Instead of answering him, she chuckled and rolled over until she looked into his eyes.
Her hand came up and she buried her fingers in his hair. “You can do that…”—she leaned over and kissed him slowly before purring—“to me anytime.”
He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah? So, I take it you like the uniform?”
She chuckled. “You may just have to put it back on and let me check again.” She wiggled her eyebrows as her hands moved down his neck to his shoulders.
“Keep that up and we won’t get much further than this sofa tonight,” he warned.
“Good,” she said against his lips.
“Yeah,” he said after kissing her for a while. “But, unfortunately, I didn’t have much of a lunch.” His stomach growled loudly.
She frowned over at him. “I hadn’t thought…” She shook her head and then suddenly rolled off the sofa and glanced around for something to wear. He watched her sexy bare ass as she moved towards the front door and bent over to pick up his uniform shirt. She slipped it on, and it hit her mid-thigh. He smiled when she buttoned up only a few buttons.
“I think that thing looks better on you than me.” He sat up and watched her move into the kitchen. She smiled over at him.
“I’m going to make you something.” She looked into his fridge, then frowned. “Gosh, is this all you have? A few eggs and half a loaf of bread with some cheese?”
“Yeah, I grabbed a few things last night but hadn’t hit the fresh food section yet. I have a ton of frozen food, but usually hit the store for fresh items before eating.” He started to pull on his pants again, but then instead grabbed all their discarded clothes and headed into the bedroom. Pulling on a pair of sweats, he returned to the kitchen to see Kara flipping French toast on the stove.
She glanced over at him and smiled and, for a split second, he completely lost his heart. Her long hair was messy, falling around her face. His eyes scanned over her sexy legs and ended on her red painted toenails, which were begging for attention. God. She was just… perfect.
Walking over, he wrapped his arms around her, gently moved her hair aside, and placed a kiss on the base of her neck.
“Mmm, maybe I’m not as hungry as I thought I was,” he said against her skin as he felt himself growing harder.
“Oh no, after smelling this, now I’m the one who’s starving.” She giggled when he trailed a kiss to just behind her ear. He made a mental note about the ticklish spot and continued on to enjoy her earlobe.
His hands explored under the shirt that she’d put on as she continued to try and focus on making them breakfast for dinner.
He kept trying to distract her, but she kept chuckling and pulling away from him.
“Why don’t you find us something to drink?” she asked, dodging his hands again.
He sighed and stepped away, only because his stomach had growled loudly again. Finding a bottle of sweet white wine and some orange juice, he decided to make mimosas since Kara was in a breakfast mood.
“How perfect,” she said, taking the glass from him after setting a plate of French toast down on his kitchen table. The table had sat in his parents’ house for years and had finally been replaced by a newer table. This one had been stored in the barn.
Actually, glancing around the apartment, everything that currently filled his new home had at one point filled his parents’ home. He’d pretty much cleaned out the storage area in the barn when he’d moved in.
Taking his first bite, he sighed at how wonderful the simple food was.
“Wow,” he groaned. “Why does your French toast taste so much better than what I make?”
She chuckled. “All food you don’t make yourself tastes better.” She motioned with her fork.
He thought about it and nodded. “I guess that’s true.” He shoveled more food into his mouth.
“It’s really a good thing everything ended up okay today,” she said after a sip of mimosa.
He set his fork down and took a moment to settle his thoughts before speaking. “It could have been so much worse. When we found the wreckage…” He shook his head and remembered seeing the chunks of metal floating in the dark water. “We all thought the worst.”
Kara set her own fork down now and gave him her entire attention.
“Some of the new guys, well, they wanted to call off the search.” He shook his head and frowned. “It took us two more hours to spot the orange raft and the men in it.” He picked up his fork again and finished the rest of his meal. He had to admit, it felt wonderful having someone to talk to after a long day.
“I was so scared,” she said, pushing her almost-empty plate away and looking over at him. Her eyes searched his, and he could see the concern flash there. He reached over and took her hand in his, tangling his fingers with hers. “Your entire family was afraid.” She looked down at their joined fingers.
“Yeah,” he said, feeling his heart sink. “I know. My unit was getting ready to head out when we heard the news of the crash.”
Her eyes locked with his, then she surprised him by moving over and climbing onto his lap and kissing him. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as afraid before in my life.”
His arms tightened around her. “I know it’s only been…”—he thought about it and laughed—“a few weeks,” he admitted, “but how would you feel about moving in here with me?”
Her smile brightened and he relaxed. “I think I can handle that.” She kissed him again. “Just as long as we do a little more food shopping.”
He chuckled and kissed her again. “It’s a deal.”
That night, as he lay in bed with Kara wrapped around him again, he kept dreaming of the crash. But this time, instead of the wreckage from the helicopter, it was a small blue sailboat with a blue compass rose on its white sails. The small boat was going down fast as he hovered overhead in the rescue helicopter, helplessly watching.
Conner called out to anyone below through the speaker system from his position working the winch. He was just prepared to signal that he was going to have to head down to search the water and the vessel when a man stepped out onto the deck of the small boat and looked up at him with a smile. Then he noticed the name painted on the hull of the boat. He continued to look down at the Dawn-Treader and his grandfather as they both disappeared into the dark ocean waters below.
Conner jolted awake, his heart racing and his mind foggy as to where he was and what had just happened.
“Conner?” Kara’s hand came up to his shoulder as he sat up in bed. “Are you okay?”
After taking a few deep breaths, he laid back down and pulled her into his arms. “Yeah, just…”
“Bad dream?” she asked into his chest.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” He kissed the top of her head and started tracing little circles on her bare shoulder.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked in a sleepy voice.
He thought about the dream again and sighed. “I watched my grandfather’s boat going down.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t really make sense, but… I guess part of me wishes he’d had the Coast Guard there to save him. Growing up and hearing the story from my dad about the day we lost grandpa George and my dad lost his hearing, I’ve always wondered why no one had been there to save him.”