Tempting the Fire (16 page)

“How is it?”

“Sore, but much better.” She reached up to rub the knotted muscles. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you … so, thank you.”

He gestured for her to move closer. “Let me. I give good massages.”

“I’ll just bet,” she muttered, but she eased around, and the moment his strong, warm hands came down on her shoulder, she groaned with relief.

And strangely, that’s when she realized she’d allowed him to touch her because she wanted it, not because she needed to seduce him.

Fuck. She was in a lot of trouble.

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They sat in silence for a while, Chance resting on the cot, Marlena sitting at the table, mainly because Chance continued to listen to the men on the other side of the camp.

He said that sometimes conversations came through clearly, other times, if too many people were talking at once, in a jumble. And she could tell when it all became too much for him, because he shook his head as if clearing it of everything he’d heard, and sat up. Looked at her, the familiar burn of desire in his eyes.

God, that was nice. Despite everything.

She spoke first. “I’m sorry about all of this, Chance.”

“Why? You didn’t bite me,” he said, and then he shot her a small, albeit wicked grin. “Well, not like that anyway.”

The man could still make jokes—even after all he’d learned. The familiar heat flooded her body. He was aroused too—she could see it. But she supposed their mutual panic took precedence over that desire for now.

“ Your family must be worried about you,” he said after a few more minutes had passed.

She’d considered ACRO—Devlin—her family for ten years and, yes, he always worried about her. As for her biological family … “I don’t have one. My dad, stepmom and stepsister were all killed in a car accident.”

The raw hitch in her voice surprised her—she’d thought she’d come to grips with her past a long time ago. She’d never known her mom—Marlena was the product of good-bye sex between her parents on the day their divorce had been finalized, and her mom had died during childbirth. Her father had remarried, had a new wife and a ten-year-old stepdaughter. Neither Kelly nor Gillian had welcomed the newborn baby girl into their lives.

Marlena’s father had done his best to compensate for the loss of her mother, but he’d overcompensated, and the bitterness that had taken root inside Kelly when Marlena was born had bloomed into insane hatred as the years passed.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “What about your biological mother?”

Marlena wasn’t sure why she was choosing to share this with him, could’ve easily come up with some lie. But ever since she’d had to break the news about the chupacabra situation to him, she felt the urge for honesty.

If she could tell him about ACRO, that she was one of the good guys, that maybe they could even help him …

No. She couldn’t share that now. Not yet. “I don’t remember her. She died when I was born. But my dad always said I looked just like her.”

Chance’s face tightened. “You’ve been through a lot—no wonder you’re so 92

tough. Where’d you grow up?”

She knew what he was doing, trying to make conversation to take their minds off what was going to happen. Thank God for that. “Kansas.”

“I’m a Vegas boy myself.”

“Worlds apart,” she murmured.

“Not so much now,” he countered.

“That’s the sex talking.” Mated. For life. Holy crap.

He must’ve seen the look of panic cross her face, because she felt panicked when she thought about that. She’d desired to fall in love for real more than anything in the world—and now she’d met someone she wanted to fall for. And he was turning into a monster. Who’d mated with her.

Yeah, someone upstairs was laughing their ass off at her.

Chance’s voice was steady when he next spoke. Firm. Strong. “I hate it that you’re with me out of pity. I hate that you’ve seen me turn into something ugly.

Because I’m not that fucking monster, Marlena. I’m a Navy chief. A good man.”

“I know that.”

“If I can learn to control this—if it can’t be cured entirely—I can still …”

He trailed off, shaking his head. “I don’t want to talk about this now.”

“You fought for your life, and you won,” she whispered. “You can do it again. I’ve seen miracles happen.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself. After every mission, whether they went right or wrong, I put one foot in front of the other, lived one day at a time, because I realized early on there’s no other way. Spending time appreciating what you’ve got is much better than bitching about what you don’t.”

“Those are words to live by.”

He smiled. “Yeah, well, someone’s got to be the optimist of the group. On my team, that was my role. Loved my job.”

