Page 75 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

The shadows of the past washed over him. For a moment, just a moment, he was a child again, screaming in agony through an empty Texas night as his mother lay in his arms, near death. He had screamed until his voice broke, until he couldn't scream anymore. Until hope had leached from his body with the same burning pain that his mother's blood wept from hers.

Out of the night came a child and his father. The boy who had heard his screams and awakened his family. Nathan had saved his life and the life of his mother. Ian hadn't forgotten that. He wouldn't forget it.

"How's he doing?" The question was dragged from him. "He's holding up?"

"He's holding up." He heard in her voice what she refused to voice. The battle Nathan was waging just to live, to survive the operations he had had no choice but to endure and the effects of the whore's dust that had been pumped into him for so many months.

The synthetic date rape drug in such large amounts should have been fatal. Nathan shouldn't have survived the first month.

He released her slowly. "We need to shower. I have to check on Deke, and I have a few meetings to attend in Palm Beach. You'll be by my side. My trophy. Try not to let everyone see just how dangerous you can be for the time being."

If she was going to work this mission then he was going to use her particular talents effectively. She looked like soft fluff. Delicate. Girly. Femininely arrogant.

"I've got your six, bad boy." Her hands smoothed over the side of his ass and Ian couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips.

"More than you know." A quick kiss to her lips and he turned and headed to the shower. "I'll get things together while you shower; for now, see if you can contact Daniel. You have a four-minute secure window with the security protocols. Make it fast and tell him to stay the hell out of the way. I'd hate to see him killed because he blindsided me or Deke, Kira. Make sure it doesn't happen."

Later, Ian braced his hands against the shower wall and let the warm water flow over him. Control. That was all he needed, just a little more control and he could get through this. It was moving rapidly. The team he had sent in to take Sorrell's men was one of the best he had brought together from among the cartel soldiers Diego possessed when Ian took over the cartel.

Led by a former Russian militant, the men had training and experience that was on a level with some Special Forces teams Ian knew of. They were quick, effective, and merciless. And Ian had learned that mercy in this world brought nothing but more blood. There was no mercy. There was right of might and nothing more.

He lifted his head to the water, letting it flow over his face as his chest clenched and agony welled inside him. The blood he had shed since coming here would haunt him forever. It didn't matter that the blood was as vicious and evil as the world itself. He hadn't killed innocents. It was war, he tried to tell himself. A diseased world and he was weeding out the infection. But that didn't help anymore. It hadn't helped since the first night Kira had shown up.

It had sliced into him the night before as the words of love burst from her lips. Love for Kira would mean everything. Whoever or whatever she loved would have one hundred percent of who she was, she would give her life for whoever she loved. And he couldn't allow that. He had to keep her safe even while allowing her into the mess his life had become.

As his eyes opened, the shower door slid to the side, and she stepped into the steamy atmosphere with him. Her gray eyes were soft, her expression filled with concern, and with love.

He had to touch her. His arms went around her, his hands flattening against her back as he pulled her against his aroused body and took her lips before she could speak.

Whatever Daniel had reported to her, he didn't want to know. Not yet. First, he had to taste her once more. Fill his senses with her heat and her passion.

One hand slid between her thighs and found her creamy, slick with her own need. That was what he needed. Kira wet and ready for him.

Hands clenching in her buttocks now, he lifted her, feeling slender legs grip his hips as he pressed the painfully thickened flesh of his cock head into the folds of her sex.

No condom. Not this time. She was protected. He knew for damned certain he was safe. And he needed this. Needed to take her naked, with nothing between them, nothing separating their lust.

His head fell back on his shoulders at the intensity of sensation that whipped up his spine. His balls drew tight, his jaw clenched with the need to hold back. He could have spilled himself inside her in that moment as inch by inch she tightened around the impalement, her moans whispering around him as he braced her shoulders against the shower wall.

She was like pure heat. White-hot. Cutting through bitterness and pain to the core of his soul and wrapping around it tighter than her legs were now wrapped around his hips.

Opening his eyes, he tilted his head to lower his lips to hers once again. To sip from the shower-wet curves as he opened her slowly, his cock flexing, throbbing.

"It's like possessing life," he whispered against her lips. "And feeling it envelop me. Do you know that, Kira?"

Shock darkened her eyes.

"Do you know what you do to me?" He groaned roughly as he slid in to the hilt and felt her pussy tightening convulsively, milking his flesh.

"What you do to me?" She gasped, her hands tightening on his shoulders. "Oh God, Ian. You make me come apart."

She was coming apart? He was melting inside. He could feel the heat burning him alive as her head lowered to his chest, her sharp little teeth nipping at his flesh as he began to thrust inside her.

Her pussy was so tight. So hot. It seared his flesh with liquid heat and tightened on it with firm, rhythmic milking motions. The sensations stroked over the sensitive nerve endings of his cock head, rippled through the shaft, and struck his balls with fingers of heat. They drew tight beneath the shaft, ached with the need to come. Her lips scraped over his chest, adding to the pleasure tearing through him. Her hungry moans filled his head, the prick of her nails on his shoulders added to the incredible rapture he could only find in taking her, possessing her.

"Don't leave me." He tightened his teeth as the words slipped past his lips, as the emotions tearing through him found voice.

"Never. Oh God, Ian. Never."

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