Her Dying Breath (35 page)

That touched him more than anything.

“I know.” Unable to resist, he thumbed a strand of hair from her forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t need a doctor?”

“My head will be fine.” Her eyes glittered with unspoken emotions. “But I’m not okay if you think I’m capable of these crimes.”

Nick’s hard heart softened, and he traced a finger over her mouth. “I don’t think that, Brenda. But I do think that Seven has an agenda, and that for some reason that we don’t understand yet, you’re at the center of it.”

Relief echoed in her soft sigh. “I agree, but I don’t understand the reason,” she whispered. “If I did, I’d tell you, Nick. I respect you and your devotion to the job.”

Nick’s lungs constricted. He’d tried for years to win his father’s respect, but becoming a monster was the only way to do that.

And he refused to turn into his father.

“You don’t really know me,” he said, his voice thick as images of his military missions bombarded him. The bodies lying dead, the secret attacks…“Don’t know what I’ve done.”

Brenda lifted her hand and pressed it against his cheek. “I know everything that’s important.”

Heat built inside Nick, the urge to kiss her blinding him to any rational thought. He had wanted Brenda as a teenager, and even more desperately since they’d been working together.

How could he not steal this one moment?

All he needed was a taste to satisfy the raging hunger inside him.

Then Brenda wet her lips with her tongue, and he was lost. He cradled her face in his hands, angled his head, and lowered his mouth to hers. Brenda parted her lips in invitation and slid her hands up to grasp his arms, holding on to him as if she never wanted to let him go.

That was all the encouragement he needed. He dragged her to him and deepened the kiss, savoring the way she felt in his arms, the soft purr she made in her throat as his tongue explored her mouth. Body hardening, he backed her against the wall, one hand trailing down to her hips to yank her up against him.

She fit perfectly into the V of his thighs. His cock strained against the fly of his jeans.

He wanted her like he’d never wanted another woman.

Brenda ran her hands over his back, urging him closer, and he dragged his mouth from hers and trailed kisses along her ear and down her neck, nibbling at the soft skin of her throat.

She tasted like sin and forbidden desires that he’d never allowed himself to indulge in.

Because she had been with Jake.

He’d vowed never to be second best to Jake, to make his own way, and now here he was about to take Jake’s first girlfriend to bed.

Anger at himself for falling into the same trap he had as a teenager slammed into him, and he pulled away. Brenda’s breathing rasped out, and she reached for him.

“Nick—”

“Don’t,” he said. “That was a mistake.”

“Why?” she asked, need still flaring in her eyes.

At least the passion hadn’t been just one-sided. She truly looked hungry for him.

The desire in her eyes made it more difficult to walk away.

But he had a case to solve. And the killer had left evidence here that he needed to get processed. Not that he thought it would lead them to anything that their unsub didn’t want found.

She was too clever for that.

He walked over to the bedroom window and looked out, determined to regain control.

“Nick?” Brenda grabbed his arm and swung him around to look at her, but he remained rigid. “At least give me a reason. I want you, and it’s obvious you want me. Why shouldn’t we be together?”

“I told you, you don’t know me.”

“I know that I feel the heat between us. I’ve wanted you for years—”

“Even when you were sleeping with Jake?” The moment he uttered the words, Nick wished he could retract them.

“That’s the reason you keep pushing me away?”

Nick strode past her, determined to get back to business. The sooner he left, the less chance he would have of revealing all his hand.

And his feelings for Brenda.

Because, whether he wanted to or not, he felt something for her. Call it lust and concern mixed together, but he felt
emotions
he hadn’t felt in a long damn time.

Brenda’s fingers dug into his arm. “I never slept with Jake, Nick.”

His gaze met hers. “But—”

Her eyes pleaded with him to believe her. “It’s true, Nick. Jake and I were…only friends.”

He studied every nuance of her body language and inflection of her voice for the truth. And there it was. “But you dated for months—”

“I went through a difficult period at home,” she said, her voice quavering. “And Jake was…nice. He talked to me, helped me fit in, make friends. But early on, we both realized there was nothing more between us. No chemistry.”

Nick struggled to remember all those years ago, but he’d been messed up by his father and jealous of Jake, his easier manner with the girls and his popularity in school.

He’d assumed his brother and Brenda had slept together. Now that he thought about it, Jake never claimed to have bedded Brenda. At the time, he assumed Jake was being modest. Jake had never been the type to brag about how many girls he’d slept with, like some of the other jocks.

Brenda slipped a hand up to stroke his cheek. “I wanted you back then,” she whispered. “But Jake was safe, and I was afraid to let you know that I had a crush on you.”

He gripped her hands, stopping her when she reached for the buttons on his shirt. “You aren’t afraid now?”

A sultry smile lit her eyes. “Yes,” she whispered. “But I want you anyway.”

