Page 17 of Hazard

Her chin lifted, not able to let his insult pass. One deep breath later, she realized her mistake. The warm, heady male scent of him curled through her senses, her body still on fire, still wanting. She could feel the heat of him, and her body responded, the damn traitor. She gave as good as she got. “Screw you, and your gun too.”

He smiled—a sexy, wry bad-boy grin that added to the chaos smoldering within her. “Right back to screwing. Are you trying to be a troublemaker or does that come naturally?” he said, his tone mocking.

“It comes naturally. I have the badge to prove it.” He didn’t reply, just glared and remained quiet, emanating a sexual kind of tension that seemed to increase with each passing second between them, as if it were a living, breathing entity influencing them both without reason. She refused to back down, knowing that she was crowding his personal space.

They stood glaring at each other like combatants, and the next thing she knew, she was meeting him across that hairsbreadth of a divide. In a lightning-quick move, he lunged at her, buried his fingers in her hair, pressing against her with his hard, undeniably aroused body. With a low growl encompassing both frustration and urgent need, he slanted his mouth across hers and sank his tongue deep, kissing her as recklessly as he had before. His mouth promised her so many things, and she wanted to know and experience everything he had to give.

The feverish intensity between them was sizzling hot, the strength and immediacy of their attraction spilling over each of their boundaries in a messy, intense way that was almost uncontrollable. It made her feel like they were forging a bond, neither of them able to fight this…thing. A frisson of excitement shot through her, making her feel alive and heady with anticipation, something only this man had the ability to trigger within her.

With a growl he pulled away from her, moving back a few steps, an incredulous and frustrated look on his face.

“What are you doing?” they asked in unison. He closed his eyes, taking great panting breaths.

“We’ve got to go before—” His cell rang, and his blue eyes blazed with simmering anger. He pulled out his cell phone, giving her a see-we’re-in-deep-doo-doo look.

He blew out all the breath in his lungs, then answered the phone. “Yes, boss. We were delayed by…ah…”

“Female stuff,” she whispered. No man was going to inquire or delve deeper when those words were uttered.

“Female stuff,” he repeated, rolling his eyes. “You bet, Ice. We’re on our way.”

She opened her mouth, but he held up his hand, walked to the door, and opened it, waiting. That very fine body of his was wired with determination and an underlying impatience that didn’t bode well for her.

When she didn’t immediately respond, he said through gritted teeth, “Move your shapely ass before my boss comes up here and busts me down a full rank for fuck—screw—” He took a hard breath. “For not being punctual.” His direct, blunt approach left no room for argument.

“Well, we wouldn’t want him to think we were fuck-screw—” She gave him a tight smile that made all those flashing lights in his eyes go off again. “—dragging our feet, would we?”

He frowned at her, and the muscle that ticked in his cheek was a good indication that his tolerance level was meeting its limit. She wondered if he would throw her over his shoulder like he had done in the conference room. That would be a grand entrance now, wouldn’t it?

She slipped out the door and started down the hall. He moved up behind her, and she turned to see him raise his arm, but then drop it abruptly. He had been about to touch her back to usher her along but thought better of it.

She had no clue how she was going to face Hazard across the table. The fatigue had a really bad hold on her now, and she suddenly wished she had taken his advice to go to bed after they ate. Then she bristled, not wanting to admit how much she’d overworked herself for so long. She didn’t want to think that she was stupid enough to put everything in jeopardy by being stubborn…or, she thought wryly, kissing the stuffing out of and almost having sex with the man who had been loaned to her for protection. The tightness in her temples that had lingered got worse, and she worried that she was heading for a blinding headache.

The pain in her head giving way to a whole different pain, she locked her jaw, determined to keep her emotions under control. Finally, dredging up some self-directed disgust for how she was behaving, she glanced at him again, at the rigid set to his jaw. Pow, right in the gut. Damn, had she opened some Pandora’s Box that couldn’t be closed? His effect on her was staggering.

Oh, God. She wanted to wail. What a mess she’d gotten tangled in, but she couldn’t seem to find any remorse. As emotionally tangled up as she was about Hazard, she had kissed him without provocation, losing her common sense, and her damn mind.

She got in the elevator, and he didn’t look at her. As it silently made its way to the first floor, a strange hollowness settled in her chest. They would have to resolve to keep everything…businesslike.

With that thought, that feeling returned, an emptiness she couldn’t define. As if she was making another, more terrible mistake, losing something very rare and special. Something that was really not hers to lose.

6

He was blaming everything on his dick. That other head had taken over, and he’d been…blameless. Yeah, that was it. He could hear it now. Well, Ice, it was my dick. He took over and that’s why we were late.

Ice would nod sagely and understand completely. He might have been slightly joking, but the truth of the matter was that he had a very good boss in Master Chief Snow. He was an exacting leader but allowed his men to find creative solutions to problems. SEALs were part of a team, that was true, and everything about his eight-man team fulfilled him in every way. It was what drew him to the career choice. Each of them worked in harmony but was also expected to be autonomous. He enjoyed the training aspect of his job as well, learning something new each time he performed a drill or trained. Shooting was a precision effort, and he enjoyed that as well, not worrying about the lives he took. They were enemies of the United States, and his job was to eliminate that threat.

Excuses weren’t going to cut it. Ice didn’t let his dick do the talking unless it was with Rose…and he wasn’t going in that direction because all that stuff that happened in Paris wasn’t his business.

Ice was more of a direct-action guy than even Hazard. He smiled softly to himself, realizing that, in more ways than one, he hadn’t been himself upstairs after nearly making the biggest mistake he swore he wouldn’t make—getting romantically involved while on deployment.

But that had effectively gone out the window. He was now involved with Leigh, wanted to be involved with her, and as a man who had been a problem solver all his life, it was as difficult a problem as Leigh was. He wasn’t the type of guy who half-baked his way through anything. Like with the Navy, he was all in.

But what if the problem solver was the problem?

Dammit.

That twisted up his head, but his anatomy, with a mind of its own, was quite clear. He had to tell his dick sternly, he was working the problem. His dick only smirked knowingly. Yeah, eventually they all give in to that other, more powerful head, and he would be working something hard…later.

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