Page 72 of The Soldier's Homecoming

Daniel slowly placed a hand around her waist, the other still resting on her hair, fingers connected to each strand. He kissed her slowly, gently.

Her body was stiff, but only for a heartbeat. She molded against him, her body soft and supple.

“Danny,” she murmured as he pulled back, kissing her one last time before pulling himself away. He walked backwards, holding each of her hands clasped in his.

“I love you, Penny.” Daniel pulled her forward, linked her hands behind his back. “I love your nose,” he said, before kissing the tip of it. “Your eyes.” He ran a finger across her eyebrow then down the side of her face. “Your mouth.”

She offered her mouth up in response, kissing him deeply, arms tracing their way from his back up to his neck, cupped behind his head.

Daniel took it as an invitation, trailed his own hands down her shoulders and to her back, feeling for the zipper on her dress and pulling it slowly down.

“I’ve missed this. Missed you,” he murmured.

She sighed and found his mouth, lips searching out his. Not wanting to talk, wanting only to touch.

But this wasn’t just physical. Daniel wanted to talk. To tell her why he loved her, what he’d missed. To make sure she knew there was no one else who could ever make him feel like she did.

When he slid the zipper the entire way down, her dress fell, pooled on the ground at her feet.

Daniel stole his mouth from hers and kissed a slow trail down her body, starting at her neck and nibbling down her chest, hands lingering over her lace bra, lips searching out the skin on her belly then down her legs, until he was on his knees at her feet.

“Daniel,” she protested, voice shaky, hands raised to cover her body.

“Don’t even think about asking me to turn the lights out,” he said, lifting first one of her high-heel-clad feet then the other so she could step out of the dress.

He straightened his body again and this time placed a hand on each of her shoulders, turning her until she stood with the bed behind her.

“When I tell you how beautiful you look, you can believe me,” he told her, holding her gently, supporting her weight, as he tipped her back onto the bed.

Penny’s eyes widened as he lifted his arms to pull his shirt off, before folding his own body down onto the bed, over hers.

Penny had never,ever felt so vulnerable.

She was trying so hard to stay calm, but her heart was racing and she was starting to panic. She couldn’t shut her mind off.

“I want tonight to be perfect,” he whispered.

Daniel lowered himself, resting on one elbow as he touched her face with one hand and started to kiss her again.

But he must have felt her stiffen, because his lips withdrew. The warmth of his face no longer against her own.

“Penny?”

It was as if her heart was cracking open, piece by tiny piece.

She couldn’t go through with this.

Suddenly having him above her made her feel like she couldn’t breathe, like she was being suffocated.

“Daniel, I need to get up,” she said.

His brow creased, confused, but he didn’t move.

“Now!” she said, louder this time.

He rolled sideways and she leaped off the bed, trying to cover her breasts. Feeling vulnerable, scared.

“I can’t do this,” she sobbed as tears clouded her vision. “I can’t.” Penny stumbled, looking for her dress, hating that she was so bare, in her underwear and heels.

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