Classified (The Elite Book 3) Read online

  “Time to flip.” Solo rolled onto his back on the beach towel beside mine, and as all that tanned, naked skin came into view, I had to bite down on my lip and remember we were on a public beach. I couldn’t just reach over and grab what I wanted, but I sure as hell could look.

  “You want to help me out with this?” Solo dangled a bottle of tanning oil from his fingers. Uncapping the bottle, I poured a liberal amount into my palm and then leaned over and began to rub it over his built chest. As my fingers molded to the muscles, Solo let out a soft groan that made my dick twitch.

  “You keep up with those noises and I can’t guarantee you’re gonna get much of a tan.”

  “Oh yeah?” Solo turned his head in my direction, and even with his Aviators on, I knew those dark eyes were traveling over my naked chest, because the heat they left in their wake was hotter than the rays beating down on my face.

  “Yeah. But I have a feeling I’ll end up with a hell of a burn on my backside.”

  Solo licked his lower lip, and I leaned down and followed the path with my tongue. It was hard to believe this was, in actuality, our first date. Our first public date, anyway. The one where we didn’t have to worry about someone seeing us that shouldn’t, and the one where we didn’t have to worry about what others thought. This was the first time I could actually let my guard down and be who I was behind closed doors. However, as my cock went from interested to ready to go, I realized there were certain things that should be done without onlookers.

  “Seriously,” I said as I raised my head and studied the sinfully attractive face looking up at me. “Stop teasing me. These shorts only hide so much.”

  Solo grinned and then placed his hands behind his head, stretching that spectacular body out for me to see, and suddenly I wasn’t sure that was the smarter option.

  “Okay, I’ll behave—”

  I scoffed, not believing that for a second.

  “For now.”

  My lips twitched as I went back to oiling him up.

  “But don’t think for a second that this date is going to end in any way other than your hands on me, just like they are right now.”

  A feral sound I barely recognized rumbled out of me, that idea one I wasn’t about to let him forget…later. But there was no way I was going to continue that line of conversation right now, not with families and kids playing just a little ways up the beach.

  “Change the subject, Solo. Or we’re about to get arrested for indecent exposure.”

  “Really?” He reached up and slid his glasses down so he could look at me over the top of them. “It might just be worth it to see you in a pair of handcuffs.”

  Jesus. “That’s hardly changing the subject.”

  “I know, but come on, I’m only human. And with you stroking your slippery hands all over me and looking like you want to attack, did you really expect me to start talking to you about the weather?”

  “Maybe not the weather.”

  Solo chuckled and lay back down. “Fine. How many kids do you want?”

  I choked on my water and had to sit up as a coughing frenzy took over. “What?”

  “Look at all those cute little brats down there. You could have a whole soccer team.”

  Staring at him in shock as he lay there grinning, I wiped my mouth and said, “Kids? Soccer?”

  “Or baseball. Football. I mean, that’s a brutal sport, but look at the way they’re jumping around trying to kill each other.”

  I looked to where a gaggle of dark-haired kids of varying ages under maybe ten splashed and played in the ocean, and my stomach flipped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Panther?” Solo waited until I looked his way, and then he laughed. “You should see your face right now.”

  “Why are you laughing?”

  “Because if you think I want a soccer team full of little beasts then you’ve lost your mind. I’m totally fucking with you.”

  Relief passed through me, and I scrubbed a hand over my face. “What the hell?”

  “You wanted something to take your mind off stripping me naked. You’re welcome.”

  I glanced down at where my erection was well and truly deflated. “Yep. Talking about little beasts definitely did the trick.”

  Solo chuckled and sat up on his elbows. “Well, that tells me where you stand on that subject. See? This is the getting-to-know-you shit we’re supposed to be doing.”

  “Oh, is there a checklist?”

  “How the fuck should I know? This is the first relationship I’ve ever been in.”

  I lifted my sunglasses and squinted at him, making sure I had the right guy. Relationship? Kids? “Who are you and what have you done with the rebellious asshole I met a few weeks ago?”

  “Guess I’m your asshole now.”

  I laughed. “Which makes me either insane or a lucky bastard. I can’t decide which.”

  “Well, if you ask anyone at NAFTA, you should get your brain checked.”

  “It’s a good thing I don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone there thinks.”

  Solo tore off his glasses to look at me. “Okay, now who are you and what have you done with the by-the-books hotshot I met a few weeks ago?”

  I turned onto my side, resting my head on my propped-up arm. “Maybe we both know better than to let a good thing pass us by when it lands in our laps.”

  “Pretty sure I had to work to land in yours. You’re not an easy one to catch, you know that?”

  I leaned in toward him. “Good thing you like a challenge.” I reached for his jaw and pulled him in close so that I could get a taste of him. I was finally able to do this out in the open where anyone could see, and I planned to take full advanta—

  Something wet and sandy smacked us both in the head, and I jerked away to see the group of kids—little beasts, as Solo referred to them—laughing as the rubber ball they’d launched our way rolled off behind us.

