Page 53 of Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs 2)

"Don't you know that you always were the life of me?" he said as he pulled her close, only to facilitate opening the door behind her. "Come on. It's time to show what you've got, wildcat. Let's go see if we can find the bad guys."

She didn't argue with him, but she did know him. Clint had never realized, and perhaps he still didn't, just how well she did know him.

He was still hiding from her.

She frowned as he checked the hallway before drawing her from the room and leading her to the elevators. She had always wondered at the shadow of pain in his eyes, even when he was much younger. She and Raven had discussed it often.

Clint had always been distant with his sister as well, though Morganna and Raven had marked it down to the differences in their ages. He was ten years older than his sister, and his relationship with his parents had always been stormy.

Raven had still been a child the day Clint graduated from high school and joined the Army, and after that, Raven saw her brother only occasionally, when he was at the Chavez home. He rarely appeared at his parents' home. He hadn't attended his father's funeral.

After Raven moved out of her mother's home Clint had seen her more frequently. Often staying at her apartment when he was in town rather than his own. But it was as though he had deliberately placed that distance between himself and his sister. A distance Morganna had always known he regretted.

She glanced up at him as they stopped at the elevator. He stared at the display marking each floor as it passed, his expression blank. Morganna bided her time. The elevator doors opened into the parking garage. She stood silently as he checked the area, then followed sedately behind him as they moved for the pickup.

The soft click of her heels on the cement flooring was the only sound between them as he led her to the truck.

"Stay here." He held her back several feet from the truck before bending and beginning to work his way around it. "Clear," he announced as he jerked open the driver-side door and stood back for her.

"You're kidding." She stared at the running board, several inches higher than her tight skirt was going to allow her to step.

His sigh was long-suffering. Tossing the pack into the backseat, he turned back to her, gripped her waist, and lifted her to the seat.

"You're just going to make me shiver with all those muscles, Mr. McIntyre," she simpered mockingly as she batted her lashes at him before turning and sliding to the middle of the seat.

"Nut," he grunted as he moved beneath the wheel and slammed the door closed. "Scoot over."

His thigh was plastered to hers, his arm lying over her breast, as he slid the vehicle into gear and pulled out.

"No." Morganna wiggled against him, dragging her breasts over the underside of his arm as she felt him grow more tense.

"What do you mean no?" She liked the way his voice throbbed with lust. Oh yeah, he knew what they had, knew what he found with her he wasn't going to find with another woman, and he wanted it. Bad. Again.

"I mean, I'm comfortable. If you want to dress me in clothes guaranteed to invite sex, the least you could do is give me a thrill."

"Last night wasn't enough of a thrill?"

"I liked this morning better." She flicked him a glance from the corner of her eye as he pulled from the parking garage.

"I'm sure you did." His voice cooled marginally.

She barely restrained her sigh. "I actually noticed something vaguely bothersome, though." She lifted her hand, surveying a chipped nail, before looking up at him as he glanced over at her quickly.

"What?" His voice was suspicious.

"You didn't use a condom, big boy," she pointed out sarcastically. "Did you think of that?"

She had.

"Don't worry about it."

She hadn't mistaken the tightening of his body or the way his hands clenched on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

"Don't worry about it?" she asked in amazement. "Clint, I'm not stupid here. I might be on birth control, but it's not one hundred perc

ent effective, as you know. And that's not even considering STDs. How could you so calmly believe I wouldn't eventually worry about it?"

"I used a condom with other women," he growled, flicking her a half-angry look. "You don't have to worry about STDs."

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