Page 23 of Lethal Game

She shrugged. “All the time. As soon as they find out about my ITP, they treat me like I’m unable to do anything. I’ve learned not to trust people to do what they say until they actually do it.”

“That’s really stupid. No team can function well if you can’t trust someone to do what they say they’re going to do. Promises matter, especially here.”

She smiled at his comment. “I know, right?” She glanced away and shook her head. “There’s not much I can do about it, though. It’s just...irritating.”

“I’ll be irritating,” he told her. She trusted him and for the first time since the explosion, he didn’t want to let anyone down. Didn’t want to letherdown. “But in other ways. According to my sisters, there isn’t a man alive who can go ten minutes without annoying a woman somehow.”

She laughed and it washed through his battered heart in a warm wave.

He took a step back, wavering between wanting more and running away from any chance at healing the broken pieces of himself.

“I’m right next door if you need anything,” he told her. “Just hammer on the wall a couple of times and I’ll come running.”

“Thanks. It helps that...” She paused and shook her head.

“What helps?”

“You don’t just pat me on the head.” She lifted her chin. “Thanks.” Then, before he could say anything, she nodded at him shyly, unlocked her door, and disappeared into her room.

Con went into his own room, showered, then lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a long time. Taking on this assignment had been his only chance to avenge his dead and find peace for himself by joining them. He’d give everything he could to his new team, but he was only one of many and was easily replaced.

Sophia changed that. She challenged him to prove his worth to her, and in doing so, she’d proved herself to him.

He didn’t want to like her.

He didn’t want to want her.

Con punched his pillow a few times, but it didn’t help at all.

What he thought he wanted didn’t seem to matter anymore, and that tore him in two.

He couldn’t put his dead to rest and fulfill his obligations to Sophia at the same time. He was going to have to choose. Either choice was going to kill him one way or another.

***

Sophia closed the doorto her room and leaned against it.

Oh my God.That had been the most sexually intense and frustrating forty minutes of her life. Another ten minutes with him and she would probably have done something to embarrass herself. More than she already had, anyway. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what a blush on a woman’s face meant.

She had to get him out of her head before this lust for his body drove her crazy.

After a quick shower, she got into bed and pulled out the romance novel she was reading. It was a suspense, with the law enforcement hero and heroine in danger from gun-toting drug dealers. They were holed up in a remote mountain cabin, and after denying their feelings for each other through the first half of the book, had thrown caution to the wind and were about to have sex.

Brad cupped her breasts, licking his way from one to the other to tease her nipples.

Sophia kept picturing Connor in the role of the hero as he kissed, caressed, and undressed the heroine.“Like that, baby?” he asked Jessica, his voice fanning the naughty side of her to life.

It was Connor’s voice she heard in her head.

Sophia slammed the book shut, embarrassment heating her face.

After a moment, she opened the book again.

“If I’d known your wicked tongue was this talented,” Jessica said breathlessly, “I’d have put it to better use a lot sooner.”

He grinned and slid down her body. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” His wide shoulders spread her thighs apart...

Sophia slammed the book shut again, but there was no getting the image of Connor between her thighs out of her head.

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