Page 145 of Protective Heroes

Oh damn. Too late.

It started in her toes and worked up her legs until even her fingers trembled.

Just because she’d left the briefcase didn’t mean he’d gone digging in it the minute she’d walked out the door. Never assume, right?

“Thought maybe you were going to leave before coming in and getting warm by the fire.”

Willa whirled, the snow crunching underfoot, and came nose-to-chest with a wall of well-defined, USA grade-A Marine muscle wrapped in a tight navy-blue T-shirt. The man had no sense of just how cold it was. He’d been that way for as long as she’d known him.

She could bounce a quarter off those pecs they were so hard. A strong scent of soap mixed with a hint of whiskey filled her nostrils.

Nathan. All one-hundred percent melt-your-panties, fuck-me-right-here-I-don’t-care male. Suddenly contracts, betrayal and the idea she needed to be three thousand miles from where she stood flitted away on the snow.

“Plan on coming with me tonight, or did you want to sit out in the cold?”

Before she could part her lips to answer him he stepped in, his body warmth in her personal space. He leaned in slowly, eyes locked on hers, and reached around her to close her car door.

What a damn tease. She had to stifle the whimper he nearly dragged from her.

Her gaze shot up and locked on his.

It seemed Nathan read her mind because a wicked glint flashed across his deep, dark eyes.

Arrogant bastard.

“Inside, I mean,” he rumbled, voice rough and low as his eyes lit with mischief.

Willa lightly rested her hand on his bare forearm, the heat of his flesh blissful against her hand. “There for a minute I thought you were going to kiss me, Nathan. What’s the matter? Scared?”

She had no idea where the bravado to say what was on her mind came from, but once the first syllables left her lips there was no stopping them.

And just like that something in him snapped. His eyes flashed with a hunger she’d never seen in him before as he pinned her smaller body against her car.

Cold from the metal at her back seeped through her thin sweater in contrast to the wall of fire at her front. From chest to hip he pinned her body; his mouth poised a whisper away from her all-too-ready lips. She couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or how he felt against her that made her nipples rock candy hard.

“Trust me, Willa, you’re playing with a fire you cannot control. Be very careful how you handle it. I’d hate for you to get burned, baby.”

Baby?

Oh, hell yeah, she wanted to get burned.

Cold weather forgotten, his growled words sent another kind of shiver through all five-feet-four inches of her body.

He could scorch, burn, set her ablaze, and she’d take it all if it meant he was finally ready to take her.

In a low voice, she taunted back. “Big words for a man afraid to touch, don’t you think, Nathan?”

Nathan growled and her whole body did the full shiver thing again complete with an aftershock of tingles.

This was how it always ended up—with them circling each other like animals in heat.

It wasn’t far off.

She braced herself for impact. Had she finally hit a nerve that would spur him into action? She’s risk getting a cold if he wanted to strip her and ravish her naked body in the snow. She could feel it in the air, the need that shimmered between them. Like he wanted to tear into her and would fight anything or anyone that would stop him.

Good.

Because she was ready for some freaky snow sex.

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