Read Online Surrendering To Her Sergeant by Angel Payne - Free Book Online

got benevolent
and let her have one hand back. No, not benevolence. Ulterior
motive. He used her free hand to pull her toward a small outside
balcony. Ava sighed but didn’t protest. What would be the use?
Besides, it was a beautiful early June afternoon. The typical
coastal haze had been burned off early. The breeze was sharp, with
a hint of summer’s approaching warmth. It was nice and bright out
here. Sunny and safe.
    She turned her face up into the golden
rays before asking him, “So, did you give Isko any advice? About
the woman and the ring?”
    Amazingly, Ethan let her have her
second hand back. He leaned an elbow on the rail and gazed past
Bella’s Italianate terrace, peacefully taking in the slope of
Catalina Island toward the south and the larger silhouette of
Anacapa Island toward the north. “I told him to go
home.”
    She felt her brows jump. “Just like
that? After only knowing him a few hours?”
    He cocked his head back toward her.
The sun flashed in his eyes and the wind danced in his hair. Just
like that, all traces of his casual mien were gone. “I could’ve
told him that after a few minutes.” At the are-you-nuts glare she
refused to hide, he asserted, “A man usually knows what he wants,
sunshine. If he has to question wanting it, then it’s not worth
dicking around about.”
    The words dropped between
them like grenades, bursting open with plumes of new meaning and
thick resolution. His resolution.
    A gulp thudded its way down Ava’s
throat. “Oh.”
    Ethan took her hand again. He guided
her fingers up, sliding them beneath his hair until they pressed
against his nape. He circled his other arm around her waist,
dragging her close until her body was locked inside the frame of
his unflinching muscles. His grip was fervent as the sun but
merciless as the sea wind, urging her closer until she saw nothing
but him.
    “I’m not dicking around about you,
Ava.” With steady surety, he slid his hands until he cupped the
swell of her ass. A gasp erupted from her throat before she could
control it. Another followed as he squeezed her there, sending a
thousand jolts of awareness into every tissue between her thighs.
“I never was,” he went on. “Since that first moment I saw you, both
of us tangled in all that wedding shit at Sage and
Garrett’s…”
    “When you thought I was a
terrorist?”
    Her attempt at levity didn’t work. “I
would’ve been less scared if you were,” he uttered. “I—fuck—I was
in such deep trouble. It’s been a long time for me, doing all
this…feeling all this. That day, just from rolling with you on the
floor like that…”
    His face tightened as if he were in
pain. She ached from watching his brow furrow and his lips twist,
until he lowered his beautiful mouth to her cheek, brushing her
skin with heat as he continued in a harsh whisper. “That night at
Hawk’s bachelor party, all I could think of was how many ways I
wanted you in my bed.” He worked his way to the edge of her ear.
Ava dipped her head back, giving him better access to her neck.
“Yeah, even the kinky ways,” he whispered. “Christ, I tried to be
good…and I was…until we were in the forest the next day, and you
begged me to pin you tighter to that tree, and—”
    “And it felt so right.”
    Shit.
    Why had she let the words
slip out, instead of letting him be responsible for them? And why,
oh why did she
finish them by scoring his scalp with her nails, urging his mouth
harder against her skin, letting him bend her back over the
balcony’s edge so he could plunge his tongue lower, into the V of her shirt, leading
down between her breasts? Why didn’t she stop him from twisting
buttons loose and pulling the fabric open, exposing the lace-edged
cups of her bra to him? Why wasn’t she pushing him back instead of
moaning from the searing pleasure of it, reveling in the feel of
him against her? Ah
Dios , his body was
so big. His mouth was so urgent. His touch was so electric. Her
skin