Page 63 of Zero Hour

It felt as good as he’d imagined.

Better.

He half expected her to pull away, but she didn’t.

Instead, she sighed against his mouth, her lips parting ever so slightly, just enough for him to deepen the kiss. His pulse hammered as he slid one hand to the curve of her hip, the other threading into her hair.

She tasted like red wine and something inherentlyher. Warm and intoxicating.

Tentative at first, she kissed him back. Then, as if emboldened by his response, she pressed closer, her fingers sliding up his arms, curling around the back of his neck.

Heat radiated through him.

This was dangerous. A bad idea. The worst he’d ever had.

And yet, heneededher closer.

His arms tightened, pulling her against him, and she fit like she wasmeantto be there.

Her soft curves pressed into the hard lines of his body, and he was painfully aware of every point where they touched.

Then her fingers threaded into his hair, her nails grazing his scalp, and a shudder rolled through him.

Fuck.

He was already hard.

It had been years—years—since a kiss had undone him like this.

Unable to help himself, he deepened the kiss, his control slipping as she melted against him. He wanted more.Neededmore.

But that was the problem, wasn’t it?

She was under his protection. A witness.

And he had already compromised the op for her.

What the hell are you doing?

Jasmine was the first to pull back, her breath uneven.

They stared at each other, both shaken. His heart pounded faster than an AK-47. Could she feel it?

“You do something to me,” he murmured. “I don’t know what it is, but when I look into those witchy green eyes of yours, I feel myself falling.”

She didn’t laugh. Didn’t even smile. Her voice was a whisper, her breath still mingling with his. “I feel it too.”

He clenched his jaw. “What now?”

He was holding on by a thread, every instinct screaming at him to take her to bed, to make love to her like she deserved to be made love to. To banish all thoughts of Amir Fucking Al-Jabiri from her head.

But hecouldn’t.

He shouldn’t.

Goddamn it. He knew better than this.

“I think we’d better leave it there for tonight,” came the soft reply.

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