Page 64 of Covert Temptation

Dante folded his arms, trying to focus on their task and not Kennedy’s sweet ass pointed his direction. A lurid image of stepping up behind her, peeling down the fitted denim and grasping those hips as he slid into her played on repeat through his head.

Listening to her gasp.

Feeling the tight grip of her pussy around his stiff cock.

Hell, he had to do something besides drown in this desire.

He grabbed a blue marker and uncapped it. He stepped up to the table and leaned over the empty corner to add to the character study.

Kennedy threw up a hand. “Wait!”

He blinked at her.

“Don’t write on that corner. I was leaving that open for more on his faked death. Possible aliases and that sort of thing.”

Now that he knew her intentions, her plan made more sense than his.

“You’ve done this before,” he stated rather than asked.

Tipping her head, she lifted a narrow shoulder and let it drop. “I’ve doneAlyssa’sversion of this. I call it chaos with color coding.”

Dante couldn’t stop the grin that stretched over his face. He reached across the board and wroteCipher?beneath Daniel’s real name.

Kennedy straightened, and they stood side by side staring at the name.

“You really think it’s him?” she whispered as if the man was nearby and would overhear.

“My gut says it is.”

“And your gut doesn’t lie.” It was a statement rather than a question.

Their gazes caught for a moment and held for even longer.

His gut was telling him a hell of a lot right now, and it was more than how Kennedy’s eyes pooled with deep brown softness whenever she met his stare.

“My gut says that I was wrong to suspect you had anything to do with the attack on Alyssa.”

She blinked in shock, redness climbing her throat to flood her face. As if his words dealt a physical blow, she let out an inaudible gasp and planted a palm on the table, head bowed.

He pitched his voice low. “Kennedy?”

“You really mean that.”

He nodded. “I can see how much you love Alyssa.”

Tears welled in the depths of her eyes, and she blinked more rapidly to keep them from tumbling down her cheeks. One slipped free, and she dashed a fingertip over the corner.

“That means so much to me, Dante.”

In a single step, he reached her. Gently, he took her by the shoulders and stared down into her eyes. The vulnerability she showed him every day awakened the protector inside him.

She lifted a hand and scuffed her fingertips over his stubbled jaw. Her eyes dropped to his mouth, and she smoothed the pad of her thumb across his bottom lip.

He groaned.

She moaned.

At the same time she surged onto her tiptoes, he slammed his mouth over hers. The heat of their connection was a blow he wasn’t prepared for. Lust lashed at his insides, but the swollen sensation around his heart was different from anything he’d ever experienced before.

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