Page 52 of Stormswept Colorado

He pressed his lips together, and at the same time, his eyes darted down to my mouth. “Find out if you want.”

I carefully touched his scarred cheek again, and Teller brought his hand up, covering mine. His head moved slightly, rubbing the skin of his cheek against my palm and making me shiver.

“Does feel nice. But how are your fingers still so cold?” he murmured.

“Maybe you didn’t do enough to warm them up.”

Without breaking eye contact, Teller brought my hand to his mouth. He closed his lips around my pointer and middle finger. His mouth was hot. His teeth nipped me.

Oh,God.

I whimpered again, but this one was a desperate sound made of pure lust. “Teller.”

He groaned, eyes sliding almost closed. “When you say my name… You don’t know what that does to me.”

“Show me.”

He came closer. Leaning in.

But at the last second, he stopped and wiped a hand over his face.

“Fuck.Fuck. What am I doing?”

“I thought maybe you were going to kiss me.”

He bent forward, elbows going to his knees, and scrubbed his fingers through his short hair. “After what you just told me? And we’re in my department vehicle. I’m in uniform, and I’m supposed to be looking out for you, not taking advantage of you.”

“I wasn’t objecting.”

“That doesn’t make it okay. I should have more control than this. I am so far over the line right now, Ayla.Wayover the line.”

“Then take me with you.”

SEVENTEEN

Teller

“I wasn’t objecting,”she’d just said.

“That doesn’t make it okay. I should have more control than this.”

But I had never wanted any woman as badly as I wanted Ayla.

I’d meant to stay strong. All well and good when I was trying to make her feel better as she cried.

Ashford or Callum had mentioned that Ayla and Lori’s father died, but if the colonel had been alive? I would’ve been eager to give the man someone closer to his own size to pick on. What kind of trash treated his daughter that way? How could her mother have left her in that situation?

And what about the man’s superiors? Or anyone else on the bases where he served. Was it possible someone knew, and let it go on? It made no difference that her father hadn’t struck her physically. He had hurt her deep. Same with that sergeant who’d tried to kiss the beautiful babysitter. Fuck that guy.

Ayla had scars every bit as much as I did.

I was humbled that she’d shared her history with me. All I’d wanted was to hold her and make her feel better. Show her that better men existed. She was safe with me.

But then she’d touched me, proving exactly how weak I was.Not the kind of coward who would ever take out his anger or his lust on a defenseless girl.

No, I was the kind of idiot who got carried away when a gorgeous, brave woman pressed herself against me and caressed the places where I ached. A woman who had to feel vulnerable right now. She needed comfort. Not seduction.

“I am so far over the line right now, Ayla.Wayover the line.” I bent over, dropping my elbows to my knees to cover the obvious tent in my uniform pants. My cock had never been this hard in my life. I wanted to cup my bulge and stroke it to get some friction, andseriously? How was that even in my mind right now?

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