“I remember,” she lied, leaning closer to be sure he heard her.
He held her gaze for a moment, sweat beading on his forehead and expectant hope lighting his gaze. Then he scowled darkly and jerked his gaze away. He ground his back teeth together and scrunched his face in agony.
With lightning speed, he seized the back of her head and wound his fingers in her hair so tightly her scalp prickled. She gasped, as he pulled her down so that her face hovered right above his. “Then say my name!”
She stared at him, stunned by his vehemence and trying to reconcile the nagging intuition she’d had since he’d kissed her at the camp that something didn’t add up. The niggling familiarity of his voice. Her body’s response to his touch.
“Say my name, Nicole,” he repeated, raggedly this time. “I want to hear you say it.”
And in a heartbeat, an echo from her past yanked her back five years to a hotel room in New Orleans. Her heart wrenched, and tears spilled from her eyes.
“Oh, my God!” She curled her fingers into the hair at his nape and buried her face in his neck. “Daniel …”
Five years earlier
“What do you think?” Nicole asked as she struck a pose wearing Daniel’s uniform hat. Only his uniform hat. “Could I be in the Navy?”
From the hotel bed, Daniel stacked his hands behind his head, a move that emphasized the broad cut of his bare shoulders and the muscle definition in his arms. He sent her a seductive grin. “What I think is that I’ll never wear my dress whites again without thinking how much better they look on you.”
Nicole dropped her pose and crawled across the bed to him, letting her fingers walk up his chest. “Personally, as hot as you look in your dress whites, I have to say I like you out of them even more.”
She flashed him a wicked grin, earning a playful pat on her fanny before he captured her head with his hand and dragged her close for a hot kiss. Despite having made love to him four times already in the past few hours, the heat of his mouth on hers, the stroke of his fingers along her thigh sent a thrill through her blood and made her body quiver in anticipation of another mind-blowing climax. She’d never, in her limited experience, known a man who could so thoroughly and continually elicit such a powerful and carnal response from her. He’d explored every inch of her body and unerringly found and finessed erogenous zones she’d never known she had.
Breathless, she plucked a condom from the bedside stand and ripped it open. “What do you say, Boudreaux? Are you ready for me?”
Holding her gaze, he took the prophylactic from her and covered himself. “Now I am.”
In a deft move, he kicked the sheet off his feet and flipped her to her back. She gasped, then laughed as he straddled her, pinning her arms over her head with one hand and running one finger along the side of her midriff. She squirmed, trying to get away from the teasing touch. “Stop,” she said, giggling, “I told you I’m ticklish.”
He arched a sexy black eyebrow, and his dark brown gaze burrowed into her. “And I told you what would happen if you called me Boudreaux again.”
She squealed in mirth as he lightly trailed his fingers over her most sensitive spots. “Stop!”
He traced the curve of her hip and down her leg. “What’s my name?”
“Boudreaux!”
He shook his head and tickled his way past her naval, then circled her nipples with one finger. “Say my name. My real name.”
She chuckled, flashed a saucy grin. “Afraid I’ve forgotten it?”
His head cocked to one side. “Have you?”
“No.”
“Prove it.” He tweaked the tip of her breast and shifted his weight so that his erection nudged between her legs.
Just the promise of what was to come coiled desire in her womb and chased the teasing grin from her lips. The fiery sensations crackling through her were no laughing matter. She wanted him inside her with an urgency that was primal and overwhelming. She angled her hips, straining toward him. “Please …”
Even when she wrapped her legs around him and arched her back, he waited.
“Say my name.” His tone held no humor, and his eyes shone with a hunger and passion that stirred a tremor deep in her core. He brushed a kiss across her lips and nuzzled her cheek. “I want to hear my name on your lips when I’m inside you.”
The sensual rasp of his voice stroked her, wound her anticipation tighter, while the poignant intimacy of his request seized her heart. She threaded her fingers through his hair and raised her lips to his ear. “Daniel. Daniel LeCroix …”
Nicole whispered his name, rolling the R in a sensual purr that vibrated through him and stoked the need that pounded through his veins. His body thrumming, he drew a ragged breath and buried himself inside her. “Ah, Nicole … cher …”
A sexy gasp caught in her throat, and she moaned as he filled her. Her body gripped his, and a protectiveness, an overwhelming need to possess her, drove him to hold her closer, thrust deeper, take her higher. When they’d made love the first time, he’d thought he could get his fill of her and satisfy the fascination with her that had begun on her prom night years ago. Instead he found the more they made love, the more he wanted her and the more he lost his heart to her.
With a mewling cry, Nicole bowed her back and shuddered as she peaked. “Daniel!”
The first pulse of her body milking him shattered his restraint, and primal noises rumbled from his throat as he followed her into a mind-numbing climax.
When the maelstrom passed and the sensual haze began to lift, he knew he was in trouble. His caring this much about her gave Nicole power over him. Rather than getting her out of his head, she’d found a way past his defenses and into his heart.
He tried to move away from her, needing distance to clear his head, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and tucked her body against his. “Hold me, Daniel. Please, hold me.”
And he did. Until they fell asleep, wrapped in each other’s arms. Until the first light of morning peeked through the gap in the curtains and prodded him awake.
Until her cell phone chimed on the dresser, and she rolled out of bed to answer it.
He flopped onto his back and watched her through his eyelashes as she, in all her naked glory, stumbled groggily across the room. The sight of her smooth skin and sultry curves sent a fresh rush of desire thundering through him.
Nicole plucked her cell phone from the dresser and checked the screen. Her shoulders sagged, and she groaned before she thumbed the answer button. “Hi, Dad.”
Daniel tensed.
“Yes, I was still asleep. Why?” She gasped, and her back stiffened. “Oh, no. I completely forgot. I’m so sorry.” She sent a quick glance to their bed and winced. “Yeah, I know how important it is to you.”
He propped on one elbow, watching her, and she mouthed, Sorry. Then turning, she headed into the bathroom. “I’m getting in the shower now. I’ll meet you there.”
Disappointment plucked at him. He’d hoped they could at least share breakfast before they parted ways.
He heard her turn on the shower and flopped back against the pillow with a sigh. Tossing back the covers, he climbed out of bed and strolled to the door of the bathroom to ask her if she wanted him to order room service. But the door was locked.
Frowning, he raised his hand to knock.
“Yes, I did spend the night with that