Page 13 of Skull

Skull.

A verynakedSkully.

He looked so incredibly good, like a water god, with his hard, perfect body, his wet tanned skin and the ribbons of steam swirling all around him. Wow. She had a good imagination, but there was nothing like being validated in each and every thought. This man was tall and sleek, chiseled in all the right places.

Unable to look away, she devoured the sculpted contours of his naked, muscular body. Starting at his bare feet, her gaze traveled over defined calves, up his long, strong legs, and got snagged on his Adonis belt, those tightly ridged six-pack abs, water sliding in glistening droplets down to his very well-endowed male anatomy that literally made her weak in the knees, along with a rock-hard ass, as hard as the rest of him. She was envious of that tantalizing H2O as she looked her fill. His lower body was probably the only part of him that could completely distract her from all that lean, mean muscle.

But she couldn’t help taking all of him in—his wide chest, those flat, brown tightly beaded nipples she ached to get her mouth on. His long, powerful arms, and big hands infused him with an aura of strength and masculinity, then up to that arresting face, his blunt features, and mouth. His pitch-black hair the color of midnight, danger in the shadows, and rich decadence and forbidden desire was wet in ragged, displaced strands framing his lean oval face.

All she could think about was the way her palms and fingers would outline the work of art that was Cooper Sullivan, gliding over hard plains and compact muscle.

Her senses came alive, adding to the desire that had built from the moment she’d laid eyes on him. Her breathing increased, her pulse pounding. Every time she inhaled, she not only drew in his smoky, tantalizing freshness, but also the arousing scent of a hot-blooded male.

Undeniably turned on, her own body responded to the natural glory of him. Her breasts grew tight, her stomach tumbled, and between her thighs she pulsed with a need she ached to fulfill. Not in a dream or a fantasy, but for real, with this man sliding deep, deep inside her.

“If you’re done, could you hand me a towel?” She might have been caught off guard, but Skull wasn’t fazed one bit. Of course, he was a SEAL, and they oozed self-confidence, don’t-mess-with-me attitudes. Alphas that were off the leash ready to be Uncle Sam’s watchdogs, but Skull seemed much more a dark hound of hell and despite the attitude, she wanted to mess with him—a lot. That formidable control was a challenge to break…oh, wait. There was tantalizing movement. Mr. Unfazed, Mr. Immunity, Mr. Lord of the Underworld was growing hard, and it was an even more arousing sight because that meant he desired her. Her focus was drawn once again to the velvet-textured length of him as he thickened, pulsing over and over and that plum-shaped head grew and grew, drawing his balls up, jutting his erection toward his flat, bisected belly.

Her lips parted, and her breathing grew ragged, her body flaming, and he hadn’t even touched her. How was that possible?

His gaze took in her slightly parted lips, then slid down the arch of her throat and over every inch of her. His eyes, flecked with gold and amber, and the thick long lashes accentuating their hypnotic beauty dragged her into a hunger so dark and hot, he burned with the intensity of it.

“Why in heaven would I hand you anything to cover up any of…that?” she replied in a hoarse whisper. “Do I look like a moron?”

His jaw clenched. The need and hunger in his unwavering gaze glowed hot and bright and urgent. “You look like a woman I could fuck for fucking hours. So, before I get fucked over for missing a brief, I suggest you get your fuck-worthy body out of my fucking sight. Iceman doesn’t give a fuck about boners, only about punctuality.”

“This isn’t over, roomie,” she said, refusing to hand him a towel.

A low, untamed growl ripped from his chest, and that stubborn, unyielding control of his slipped like it had at the hangar. “Go now, Walker before I lose control. We have more important things to think about and do. There’s no space in my head right now for this shit.”

Aching with need to have him buried to the hilt inside her, to convulse around him as he came was her goal. Keep it simple.He’s not simple, stupid, and you’re ignoring those signs.She silenced that voice. She wanted this to be simple.

She went to him, and he faced her, the torment in his expression telling her that he was in sensual, physical pain…agony, and she had enough time to help with that.

“Goddammit, Hummingbird?—”

“Shut up. We’re all reeling from what happened to our friends, but there is no shame in living in the face of that pain and sadness.” She placed her fingers against his warm lips, stopping his flow of words and dark desire sparked like flint in the darkness. Emboldened by that knowledge, she closed the distance between them. “We don’t have any time to waste, and I’m not going to allow you to go down there with a raging hard on that I caused,” she said, and moved closer to him. Yeah, she was so self-sacrificing because taking advantage of Skull’s magnificent body was such a terrible hardship.

