Saving Sam (The Wounded Warriors Book 1) Read Online Free

knowing I could have you.”
    Amy gulped.
That memory has never faded.
Suddenly lost in herself, she asked the question she'd never posed before. “Why did you?”
    He touched her mouth with hesitant fingers. She kissed them, rewarding the touch. “I wanted to. I didn't stop and count the cost to you. I should have. I should have done so many things differently,” he said with remorse. “You deserved better.”
    His hands set her body on fire, electrifying wherever they made contact with her. As they slid along her torso, her desire mounted and the growing bulge against her thigh told her she wasn't the only one affected.
He wants me. But do I dare let him get so close?
    “And how is this different? How is this better?” she demanded to know.
    His caressing fingers trailed over her neck. “Maybe it isn't. I don't know. I'm not sure I know anything anymore.”
    The dark shadow cast across his face threatened to break her heart. The weight of his sadness hurt Amy almost beyond what she could bear, but fear set her heart pounding in equal measure.
    He looked at her with longing. “What do you think?”
    “What do I think?” she asked in surprise.
    “Yeah,” he replied with genuine interest. “I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone ever again. So, I'm asking this time and not just taking.”
    Amy took a deep breath and spoke the truth from the depths of her soul, as she stared deep into Sam's beautiful, haunted eyes. “Don't forget, Sam, I was willing then too. And you asking makes a big difference.”
    His hand closed on her shoulder. “Are you, baby? Are you really willing? If I took you through that little door right now and into your bedroom, would you stop me, or would you welcome me?”
    Amy bit her lip as his question smoldered between them.
    “You've already said yes and no in the last two minutes,” he pointed out in his husky, passion-slurred voice. He pulled her closer to him and laid soft kisses along her neck below her ear, sending thrilling shivers through her. “What do you want, pretty Amy?”
    She glanced at the peeling paint on her bedroom door. The answer to his question required no contemplation. “I wouldn't stop you.”
    She felt him smile against her jaw as he worked his way to her earlobe. He suckled lightly. A whimper escaped her.
His desire is more potent than any wine… and the hangover is much more painful.
“Would it be you taking advantage of me again, or are your intentions different this time?” Her voice sounded thin and wispy.
    Sam pulled away to look her in the eyes. “I have no further intentions than to lose myself in you tonight,” he said, his voice flat.
    “Why?” Amy demanded, heart clenching at his brutal honesty.
    “I'm too messed up to give you what you need. I'm only capable of taking.” The bleakness had spread from his eyes to his voice. It sounded like the echo over a vast chasm.
    Desperate, her body and heart burning with conflicting desires, Amy tossed out another painful truth. “I don't care. I won't ask for anything. I can only give, at least where you're concerned.”
I would tear my heart to pieces for another moment in your arms.
    They stared at each other in silence, each wanting to succumb to the carnal desires that inflamed inside them, but both knowing the guilt that would consume them in the morning if they did. This was the game they played; her wanting him while he was always on the prowl, unable to be the man she deserved, yet unwilling to let her go completely.
    “Doesn't that work?” she asked quietly, glancing at her bedroom door with as she ached with longing.
    The empty, soulless eyes flared briefly with sorrow. “No, and it shouldn't. Believe in yourself, Amy. Believe enough to say no… or yes, because it's what you want and not because you want to give me what I want.”
    Without flinching, without retreating from the pain his agony chewed into her heart, she stared deeply into him and said, “You can't give me