Dream Chaser (Dream Team #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,32
than all that. Your brother is up in your shit about it. You had to share it with your mom, which is insult to injury, ’cause then you had to deal with your mother’s reaction. And none of that is little shit, sweetheart. That’s a lot to deal with.”
Her mouth worked but she didn’t say anything.
So Boone kept going.
“And yeah, you were being held by people demonstrating an intent to harm you and were caught in the middle of a firefight. You know how I reacted when I was in my first firefight?”
Those big blue eyes got bigger. “Your first one?”
He gave her another squeeze. “Ryn, focus.”
“Okay, what did you do?”
“Froze.”
She made no response.
“It was during a mission. I had a team all around me who were counting on me to play my part, and I fucking froze. Didn’t get off that first shot. My commanding officer lost his shit on me after and every guy in my squad acted like I was a speck of dirt. But I felt smaller than that. Even with that, the bottom line is, there was so much goddamn noise and chaos, bullets were flying, bullets kill people, and I did not want to die. I had training and it’s arguable I should have reacted better, but finally a bud approached on the down low and told me he did the same thing his first time. I still felt like an asshole, but when he told me that, I felt less of one. It never happened again but it’s human nature.”
He reached up, pulled her hair around her neck so it was falling down one side, then tangled his fingers in it.
“You didn’t have training, Ryn,” he told her gently. “You were shopping one second with your girls and in a hail of bullets the next. Let yourself react to that. And if your reaction includes wanting me to stay close for a while, I’m not gonna think that’s clingy or needy. I’m not gonna have an issue with that at all. Because I understand it seeing as it’s natural.”
“So, all right, first thing in the morning heavy landing on us, the thing is, Boone, I like you and I want you to like me. And I do not feel it’s conducive to that happening when our first date happened on my couch, and it was a great one, and then I land a bunch of crap on you because my life’s a mess, which might make you think I’m a mess.”
Christ.
She thought them lying on a couch, eating fried chicken, chunks of big cookie, cuddling and watching TV was a great date.
She was right.
She was also as into him as he was into her.
And this was spectacular.
“And I’m not a mess,” she carried on. “My mom taught me to be self-sufficient and—”
He rolled them so she was on her back, he was pressed down her side, and his face was in hers.
“You thought our couch date was a great one?” he asked quietly.
She sucked her lips in between her teeth.
He grinned down at her and dipped his face closer. “You thought right, sweetheart. It was a great one.”
“Boone,” she whispered.
Her face that close, her mouth that close, her soft body under his, in her bed, with her lips forming his name, shit.
He’d already decided they’d fuck mostly vanilla in her bed because there was no way to tie her to the headboard.
His bed was where they’d do their serious play.
First go here, he’d take it slow.
First go when he went at her, he’d tie her down and eat her until she begged to come, and then he’d fuck her until she couldn’t stop coming.
“Boone,” she whispered again, there was a nuance of change, because with his thoughts, and her right there, he was getting hard again, and with his cock pressed to her hip, she didn’t miss it.
“Suffice it to say, I don’t think you’re a clingy, needy mess,” he muttered.
Her hands came to his body, drifting lightly, which was awesome, and dangerous.
“I’m all of a sudden not at one with my decree to take this slow,” she said, her gaze on his mouth.
Fuck, he wanted to hold her down and kiss her until he could smell her wet.
He dipped closer. “Good morning kiss and that’s it. Then brunch.”
“Boone—”
He put his mouth to hers. “That’s all you get, baby.”
He felt her lips move, saw her eyes pout, and his dick got even harder because there it was.