Page 96 of Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs 2)

She felt the battle-ready tension leave his body as his fingers slid around the back of her neck and his eyes, they heated, darkened until they were almost black. She had never seen his eyes like that. She had seen him furious, killing cold, worried, and grieving, but she had never seen this. Pure emotion. His expression softening, his lips fuller, as though his own strength of will had kept them restrained over the years.

"Do you know how I hunger for you, Morganna?" he whispered. "The nights I've lain on the cold ground, warmed by the thought of you?"

He lowered his head, his lips pressing at the corner of hers as her breathing increased, seductive pleasure suffusing his expression, her soul.

"I dreamed of you," she whispered, uncaring where they stood or who might see them. "I dreamed of your touch, Clint. Your voice, like it is now." She shuddered in his grip as his lips moved over her jaw, his teeth raking against the sensitive flesh.

"No more dreams, baby," he soothed the desperate ache building in her chest. "Just tonight. We'll both have what we need. Just tonight..."

Just tonight. Would she survive when the night was over? Would the memory be enough?

One hand moved, his thumb running over her lips, parting them, preparing them as his eyes gleamed with a barely banked midnight blue flame that burned to the very depths of his gaze. The haunted shadows were gone, the chilly control abolished. There was only the man, his heart, his soul reaching out to her, touching her.

She would survive on this memory for the rest of her life, she decided. This one night, forever.

"Come on." He moved back slowly, his hand running down her arm to catch her fingers in his. "Downstairs."

There was a difference in him now. Something at once more dominant, and yet gentler. Warmer. As though the shields he used to hold everyone at bay had suddenly been wiped away.

As they stepped into the elevator and the doors slid shut soundlessly behind them, Morganna could feel the difference in Clint. Physically, he was more tense, his body controlled, harder. But the aura of sexuality wrapping around them was deeper, more intense. The hint of emotion she had always felt within him seemed to swamp her now, as though a bond she had never known existed between them was suddenly coming into play.

The elevator doors slid open as his hand pressed at the small of her back, pushing her into the entrance of the suite.

"I've lost my soul in you," he whispered as he drew her to a stop, staying behind her, his fingers moving to caress her stomach as he pulled her closer.

The hard length of his erection pressed into her lower back as she felt her knees weakening.

"I lost mine in you years ago." The knot of emotion clogging her throat made it hard to breathe. His voice was like rough velvet, caressing over her senses, sinking into her heart.

She felt the regret in the small hesitation of his breath behind her and fought back her tears. No regrets. She wouldn't regret this, no matter where her life went afterward.

"I want this outfit off you." He brushed her hair aside with his cheek, his lips moving to her ear. "Do you know how crazy it's made me tonight, Morganna? All I could think about was stripping it off your body. It's all any man in that damned club could think about."

She fought to drag in air as his hands moved up, cupping her swollen breasts before his fingers worked at the small clasps that anchored the strips of cloth running between them.

She needed to touch him, somehow. Someway. Her hands moved back, flattening against his thighs as she resisted the urge to bury her nails in the leather covering him.

"There, baby," he crooned before catching her earlobe in his teeth and tugging at it sensually as he peeled the top from her breasts.

"Damn, I knew you were wearing those. I love those pretty pierced nipples." His fingers caught at the small rings, tugging at them slowly, hardening her nipples further.

Pleasure mounted in her womb, convulsing it with hard spasms as she felt the tugging motion echo through her nerve endings.

"You bought them," she gasped, her eyes opening as she lowered her gaze to watch his fingers play with the violently sensitive tips.

Clint paused, stilling behind her as his hands cupped the undersides of her breasts, lifting them as he stared over her shoulder.

"You had the earrings altered," he growled, his thumbs rasping over the hard points and the small ball closures that held the rings closed. "I bought them for you, for your birthday."

Two years before. The last present he had sent to her through her brother, Reno. The implications of the rings were left silent. The fact that she belonged to him, heart and soul, wasn't in doubt. The fact that she wore his rings was no more than an outward sign of it.

Morganna bit her lip as he moved, his hands sliding from her breasts to her hips as he turned her. She stared up at him, her eyelids fluttering weakly as his hands li

fted to smooth the top over her shoulders and down her arms. It fell to the floor, forgotten as velvet-soft midnight eyes watched her intently and calloused hands began to caress her.

"You're going to torture me to death?" She was panting as his fingers skimmed along the straps of material over her thighs.

"I want tonight to last forever, Morganna." His head bent, his lips moving over hers as he spoke, his eyes staring into hers. No barriers, no ice. Just Clint. "I want to hold tomorrow at bay as long as possible."

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