Chapter Sixteen

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

C HARLOTTE KNEW THIS was a risk. Even though she and Cal had indeed been lusting after each other for weeks, that didn't mean he was willing to risk complicating things by having sex with her.

And this stood a solid chance of doling out some complications.

Added to that, he might indeed not be a morning-sex person. Or a sex-with-her person.

"Yea," he said in the same moment he hooked his arm around her and hauled her to him.

She would have laughed with delight if he hadn't kissed her and therefore stopped her from voicing anything. That was all right. She liked having the kiss do the talking for them. And what a kiss. She hadn't thought that particular area could get any better between them, but she'd been wrong.

This was better.

It was even hotter, longer and deeper than usual. It was a slam of foreplay right from the start to let her know that this was going to be a quick escalation of all that skirted-around lust.

Without breaking the kiss or the hold he had on her, Cal somehow managed to reach behind him and lock the door. Good thing, too, because morning sex came with the potential of morning visitors, and they didn't need an audience for this. They just needed each other.

Really, really needed.

Cal raised that need tenfold when he dropped some kisses on her neck. He clearly had already figured out that was a hot spot for her, and her moans of pleasure likely gave him some encouragement in that area.

It would have been so easy for her just to stand there and let him make her mindless. Well, maybe not stand, because her legs were all wobbly now. But she could have just savored the moment by letting him savor her. Charlotte wanted to get in on that aspect of it, though.

She wanted Cal to moan.

To need.

To go a little wobbly.

So she touched him while he kissed her. All in all, she quickly learned she had the advantage. His mouth couldn't move nearly as fast as her hands could and couldn't cover nearly as much area. She tucked the condom back in her pocket, slid her palm underneath his shirt and touched and touched and touched.

She added some body bumps because that was a form of touching, too, and she maneuvered herself so that her center was against his. Clearly, he had a good reaction to that because he went hard as stone. And he cursed, which she was pretty sure was the male equivalent of a moan.

Cal didn't ditch the kissing, but he made adjustments. Frantic, needy ones that told her the escalation was speeding right along. He didn't just put his hand under her top, he peeled it off her, sent it flying and lowered his mouth to her breasts. First to the tops of them, and then to her right nipple when he shoved down her bra.

Her legs didn't just wobble, the bones dissolved from the intense heat, but Cal somehow managed to keep his arm hooked around her. Anchoring her against him while he taunted her with the possibility that she might indeed have an orgasm from just his mouth on her breasts. It certainly seemed possible. Everything was concentrating inside her. All hot and urgent. All now, now, now.

But she didn't want now.

Charlotte at least wanted the fantasy of seeing him naked so she turned the tide and went with a different escalation tactic. She lowered herself, sliding her body against his until her mouth was at the level of the zipper of his jeans. She kissed him there and made sure there was plenty of hot breath to it.

He cursed again, and Cal must have been battling his own potential orgasm because he grabbed on to her, scooping her up in his arms, and carried her to the bed. He dropped her there, the overly soft feather mattress puffing up around her. What he didn't do was join her, and she was about to protest that when she got a much-desired eyeful.

With his eyes locked with hers and with the air pulsing with heat, Cal pulled off his shirt, exposing all those amazing muscles. Not bulky or puffed up like the mattress. Just toned and perfect. She could have feasted on those for a while, but Cal gave her more.

So much more.

She levered herself up on her elbows and watched as he yanked off his boots. Then his belt. He lowered his zipper. Not in a slow, striptease kind of way, thank goodness. While she might have appreciated that and enjoyed the show, she was burning too much for slow. She needed the full monty.

And she got it.

Cal kept his gaze on her, and he whipped down his jeans and boxers in the same motion. Charlotte sacrificed the eye contact so she could look. Possibly drool. And positively want him more than, well, anything. In that moment, Cal ruled every square inch of her body.

Morning sex certainly had some advantages. Light. Lots of it. No darkness to obstruct this incredible view, and just seeing him was adding to the revving. To the heat. To the urgency.

Now he came to her, and she had an especially wonderful view when he leaned down and unbuttoned her jeans. First, he took out the condom from her pocket, and then he shimmied her jeans right off her. Panties, too. And he took his own moment and advantage of the light to look at her.

Normally, Charlotte wouldn't have enjoyed such scrutiny, but the heat had a way of canceling out modesty and worry over any extra pounds on her hips. Heat had a way of making that and everything else disappear.

Apparently, heat and need didn't hinder his multitasking skill set because he kissed her while he pulled on the condom. He paused the kissing, though, when he pushed inside her. Then again, everything paused in that moment. Breath, heart, thought. It only lasted a couple of seconds before the need clawed its way back to the surface, and the sex dance began.

He pushed, and she met the pushes. One by one. Deeper and faster. Until she couldn't have held on to the pleasure for another second. Until Cal gave her no choice but to chase that orgasm after all.

She came in a flash, that avalanche of mindless pleasure where everything vanished. Everything but Cal. He was right there with her to achieve some mindless pleasure of his own.

C AL CAME OUT of the bathroom in Charlotte's suite, and he found her exactly as he'd left her a couple of minutes earlier. Naked and still on her bed. Still smiling. Still looking at him as if he were the master of the sex universe.

An incredible sight that was pure fuel for future sexual fantasies.

Despite having just had her, he felt that brainless part of him twitch as if gearing up for another round. Brainless, of course, thought it the best idea possible. It wasn't. Well, not unless Charlotte had more condoms. Or nothing else to do today. Which apparently she did because her phone dinged with a text.

