Page 49 of Witness Security Breach

Lies. Well, she did have a few shots, but she was far from toasted, and she’d remember every scintillating detail of being with this man. But they needed an out, a sort of parachute. Pull the rip cord and they’d land safely, nothing broken, and go back to normal.

His eyes narrowed, sending unease skittering down her spine. He studied her, and she met his measuring gaze, unblinkingly.

“So you’d only sleep with me if you could call it a slipup,” he finally said, and she stilled at his tone, the gravity in his eyes. “Blame it on too much alcohol?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Damn, he knew her too well. But he made it sound horrible and unforgivable. A betrayal of the worst kind. “You’re curious about what it’d be like for us to have sex. I am, too, but once our curiosity is satisfied, we need to be able to go back to the way things were.”

“Why do things need to go back? Why can’t they move forward? As nature intended. I’m not curious about sleeping with you. I’m interested in being with you.”

Her heart tripped into her throat as she felt the blood drain from her face. For a moment she didn’t know what to say, silence swelling between them, but she gathered what wits she had left. “How many people have successful relationships in our office? How many are divorced, separated? How many in SOG, where we’re constantly on call and have to drop everything to respond in six hours? This job, this lifestyle isn’t conducive to matrimony or monogamy.”

He dropped his hand from her face.

“The odds of anything romantic between us succeeding are bad enough,” she added, her mind spinning, redirecting wherever she could that didn’t lead to the painful truth. “If we became a couple it would muck up work.”

“How?”

“At Albatross’s house, you ordered me to take cover in the refrigerator while you took point and ran into the fray.”

“I ordered you to protect him.”

“Would you have done that if I were a man?”

“Yes! Because that’s who I am. I can’t help it. I’m not sexist, Charlie.”

“What about at the bar? How you wanted me to stay in the car. Are you going to try and deny that, too?”

He blinked at her. “I’d never ask you to stop doing a job you’re good at, one you love. Relationships are scary. They’re a gamble. But I like our odds. I’d bet everything I have on us.”

“What we have is special and I don’t want to lose it. You’re my—”

“Yeah, best friend. I know,” he scoffed, looking away from her.

“No, you don’t know. You’re more than my best friend.” She pressed a palm to his cheek, turning his head until their eyes met. “You’re my only friend. You’re my person.” A tiny voice in the back of her head warned that she was getting in too deep, but she kept going. “The one I confide in, hang out with. You’re my emergency contact, for God’s sakes.”

His whole face twisted in utter disappointment.

She let him go. “Come hell or high water,” she said, stalking back and forth in front of him, “I’ve got your back and I know you’ve got mine. You’re my family, Aiden. You’re my...” She swallowed the word partner. In every way except sexual he was, but fear overwhelmed her, and she pulled the rip cord. “You’re my brother.” The necessary lie stung her tongue, but it was for the good of them both. “Maybe you should think of me as a sister.”

In an explosive move, Aiden swooped forward with such forceful urgency it drove her feet back. This was bad, bad, bad. He cupped her face in his hands, bringing her pacing to an abrupt stop. Without warning or hesitation, he pulled her mouth to his and kissed her.

The instant their lips touched, her thoughts scattered and the lies were lost in a hot vortex of total oblivion.

There was no stopping the shocked moan that slipped from her on a wave of arousal that floored her like an express train. His tongue swept across the seam of her lips and delved inside. His fingers slid into her hair as he drew her even closer, his mouth hot and possessive against hers, claiming a deeper taste.

She threw her arms around his neck, her nipples tightening, her body burning with scalding need for him.

He spun her around, backing her up against the wall, and rocked into her, their bodies straining, melding in perfect harmony.

The hard ridge of his erection pressed into her abdomen. A yearning ache thrummed between her thighs. He caressed her breast through the soft cotton, dragged his thumb across her nipple, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted more.

As if reading her dirty mind, he dived into her robe and cupped her sex, palming her. Stoking her arousal.

Guilty pleasure blindsided her. Her body throbbed with painful, wet need.

She couldn’t stop herself from rubbing against the delicious pressure of his hand and didn’t want to.

This was foolish. Reckless. That registered in some obsolete part of her brain, but the electricity crackling between them overrode her thoughts.