Page 102 of Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs 2)

Jenna was wobbling on her feet, blood smeared across her face, and her eyes were dazed. As she drew back her foot and let loose with a kick, Morganna gripped her ankle and jerked.

Jenna went down with a thud, but she wasn't out. Dammit, Morganna didn't have all day to fuck with this. As she scrambled to hold the other woman in place, Morganna felt for the vase she had seen seconds earlier. Where the hell... ? There it was. Her fingers wrapped around the neck as she lifted it and, with a surge of strength, swung it to the larger woman's head.

It shattered as it connected. Jenna's eyes widened, dimmed; then she toppled to the floor again. God, she needed to stay there. Morganna crawled across the floor to the gun, her head lifting, her eyes widening.

As Manuelo and Clint struggled for the knife, Morganna watched Clint bending the other man's wrists, turning the knife slowly toward its owner, the point driving home just beneath his chest. But it was the shadow that moved behind Maneulo that held her gaze. The dark visage of death that jerked the South American's head back and slid a deadly blade across it.

Blood gushed from the wound as an animal snarl of rage left Kell Krieger's lips. His electric green eyes were narrowed, fierce, predatory, and filled with satisfaction as he stepped back and watched his victim topple to Clint's side.

"Clint." Morganna stumbled to her feet, her gaze centering on his chest. It was rising and falling; he was breathing. That was all that mattered. He was breathing.

"Shit. Is Jenna still alive?" He caught Kell's hand and pulled himself to his feet.

"She's unconscious," Kell stated, his voice cold.

"Shit, son!" Clint was staring back at him in shock.

Kell's green eyes were calm, his expression filled with satisfaction. "Looks like we got him." His lips kicked up in a grin.

"You got him." Clint glanced at the corpse now lying on the floor as he shook his head. "Damn, did you get him."

Morganna stood to the side, staring around her in shock as the elevators slid open. Drage, Jayne, Reno, Raven, and Joe rushed into the room, guns drawn, expressions filled with horror as they stared around at the destruction.

"Looks like we showed up a bit late." Drage winced at the blood staining the carpet.

"Morganna." Reno rushed to her side as Raven moved for her brother.

"You managed to drag me home from my honeymoon, Clint." Raven was chastising him, though her voice was filled with worry.

Voices raged around Morganna, hammered at her skull, and no matter how hard she tried to break free of her brother to get to Clint, Reno refused to let her go.

She could feel the tears washing down her face as reaction set in. She needed Clint, just for one more minute.

"Let me go!" She pushed against Reno, staring around her, looking for Clint.

"Morganna." She swung to the other side as she heard his voice, her eyes widening as Clint suddenly pulled her into his arms. There he was. Oh God, he was okay. Bloody, his eye was blackened, his lips swollen, but he was okay.

She ran her hands over his face, his bare shoulders, his chest, skirting the sharp, bloody line where Manuelo's knife had torn the skin.

"It's not too deep." Clint touched the bruise on her cheek, his eyes dark, swirling with shadows and, beneath them, the chill he always carried. "Are you okay, baby?"

CLINT RAN HIS HANDS OVER Morganna's arms, her back.

He ignored the disapproval in Reno's gaze, the concern in Raven's. God, Morganna had fought like a little wildcat. He had caught glimpses of her, hence the few times Manuelo had caught him with that damned knife, and she had kickedass. Literally.

"I'm fine." She was dazed, shaking, in shock. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, baby. But the debriefing on this one is going to be a killer." Clint sighed. He didn't want to let her go. He didn't want to leave her. But it was better now than later. If he left her now and just didn't return, then her chances of getting over it, of getting over him, were better.

"Don't leave." She stared back at him knowingly.

God help him, he could drown in her eyes, even now. She was like a drug he couldn't get out of his system, one he had come to depend on as much as he depended on breathing. And he couldn't keep her. He knew he couldn't keep her. He loved her. Loved her until everything in his heart, his soul, his world, was consumed by Morganna. And it scared the shit out of him. What if he was like his father? How could he live with hurting her?

"I have to, baby-"

"If you leave me, don't come back." She stepped away from him as he stared back at her, surprised by the sudden core of steel he saw in her eyes.

"Morganna ..." He didn't know what to say. He hated the pain he saw blooming in the velvet-gray depths of her eyes, the betrayal that flashed across her expression.

---