The Space Colonel's Woman (Dragonus Chronicles Book 1) by Jay Shaw Read Free Book Online

with his whole body.  He kissed like he was starving, took all she had to give, until the world faded away; left her with nothing but the scent of his skin, and the feel of his lips on hers.
    Her shirt fell open as he freed the buttons, his mouth following in the wake of his fingers.  Mark suckled her nipples through the lace of her bra and splayed his fingers down the contours of her flanks; knuckles grazing over the curve of her hips.  Julia writhed in his arms; arched into the touch of his lips on her flesh.  He took pity on her, teasing with long languid kisses that stole the echo of his name from her lips.
    “Let me go.” She pleaded, her hips grinding up with a life of their own.
    “Will you be a good girl, Julia?”
    “I doubt it.”
    He arched into the sharp twist Julia applied to his nipple through worn black cotton, ground his hips into the palm of her other hand, and shuddered as she squeezed him.
    “Glad…to hear it.” He stuttered, and unbuttoned Julia’s jeans with eager fingers.
    She lay naked on the blanket with Mark kneeling between her thighs; watched with a hungry gaze of summer-blue as he stripped himself of tee and holster, and shoved his BDUs down his thighs.  He reached for her with large hands, fingertips biting hard into creamy flesh, as he lifted her and sheathed himself home.
    “Mine.” He growled, taking what he craved with one fierce possessive stroke after another; leaving his mark in her flesh.  The undefined power of their connection as overwhelming as it had been the night before.  And Julia, could do nothing but wrap her thighs around his driving hips, tug her fingers through his hair and hang on for the ride.
    Their bodies were dappled with sunlight as they lay entwined in the aftermath of their passion.  Mark’s arms were wrapped around her waist and his head was nestled in the crook of her neck.  Julia twisted and untwisted the chain of his dog tags where it rested across his nape.  The tiny silver balls curling over her nails and leaving tiny imprinted dots on the pads of her fingers.
    “Julia?”
    “Mmmm.”
    “I love you.”
    “I loved you first.” She pressed a kiss into the top of his head and smiled as he relaxed into sleep; his trust in her heavy and reassuring along her side.
    Julia lay next to her sleeping colonel, listening to the crashing of the waves and the wind in the tree overhead, as Mark’s breathing slowed and deepened.  Her battered warrior was sexy even in sleep.  She ran a gentle finger along the arch of his brow and stroked the laugh lines at the corner of his closed eye.  The corner of his mouth quirked at her touch, but he did not wake. 
    How would she survive letting him go, when they came for him?
    She pulled the camera from her backpack, zoomed to the area she’d been touching, and captured her feelings with a single click.
    The sound of the shutter clicking woke her from a sleep she wasn’t aware of taking.  They really were two halves of the same whole.  She opened her eyes to find Mark pointing her camera at her from the opposite side of the island.  He sat on a rock wearing only his BDUs; the legs rolled up and bandages stark against tanned skin.
    “Sleeping Beauty awakes.” He announced, vowels wrapped in warm affection.
    “My favourite fairy tale.”
    “Why?”
    Julia sat up, crossed her legs and smiled when Mark’s gaze drifted to the sway of her breasts.  “Well, Snow White’s prince wears lipstick and sings all the time.  Cinderella had to go and get hers, and then he was more interested in having a pair of custom-made glass slippers.”
    Mark chuckled, amusement easing the lines military life had wrought on his handsome face. “I see your point.”
    “Give me a dark-haired handsome prince who can ride anything and loves the ocean.”  Julia bit her lip as she watched Mark rub a hand through his hair and down to grip his nape.  A self-conscious gesture she was coming to know well. “He’d have to be brave