Page 69 of Covert Temptation

“And this is why I want you so goddamn bad, Kennedy. You see me. The real me. You know when I’m on edge and when something is eating at me and I go quiet.”

Her jaw dropped. “I…I feel the same about you, Dante.”

She stepped around the newly assembled coffee table at the same time he lunged for her. She let out a moan as he yanked her against his hard body, his mouth coming down over hers in a claiming kiss that was possession and blazing need and something darker—something desperate.

His hands spanned her hips, fingers digging in like he couldn’t get her close enough. She opened her lips to him instantly, tasting the sharp edge of his hunger, the frustration and friction that had simmered between them for days now poured into the kiss like fuel on fire.

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he walked her backward, lips never breaking from hers, until her knees hit the edge of the couch. He tore his mouth away just long enough to whisper in a tone rough and wrecked, “I can’t keep pretending I don’t want you.”

She dragged in a breath, her heart thundering. “Then don’t.”

He kissed her again, deeper this time—less control, moreeverything. This wasn’t a slow seduction. It was weeks of danger and loneliness, of finally feeling that she was worth his time when he told her she was worth his trust. Now this—whateverthiswas—was starting to feel not only possible, but real.

He slipped his hands under her sweater, trailing callused heat along her skin. She shivered, not from cold, but from the way he touched her like she was something fragile and vital all at once.

In that moment, she let herself believe he meant it. That this wasn’t just about escaping the mission he never wanted or burning off adrenaline.

That maybe…it was aboutthem.

He lifted her and spun for the sofa in the same motion. The same motion that broke the coffee table the first time.

“Watch the table!”

He laughed against her lips, a sound of pure, reckless want. “I got it this time.”

He did, barely clearing the edge as they tumbled onto the sofa in a tangle of limbs and heat. She landed half straddled across his lap, her sweater pushed up, his hands already under it, palms searing against her bare skin.

Her lips found his again, bold with her hunger, tasting the curve of his smirk and the low groan that rumbled from his chest when she rolled her hips against him.

“Christ, Kennedy…” His voice broke against her jaw as he kissed his way along her throat. “You’re driving me insane.”

“Good,” she breathed, dragging her fingers through his hair and tugging just hard enough to make him growl. “You deserve it.”

His hands slid over her ribs, thumbs caressing the undersides of her breasts as she arched into him. The kiss deepened, growing hot, desperate.

They weren’t being careful now, dancing around each other as strangers falling into bed for the first time.

This wasneed. Weeks of opposition and irritation that morphed into barely there glances, then finally exploded all at once.

She felt it in the way his fingers dug into her hips and the way his mouth devoured hers like he was starved.

She slipped a hand under his shirt, trailing over hard planes of muscle. He was burning hot, his skin tight with restraint. She wanted to push him until he broke completely, until there was nothing between them but skin and breath and whatever the hell this thing was becoming.

He kissed her hard, one hand fisting in her hair, the other gripping her thigh to anchor her to him. She moaned into hismouth—right before the sharprapon the front door shattered the moment.

They both froze.

Another knock. “Guac and Roll!” a voice called.

“Son of a—” Dante dropped his head against her chest with a frustrated groan.

Kennedy panted, still straddling him, her sweater askew, lip gloss long gone.

Dante’s breath rushed over her skin. “Did he say Guac and Roll?”

She giggled. Despite the desperate lust hammering her veins, and her frustration at being interrupted, she giggled. “It’s an awful name for a restaurant.”

He looked up, eyes dark and still glazed with heat. “You’re lucky I’m so hungry I don’t care where you ordered from.”

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