Santa Soldier Bear - Meg Ripley Page 0,12

groaned with pleasure as his fingers sank deep into her flesh.

Her eyes closed and mouth slackened as her core tightened around him, inviting him to join her on the journey of pleasure she was flying on. She gripped his shoulders hard as she came, tiny gasps escaping from her throat.

Roman let himself go, and a shudder of pleasure whipped down his back as they pushed each other ever higher. His bear’s roar rose from his throat as he plunged himself yet further inside her, wanting to feel even the tiniest spasm from within her. She was his. It might only be for now, but she was his.

4

Melody woke slowly and peacefully, stretching throughout the length of her body before she even opened her eyes. She knew without looking that Roman was there next to her. She could sense him. It wasn’t just his scent or the way the mattress felt different at having a second person in the bed. Her body simply knew, and she liked that sense of knowing. Even so, she dared to open her eyes and take a peek.

He lay on his back, his face serene. She took the time to enjoy the way his hair fell back against the pillow and how his eyelashes looked much longer when his eyes were closed. He had beautiful lips, and a small thrill shot through her stomach as she remembered what they felt and tasted like. Though perfectly relaxed, she could see the outline of every muscle in his incredible body. Melody had no idea how long he’d been out of the service, but it was clear that he still kept in shape.

Her snow leopard purred with content as she watched him sleep. Roman was the kind of man she could’ve easily just tumbled into bed with for a one-night stand. Melody was pretty sure she could’ve done that and not regretted it for an instant, but she still preferred the way things had actually gone. She closed her eyes once more as she relived their evening on the couch, discussing the correlations between the world of George Bailey and the current world they lived in… eating to their hearts’ content… slowly moving closer to each other both physically and emotionally… It’d felt so real and so mature, like a relationship she could truly be comfortable in.

No. She couldn’t call it a relationship. Roman was scheduled to go back to Wyoming once the holidays were over. He had a life up there, and she couldn’t ask him to change that any more than he could ask her to leave the Force. It would never work. She’d also noted that hardness that’d taken over his face for just a fraction of a second when she’d asked if he had any children. Even if their locations weren’t a problem, that part would be. Roman didn’t seem to want children, and Melody couldn’t see her life without them.

Furrowing her brow, she tried to concentrate only on the good parts. She did have a beautiful naked man in her bed, after all. There wasn’t anything pressing on the schedule for the day, and her ears had yet to pick up on anyone else being up and out of bed. He probably won’t mind if I wake him up for a repeat of last night…

Pushing herself up onto her elbow, she leaned across the bed to stroke his inner thigh when a baby’s cry split the air.

Roman’s eyes flew open, and he was up and off the pillow. “What was that?”

Melody’s body had also reacted to the sound with an instinctive drive that she’d never been able to understand. It was the same feeling she had every time she was in a store and heard a child cry for its mother. It sparked a physical reaction that demanded her to help, even though she had no child of her own.

She’d bounced off the mattress and was frantically searching for her pajama bottoms. “It’s just…” She was going to say it was just Lucas, ready to wake up and start the day. But Emersyn’s boy had outgrown crying when he woke up. This was the sound of a younger baby, and it was coming from much further away than the nursery down the hall. “I don’t know.”

Roman yanked on a shirt, but it wouldn’t go past his shoulders. He ripped it back off again and tossed it to her. “I think this is yours.”

Melody had already put on a different one, but having found her