Page 63 of Dangerous Devotion

An unspoken affection simmered between them. They stayed that way for endless moments—neither willing to break the connection. Flickers of the fire they shared burned on and on.

If he had it his way, it could keep on burning until the end of time.

Her lashes fluttered, and she took a deep breath. “Does it bother you…being in Blackout? Knowing that you can’t have someone important in your life?”

He never saw her question coming. Hell, nobody had ever asked him that before because he never got close enough to people. He had one-night stands in foreign cities and gave the women a false identity.

The urge to twitch his shoulders in discomfort mounted in the seconds that ticked by. He forced himself to relax and focus on giving her an answer. She deserved nothing but total honesty from him.

“I don’t think about it much. The minute I took that oath, I cut ties. For my country. For the people who are weaker and unable to defend themselves against threats.”

“I understand. You switched off that part of your brain. I’ve done it too.”

He peered down at her. “You have?”

“Yes. It’s hard not to be a bit jaded when two of my exes agreed to take a payout rather than stay with me.”

His jaw tightened until it creaked. “Give me names, May. Give me names and I’ll make sure they wish they were never born.”

Her jaw dropped. “You’d do that for me?” She shook her head. “What am I thinking? I don’t want that—I don’t care about those guys anymore. I was just trying to make a point that guys are disappointing. This is why I’m single. I live my life on my terms.”

With a gentle splay of his fingers over her spine, he drew her against his chest again. His heart throbbed steadily in the silent minutes ticking by.

“I’m not much better for you. You couldn’t take me out in public. You know…if we were together.”

She was already quiet, already still. But something in her shifted, going utterly motionless. Her breath caught and the moment hung suspended.

The kind of moment that happened right before the ground fell out from under your feet.

In a rush, she released the breath she was holding. “That’s true. But you can’t be as bad as the guy I thought was going tomarryme and when Dad offered him money…he took it.”

“You don’t have to worry about me being after your money. After all, I already live in a mansion.”

A laugh burst out of her, wild and free. She tossed her head back and shook with amusement.

Henner drank in her beauty, soaking it up like people did rays of sunshine on vacation, hoping to carry a bit of it away with them when they returned to daily life.

He wanted to grab on to this blink in time and carry it away with him. Hell, heneededit.

Goddammit, he neededher.

Cupping the back of her head, he drew her laughing mouth to his and kissed her. Her laugh cut off, morphing to a throaty moan.

Passion exploded between them with all the force of the bomb inside that hangar. Flipping May underneath him, he took control, delivering drugging kisses until she was putty in his arms and begging for more.

He tore off her top and ducked his head to kiss and suck her bare breasts. Between slick strokes of his tongue over her hard nipples, he roughed out, “I fucking love that you never wear a bra.”

She moaned and raked her nails lightly over his shoulders, dragging him closer. When he pulled one bud into his mouth, she arched upward on a cry.

Her silky fingers pattered down his chest to his abs and lower to cup his hard cock. It surged into her grasp and pulsated in beats that felt like a bass drum beating in his body, even as his heart drummed for this woman he couldn’t, shouldn’t touch but did. Every throb pushed her deeper under his skin until he felt it in his soul.

Fuck. The one thing he was never supposed to do, and he’d gone and fucking done it.

Fallen for May.

Every fiber of him wanted to show her what he could never say. That she was beyond amazing, smart and witty, gorgeous and perfectly irritating…

He stripped off the rest of her clothes and lowered his tongue to her sweet pussy. The light taste of her arousal had his balls about to burst.

---