“I can tell.”

“What about you?”

“My job is … it’s just a job. And somehow, it’s also my entire life. My world. I know that doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes sense if you’re lonely.”

She opened her mouth to protest, to tell him she was just fine, but all that came out was a small sob. Horrified, she turned away and sat on the cot, her back to him, and pulled herself together. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know you bite your bottom lip when you get nervous. I know you twirl your hair when you’re amused. And when you get shy, your smile is lopsided.”

How had he noticed those little things about her? No man beyond Devlin had known so much about her, and that had taken a long time to happen. She’d been so busy under a fog of lust, so busy wondering why she hadn’t fallen head over heels for Chance, she hadn’t taken much time to notice anything about him.

He was rubbing her back. She wiped the tears away with a fisted hand and whispered, “I’m supposed to be comforting you.”

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“Ah, is that how it works? I’ve never done well with being fussed over.”

She leaned back against him and he put his arms around her. They stayed like that until he said, “Marlena, it’s time. You need to leave me. Go to your tent and just stay there, okay?” She turned to him, the pained look on his face heartbreaking. “Please. Make this easy on me.”

How could she deny him that? She twined her fingers through his hair, drew him in for a deep kiss. And when she broke away, she couldn’t say anything, for fear of crying. So she forced herself to smile at him before she left the tent, and then she hurried across the compound to the smaller tent where Sela had found her last night, and watched out the window.

If she couldn’t be with him, she could at least keep an eye on his tent and hope he remained safe.

She put a hand to her belly to quell the butterflies—butterflies—at the thought of Chance. Her heart raced, her face warmed, and although she was afraid for him, what she felt most definitely went beyond fear. Beyond lust. Sure, when she was with him, that pull was unmistakable. But this …

This was what caring deeply for someone was really like when it happened naturally instead of as the result of a malicious curse. The feelings were there, inside her, not circling just outside her grasp or crushing her with artificial intensity.

And so Chance—part man, part beast—was part of her mission, and she might be mated to him for life … but there was now the strong possibility that she was actually also able to fall in love with him.

She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, and so she did both.

LOGAN SLID HIS HANDS ALONG S ELA’S SHOULDER. “DAMN,

you’re all knotted up.”

“That’s what happens when you get slammed against a tree,” she said dryly, but there was no complaint in her voice. Girl was tough.

Girl was hot.

He let his fingers slip under the crew neck of her T-shirt, skin on skin, and she let out a moan she didn’t bother to muffle. “You have magic hands.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” he murmured, continuing the massage until she became relaxed, nearly purring.

God, he wanted her. Needed her. And there was no way they were leaving this cave without him taking her at least once, maybe twice, and closer to four times, because they had an entire night ahead of them. A nice, long, dark night, and a nice, cool cave, which would require body heat.

His erection pressed into her lower back and he made no attempt to hide it.

She leaned against him and a harsh groan rose in his throat. The friction was good, really goddamned good, and she knew it.

She turned into him then, and he tightened his arms around her, and without 94

preamble, he kissed her—a deep, hot kiss that reverberated through his body. She tugged at his T-shirt, and the feel of her hands on his shoulders was like licks of fire along his skin. He hadn’t had such a heightened reaction to a woman since he’d been fitted with the bioware, didn’t think he was capable of feeling so good

… or feeling much of anything.

Her hands were in his hair now, twisted there to keep him from pulling away as the intensity between them built. He wanted her so much, and not just physically. His emotions were actually functioning, and it was odd and crazy and wonderful.

It had been so long—he couldn’t remember wanting this badly. Truthfully, before the accident and the bioware, he’d taken arousal and the swirl of emotions that came with it for granted.

He hadn’t realized what he’d been missing—and he had no idea why it had returned now, with Sela, but hell, he was going to enjoy it.

She shifted her hips against him, ankles catching together behind his lower back, and was kissing him as if her life depended on it.