Unable to help herself, she closed her mouth over his taut nipple, noting the rapid rise and fall of his chest. She slid her nails down his torso, eliciting a deep groan in his chest, until her fingers brushed across the heavy sacks beneath his shaft, until one hand was wrapped snugly around the base of his heated flesh, and she nipped that delicious bead, then sucked him hard.

With a ragged groan, his head fell back against the tile, and his body arched, sending his shaft against her palm. Feeling the barely leashed aggression beneath his shattering control, she twined her fingers in the silky long hair at his nape and pulled at the same time she bit him harder. He bucked upward, hard and strong, and his groan of surrender in her ear was the sexiest sound she’d ever heard. “Hummingbird,” he rasped. “Fuck, I want your mouth on me, but?—”

She slipped down his slick body not wanting him to put a stop to this. She took him in her wet mouth, his skin hot and salty against the stroke of her tongue. He shuddered and tangled his hands in her hair, and she sucked him, taking him as deep as she could, pleasuring him, teasing him with her tongue, using techniques taught to her by the best whores in the red-light district of Amsterdam. And she’d learned some things that would make a man a slave to her mouth, but she only wanted him. She slipped and swirled her tongue around his shaft, all the way down, then pulled back up in a long, suctioning draw that was designed to make a man’s knees buckle. His fingers knotted in her hair, and she looked up the length of his torso, watched the rapid rise and fall of his chest and finally met his gaze. His eyes were dark and intense, just as hypnotic, and when she stroked him all the way to the tip of his shaft then glided her tongue over the swollen head, sucking just the tip, he shuddered and jolted against her hot caresses.

She couldn’t take her eyes off his face, finally pinpointing why his features intrigued her—that dark stubble on his face tagged him as a renegade from the underworld. Besides the compelling indestructible attractiveness that claimed her in the most profound way, there was a depth of character, an inner strength, and she had no freaking idea that she would crave the kind of man he was.

She was drowning in this need, this desire for what she was only aware of, but on the verge of diving into everything that made him who he was. She wanted to know it all with the kind of passion that she had only reserved for her job. Her heart, that closed, inert organ, hammered wildly against her ribs, and it ached for his pain, fear and worry over Leigh and Hazard. But beneath that electric undercurrent of sexual chemistry and exquisite arousal the truth was that she would give anything to get inside this man’s defenses, get a piece of that dark soul, hold onto it as hard as she wanted to ride her body over his, feel every sensation from his mouth, his hands, his dick. All of it.

And that was where the terror began. That was why this relationship could only be about sex. If she didn’t ask anything of him, he wouldn’t ask anything of her, even in light of her motivations for going down on him, which were partly about taking him away from that tragedy, just for a moment, a breather.

She might have a dedicated work partner, but she preferred to be alone in the shadows using her guise and cunning. She became other people, morphed into characters to manipulate, get information, kill. All of it thrilled her, every last bit of it. She was the master of her craft because of it. Closing down allowed her to wear so many masks, hiding, protecting, and disguising her very essence. There was no going back from that, and this kind of man…. He would want to get inside her defenses, get a piece of her dark soul, hold onto it as hard as he wanted to thrust himself inside her, feel every sensation with his mouth, his hands, his dick. All of it.

And if she gave in. If she gave in even one little bit, she would be lost, and she never intended to be lost again.

5

Skull could easily saythat he’d never in his adult life been in this position. But after GQ exploded with scathing comments about both him and Boomer, his guilt intensified with every sensation he experienced with her. Added to the fact that this wasn’t what he wanted with Hummingbird—and he suspected that the little minx already knew that—he was riding a rollercoaster of emotions.

With her mouth wrapped around his dick like wet satin gripping him, he barely had enough brainpower left to think straight. At least with the right head. He gasped for air when she took him all the way down to the base of his shaft, making him delirious with need. A deep, tortured groan rumbled in his chest as he fought to suppress it. Nearly out of his mind with the desperate need to feel connected to Hummingbird in even the smallest, most intimate way, he slid his fingers through her short, silky hair until his hand cradled the back of her head. Beneath his palm, he felt the relentless rhythm of her mouth working up and down his cock. Again. And again. And again.

---