She rested her hand on his chest, fingers splayed like she was steadying herself. Her touch was light at first, exploring, but she moved like a woman who knew what she wanted.
When she rose onto her toes and brushed her mouth against his, there was no hint of hesitation.
His body reacted instantly, fire racing through him with an urgency that surprised even him. He’d wanted her since the restaurant, since he saw her smile. And even though he knew she’d been acting the part, he wanted to see it again and again.
He wanted to putrealsmiles on her beautiful face.
But this had become more than an op, more than partnership. He needed her to know he was in this and he wasn’t walking away.
Maybe it was feeling protective of his mom after what they’d endured when he was growing up. Maybe it was seeing his cousins getting touched by much older men in his uncle’s pizza shop. But when Opal told him what happened in the alley, something fierce and protective had settled in his chest.Knowing what could have happened while he wasn’t there to stop it—
He issued a low rumble, cupping her head and drawing her deeper into the kiss. He hadn’t wanted anyone with a force like this before. This raw attraction had started back on the first day, in the war room, when she showed him what she was made of by not breaking eye contact.
He tugged her flush against him, and she molded her sharp curves to him like they were one body never meant to be parted. His cock steeled behind his fly.
Her lips moved in a demand that he matched stroke for stroke. She tasted like heat and desire, and he couldn’t get enough.
The moan she made sent a thrill straight to his core. Growling, he tore his mouth free.
“Make that sound again for me.”
“Sinner…”
Taking over again, he eased his hands up her spine, all the way from the curve of her buttocks to her nape before he sank his fingers into her hair. The strands slipped through his fingers like threads of silk. Damn if he didn’t picture her hair spread across his chest after they rattled these flimsy hotel walls with her screams of pleasure.
He tugged lightly on her hair, arching her neck and planting his lips right over her pulse.
Whether she wanted to make the sound or not, she gave it to him—an unhinged rasp that tore at him.
With a sucking pull on her throat, he palmed her small breast through her borrowed blouse, and her nipple pebbled at his touch.
Her hand flailed in the air and found purchase on his chest, twisting his shirt. She tugged—just once—pulling him toward the bed.
Not yet.
Panting, he broke from the kiss. Her eyes were hazy with desire. For a beat, he didn’t know if he could stop.
Christ, he wanted her so badly his hands shook with the effort of pulling away.
He caught her wrists, holding her in place, forcing her to look at him. “Opal.”
Her eyes flashed, some of the blurry haze clearing.
“I need to know.” He lowered his forehead to hers, breathing in the scent that was all her. “That this isn’t you trying to make things disappear. That you’re not doing this to bury what happened tonight—or run from your past.”
True to herself, she didn’t look away, always stubborn and brave in that way that got to him.
Her breath hitched. “I’m not trying to forget. I’m choosing.”
The words hit him square in the chest.
She slid one hand free of his grip and rested it over his heart, right where it thundered. “I’ve spent my whole life reacting. Surviving. Tonight, I don’t want to react. I want to… I want to want something. I want you.”
The last of his restraint shattered.
He claimed her mouth again, slower this time but no less intense, pouring everything he hadn’t let himself say into the press of his lips. He framed her face with his hands, thumbs brushing her cheekbones but careful not to touch the scrape some asshole put there.
She melted into him, sliding her arms around his neck and fitting her body to his again. He was so much bigger than her—all over. Yet she seemed to find the perfect points to connect their bodies.
