Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT Caribbean Nights #9) - Kat Cantrell Page 0,56

as the frenzied need for her soared. Harder he pulled, driving himself into the stratosphere with each swift thrust, and something unnamable broke through his body as she took each and every brutal plunge.

And then she cried out his name and clenched around him in an orgasm he hadn’t expected, hadn’t driven her toward. It was like a gift, but it was too much for his sensitized state, and he withdrew to slam into her again for that final push that triggered his own release. His body tensed and exploded, emptying him until there was nothing left.

He shut his eyes as the perfection of it, of her, washed over him. The aftershocks of her climax pulsed around his length, and he wrapped his arms around her to fall to the bed, still wedged inside, still in the throes of bliss.

God, what an amazing woman. So strong, so ready to jump whether he handed out promises or not. While he was busy trying to erase the past, she’d reach inside and taken hold of him, imprinting herself across his insides more deeply than he’d have thought possible. She’d chased away the darkness for a few precious seconds, and he could not get enough of her.

It was only when he shifted her a little so he could draw her more fully into his embrace that he realized why everything had felt so much better, stronger, and just more.

The condom had broken.

Audra felt the gush of wetness as Charlie sat up and realized instantly what had happened. The glow she’d been wallowing in faded in a snap.

“Oh, that’s not good.” Quickly, she did some mental calculations as Charlie disposed of the torn condom. “It should be fine.”

It would be fine. There was no other alternative. The panicky feeling in her chest sped up as she had a really bad vision of staring down at a positive pregnancy test in six weeks. Time to visit the doctor and get on birth control pills stat.

Oh, God. It could be too late.

She didn’t want to have a baby. Not while her relationship with Charlie was still so fragile and unsettled. Not with her career so new. God, she’d spent almost nine years getting her doctorate, and a baby would put her back at square one for an eternity. Maybe forever—some women never got their careers back on track after a baby.

And she’d be doing it while scrabbling her way out of the pit of neediness she’d fallen into. She hated herself like that, hated knowing that her weaknesses had hurt Charlie. He’d always said her lack of clinginess was her most attractive quality, and if he had one foot out the door, she’d do well to practice letting him go.

This could not be happening.

“Hey.” Charlie’s fingers speared through her hair, and he feathered a thumb across her cheek that calmed her instantly. “Look at me.”

She rolled over. Her breath caught at the tenderness in Charlie’s eyes. It was so foreign, all she could do was absorb it for a moment, let it bleed through her skin as his fingers continued to rub circles against her head.

Why couldn’t they be diving back into round forty-seven or whatever number they were on? The night had been so amazing thus far, exactly what she’d hoped for to solidify this new, delicate stage of the relationship. They were finding their footing, figuring out how to be together again. Taking it slow.

“It will be fine,” he promised her, and he said it with such conviction, she believed him. “No matter what happens. If you get pregnant, we’ll get married.”

Oh, my God. Everything inside froze. The words flashed through the air, speared through her chest, and zinged around inside, looking for a place to land. Marriage. Babies. Marriage, as in the complete, polar opposite of slow. Marriage because she was pregnant, not because he loved her and couldn’t live without her.

The panic rose up in her throat instantly, choking her as she internalized what he was saying. And what he wasn’t saying: I promise to never leave you again.

This was more than a complication. It was a gauntlet.

What are you willing to sacrifice for this relationship? Questions she’d barely verbalized to herself were being tossed around with few answers.

“But only then?” she choked out.

The sole marriage proposal she’d ever gotten in her life and it had been issued under duress. Not that she’d dreamed of a carefully thought-out proposal, but jeez. If this was his idea of a romantic date, he could