Everything fucking depended on him—getting the chupacabra for Itor Corp, thus saving a major contract for GWC, figuring out what the hell to do about Chance, keeping Sela alive …

She’d pulled back, took his face in her hands. “Now’s not the time to be thinking.”

“That’s one of the smartest things you’ve ever said.”

“You’re just lucky you’re sexy.”

“Yes … lucky.” Quickly, he skimmed her shirt off, had her in his arms in seconds, his tongue flicking an already hardened nipple. She buried her face in his hair as she rocked against him and he could come this way—didn’t want to, but he could easily.

He tore his mouth away for a second. “Are you wet for me, baby?”

“Mmmmm.”

He tugged the nipple between his teeth and she groaned. He sucked again, hard, and she brought his hand between her thighs and began to rub there. “Logan, the things you make me want to do … you have no idea.”

He had an idea—many, many ideas. Including her hot sex sheathing his cock tightly—and oh, yeah, he needed that, and soon. Could take her any way and every way she wanted, pictured her up against the wall and under him and on him, and all of those ways included him coming inside of her. “Tell me, then.”

“I want to feel you, inside me, filling me. Making me scream.”

“Consider it done, Sela.” His hand slipped inside the front of her pants, but he couldn’t get far enough down to touch.

“I want to feel how wet you are. I want to see it. Smell it. Taste it. Take your clothes off for me—all of them.” His voice was husky now, thick with lust, and when she stripped her pants and thong off, he drew a slow breath at her beauty.

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She had the kind of toned, slim body that was still lush enough to bring a man to his knees. He was already long past that. And when she walked back to him, he grabbed her hips and brought her sex to his mouth, licked her wet heat while her soft moans bounced off the cave walls. His tongue probed her clit—it was hard and throbbing and he knew he could push her over the edge easily.

He buried his face against her, sucked and lapped until everything was sticky and sweet and she was grabbing at him hard as she came.

He continued to kiss his way down her thighs while she rested her hands on top of his head and then she was ordering him to strip. He barely got his pants unbuttoned before she was straddling him.

He didn’t have time to get completely out of his BDUs, and they remained open as she took him inside of her. Her back arched and she let out a low keening moan that bounced off the stone walls and echoed beyond.

He needed to tell her to keep it down, not to draw attention to their hiding place, but he loved watching her, hearing her …

He was making her crazy and happy and pleasured and it made him swell with a primal pride. “Ride me, Sela.”

And she did, hands on his shoulders, a fierce, sexy smile of pleasure as she took him—and oh, yes, it had been years since sex had been this good.

He buried his face against her breasts as his balls tightened—and as she cried out in a release, he prepared to lose himself in her.

“DEAR … GOD.” SELA’S ENTIRE BODY SHOOK WITH PLEASURE

as she came down from an orgasm that had blasted her apart right to each individual cell.

Since she’d been at ACRO, sex with men had been about the job, about their orgasms. She’d faked hers, partly because the guys she’d fucked had been scum she could barely pretend to be attracted to, and partly because when she came, she was too busy concentrating on her pleasure to get a good read on her partner.

But Logan was different. He was the sexiest man she’d ever seen, and for once, having sex for the job wasn’t a hardship.

Beneath her, Logan surged, his big body arching and retreating as he held her hips so she was at the mercy of his thrusts. “You’re so fucking hot when you come.” His voice was ragged and raw, his eyes glinting in the darkness.

Her sex was still clenching around his thick cock, her tissues sensitive and swollen and ready for another release. But Logan had the control of a machine, and he ceased moving, lay there motionless. Even his breathing was slow and steady, and the only visible sign that he was turned on was the fine sheen of sweat that coated his throat, making the straining tendons stand out.

She so wanted to lick it right off him.

“Lean back. Brace yourself with your arms.” His command shot through 96

her in a shiver of excitement.

Unsure what he had planned, she put her palms flat on the ground behind her, making her spine arch and her thighs spread wide. His heavy-lidded gaze dropped to where they were joined, and … ah, she got it. He wanted to watch his shaft slide in and out, wanted to create their own little porn show.