Page 93 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

"I can help with that," he told her, his voice so very considerate, edged with lust and erotic promise.

Insidious eroticism was what it was, because in the next second his lips covered hers, his arms holding her closer, giving her the support of his stronger body. His aroused body. His cock pressing into her belly, throbbing against her sweat-slicked flesh as her nipples were buried in the thatch of chest hair, raking into it, rasping the tender tips.

It wasn't just a kiss. It was an assault against her control. It was slow and savoring, a melding of lips and tongues, whispered groans and weak cries.

It was her arms wrapping around his neck to hold him closer, her soul devouring the emotional, sensual trails of pleasure to hold for the future. To remember in the event that he walked away and never returned.

"Better?" Ian crooned, his sandpapery voice sending a surge of sensation to strike at her womb.

"Don't have legs left," she muttered, trying to recapture his lips, to hold his kiss to her.

His chuckle was followed by a caress of those lips against her neck, to her ear, down to her shoulder.

"I'll be your legs." He picked her up and carried her to the bed, laying her along it as he came over her, stealing her lips again, his hands stroking over her breasts, cupping them, his thumbs rasping her nipples as his lips followed.

Kira shook her head desperately. She knew what he meant to do, and she couldn't bear it. He was imprinting her soul with his touch, with the pleasure only he could give her.

"Ian, please," she moaned, not that her plea distracted his lips from their course.

Taking stinging kisses from her neck, her collarbone, they arrowed to the tip of a tight, hard nipple, they destroyed any protest she would have further voiced.

"I want all of you tonight," he told her, staring down at her, his eyes darkening as she bit her lip and shook her head slowly. "All of you, Kira. If I have to let you walk beside me, then I'll know all of you belongs to me. Every inch of this sweet, hot body, every particle of your heart and soul. You'll be mine."

Her fists clenched in the blanket.

"No . . ."

"Fuck you, yes!" Anger flashed in his eyes. "You forced me to accept you being involved in this, now by God, you will accept me."

* * *

Twenty-four

SHE DIDN'T WANT HIS LOVE. The thought was ricocheting through Ian's head, burning through his own defenses and plain pissing him off.

She loved him. He knew she loved him. He could feel it, see it in her eyes, feel it in every touch of her body, but she didn't want his love in return.

Why?

He cupped the swollen mound of her breasts, felt the heat of her flesh and saw the flush of arousal that colored it. Her nipple was hard, distended, like a tender pebble against his tongue as she writhed beneath him.

Her eyes were shadowed, riotous with fear and pleasure, and that confused him. She confused him. The mix of vulnerable woman and courageous agent never failed to mesmerize him. She wasn't hard or embittered. She laughed, and she cared, and she loved, even knowing that those she loved could be taken from her in a second.

He licked at the tender hard flesh of her nipple and sucked it tenderly into his mouth at the thought. She loved him, though he had given her no reason to love. He had tried to push her away, even as he pulled her to him, several times. And she was always there, a part of him, sliding into his soul as though she had always been meant to be there.

Now she was denying him the same place within her, that same security. Damn her. She had made herself imperative within his life, so imperative that he had pushed aside his own prejudices about having a woman within one of his missions and let her in. She was part of the danger he was facing and she couldn't even enter the part of his soul that he had opened for her?

The hell she couldn't. She would, one way or the other, give them both what they needed.

"You're mine," he whispered against her sweat-slick flesh as he moved from one breast to the other, licking and nibbling, tasting her skin and becoming drunk on it.

"Please, Ian." Her gasp filled his head, passion and lust, defiance and need, echoing within it.

"Tell me you're mine." He licked over the opposite nipple, drew it into his mouth, and nearly shuddered as the taste of sweet female flesh infused his senses.

"I'm yours. I swear. I'm yours." She arched beneath him, pushing the berry-ripe tip deeper into his mouth.

He gave her what he knew she was aching for. His lips closed snug and tight over the tip of her breast. He sucked it inside, drawing on her, relishing the taste of her as his tongue lashed at her nipple.

---