But yet he continued to bury himself in the perfect bliss of her body, powerless to stop. He savored every nuance of her response while his own body quickened and a roar exploded from him along with the rush of his staggering release.
And while everything male in him—everything Breed—roared with the need to possess her.
To claim her as his.
CHAPTER 12
Soft footsteps and the faint floral scent of Devony’s shampooed hair alerted Rafe to her presence moments before she came into the open war room of her father’s study the next morning.
Rafe had been awake for hours, already showered and dressed while she slept. As one of the Breed, he didn’t require much sleep. Devony surely didn’t either, but when he left her bedside not long before daybreak, she hadn’t so much as stirred.
He should have left her Darkhaven as soon as he woke.
In truth, what he should have done was pack up her father’s files and her collected intel too, and brought it all directly to the Order. He still should, right after making his overdue call to headquarters to advise them to come and pluck Devony Winters off the dangerous path she was on and place her immediately under the Order’s protection.
Not to mention out of his reach.
Especially after his spectacular dereliction of duty last night.
“Good morning.” She walked up behind where he stood perusing the wall of photos and notes and diagrams. Her breasts pressed against his spine as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder. “How long have you been down here?”
He gave a slight shrug. “Not that long.”
He pivoted around to face her, if only to extricate himself from the enticing warmth of her embrace. Big mistake. She was even more tempting now that he was looking at her. Evidently fresh from a shower, she wore pink silk pajama shorts and a plain white cotton camisole.
The innocent combination did little to conceal her perky breasts and the sexydermaglyphsthat decorated so much of her gorgeous limbs and curves. Last night he’d tasted nearly every square inch of those limbs and curves.
Today, instead of feeling sated from the hours he’d spent buried deep inside her, he was having a damn hard time pretending he didn’t want to start all over again. Fresh guilt racked him over his disturbing lack of control, then and now.
He scowled. “How are you feeling?”
“Amazing.” Her satisfied smile should have made him feel anything but remorse. “And a little embarrassed, if you want to know the truth. I’ve never thrown myself at a man before. Good thing I didn’t realize what I was missing until last night.”
Rafe grunted, a grin tugging at his mouth against his will. As much as he wanted to regret making love with Devony, it was hard to get there when she was looking at him with a sultry gleam in her eyes. His cock stirred with instant, renewed interest, and his pulse kicked into a stronger tempo.
“I’ve never been someone’s first time before,” he muttered. “I’m sure I could’ve done a lot better by you.”
“That sounds intriguing. What do you have in mind?”
He chuckled. “Don’t ask. You might be shocked to know.”
“Really?” Her bourbon-hued eyes widened in interest. “Try me.”
Fuck. How the hell had they gone from “good morning” to talking about having sex again?
Rafe took a step back and cleared his throat. The document he held in his hand when she came into the room was now crushed in his fist.
Devony noticed it. “Is that one of my activity logs on Cruz’s gang?”
“Yeah.” He’d been combing through her files for the past couple of hours, absorbing every detail he could, and snapping photos of the items that were too extensive to commit to memory.
He learned that she had been embedded with Ricardo Cruz and his gang for nearly two months. Before that, she had infiltrated a different area gang, and still another before that. She had been dogged in her pursuit of information, and during that time had managed to keep a journal of each group’s various criminal jobs, relevant conversations, even minutiae that might otherwise be overlooked.
To say she was thorough was an understatement. And fearless.
He didn’t want to consider how great the loss would be to his mission once he arranged for the Order to come in and remove her from the field.
Rafe set the log down on a worktable in the war room, then strode up to the four walls of intel that reminded him of a general’s plan for a sweeping war campaign. “How long do you believe Cruz has been associating with Judah LaSalle?”
