“There are other agents who can handle the operation in Berlin.” Plenty of them. “There is only one agent who has a documented romantic history with you.” He took a hard step toward her. “Only one agent who can play the desperate and determined, former lover who came running so that he could stop your marriage ceremony.” Another hard step. Her wide eyes were on him. “Only one who was consumed with jealousy and had to steal you away.” She’d backed up against the edge of a big, wooden desk in the room. There was nowhere else for her to retreat. So he eliminated the last bit of distance between them. He leaned forward, slapping his hands down on the wood on either side of her. “Only one who wants his second chance. Who will do anything for it.”
She wet her lips. That sexy, pink tongue. Those full, plump lips.
“That’s our cover story.” His gaze lingered on her mouth. Because, yeah, he wanted her mouth. He wanted her. “That’s our back story. It fits perfectly. Much better that way. Less chance that Wellington will realize that he’s walking straight into a major trap. He won’t know that I’m CIA. He’ll just know that I’m the man who took you away from him.” He finally yanked his gaze up. Locked his eyes with hers.
“Our cover story,” she repeated. Her head tipped back as she held his stare.
“The cover story will have to look very, very real,” he warned her. “We will look real. You won’t look real with Ryan or any other random agent because you won’t be comfortable with them putting their hands on you.” I won’t be comfortable with them putting their hands on you. I will want to break those hands. The same way he wanted to break Kurt Wellington’s hands. “Kurt will know how you act with lovers. So he won’t buy the bait if you look too stiff. With me, you won’t?—”
“He doesn’t.”
His brows shot up. “Doesn’t what?” She’d lost him. And he’d been trying to sell his case so hard.
“Doesn’t know how I act. Kurt and I were not lovers. So he doesn’t know how I act with a lover.”
His hands pressed harder to the desk. “Don’t tell me what you think I fucking want to hear. You were going to marry him.”
“Why would you want to hear that?”
Because he was insane with jealousy. Because the thought of Kurt touching her, fucking her, made him want to rip the man apart.
“Why would it matter to you at all?” Delaney asked.
He leaned in even closer to her. “It matters because I’ve never been able to stop thinking of you as mine.” Even as he said the words, Nash knew he’d crossed a major line.
A shake of her head. “I’m not?—”
Aren’t you? Because I never stopped being yours.
“I’m not lying to you. We didn’t have sex. I’m not going to say that we didn’t—didn’t kiss, didn’t do other things but?—”
His mouth took hers. Slammed down onto hers and devoured, and he should not have done it. He should have held onto his control but ever since he’d gotten her back—I want her back, I needed her all this time—he’d been on a razor’s edge. And he didn’t want her thinking about someone else’s kiss. Didn’t want to hear about someone else kissing her or touching her. Nash wanted to obliterate everyone else from her memory.
He wanted to kiss her.
He wanted to give her pleasure.
To claim her. To take and possess her. Forever.
Her hands were on his chest. Soft. Light. One hand over his heart. The heart that has belonged to her for years. Her lips had already been open when he took her mouth. His tongue thrust inside, tasting the sweetness there, desperately needing it. He knew how dangerous he was, knew that he needed to pull back, and Delaney was the only thing holding him in check.
Holding him in check even as his need for her pushed him to the edge.
His hands flew to her waist. He lifted her up. Sat her on the edge of the desk, and he stepped between her spread legs. His hands remained on her waist. He didn’t want to let go. The others were just beyond the closed door, and he didn’t care.
Delaney mattered.
She’d always mattered.
Her tongue slid against his. Her body shuddered in his grasp. He wanted, he needed, he?—
Her mouth pulled from his. Her breath came too fast.
“This is why I’m the man for the job.” He had to say the words. Had to make her understand that no one else was going to do. “You react to me, and it’s real.”
A shiver slid over her body.
I react to you, and it’s consuming. He swallowed. “It’s not going to be the same with someone else. Kurt will see the lie. He’ll smell a trap and think you went straight to the cops.”
