Page 60 of Too Lethal to Love

“Fact number four. The others were ordinary guys who weren’t trained to defend themselves in a fight. You’re a super soldier.”

“All good arguments, Dr. Parker. I think there’s only one conclusion we can draw based on the information at hand.”

She pulled in a deep breath and silenced doubt and the truth she couldn’t admit. “I think we can say with relative confidence the data suggests that you’re safe from my curse. Let’s do this before I analyze it with a clear mind and change my conclusion.”

“Are you saying I drive you to distraction?” He snuck his hand under her T-shirt.

“You know you do. I think…” She sucked in a breath as his fingers grazed the top of her panties. “I’m clearly not thinking straight, but I believe you’re safe for now. Fuck me before something changes.”

For now?

Did that mean before her arguments fell apart? There were only two that could unravel. That he was doing this because she was a job, which was most certainly not the case, but he wasn’t about to tell her that, and that they didn’t love each other. Did she plan on falling in love with him? That idea didn’t work with his serve first, love later life strategy, but since they’d met, that plan had been sliding like an avalanche, stone by stone.

Her hungry gaze zeroed in on his waist. “Take your jeans off so I can see what makes you so super.”

Stepping back, he pulled off his T-shirt and tossed it behind him. Her salacious grin, devoid of the soul-deep trepidation he’d seen earlier, curled his lips up so high they hurt. “I’ve never shown my leg to any woman.”

She slowly shook her head. “I don’t believe for a minute that you’ve been celibate for over a year.”

“I didn’t say that. Since I’ve gotten this…” He brushed his hand down his thigh. She wasn’t the first who wanted to see his steel, but she was the first he wanted to share his scars and his enhancement with. Until he’d met Beth, he’d never wanted to impart what he’d tragically lost and miraculously gained. Didn’t want to answer painful questions, and he’d never wanted to scare anyone. He thought his deadly super leg was cool as all hell but feared everyone might not have the same opinion. “Well, let’s just say I’ve gotten the job done in the dark with my pants down but not off.”

The gold flecks in her eyes blazed like the fire burning deep in his core.

“The lights are still on, cowboy. Are you okay with performing in these conditions?”

He flicked open the snap on his jeans. His cock cheered at the imminent action. His mind balked at the lies he told to finally commence it. “It’s my mission to make sure any service I provide you is satisfactory.” He edged the zipper down tooth by tooth. “And I mean in every, every way.”

She licked her lips. “I appreciate a man who can get a job done thoroughly.”

“You have no idea how thoroughly.” He hooked his fingers into the waistband of his pants and smirked. The muscles in his abs coiled in anticipation. “But I’m about to show you.”

“Please.”

“Nervous, sugarplum?”

“No.”

Her husky denial skated across his skin and bit into his eager cock. “Impatient? Excited, perhaps?”

With a hard yank on her hair, she dragged her palms down her breasts, her belly to her thighs, her thumbs pressing inward to the sweet bundle of nerves he couldn’t wait to play with again.

“For the love of God, Kane, just give me all of you.”

Slowly, he pushed his jeans past his hips, ready to give her everything. “I’m all yours, sugarplum. Come and get me.”

“Dear Lord.” Air, words, and any and all sounds paused in Beth’s lungs. Kane, in all his super glory, was that beautiful. That breathtaking.

The sleek, black prostheses with an inlaid hexagonal pattern melded to his hip in an oddly foreign yet perfectly natural union of science and nature. The curves, the lean muscle size, even the perfect human shape right down to his toes that contracted into the carpet were an anatomical carbon copy of his flesh-and-bone leg.

Holding her breath, as if he might vanish if she touched him, she reached out and touched the spot where man met machine.

He hissed her name.

She smiled but didn’t look up, too mesmerized by the feel of the corded skin under her fingertips. A hexagonal pattern-shaped tattoo camouflaged the scarring. The beautiful artwork seemed to bleed from the unyielding steel and into his sensitive flesh.

Slowly, she traced the ink. With each hard ridge under her fingers, her heart broke from what he’d been through. As he pursed his full lips as if granting her time to explore the gift of his body took a monumental effort, she marveled at what Project VIPER had created. Kane wasn’t just a super soldier. He wasn’t just a scientific and technological miracle. He’d been transformed into a glorious creature with unnatural, deadly secrets only a select few knew about.

And he’d trusted her, chosen her, to share the part he kept under wraps.

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