Nanny for the Army Rangers by Krista Wolf

 

Fifteen

 

 

DELILAH

Liam was standing between the couches, his arms at his sides. For the first time I noticed how amazing he looked in his tight, sleeveless T-shirt. It clung to his body, accentuating every ridge and muscle. It even stayed tight around his taut, flat stomach, all the way down to his loose-fitting mesh shorts.

“W—What?” I floundered.

“Show us what the kiss was like,” he repeated flatly. “And we’ll tell you whether or not you’re getting a second date.”

I swallowed hard. Was he serious?

“You mean—”

“I want you to kiss me,” he said. “Exactly the way you kissed your date goodnight. Don’t change anything. Do it exactly the same.”

I somehow took a step in his direction, without even realizing it. It was like my legs had viciously betrayed me.

“I can’t kiss you,” I protested.

“Why not?”

“Because… well… just because!”

“Don’t think of it as a kiss kiss,” Liam smirked, “because it’s not. “Think of it as an experiment. And an experiment doesn’t count.”

I cocked my head in disbelief. “So we’d be doing this for science?” I asked skeptically.

“Sure.”

Our bodies were even nearer now, thanks to my feet. I marveled at how much taller than me he was, especially this close together.

“You’re serious?”

“Dead serious.”

It didn’t make sense, what he was proposing. Plus it was late. And on top of that—

“Fine,” I sighed, not even sure how the word escaped my lips. “You’ll need to come down to my level, though.”

He bent at the knees, and all of a sudden we were face to face. I thought he’d be sleepy, his eyes half-lidded. Instead he was wide awake, his blue-green eyes boring hungrily into mine.

Oh shit.

I hadn’t actually thought this through. Still, I decided to give him exactly what he wanted.

“Alright,” I purred. “I kissed him like this.”

Our noses brushed past each other, and I felt a tingle as my body tensed up. Covering his mouth with mine, I rolled my lips softly and deliberately against his. I did it once, twice, then an even slower third time, before finally pulling away.

When I did, our eyes were still locked. My breath still hadn’t come back yet, as I struggled to regain my composure.

“Wow,” he said, echoing my sentiment for about half a second. And then: “That was weak.”

My stomach dropped. My eyebrows knitted together.

“Weak!?”

“Yeah.”

“WEAK!?” I demanded again. “You thought that was weak?”

“Totally,” came Julius’s voice, somewhere off to the side of us.

I was angry. Pissed off! Enraged past the point of all rational thought. But instead of turning away, I grabbed his face and kissed him again.

This time I let my lips part, and my mouth open. I kissed him harder, more forcefully, with passion and energy and even lust. My hands clutched his bearded cheeks, drawing him in. My breath was his breath, as my jaw continued moving, churning…

By the time we stopped I was tingly and breathless. Our eyes were still locked, the two of us still staring at each other.

“Better?” I murmured.

Very slowly, Liam shook his head back and forth. “You’re not getting this, are you?”

How dare he! I was indignant. Furious!

“What the—”

All of sudden he grabbed me, twisting me in the direction of the nearest wall! Liam shoved me against it and kissed me hard, his mouth prying mine open, his tongue swirling past my lips and teeth.

HOLY—

The whole thing was warm and wet, totally dreamlike, as his tongue sought out and found mine. Together they swirled, gliding around each other. Exploring each other hotly, as our lips rolled with thunderous slowness through a series of insanely wonderful kisses.

Fuck.

My mind spun away, lost in a soft, fluffy world all its own. The kiss was rapturous in its intensity. There was such immediate intimacy, such depth of passion, I melted right there in his arms.

Ohhhh…

Liam’s fingers traced my cheeks, eliciting electric shivers that bolted straight down both sides of my body. It was like getting struck by warm, wonderful lightning. Like sinking naked into a hot tub on a cold, crisp day, until your brain overloaded with the combined euphoria of warmth and well-being.

Our lips eventually parted, leaving me breathless and thunderstruck. He was smiling at me now, but only with his eyes.

“The first kiss…” he repeated softly, letting his fingers linger at my chin before taking his hand back. “It means everything.”

I breathed in deeply, thankful for the oxygen. My lips parted, my mouth opening before I even knew what to say—

And then I was being spun around and kissed again. This time by Julius, whose ice-blue eyes burned with an inner fearlessness that shocked and surprised me.

Oh my GOD.

His hands took hold of my body, as his tongue delved so deep it could’ve been seeking my soul. With nothing to do I kissed him back, marveling at how different he was from Liam. Yet on so many other levels, including the softness of their lips, the two were blessedly the same.

This… this is…

The big ranger’s jaw rotated boldly against mine, inhaling the breath from my lungs as he drank from me deeply. My legs weren’t just jelly anymore. By this point, it felt like they were no longer beneath me at all.

This is crazy!

I was being held up now by two impossibly-thick arms. They grasped me by the waist in their iron-like embrace, strong yet gentle in the way they held me pinned against his hard, beautiful body.

And then just as suddenly as the whole thing had started… it stopped.

Julius brought me gently back to earth, setting me down on a pair of very numb feet. I was left standing there, leaning helplessly into nothing. My lips were still pursed. My mouth, still half-open…

“Now that,” Julius breathed, “is the kind of kiss that’ll get you a second date.”

The guys smiled as they turned away, moving together in the direction of the bedroom hallway. I was still half in a trance, just watching them go.

“Goodnight Delilah,” said Liam, smirking victoriously over his shoulder. “Do us a favor and kill the lights on the way to bed.”