Page 88 of Casualties of War
“Andyou’re not?”she breathed, for she could feel his body heat radiatingagainst her. Warming her.
“No.” He sat back.
Her heart stuttered. “No?” she repeated, her breath whooshing from her.
His gaze met hers. The liquid fire was back. “I’ve always known what I want,” he told her. “Right now, I want to hold you over my knees and slowly remove every last inch of cloth from your body. I want to kiss every inch of skin that is revealed. I want to slide into you andstay there and watch the pleasure take you. I want you to scream in my arms and tremble. I would brand myself upon you that way. I want to give you such joy and leave you so drained that whenever you look at me, you lose your concentration, because your body remembers.”
Parris couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t speak.
Adán shook his head. “I won’t force that upon you. I won’t try to convince youwith my hands and mouth, even though I know I can, because that would erase the unique heart of you. Until you are completely sure that is what you want,ifyou decide that is what you want, only then will I touch you.”
Her breathing was labored. Her body throbbed. Parris squeezed her fists, pressing them into her knees. She ached for everything he’d said. She wanted it. Her body was meltingfrom the middle with just the thought of it.
Adán shook his head. “Not here,” he said softly. “You have a job to do.”
Hewas reminding her of her job!
Parris sucked in a deep breath and leaned back. “That’s the problem, right there,” she said, as awareness filled her. “My job. Your job. There’s nowhere they meet. There’s zero ground for compromise.That’swhat you were trying to tell me, thelast time, and I didn’t hear it. All I heard was you saying no. I thought you didn’t want me.”
“You know I did.” Adán’s gaze pinned her and held her. “You’ve always known that. Don’t you understand? I would wait for you forever.”
Her heart lurched and seemed to hang weightless. “Despite our jobs?” she whispered. “Despite knowing neither of us would give them up?”
“BecauseI know you would nevergive this up, is why I wait.” Adán lifted his hand to indicate the cave and the men. “This makes you who you are.”
“Even if it means you’ll be alone forever?” she breathed.
“I grew up alone. I didn’t know that until I met you. I haven’t been alone since.”
She closed her eyes and hung her head. She felt humble and small and pathetic. Bowed under by the weight of his regard. “I’m a selfish womanwho only wants to have it all, Adán.”
“Youdohave it all.”
“I don’t have you.”
“All you have to do is reach out and take. I’ll always be here.”
He always had been. She just hadn’t known it, until now. Parris leaned toward him. “It’s not that sort of kiss,” she whispered, and pressed her mouth to his.
Only she lied. It wasexactlythat sort of kiss. She felt it shift and change between them.The images he’d painted for her, of her body trembling against his, flared like neon in her mind.
The touch of his tongue against her lips made her moan. She heard the sound she made and remembered with a jolt where she was, and snapped back upon her heels, breaking the kiss.
Adán didn’t protest. His gaze was steady. His chest rose and fell.
You’re conflicted, his voice repeated in her mind.
“I…must think,” she breathed, and got to her feet.
“No,don’tthink. Do your job. Think later.”
“That, too.” She made herself walk away, back to her mat and her paperwork. The mission waited. Somewhere out there was a dirty bomb that would kill thousands of people and it was up to her to find it. She couldn’t afford to let herself get distracted with little things like love.
