“No,” she said defiantly.

He was going to try to avoid finishing this by seducing her. It would probably work, but she was determined to at least put up a fight.

“Please?” he said so nicely she frowned but closed her eyes.

“Okay,” she whispered, angry that she was so completely helpless to resist him.

Feeling him pull away, she felt his warm breath against her lips, and then he kissed her softly again. Her insides tingled in anticipation for his crazed but knee-weakening kisses to begin. “Think about it, princess,” he whispered against her lips. “Before you, I never wanted attachments. Even kissing was too intimate, too risky.” He kissed her deeply, sucking her tongue the way that made every part of her body yearn for more. Then he pulled away. “Before you, the first order from me after covering their eyes was no talking.”

The visual of him covering her eyes made her heart beat faster, and she focused on that instead of visualizing him with someone else. His lips moved down her chin and onto her neck as his hands slid over her bare ass squeezing softly and making her tremble.

“Before you,” he whispered against her neck then licked it. “Sex was nothing more than a release. If I’d had it my way, names would never have been exchanged. In fact, many times they weren’t.” He sucked her neck a little harder as a soft moan escaped her. Kissing his way up to her lips, he licked her bottom lip. “Open your eyes, baby,” he whispered. She did and he smiled. “Before you, I had no idea what it felt like to make love. Now I do.” He pecked her softly, staring into her eyes. “I don’t ever wanna go back to that.”

He pulled her down with him onto the bed, kissing her the whole time. He did nothing but kiss her, and it drove her so crazy she couldn’t help moaning against his mouth. What he did to her mouth alone was pure insanity.

She felt him reach for the drawer on the nightstand, and she knew what he was reaching for, but she held his face with both hands, not wanting his lips off of hers even for a second.

Obsessed—obsessed is what he made her feel like. She was completely obsessed with his lips, his tongue, and his mouth on her body. She understood now what he meant about before her, because before him she’d never felt anything like this.

He managed to get the condom on by moving away from her lips just a few times. He brought her hands over her head and laced his fingers through hers then stopped kissing her for a moment to look in her eyes so profoundly it made her breathless.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too” she whispered back, the emotion so much that she felt her eyes well as he slid into her slowly, gently, and, oh, so deeply.

How was it possible for someone to make her feel so incredibly special? “God, I love you” were the last words she said before their mouths became one and he kissed her as she knew he would until they both came in explosive climaxes.

Chapter Nineteen

As if there weren’t already enough wonderful things about Brandon to love, another luxury about being the girlfriend of a drill sergeant was that he was so anal about ironing. He’d taken to ironing even her clothes now. He said he didn’t mind, and he did a much better job than she did, so she gladly let him.

Since he’d ironed her outfit for today as perfectly as he always did, Regina had been walking around in nothing more than his Padres T-shirt and a pair of panties again as she got ready. Whenever he ironed for her, she waited until they were ready to walk out to put her clothes on.

Brandon had walked in and out of the bedroom as she got ready, stopping to kiss her and telling her how beautiful she was more than once. A few times he’d stopped and sat on the bed to watch her apply her makeup. The way he stared at her was so intense it made her insides a little crazy. They’d just made love that morning, but something about the way he was looking at her had her thinking it may just happen again. They had plenty of time before they had to leave. If he didn’t stop looking at her like that, she just may have to attack him.

She did think it was kind of weird that he hadn’t tried anything in the shower aside from running his hands up and down her body, but then they’d just made love before they got in. Still, it wasn’t unheard of for them to go at it again so soon after having gone a round—or two.

A few of the times he sat on the bed, it almost felt as if he wanted to say more but held back. He was leaning back on an elbow on the bed, watching her again, and she eyed him through the mirror, smirking when she noticed the subtle swell in his crotch.

“Something on your mind, Brandon?”

The corner of his lip lifted. “I’m just wondering when the hell I became such a push over.”

She lifted a brow curious now and continued peering at him through the mirror. “What do you mean?”

“Why can’t I ever just say no to you?”

Now she had a feeling what was going on in his mind all this time, and it excited her. That swell in his pants meant he wasn’t just thinking about giving in to her earlier request; the thought was turning him on.

She watched as he stood up and walked toward her. “You’ve said no to me,” she reminded him with an evil smile as he reached her from behind.

The flutters in her stomach doubled at his touch. Kissing the side of her neck, he brought his hand around her waist, slipping it into the front of her panties. Gasping, she let her head fall back against him, tracing his hard forearm with her fingers.

“You really wanna give me complete control?” he whispered in her ear then nipped at it, making her shiver as she breathed in deeply.