  Solo sat up and glared as he wiped the sand from his head. “I wonder if those little bastards have ever played dodgeball with a pro,” he said, but before I could answer, he was off. As he stared them down and aimed for one in the middle, I hoped the kids knew how to run like hell.

  10 Solo

  TEN MINUTES LATER, I wiped my sandy hands off on my shorts and stood in front of Panther, blocking the sun from his sexy body. He’d been watching as I knocked out every one of those punks without breaking a sweat, and he had a crooked grin on his face.

  “Have fun with the soccer team?”

  “I wanted to aim for their heads, but their dad looks like he could bench-press my ass.” I held my hand out to Panther. “Care to help me get all this sand off? I’ll let you rub me down…”

  Panther was off his towel in two seconds, grabbing my hand and taking off, running so fast that he practically jerked me down the beach until my legs caught up.

  “Oh fuck me,” I yelled as my feet hit the water. “Why’s it so damn cold?”

  Panther looked over his shoulder and smirked as he pulled me along behind him, heading deeper into the water. “Is it supposed to be hot?”

  “It’s the middle of fucking summer, so it’s not supposed to be coming off a goddamn snowy mountain.”

  “Don’t worry. In a minute you’ll be numb enough not to feel it.”

  “I think this is far enough,” I said once the water reached the tops of our thighs. “I don’t need my dick freezing off.”

  Panther turned around and walked back toward me, keeping our hands linked. “Oh yeah? So you’d like me to rub you off right here?” As a wave crashed into the back of him, his grip on my hand tightened, and then he pulled me down into the water with him.

  Frozen needles pricked my entire body as the ocean engulfed me, and I immediately pushed up to the surface, sputtering and ready to murder my boyfriend.

  “You think you’re really fucking funny, don’t you?”

  Panther braced himself as another set of waves rolled in behind him, and when the water sprayed up aroun
d him, I swear on all that was holy that he looked like some kind of sea god.

  “You seemed to need a little bit of a cooldown, so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone.”

  I ran my hands back over my hair, and when Panther’s eyes roamed over my torso, I grinned. “Sure you aren’t the one who needs a bit of a cooldown? Eyes above the waist, Lieutenant Hughes.”

  Panther turned to wade out farther into the water, and now that my body had, in fact, become numb to the frigid temperatures, I followed. It was clear he’d grown up spending his summers on the beach with the perfectly executed dives under the cresting waves. As I hurried to catch up with him, I marveled at how at home he seemed here.

  When I finally made it out past the breakers to where the water lapped against our chests, I swam over to him and reached for the waistband of his shorts. Panther automatically moved in closer to me, and as our bodies bumped up against one another, I let out a low hum of pleasure.

  “You know,” I said as I tipped my face up into the warm rays, “I think I could get used to this.”

  “This?” Panther wrapped his arms around my waist, and I wound mine around his neck.

  “Yeah. The sun, the surf, you… Seems like a pretty good way to spend my weekends, if you ask me.”

  “I couldn’t agree more. I love this place. Always have.” Panther placed his lips to my jaw and kissed his way up to my ear. “But now, I seem to love it even more.”

  I smiled and opened my eyes, and I noticed Panther looking at me the same way he had the night of the Navy Ball—with that deep intensity I felt all the way to my bones.

  “Jesus, Panther. I swear, you get this look in your eyes and it makes it hard to breathe.”

  Panther traced his fingers down the side of my neck, then around to the back of it, and brushed his lips over the top of mine. “And what look is that?”

  “Like, I don’t know—”

  “Yes, you do.” Panther let me go and floated to his back, bobbing up and down over the cool water, and as he relaxed into the steady rhythm, my heart began to thump.

  He was right. I knew exactly how he looked at me. Like he loved me. But since neither of us seemed ready to say it just yet, I’d leave it as is, because as far as I was concerned, life seemed pretty damn perfect to me.

  11 Panther

  I WEAVED EASILY between lanes, giving Solo just enough of a lead to make him think he had me. The fading light from the setting sun winked off the back of his bike, beckoning me to come closer, but I hung back because the view of his shirt riding up his muscular back was too enticing to miss. After spending the entire day at the beach, his skin was now a dark golden brown with the faintest hint of red, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the barracks so I could run my tongue along the warm lines of his body.

  Solo veered off suddenly, catching me off guard as he headed down a side street that definitely didn’t lead back to the base. Curious, I followed. The road was narrow, not a main thoroughfare, and it made me wonder if Solo actually knew where he was going.

  As the road began to wind up the side of a mountain, we flew by several drives that disappeared behind gated fences and luscious landscapes, and I knew whatever view they had would be worth the twists and turns to get up there. The very reason, I was sure, Solo had picked this particular road in the first place.

  Nothing like the thrill of the chase, especially up a death-defying road that could barely squeeze two cars by, if that. As we rounded the last hairpin turn and climbed the final few miles, I saw Solo pull off to the side and cut his engine right beside a For Sale sign.

  I slowed to a crawl and maneuvered my bike in beside his, and as I came to a stop, Solo drew his helmet off. Fuck me, he was sexy. Sitting there straddled over his motorcycle with wild eyes, I could tell he’d enjoyed the trip up here almost as much as I had.

