was the one. And it wasn’t just the sex, although the sex was spectacular. He’d never known anyone as uninhibited in bed—or out of it for that matter—as his Taylor. They’d made love in every position conceivable. She gave as good as she got. Hell, she gave better than she got.

He wanted her so badly his entire body ached. He wanted her naked.

Now.

Of course if it was up to him, he’d keep her naked 24-7. Taylor however, liked to role-play. She enjoyed props and costumes. He’d seen her in a French maid’s outfit and a nurse’s uniform and a belly dancer’s get up with tiny cymbals on her fingers. But what appealed to him most was her soft bare skin, porcelain white in its naked perfection.

She pushed through the door leading to the roof and stopped just long enough to toss him a seductive look over her shoulder. Her long red hair moved, tumbling around her shoulders like a fiery waterfall. She gave him a sly wink. “Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

“Do you know how hard it is to take my eyes off you?”

“I hope it’s hard,” she purred. “Close your eyes. Don’t worry, I won’t let you trip over anything. You do trust me, don’t you?”

Reluctantly, Daniel obeyed.

Taylor squeezed his hand and walked him forward. He heard the gritty material of the flat roof crunch beneath the soles of his polished black dress shoes, felt the balmy spring breeze on his cheeks.

He knew she had a seduction plan. Taylor loved seducing him and he loved being seduced by her scenarios. He wondered what she had up her sleeve tonight. What was going to take place on that rooftop? He licked his lips, anticipating.

Some might say he was sex-obsessed, but he’d never been that way before. Not even when he was a teenager. He’d always been so focused on his goal. The air force. Becoming a doctor. Following the family tradition of military M.D. set by his grandfather in the M.A.S.H. units of the Korean War and continued by his dad in Vietnam.

And then he’d met Taylor.

They’d made love the night they’d met in the coat closet at the mixer and he’d certainly never done anything like that before.

“I’m a bad girl,” she’d whispered in his ear, just before she’d nibbled it. “Are you sure a good soldier like you can handle someone like me?”

“Airman,” he’d corrected, and she’d just laughed.

Remembering hardened his dick. Daniel grinned. He’d done far more than handle her, and he wanted to do it again.

“Okay, you can open your eyes,” she said and let go of his hand. “Ta-da.”

Daniel blinked. There in the middle of the rooftop—in a circle of lighted candles scented with the smell of vanilla—sat a four-poster bed adorned with throw pillows.

“You’ve conquered ROTC,” she said and stepped toward him. “You’ve reached the top of this world. I’m going to give you the best send-off any second lieutenant heading for medical school at Bethesda ever got.”

He was stunned she’d gone to so much trouble for him. “Taylor, how did you—”

“Shh.” She laid an index finger against his lips. “No talking. The time for talking has passed.”

Daniel growled low in his throat, all primal man, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her up tight against him. God, she was so wonderful and he loved her so much. He couldn’t begin to describe what he was feeling. He was just going to have to show her.

He kissed her. Hard and hot and frantic. She laughed and the sound shot electricity straight to his dick.

Heedlessly, he grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled the thing over her head.

Taylor gasped and her eyes lit up with delight. She wriggled in his arms, the lace of her pink bra scratching lightly across the muscles of his chest. The strip of her matching pink thong panties stretched against her pale, shaved skin resembled a sassy silk tongue.

She reached for his hat, whisking it from his head, her fingertips grazing his forehead in the process. She hooked the hat on one corner of the four-poster bed, and then she came back to undo the herringbone twill tie knotted at his throat. His pulse throbbed beneath the heat of her palm.

Daniel took a deep, steadying breath and placed his hand over hers. He wanted her. Damn, how he wanted her. But reason was telling him this wasn’t the time or the place. He was going to ask her to marry him tonight and he wanted to be in charge of the seduction.

“She’s a thunder stealer, that one,” his grandfather had said to him the first and only time Daniel had brought Taylor home for dinner. “Don’t get too attached. She’s too bold and impulsive to make a good military wife.”

Yes, she was bold and spontaneous and uninhibited, but those were the qualities he admired most in her. So how could he fault her for being herself?

Daniel could have his pick of women. He knew that. Women loved military men and doctors and he’d inherited the strong Corben jaw and his mother’s royal-blue eyes. He’d never had a bit of trouble getting dates. But this was the first time he’d ever been so consumed by a woman. None of them had turned him inside out the way Taylor did.

She was fire and passion and unpredictability and that was damned tempting to a man who lived a regimented life.

“What is it?” she whispered. Her lips were painted a stimulating shade of red.

“I’m taking it from here,” he told her, whipping off his jacket and tie and recklessly dropping them to the ground before bending to scoop her into his arms.

The moon was out, fat and round, framing the bed in a spotlight of white. Taylor smelled exotic—spicy, piquant, striking. There was nothing ordinary or demure about her.

“We don’t dislike Taylor,” his dad had told him earlier when they’d spied Taylor in the reception-hall crowd. “She’s just not the girl for you, son. You two come from completely different worlds.”

It was true. He came from a dedicated career military family. She hailed from privileged high society and yet, they fitted together. How could their pairing be a mistake when it felt so right?

Her head was thrown back, her smooth creamy neck exposed, her hair trailing down the side of his forearm as he carried her to the bed. Her body was both firm and soft and totally womanly. One of her breasts rested against his bicep as he arranged her gently on the bed.

He stepped back, his eyes drinking her in. She lowered her eyelids halfway and gave him her naughtiest expression. What the woman could do to him with a simple glance left him speechless.

And what he wouldn’t give to be able to capture this special moment. Lock it in a bottle. Seal it in a time capsule. Emotions twisted through him. Joy, pride, lust, excitement.

She positioned herself on her side, the pink thong riding high on her hip. Daniel’s gaze honed in on the sleek curve of her hip. She ran a hand through her hair, tousling the long, loose curls. One strand fell across her eye, adding to her sexual mystique.

He stared.

Taylor tucked the errant tendril behind one ear and batted her eyelashes. Her deep, chocolate-brown gaze snagged his, languid as syrup. “Are you going to stand there all night, doctor? Or are you going to quell my fever?”

Marry me, he should have said.

But the moment wasn’t right for the words and the ring was in the pocket of his jacket dropped on the ground several feet away.