BURNING FOR NERO by Cerise DeLand is #2 in SEALs GOING HOT series!
Who is Nero? Tony Nero is a SEAL
going home for July 4th weeken to see his family and the woman he has tried to
forget for more than a decade!
On leave due to an injury, Navy SEAL Tony Nero heads home for a little
R&R and some Fourth of July fun. When his buddy’s widow Cass Phillips picks
him up at the air station, Tony figures he’s in for a sexually frustrating few
days. He’s had the hots for the blonde siren for years, but his best friend won
her heart first. Even though Ray’s been gone more than a year, Tony bets Cass
isn’t interested in any man. Not him. And especially not another SEAL.
Cass has a bone to pick with longtime friend, Tony. After her husband
died, he was the closest thing her little boy had to a father figure. His
visits stopped abruptly and her son doesn't understand why. Neither does she.
She's also unable to quench her growing need for the tough and tender man.
She's already loved and lost one SEAL, but that doesn't stop her from burning
for Nero.
Need a nibble of Cerise’s newest
cherry?
Of course you do!
Copyright 2014, Cerise DeLand.
All rights reserved.
Wild to leave, Cass headed through
the French doors. Across the patio to the lawn, she sank in the lush grass.
Catching herself time and again from turning an ankle, she strode toward the
boathouse. She stayed there whenever she visited, not wishing to sleep in the
room she and Ray had shared when Ray was alive. Jon still slept up at the main
house with his grandparents, thinking it a vacation from Mommy and ordinary
restrictions. Tonight, Cass needed the solitude the hideaway offered.
The moon was bright and she made
her way quickly. She got to the steps before Tony’s hand grasped her wrist, the
strength of the man she wished to escape halting her in her tracks.
“Stop. Cass, stop.”
“No.” No, she would not cry or beg
or scream. She couldn’t demean herself like that. She took a step, but the
giant in her path caught her against him. With just one arm, Tony could trap
her.
Against his formidable body,
against her better judgment, she wanted to simply stand there, never move.
He crushed her close, nearer than
he ever had before, and she felt the power of his presence. His one good hand
pressed her fully against him, then glided down her spine to press her hips to
his. She caught her breath. He was hard. And he wanted her.
She turned to leave.
“Stay. Stay.”
She shook her head, her gaze beyond
him. “Let me go, Tony.”
“I don’t want to.” He lifted her
chin with his injured hand. “Look at me.”
Bravery was her forte. Hell, she’d
been a warrior’s wife. To face this one was easy peasy. Right? She met his
gaze.
Not the viper, not the seducer, not
her friend, this man gazed down at her and absorbed her distress with
sympathetic eyes. “You don’t want to go, either.”
“I couldn’t watch—” Oh, lord. Had
she really blurted that? She was botching this.
“She came on to me, Cass.”
She stared at him, caught between
delight at his words and regret at her. If she had more nerve, she could own up
to wanting him. If she weren’t so stuck in her friendship rut, she could make a
move on him. Was her pride more important than finding out if he could care for
her as more than a friend?
“Listen to me.” He stroked the
small of her back. “I didn’t encourage her. Why would I, Cass?” His last words
were so raw, she barely heard them. But the sorrow in them thrilled her and she
looked up at him again. “Why would I when I just want to be with you? Tell you
how I loved your song and dance with Jon. Praise you and say you are the finest
mother, babe. Why would I want to be with her when you’re the one I want to
talk to? Huh? Tell me.”
She was speechless with joy.
He cradled her near him as if she
were fragile china. The feel of him was heaven, like coming home to a safe
place she’d never known existed. He dropped kisses to the crown of her hair and
his gentleness stunned her so that she wrapped her arms around his waist and
burrowed into him.
He groaned and stepped out of her
embrace.
Unbalanced, she stumbled.
But he clasped her hand and pulled
her along, striding like a mercenary on a mission toward the front door of her
boathouse. At the threshold, he halted, dropped her hand and looked down at
her, a muscle in his jaw jumping. “Invite me inside, Cass.”
An order, a metaphor, a plea. His
words were all of them and she reveled in their potential. In one lunge, she
swept open the screen door and pulled him inside.
He whirled her against the inside
wall, pinning her there with his body and cupping her throat. “Tell me why I’m
here.”
Words would be too much, too soon.
She’d show him. She undulated against him, this man she had watched and wanted
for months now. Wrapping her arms around him, she brushed her mouth against the
corded column of his throat, nuzzling the hollow beneath his Adam’s apple. She
parted her lips to taste the musk of his very healthy body. She rose on her
toes, pulling him closer, nestling her puckered lips into the hollow beneath
his cheekbones. She slid her mouth to his and he waited, still as stone,
letting her lead.
Ah,
god. She had hungered for this decadent taste of him for so long. She’d
been so careful to tease apart her motives. Tony was kind, caring, no clone of
Ray. No substitute either. She wanted him for his sweet, bad self. Could he
want her because she was different from any other woman he took to bed? She
paused to examine him.
“Don’t stop now. What’s in your
eyes is too raw to be best friends with benefits.” He grabbed a fistful of her
curls and yanked her head gently. “I won’t trespass. Our ties are too old, too
strong. So, whatever I’m here for say it, or I’m leaving and we forget this
ever happened.”
“Stay.” She took his mouth as if
she were a dying woman, needing only the succor he gave. His lips were firm and
willing. She grabbed him by the shirt, yearning to hold all of him, lose
herself inside him. “I want all of you.”
“Since when?”
“Months and months.”
Growling, he pressed flush against
her from chest to thighs He seized her lips, bestowing sizzling kisses, grazing
her tender flesh, scouring her mind. He sent his tongue inside the cavern of
mouth and probed and plunged, fierce, claiming and testing. She mewled.
Breathless, he yanked away. “I’m
hurting you.”
“No.” She curled her hands around
his neck and drew his mouth once more to hers. “I need you to need me like
that.”
“Christ, baby.” He sucked on her
lips. “I’m trying not to gobble you up.”
“Damn. You’d better.”
He stopped, surprise living in his
gaze, feral, dominant. This was that other Nero. Predator. Marauder. The sight
of him in his splendor made her knees quiver. “What else can I do for you?”
When had any man ever asked her
that? She licked her lips.
“Multiple orgasms.”
He nodded, grinning. “Your wish is
my command.”
Helpless joy flooded her. She’d
grown so tired of Ray’s selfishness, she’d questioned any man’s desire to
satisfy her in bed or out. The one man she had opened her legs for last year
had turned out to be a total dud. All slap and tickle, full of sound and fury
signifying nothing but meh. “You can
deliver, huh?”
“Complain to me at any time,” Tony
whispered with such utter compassion, that she realized he understood she
lacked inspired loving. “One rule though,” he said against her mouth, his hand
stroking her spine.
To have this man in her bed, inside
her, this man to roll with and rock with?
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