Jaden’s finger traced her lips before moving to outline her jawbone, his every touch flaming her insides, sending volts of desire through her. She wanted to let go, to trust it would all work out, but her childhood hadn’t been spent dreaming of white towers, horses, and handsome dark knights. Hers had been spent protecting herself from nearly everyone.
She refocused her attention on Jaden’s face. Taking in all the pain behind those dark eyes, she asked, “You said you had a brother. Is there any other family back home?”
“No.”
“Surely there’s someone you need to get back to,” she said.
“If you’re talking about women, there’ve been a few.”
Next time she felt the urge to ask a question she didn’t want the answer to, she’d try to remember to keep her mouth shut. She had a past. He had a past. Did they really need to know every detail?
“This job doesn’t exactly lend itself to long-term relationships. Not when I’m gone with assignment eleven months out of the year. Not a lot of women are willing to put up with that,” he said with his dry crack of a smile.
She figured plenty wouldn’t mind waiting for a man as sexy as Jaden. She couldn’t help but wonder how many women had trailed behind him trying to get him to leave his job and commit. A few? A couple dozen?
One look at him said the number had to be high. She had eyes. The man was drop dead gorgeous, dark and mysterious. A potent combination that would drive most women into frenzy.
Out of the corner of his mouth he said, “There’ve been a lot of women. But no one special.”
Not sure if she dreamed he’d said it or if she’d even heard him correctly. It didn’t matter. She wanted nothing more than to feel his warm skin against hers.
The man in front of her was real. Made her body flame with passion. Desire made every nerve ending from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes tingle with anticipation, need. A distant little voice reminded her how truly dangerous a man like him was.
When his erection pressed against her, all rational thought flew out the window. She’d wanted this man from the moment she saw him. He brought her entire body to life, and she didn’t know how much longer she could hold back.
They were face-to-face. Body to body. Skin to skin. She had nothing more than a towel wrapped around her.
Jaden wasn’t thinking clearly, couldn’t formulate a coherent argument as to why the moment between him and Lauren shouldn’t happen. It had all the earmarks of disaster written all over it, but he was too involved to care. Being with her made him wish for things he shouldn’t.
So he defied logic and pulled her closer, moving to the back bedroom to ensure a moment of privacy.
“And Lauren. I’m not like those men from your past. You don’t have to be afraid of me.” He set his jaw, wanting her to hear those words and take them to heart. “I’ll take care of you if you let me.”
She looked up at him with wide golden eyes, glittery with desire, before squeezing them shut and burrowing into his chest. Before he could say or do anything he found himself holding onto the shaking beauty. Lauren. She was right there in his arms where he wanted her. And it felt so right.
“I believe you,” she said.
He stroked her hair as he leaned forward until his lips were within an inch of the nape of her neck. His heart thumped against his rib cage.
The pain rifling his body a distant memory, replaced by an ache to feel her bare skin against his. To wrap her in his arms and feel her long legs alongside his.
A thin piece of cotton couldn’t insulate the raw sexual heat between them.
Her body quaked under his touch, while something deep within him needed to make her feel wanted and safe. His breath thickened. He couldn’t think straight. She felt so right in his arms, fit him perfectly.
“Do you trust me?” he asked, and it was important for him to know the answer. She’d already told him she spent way too much of her childhood fearing men. He needed her to believe he wasn’t like them.
“Yes,” she said.
Sure, she was flawless. Big brown-gold eyes. Taut body. That wasn’t what made the image of her replay in his mind relentlessly like a hit song on the radio. It wasn’t the soft curve of her hip, endless legs, the way her full, luscious lips fell into a pout. It was the strength and courage she displayed in the face of danger. And something more, something deeper that he didn’t want to examine further.
Jaden trailed his finger along the tender part of her arm. Should he even be touching a woman who was tightly linked to his case? An asset?
Consequences be damned.
He couldn’t stop if he tried.
The way she reacted to his lightest touch, her body quaking under his fingertips, made him want more.
Without another word, Jaden pressed a kiss to the small freckle above her lip before his lips found hers, pressing down hungry and needy. Her mouth moved against his, her tongue teasing his.
The creak of the slider opening in the next room scarcely registered over the sounds of the rain and the thundering of his own heart.
Agency guys wouldn’t sneak in.
This wasn’t good. Their position had been compromised. How in the hell had that happened?
The obvious answer was that someone in his agency couldn’t be trusted.
He eased back to look Lauren square in the eyes as he pressed his index finger to his lips.
In barely
