Page 15 of Mountain Defender

To make thingsspectacularlyworse, when Tripp mentioned measuring dicks, Alexia’s brain—and her eyes—had gone right to his crotch.

That led to wondering if he was bigeverywhereor was one of those huge muscled dudes with a reallysmallpackage.

Oh, would any woman give a damn about his size as long as those long, probably rough fingers were spreading her thighs and his long, probably scorching tongue stroked her clit?

She needed air.

A few adjustments of the controls brought cooler air blowing at her face, but that didn’t stop her from acknowledging the fact that the special operator sitting beside her was hot.

Bryson Tripp was no pretty boy like some she’d dated or worked with. His rugged features could entertain a woman for hours while he slept and she recovered from the dirty things his mouth did to her.

There was a certain degree of darkness in his gaze that appealed too.

She ran through her boyfriends in her head. Jason, Kevin, Jordan—damn, did she have a fetish for men with names that ended with the letterN?

She continued rolling through the list. Allen, Calum. Okay, she broke the name cycle with that one.

Ryan. Shit, she’d reverted on that guy. And to top it off, Ryan was the worst of the bunch. Why did she always go for the bad boys?

Bryson also had a name ending withNand he wasdefinitelya bad boy. Maybe the baddest of the bunch.

She was far more attracted to Bryson than any of her past boyfriends combined.

“It’s going to be like Ryan all over again,” she muttered.

“Who’s Ryan?” Did Tripp’s deep voice have to grate over her senses that way? It irritated her and left her skin prickling with goosebumps.

This was crazy. Five minutes ago she wanted to get in the Humvee and finish the job of running him over. After ten minutes in his company, she wanted to choke the man just to make him quit talking.

But wasn’t that how it started with her ex-boyfriend, Ryan? Angry banter had turned to hate sex that led to…

“He’s my ex.” Why was she answering Tripp’s question?

“Okay,” he said slowly. “Why is it going to be like him all over again?”

“Because I don’t have a good track record when it comes to guys who piss me off.”

The man’s hard lips quirked at one corner. “And that’s me.”

“You don’t need to sound so proud of yourself.”

“So what happened with Ryan?”

“I got him sent to prison.”

He didn’t even flinch. Only a heartbeat ticked by. “Wow, you’re cold. I thoughtIwas cold.”

“You look people in the eyes when you snuff out their life.”

Again, his expression showed no change from faint amusement at their discussion. “Yeah, but you sent your boyfriend to prison. That must make you undatable.”

“I am not undatable.”

“Oh yeah? Name your last date. Time, place and name of the guy.”

Her lips slammed shut. Realization stole over her.

After Ryan cheated on her, she’d done a little digging. That led to her finding out that he had a side business dealing drugs.

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