Page 42 of Controlled Chaos

Chapter 22

I didn’t havethe heart to tell him everything I’d learned. I’d need him awake for that. I’d need him fully alert to deal with the reality of our situation, and I needed to figure out what to do about him being the person behind the trigger.

“We got some fruit, and I figured out why they don’t want us beyond the fence line,” I said as I crawled into bed. I propped my head in my hand to meet his gaze. “I’ll tell you the rest tomorrow.”

“Thank you for coming with me,” he said, turning to face me. He rested his hand on my hip. “When this is over, how about we go on a real date.”

If I lived long enough.

“Of course. I’d like that.” My gaze softened. His world was going to be torn in two tomorrow when I revealed everything we’d overheard, but tonight, it was just him and me.

I leaned into him and pressed my lips to his in a soft caress. That was all it took. He rolled me onto my back and kissed me like a man who’d just found his missing long-lost lover. He tasted like mint, and mine.

When he broke the kiss, he stared down at me. “I want to do this right with you.”

I smiled up at him. “We’re already engaged. I think that ship sailed.”

I rested my hand on his neck and coaxed his mouth back to mine. Back to my arms and to my body. If I was dying in a few days, I needed to stop running and start living.

His hands slid beneath the covers and heated my skin with his touch, sending delicious shivers of anticipation down my spine. I lifted into his palm, and he pulled back and stared down at me.

“Did you kiss me to distract me?”

“Is it working?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Good. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.” I rolled with him, unwilling to wait any longer. I took the lead.

Kissing a path up his warm chest back to his lips. He rested his hand on my side before he moved it up to my breast cupping the weight in his palm.

I moaned at his touch when he flipped me onto my back.

I smiled at his need to be the one in charge. And I let him.

He hovered over me, staring down into my eyes. “You sure know how to wake a man up.”

The prolonged anticipation was almost unbearable. This was the moment I’d been waiting for. The moment that I knew would come. Him and me finding each other was written in the stars. He was my fate.

He lowered his lips to mine in a heated caress. Firm and demanding he coaxed my lips apart, tasting me and driving up my need. My heart raced, matching the thrum of his. His touch was oddly soft and caressing. His fingers sent an electric tingle over my body, heating my core in anticipation. He leaned in, pressing the hard lines of his body against mine at the juncture of my thighs, leaving nothing to the imagination.

He was hot and hard and craved me as much as I was craving him.

He lowered his lips to my neck. The spring scent of his soap tickled my nose as in passing as he slowly moved down my chest.

He tugged at the hem of my shirt and I helped lift it over my head with growing urgency. I needed more of him.

His gaze lowered to my breast. His caramel eyes turned darker with need. He lowered his head, picking up the path where he’d stopped.

His hands roamed intimately over one of my breasts, and his mouth descended on the other, eliciting a moan from my lips.

I arched into his touch urging him on.

I slid my fingers into his hair and held his head to my chest. A low rumble vibrated his chest as he lowered his hand, running it down the curves of my stomach to my boxer shorts. He dipped his fingers beneath the cotton, and I felt like I was going to explode if he made me wait any longer.

I urged him, lifting my hips against his palm and fingers until he plunged a finger inside of me, stroking and heating my desire. I quivered beneath his tentative touch. My eyes slid closed in pleasure as he worked me into a quivering ball of need and desire.

“Feel good?” he murmured into my ear.

“God, yes, but I want so much more,” I answered as I opened my eyes. I tugged at his shirt, pulling it over his head. I couldn’t get close enough. We undressed each other with a frenzy that caught us both off guard. The need to touch him, to feel him, pulled at every fiber of my being.

He settled his hot, hard body over me again and held my gaze as he slid inside, momentarily stealing my breath. “Is this what you wanted?”

I dug my heels into his ass, pressing him in deeper. “Yes.”

A playful smile filled his lips as he pulled out and slid inside again. “I think I can take it from here.”

And he did. Over and over again.

For the first time since ever, I fell asleep in a man’s arms, even knowing the danger that awaited us both. There was nothing I could do about it. Nothing to change the outcome I saw. I’d tried before to escape fate and had made things worse. Carlos Howard’s brother was proof that I didn’t have any hold over my own fate and destiny.

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