Page 35 of Covert Vengeance

“I can’t reach back there myself, can I?”

Okay, true. Yeah. “Sure.” It was the least she could do. And while touching him that intimately wasn’t smart, it also wouldn’t be a hardship.

He stood there unmoving, watching her expectantly.

Fine. “You want to sit down first?”

“No.”

Okay. She uncapped the tube and approached him slowly, her heart beating faster with every step. It was like walking up to a hungry tiger, a sudden tension filling the air.

Squeezing some ointment out onto her palms, she put the tube in her back pocket and raised her hands, pausing inches from his bare shoulder blades. “Ready?” Her voice sounded a little husky.

“So ready.”

His body heat radiated against her palms from inches away. When she finally touched him, lightly as she could to spare him more pain, she bit back a gasp at the tingles that shot up both arms.

She spread the cream across the skin between his shoulder blades, keeping her touch gentle. “Too hard?” she murmured, trying and failing to ignore her physical response to touching his bare skin. Smooth and warm, with a honeyed undertone that spoke to his Hispanic heritage.

“No, you’re good.”

She kept going, easing the cream into his sore skin, being careful not to miss a single spot as she worked her way down toward the small of his back. The entire time he stood unmoving, allowing her to try and ease his pain.

“There,” she finally said after a couple minutes, her voice barely above a whisper. “All done.”

He turned to face her. “Now my shoulders.”

She glanced at them, and the sculpted contours of his chest in between. “Both?”

“Both.”

She studiously avoided his gaze as she squeezed out more cream and stepped close, heart tripping all over itself at the way he watched her, this powerful, dangerous and sexy man mere inches away. Still, silent, and ready to pounce.

A low groan smothered in her throat when she cupped her hands around the powerful curves of his hard shoulders, a melting heat slipping through her lower belly and between her legs. It was suddenly hard to breathe, and even harder to pull her hands away from all that hot, smooth skin.

Strong fingers caught her chin. She jerked her gaze up to his, mouth going dry at the fire blazing in his eyes as he stared down at her.

All the need she’d been suppressing suddenly exploded to life. She reached for his face at the same time he captured hers between his hands and brought his mouth down on hers.

Heat and pleasure shot through her, every nerve ending in her body lighting up. She moaned into his mouth as she opened for him, her breasts pressed to the hard wall of his chest.

He slid one hand around to plunge into the back of her hair, taking charge, holding her still while he kissed her like he’d been dreaming about it for months. His lips were warm and firm as they sucked at hers, savoring. He nipped the bottom one, then soothed the little sting with a velvet stroke of his tongue that made her come up onto her toes, chasing it.

Their bodies were plastered together from chest to groin, the unmistakable hard length of his erection pressing into her abdomen. She moaned again, meeting the satin strokes of his tongue against hers as he locked a powerful arm around her ass and welded her to him, her hips pinned to the ridge of his erection.

Amber pulled her mouth free to drag in a breath but he came back for more. Always more, nipping and licking and sucking at her lips, stroking the sensitive inside of her mouth with sensual strokes of his tongue.

Her breasts ached, the nipples hard and needy, wetness gathering in her core. She rubbed against him, wanting more, gripped the back of his head with both hands to get as close as she could.

Again and again he kissed her. Hungry, fervent kisses. Then tender, more sensual ones that left her straining to get even closer, desperate for more. All the while he kept her body tight to his, adding the light caress of his other fingers down the side of her face.

He trailed the pads of his fingers over her cheek and jaw. Down the side of her neck to find a place that made her shiver. He zeroed in on it, dropping his head to suck at the sensitive spot, his tongue stroking for a moment, just long enough to make her gasp and arch, then back up to capture her mouth.

Amber was drowning and she didn’t care.

His free hand wandered over her collarbone. The outer curve of one tingling breast. Teasing her with the promise of what would happen next. And when she thought of what it would feel like to have his hands and talented mouth on her breasts and then between her thighs, she shuddered.

Immersed in pleasure and need, she skimmed her hands down the front of his body to the button at the top of his jeans, dying to feel that hard length in her hand. Insideher.

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