Brenda’s soft admission unraveled the last shred of his restraint, and he dragged her up against him and claimed her mouth again, this time allowing himself to finally express the heat and hunger exploding between them.

Brenda gave in to the desire she’d felt for Nick for years and teased his mouth with her tongue as she unbuttoned his shirt. He yanked her blouse over her head and tossed it to the floor, his mouth nipping at her neck as he trailed kisses and tongue lashes downward.

She curled into him, her breath catching at the hot passion in his kiss. His hands were everywhere, stroking and rubbing and feeling, bringing her to life with titillating sensations.

The buttons popped on his shirt in her haste to touch him, then he helped her by yanking off the shirt and throwing it to the floor with hers. Brenda had known Nick was strong, but seeing his well-honed muscles tensing as she raked her hand over his torso, then her lips over his chest, sent a wave of pleasure rocking through her.

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” Brenda whispered as she trailed her fingers south to unsnap his jeans.

“So have I,” Nick admitted gruffly.

The hushed sound of his voice against her breasts nearly drove her to her knees. She shucked her jeans and his followed, his perusal sending a thousand mind-numbing sensations across her body.

“You’re even more beautiful than I dreamed.”

“You dreamed about me?” Brenda said as she gripped his hips and pulled him to her.

His eyes darkened with a raw need that tore at her heart and made her kiss him again. God, she was falling in love with this man.

But telling him would send him running.

So she told him with her eyes, and her hands, and her mouth.

He pushed her to the chaise, then climbed above her and cupped her breasts with his big hands.

Her nipples stiffened to peaks, aching for more, and he unfastened the front clasp of her lacy bra so her breasts fell into his hands.

“You’re even more spectacular than I imagined,” Nick said as he lowered his head and tugged one turgid nipple into his mouth. Sensations surged through Brenda, and she traced her fingers over his back, silently begging for more.

He didn’t disappoint. He laved one nipple, then the other, suckling the tips until she shoved at his boxers, needing to be closer.

Needing more. All of Nick. Inside her.

“Nick…”

His wicked chuckle tickled her belly as he trailed his tongue lower. He knew he was torturing her, and he loved it. His teeth tugged at her panties, then he peeled them off her. Brenda groaned and shoved at his boxers, and he complied, kicking them to the pile with the rest of their clothes.

She laughed as he leaned over to grab a condom from the pocket of his jeans, but her laughter died when she felt his thick length pulsing between her thighs.

He was huge, hard, more impressive than any man she’d ever been with. But there was more—it was his strong, tough, masculine body that made him even more exciting.

She wrapped her fingers around the head of his cock and stroked him, her body yearning for completion. But Nick shook his head with a lecherous grin, dipped lower, and placed his mouth on her aching damp center.

Brenda clawed at the sheets, mindlessly succumbing to his ministrations as he lifted her hips and dove deeper. One tongue swirl against her clit and she came apart, moaning as sensation after sensation splintered through her.

“I need you, Nick,” she moaned.

He drew her sensitive nub into his mouth, sucking her until she cried out his name. “Please…”

She dug her hands into his hair, pleasure rocking through her as he rose above her, wrapped his hand around his thick length and teased her with it. She kissed him fiercely, tasting herself on his lips as he thrust inside her.

Brenda moaned again as his big cock filled her. She had never felt anyone so big, so powerful, so all-consuming.

With a soft groan, he pulled out, leaving her shaking and hungry for more. “Nick, please…”

His dark gaze latched on to hers, a sexy grin on his face. “Tell me you want me. That you want more.”

“I want you,” she whispered hoarsely. “I want more, please, Nick, I want more.”

The sound of Brenda’s whispered moans and pleas nearly made Nick come. But he wanted to last, wanted her to know he’d claimed her, wanted her to remember what it felt like to have him inside her.

He teased her sweet, slick folds again, then gripped her hips, angled her for his taking, then rammed his cock inside her.

Brenda’s body spasmed around him, her shudders exciting him more, and he pulled out, then thrust into her again, building a frantic rhythm as his own hunger took over and drove him to drive deeper and faster. Deeper and faster, deeper and faster, until she cried out again with another orgasm.

He pulled out one last time, his heart racing as she grabbed his sex and guided it back inside her. He was so hard and aching that his control snapped, and he built the rhythm again, pounding inside her over and over, filling her, until his own release spilled from him.

Even then, he wanted her again.

The thought terrified him. He’d never needed a woman so intensely. Never felt such emotions pummeling him.

Never wanted to hold a woman forever.

But that was what Brenda did to him.

Inhaling to calm his raging emotions, he kissed her again, then rolled her to her side and pulled her into his embrace. Whatever happened, he intended to enjoy himself tonight.

Tomorrow morning, they would face Seven and the fact that for some reason she’d left damning evidence of the murders in Brenda’s apartment.