That brought on a naked hunt through the discarded clothes on her floor, and after purposely bumping into each other, they were laughing when she finally located it. Although, the laughter stopped when she read what was on the screen.

"It's from Mandy," she relayed. "Noah's here, and he says he wants to talk to you."

Great. Talk about putting an immediate damper on a sex buzz. All right, not immediate since one glance at Charlotte and the buzz was still there, but Cal figured it would have to go on hold while he dealt with Noah. Hopefully, this wouldn't turn into a rehash of You're scum for going after Charlotte and I'm not giving up on getting her back .

Cal had to concede that Noah did indeed have a right to think of him as scum since he had more or less gone after Charlotte. After some teeth-gnashing and worry he had, anyway. After countless mental lectures to leave her alone that had done absolutely no good. Lust could be a greedy piece of work.

So could feelings.

And while it would only cause more hair-pulling, Cal had to admit that what he felt for Charlotte had gone past the lust stage. No way would he tell her that, however, as she clearly had enough to deal with without adding his feelings to the mix.

Cal gathered up his clothes and started dressing. "I'll go see what Noah wants."

Sighing, she picked up her clothes, too. "And I don't want to be naked in case he wants to include me in on the conversation."

Good point, but Cal figured Noah would include the subject of Charlotte whether she was ready or not.

He finished dressing, kissed her and headed out before the kiss could turn scalding. Always a possibility when it came to Charlotte. Just as a conversation with Noah could turn out to be scalding in a different kind of way. One with lots and lots of temper. Of course, it hadn't always been that way, but Cal couldn't see it going back to the way things had been.

Cal made it down the attic and third-floor stairs, but then he stopped when he spotted Noah, not seething, pacing and waiting for a showdown but rather talking to the new resident, Jodi Seaver.

Noah turned to look at Cal. No angry expression, either, but Cal figured that was because Noah was in a conversation with someone that he clearly knew and was pleased to see.

"Cal," Noah said. Not a friendly greeting exactly so, yeah, there was a bit of fuming, but Noah probably didn't want to douse the place in it with Jodi right there. "Have you met Jodi?"

Cal shook his head, went closer and introduced himself. "Cal Donnelly."

Even though Cal thought the woman looked shocked, she still managed a polite nod. "Lieutenant Colonel Donnelly," she provided. "I watched you in a demo flight of an F-22."

Cal had done a few of those so he wasn't sure which one she meant. "I take it you already knew Noah?"

Jodi nodded, then swallowed hard. "I was special ops...but I took an early retirement."

Oh, yes. She was shocked. Maybe literally. He didn't see any visible scars, and she appeared to be able to stand and move of her own accord, but that didn't mean she hadn't experienced some kind of trauma.

"Jodi and I crossed paths a couple of times on the job," Noah provided. That made sense because Noah was also special ops, and sometimes there were joint operations.

"How'd you find out about this place?" Cal asked, hoping to shift the subject a little.

"From your brother Blue."

Cal looked at her with surprise.

"Blue and I see the same physical therapist at the base in San Antonio," she explained. "He told me about it, and I thought it might be a good place for me to get some downtime."

"It is," he assured her.

She obviously wanted that respite right at this moment, because she fluttered her fingers toward her room. "Sorry, but I need to go. I've got some things I need to do," she said, her voice barely a whisper, and she walked away.

Noah didn't say anything until she had closed the door behind her, and he didn't launch into any other info about Jodi. He set his focus on Cal and dragged in a deep breath.

"I'm leaving to go back to the base today, and I wanted to say goodbye," Noah said matter-of-factly. "I'd like to also say goodbye to Charlotte, but I don't think she wants to see or talk to me right now."

Cal shrugged. "I have no idea if that's true. It's possible Charlotte would be interested in a farewell."

Noah shrugged, too. "That's not the impression I got. She's washed her hands of me, and I only have myself to blame. I screwed up big-time and then came storming back in here, insisting she and I could make things work. I got so caught up in my own rhetoric that I forgot it hadn't worked between me and Charlotte in a long time. It was the reason I got involved with Elise. And the other women," he mumbled.

Since he had no idea what to say to that, Cal stayed quiet, but he was glad that Noah had seen the light.

Noah went quiet for a couple of moments, as well, before his gaze came back to Cal's. "Don't hurt her, Cal. Please don't hurt Charlotte."

Noah had already said something similar, but it hadn't had the genuine pleading that it did now. And Cal felt the plea in the pit of his stomach. Felt it in his heart, too. Yeah, he was wrestling with these damn emotions and with his conscience. Unlike Noah, he couldn't have juggled the girl back home with the ones he met along the way, and that meant he either needed to commit to Charlotte or let her go.

That would be damn hard now that they'd landed in bed. He wasn't naive enough to believe that morning sex with her was stringless. Of course, Charlotte wouldn't put those strings on it. Nor would she put them on Cal. But that didn't mean strings didn't exist, simply because they'd come with the intimacy of what they'd done.

He cut off the rest of his thought when he heard the footsteps coming down the stairs and turned to see Charlotte. She didn't freeze when she saw Noah. Nor did she appear to be bracing herself for some kind of confrontation with him. However, there was alarm on her face.

"Cal," she said, holding up her phone, "I just got a call from Sonora."

It took him a moment to recall that was the nurse Charlotte had hired. "What happened? Did someone get hurt?" Of course, he had other worst-case scenarios already flying through his head.

"It's Harper," Charlotte said on a rise of breath.

Hell. The worst-case scenarios might be coming true. "What happened?" he repeated.

"Harper's not in her room, and Sonora can't find her." Charlotte's eyes were drowning in worry when she met his gaze. "She's missing, Cal. Harper's gone."