  I tugged my own helmet off and placed it between my spread thighs, looking past Solo’s shoulder to the slightly overgrown foliage behind him. This place was a little less manicured than the rest, probably due to being on the market for some time. Solo flicked his kickstand down and climbed off his bike, and I did the same.

  “What is this place?” I said as I stopped beside Solo.

  “Have no idea. I stumbled across it one night when I first got here.”

  “Just stumbled over it, huh?”

  Solo glanced over at me, a wide smile on his face, and shrugged. “Yeah. I took a joyride one night after this guy I had a thing for had a fight with me and got me all hot and bothered. He was still working out that he thought I was the sexiest thing on the planet…and since I wasn’t about to go and fuck just anyone—”

  “Something I’m sure he’s thankful for.”

  “Mhmm. I found this place instead.” Solo winked at me and then held out his hand. “Wanna take a look?”

  “Uh, as in go inside? We might need to call the realtor for that, and I’m pretty sure”—I looked over my shoulder to the sign—“Patty Hinkle is done for the day.”

  Solo chuckled and tugged on my hand. “Not inside. I’m talking about the outside.”

  I looked at the gate in front of us and was pretty sure that scaling it constituted as trespassing, but when Solo waggled his eyebrows and said, “Come ooon, we’re not going to do anything to the place, just look at the view,” I relented.

  “If my ass gets in trouble for this—”

  “I promise I’ll kiss it better after the spanking.”

  “I was actually going to say don’t think I won’t tell them it was your idea.”

  Solo scoffed as we reached the gate. “As if they’d ever believe it was yours.” Then, quick as a cat scaling a tree, he was up and over it before I could blink. Clearly he’d done this before. “Come on. It’s your turn.”

  “Why do I feel like this is the beginning of some movie where the cool kid coaxes the strait-laced one into doing something he really shouldn’t…”

  Solo grinned like a fiend and reached for the edge of his shirt. “I mean, if you want to miss out on getting your hands on this”—he smoothed his hand up over his rigid abdomen, and my mouth practically watered—“you can stay out there like a good little boy.”

  I narrowed my eyes on his taunting ass. “Little, huh?”

  “No problem with being good, though, I see?”

  I reached for the bars and took a good grip before looking to the top of the fence, measuring the distance. “No problem at all,” I said, and then looked back to Solo, making sure to give him my most arrogant smile. “We both know I’m good at anything I…do.”

  Solo let out a loud laugh and then turned to jog off into the dark. “Prove it!”

  12 Solo

  THE SOUND OF Panther scaling the fence had me smiling as I headed down the side of the empty house. I hadn’t been lying about the first time I’d come to visit this place, and as I crept through the shadows like a thief in the night, I felt the lingering adrenaline from the ride up here resurface.

  A gentle breeze whipped up through the hills, cooling my skin on this warm summer night. As I made my way to the back of the home, the property opened up wide in front of me. There was a deck directly off the back of the house with some outdoor furniture and a hot tub nestled in the corner, and the grassy yard extended to the fence that bordered the property and protected anyone from taking a tumble off the edge.

  The view from up here was un-fucking-real. I made my way across the lawn to look out at the smattering lights from the houses below and took in a deep breath.

  Ahh, the salty air was something I could definitely get used to. In fact, this entire scenario was pretty damn awesome. When Panther came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, I made sure there was a spot in my fantasy for him.

  “This place is incredible.” Panther’s voice was low by my ear and sent a shiver up my spine as I moved back into him. Damn, he felt good. Rock-hard muscles from head to toe, and those strong arms holding me in place gave a sense of belonging that I’d
never felt before.

  “You feel incredible, so I guess it was meant to be.”

  “Mmm, I guess so,” Panther said as he rested his chin on my shoulder. “What exactly am I looking at? Other than a spectacular view of the night sky.”

  I turned my eyes upward to the stars shining above us to see he was right. Up here, the stars looked unreal. Clear, bright, and so close you felt like you could practically touch them.

  “Well, down there is Huntington Beach,” I said, pointing directly in front of us. “And over there to the left of it is Black Rock Cliffs.”

  A delicious growl left Panther’s lips as they moved to my temple. He kissed me there and said, “Our Black Rock Cliffs?” I knew he was remembering that first explosive moment we’d shared down there between the jagged pillars of stone.

  I reached for his hand and slowly urged it down to where my cock was making itself noticed. As he smoothed his palm over the zipper and curled his fingers into the denim, I thrust my hips forward and nodded.

  “Yeah, that’s the one.” My voice sounded strained as Panther’s lips made their way up the rim of my ear and his hand began to move. “During the day you can see— Fuck.”

  A low chuckle rumbled in my ear as my head fell back on Panther’s shoulder.

  “If that’s what you can see down there during the day, I think someone needs to call the cops.”

  I let out a low groan then turned my head to see Panther’s eyes fully dilated as they roved over my face. He was aroused, and if his expression wasn’t indication enough, the hard cock rubbing against the crease of my ass was.