"Nothing's wrong." She shook her head, too worn inside to find the strength to cry. How many times had she cried? Given up? Only to turn back to him at the first opportunity. Because she continued to hope, to pray. To dream that the
love she felt for him would thaw that layer of ice she felt in his heart.
"Baby." His hand cupped her cheek as he stared down at her in bafflement. "It's been a hell of a night. This business will break your soul if you let it. Don't let it do that to you, Morganna."
"Like it's broken yours?" Her lips twisted painfully. "Where's your soul, Clint?"
"Don't, Morganna." He shook his head, denying the unspoken question. "Look around you. The night has been filled with blood and betrayal. It's enough to throw a hardened man off balance. It will throw you into chaos if you let it." Her lips trembled, but not from tears. She couldn't cry. "I'm tired. I just want to sleep. I don't need sex tonight." He stared back at her broodingly. "Maybe I do. Maybe I need to feel you, Morganna, convince myself you're really safe. That this time, you weren't hurt. If you continue on in this, one of these days it's going to be your body in a morgue, your life taken. Is mat what you want? All your dreams blown to dust?"
She reached out, her fingers trailing over his hard jaw because she couldn't help but touch him. Couldn't help but love him. When this operation was over he would be gone and she knew it. He would walk away, and when he did her. heart would follow him, just as it always had.
Each mission she would weep and worry. Each day without him would be an eternity. Each night without him would be bleak and cold. For a while. It was going to rip her heart out, but she would live, she assured herself. Just as she always had.
"Maybe you're right," she whispered, her fingers falling from the warmth of his skin. "Let's go fuck like there's no tomorrow, Clint."
She saw the edgy wince at the corner of his eyes. He didn't like the explicit term when she said it. Too bad. She was tired of making love alone.
"What are we waiting on?"
His eyes narrowed on her, a muscle ticcing in his jaw as she felt the air between them thicken with tension.
"You would drive a saint to drink," he growled as he gripped her arm and began to lead her across the dance floor.
His fingers were gentle, though, his stride restrained as they headed for the hallway.
"Good thing you're not a saint," she quipped. "So you should be just fine."
"Don't start on me, Morganna. I swear to God, I thought I'd have a stroke when I saw that bastard leading you to that back door. Do you think I enjoyed that?"
"Yeah, Reno would have been pissed if you let me get shot. I can see your problem there." She was pushing him. She was pushing herself. Grief was eating a hole in her heart, her soul, and she didn't know how to contain it. She didn't know how to deal with the loss she had seen this evening or the evil she had faced.
The look he gave her sizzled with ire.
"Oh, you're going to make me shiver with that big bad SEAL look you have going there, Clint." She tossed her head before slanting him a seductive look from the corner of her eye. "Don't go making me wet before we get to the bed now."
"Son of a bitch!" He dragged her through the entrance to the private hall before pushing her against the wall, anchoring her there with his taller, harder body as his hands clasped her face, tipping her head back and staring down at her with heated lust. No ice there. It was melting beneath the raging lust, the thin facade of control.
"Are you going to go Dom on me now, Clint?" Her hands pressed against his hard abs, her fingers luxuriating in the feel of the hard muscles beneath hot male flesh. "I might melt if you do."
The hardened length of his cock pressed against her lower stomach, sending her pulse rocketing with the assurance that at least, in his hunger for her, he couldn't yet deny her again.
"Stop this, Morganna," he gritted out, grimacing with painful pleasure as his hips pressed his erection tighter against her. "You'll destroy yourself if you aren't careful."
Her eyelids drifted closed. The feel of his hands framing her face, the pads of his fingers running slowly over her cheeks, filled her with a weakening, heated pleasure.
"I need you," she whispered bleakly. "All of you, Clint. Just one time, just this time, give me all of you."
His eyes widened just a fraction, a haunted look entering them as he stared back at her.
"You're going to destroy us both before it's over with, Morganna."
"Just once, Clint." She turned her head to press a kiss to his palm, her tongue peeking out, licking at the tough, calloused flesh before turning back to him. "Just once. I promise no one will know but the two of us. I won't let your secret out."
"Oh, baby." His sigh was bittersweet, his gaze pensive. Lowering his head, he rested his forehead against hers, their gazes connecting until she could see her reflection in the midnight depths. "What am I going to do with you?"
"Love me." Her breath hitched with emotion. "I don't need the words, Clint. You don't have to lie to me. But just once, give more than just your body. Give me something to remember."
Her breath caught in her chest, her eyelids fluttering as his hands smoothed from her face to her neck. His fingertips caressed her as his expression slowly changed.