Page 55 of Guarded from Treachery

I grab Matt’s shoulders, pulling myself closer to him.

Tasting of mint and a hint of something that’s uniquely him, he teases my mouth open and dips inside. Our tongues perform a sensual dance together, a prelude to things I’ve thought about many times as I lay in bed at night.

My skin is on fire, sparks flaring wherever he touches me. My cheek. My neck. The line of my jaw. As his hand moves to my back, heat sears through my shirt.

I ache to feel his fingers on my bare skin. Not just my face. But everywhere.

Matt draws me to him, his big hand splayed across the small of my back.

My breasts rub against his chest, drawing my already sensitive nipples into taut peaks.

Need pulses inside me.

I’ve never wanted a man this much.

Never felt on the cusp of falling in love with just one kiss.

Kissing Matt is everything.

By the time we break apart, my lungs are bursting. But it’s the best kind of breathlessness. It’s hope and joy and desire and an indescribable emotion that makes me feel close to tears.

I’ve never felt like this before.

“Isla.” Matt holds my gaze as he brushes his thumb across my lips. “Was that as good for you as it was?—”

“Yes,” I blurt out. “Yes. It was incredible.”

A few silent seconds go by before he responds; long enough for my insecurities to come rushing in. Long enough for me to worry he’s changed his mind. That he’s decided I’m a terrible kisser. Or the possibility of this thing between us is a complication he doesn’t want.

But then he smiles, his entire face lighting up with it. A hint of uncertainty flickers, but hope quickly chases it away. “So… are we dating? Is it too soon for that?”

I have to stifle a laugh. Dating seems like such a vast understatement for what I feel about Matt. But now’s not the time for that kind of revelation. Not yet.

Climbing onto his lap, I snuggle against his chest, and his arms come around me, hugging me to him. “It’s not too soon,” I reply. Then I kiss his neck, loving the contradiction of rough stubble and soft skin on my lips. “It’sdefinitelynot too soon.”

His lips press to the top of my head. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.” He pauses. His chest rises and falls. “And I will do whatever it takes to make you happy. And keep you safe. I promise.”

12

MATT

My emotions keep vacillating between cautious hope and simmering anger.

Hope because after weeks of one dead end after another, we finally caught a break.

And anger because of what the information we found could mean.

If it means what I think it does, Isla’s not only involved in a situation more sinister than I imagined, but she was also taken advantage of in the most horrible way.

It’s only been two days since we officially started dating, but this protectiveness I feel towards her is so much bigger than before. Now that I’ve given myself permission to feeleverythingfor her instead of constantly trying to tamp it down, this need to keep her safe is all-encompassing.

I think about it all the time. First thing in the morning, I rush to my computer to check all the security feeds, even though I know damn well the alarms would go off if there was a problem. And again at midday and just before dinner, when I check them a second and third time, my worry verging on obsession.

Though I have obligations to other B and A cases, every time I take a quick break from them—researching new security systems, updating the website, running background checks—my mind comes right back to Isla’s case. I shut it down during the time I spend with her, but as soon as I get home from her apartment in the evening, I jump straight back onto the computer to spend another couple of hours researching.

Last night, after several hours of cuddling and kissing on the couch, culminating with Isla falling asleep on my shoulder, I went home more determined than ever. As I sat in my office well past midnight, I kept thinking about my sweet and wonderful girlfriend—that’s what I’m calling her in my head, though we haven’t discussed labels yet—and how much I desperately wanted to fix things for her.

I want her to be free of fear and worry. I want her to be able to live a normal life again. And I want to be by her side as she does it.

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