Page 35 of Operation Heartbeat

With a grunt, Con swiped the big pad of his thumb over the screen and mashed an earbud into his ear, cutting off the team from her hearing.

She lay there in shock. Her? Smokin’? She was practically prudish in her black swimsuit that came up high on the neck and had wide straps, not strings. By definition, Sophie had never been the pretty girl.

Only blonde bimbos ever attracted her ex, and he’d run through several Barbie doll grad students before he finally took one to bed. Those young women with perfect bodies were nothing like Sophie.

Con seemed to take control of the call from that point forward, and it was all talk of the next step of the mission. Sophie stole another look at that phone. She really wanted to check it out.

As soon as he ended the call, he removed the earbud and pushed off the chair. He started to pocket the phone.

“Hey, can I see that?” She jumped up.

He cut his gaze over her body. The sun had dried what the towel didn’t, and her suit was only damp. Even the ends of her hair were beginning to dry where they trailed over her shoulders.

“See what?”

“Your phone. Is it a SAT phone?” She reached out to take it, but he jerked his hand back in a game of keep-away.

“You can’t see it. It’s classified.”

Her brows puckered. “I’m given clearances to dig through sensitive information about a terrorist, and listen in on your conversation with Chickie, but I can’t look at a phone?”

He twitched his jaw left, then right in a definite shake of his head.

“I’m not going to break it, and thosesecretphotos you keep in a locked file are safe from me. I just want to have a look at how it works.” She made another grab for the phone.

He switched the device to the other hand and grabbed her shoulder, holding her at arm’s length.

About the time she realized how ridiculous this entire exchange was, she felt the heat of his warm skin blazing through her flesh. Every callus on his fingers seemed tobrandher.

His dark eyes captured hers so she couldn’t look away. “Professor.”

The way he said that sounded like a caress.

“Con.” Why didhervoice sound like she’d swum a mile rather than a few measly laps?

“Goddammit, woman.” He hooked his arm around her waist and yanked her onto tiptoe.

She tilted her face up, heart hammering beneath her swimsuit so hard she was certain he must see it.

With a will of their own, her arms lifted. Toward the end of her marriage, hugging Benjamin felt as if her arms were bound in heavy chains. With Con, they were as light as feathers.

“Sophie,” he said much, much softer.

He leaned in and claimed her mouth.

Her initial gasp of surprise was swallowed by the rumble of his groan. He yanked her flush against him and kept on tugging until there wasn’t a sliver of space between them.

How had she ended up in his arms? Oh yeah…the phone. Then she forgot all about the phone in favor of Con’s lips.

She closed her eyes to relish their perfect hardness even as she applied more pressure with her own. When he responded by pressing his fingertips into her spine, she gave in to the pull he had on her.

He angled his head.

She parted her lips. The sweep of his tongue across hers drew a moan from both of them. Cupping his jaw with both hands, she threw herself into kissing the SEAL as though she had nothing to lose.

Well, there was her pride to be crushed, but that wasn’t even a factor considering he’d kissed her first.

Deepening the caress, he plunged his free hand into her damp hair and shifted her where he wanted her. Each delve of his tongue alternating with slow, shallow flicks made her pussy squeeze with desire and her nipplesthrobto be touched.

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