“What’s the other option?” he asked, embarrassed to admit that his teammates seemed to have no problem going from SEALs to civilians, but he was forever changed by his life in the navy.
It was an innate weakness in him. A deficiency. One he’d just as soon keep to himself.
“Option two.” Up went a second finger. In that moment, with her hair falling around her shoulders, and the breeze from the open window playing with the ends of her curls, she’d never looked more tempting. “Kiss me.”
“What?” he choked. “Why?”
“Because you said you and Donna aren’t exclusive and I—”
He shook his head, cutting her off. “Never mind. Doesn’t matter. The answer is no.”
“Which means you’ve chosen option one. So spill.”
He felt trapped. Desperate. There had to be a third option, but for the life of him, he couldn’t think of it. She turned his brain to mush.
“Why would you wanna kiss me?” His voice was so low and harsh it sounded like someone stood on his throat. Hefeltlike someone stood on his throat.
“I want to do a lotmorethan kiss you. But I think a kiss is a good compromise. Neither of us will get everything we’re after, but both of us will get something we want. I’ll get to see what it’s like to taste you, which I’ve been wanting to do since day one. And afterward, you’ll go on your merry way and I’ll never proposition you again.”
He shook his head the whole time she was talking. Now, he put words to the gesture. Granted, they weren’t terribly intelligible words. But they were words. And that was saying something considering…she wanted totastehim?
For fuck’s sake! Who says stuff like that?
Alex.
Alex, that’s who.
“No. That’s just… I just… I can’t,” he managed.
She tilted her head. It made one long curl come to rest in the dark hollow between her robe’s lapels. “So were you lying when you said you thought I was off-the-charts fuckable? If you don’t like me like that, if you don’twantme like that, I wish you’d—”
“Ilikeyou like that, Alex!” he roared so she’d shut up. Her words were coming so hard and fast he could. Not.Think.
She blinked. “You do?”
“Yes.”
She broke into a happy dance while sitting on the end of the bed. An actualhappy dance. And all her gyrating and twisting and finger-gun shooting caused her robe to fall open above the belt.
He was suddenly witness to the creamy inner curves of her breasts and an expanse of lickable skin that stretched from her neck all the way down to her navel.
Is shenakedunder there?
It was a good thing he was still seated. Otherwise, his legs would’ve given out on him and his ass would’ve been on the floor.
From somewhere, he wasn’t sure where, he found the strength to say, “Stop it.” When she didn’t, he hitched his chin toward her gaping robe and added breathlessly, “If you don’t stop, you’ll be stark naked in two seconds.”
Not that he would mind.
Or maybe he would. Because how thehellwould he ever withstand her advances if she was wearing nothing but God’s pajamas?
“What?” She glanced down. “Oh!” Blushing slightly, she pulled the halves of her robe together and tugged the belt tight.
He was able to breathe again. There was no hope for his raging hard-on, however. The thing had a mind of its own, and that mind kept replaying the sight of all that skin and that exquisite little belly button that was a perfect oval and just the right size for the tip of a man’s tongue.
She shot one of her finger guns at his nose and grinned in triumph. “To steal a line from Gracie Hart, Sandra Bullock’s character inMiss Congeniality, ‘You think I’m gorgeous. You want to kiss me. You want to hug me. You want to—’”
Jesus H. Christ. This was his greatest fantasy and biggest nightmare rolled into one. Alex, being all demanding and adorable. Him, knowing he had to resist her but not having the first clue how he was supposed to accomplish that.
