Page 37 of Honor ’N’ Duty

“God, Laia,” he rasped against her lips, pulling away only long enough to get more air. He began kissing his way to her ear, then down her neck. Finally, he pulled away, breathing hard.

Her chest heaved as hard as his. “Kade, don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.” As she eased backward, she pulled him down on top of her, spreading her legs for his body to settle between her thighs.

The second his straining erection contacted her panty-clad pussy, he nearly came in his shorts. He’d always known this was how it would be—sparks, fire, total combustion because she was always meant to be his.

He pressed his lips to her breastbone, kissing and lightly licking her skin, loving the taste of flowers and woman and…heaven was the word that came to mind. When her hips surged against his raging erection, he groaned and slid one hand beneath her ass, cupping her bottom.

Chee-rist. He was in way over his head, and he didn’t care anymore. Whatever was happening between them might very well be a mistake, but at this point there was no turning back.

Vaguely, through the haze of lust overtaking his body and every thought in his head, he heard Smoke snort. Then something clicked. The front door.

Someone was coming inside the house.

Kade bolted from the sofa, getting a quick glimpse of Laia’s glazed eyes and her kiss-swollen lips before he shot across the room and reached to the top of a bookshelf where he’d stashed his gun out of Rosa’s reach.

Smoke leaped to his feet, his tail down and his head hung low. The ice pack wrapped around his foot slipped off.

Whoever was about to come through that door was in for a nasty surprise.

The muzzle of my Glock jammed in their face.

He slipped his gun from its holster and inched toward the door. Slowly, it swung open. A large black boot appeared first. Then Kade aimed in.

Chapter Eleven

What the—?

With her heart skipping and her libido about to drag her lust-crazed body clear into the next county, Laia snapped open her eyes.

Kade held a gun, aiming the muzzle at a tall, darkly bearded man who’d just come through the front door. Smoke faced down the man with his ears erect and growling low in his throat, sounding like a muted jet engine.

Laia jumped from the sofa and raced to the bottom of the stairs, resting one hand on the railing and the other on the wall, blocking the stairway. Right. Given that this guy had to be at least six-foot-three, maybe more, and built like a decathlete, she’d be no match for him. But if he so much as twitched in the direction of the stairs leading to Rosa’s room, she’d launch onto him and do as much bodily harm as she possibly could.

The security system beeped, but instead of turning tail as she expected him to do, the bearded guy’s dark brows rose. The large black duffle over his shoulder dropped to the floor with a solid thump, then he slowly raised his hands in the air like a burglar who’d been caught red-handed opening a safe loaded with family jewels.

“Shit, Jamie.” Kade jerked the muzzle away from the man, aiming it at the floor. “You could have called.” To Smoke, he said, “Easy, boy. Sit. He’s okay.”

At the realization that Kade knew the dark-haired, dark-eyed stranger she’d thought had been about to whip a machine gun from his duffle and kill them all, Laia’s heart finally began to slow. As did her libido.

Talk about coitus interruptus. Was there such a thing for women? She supposed so.

Smoke sat, licked his lips, then yawned. Apparently, the excitement was over.

The man-now-known-as-Jamie lowered his hands, then went to the still-beeping control panel next to the door. He punched in a code, then glanced at Laia before turning back to Kade.

Jamie’s face twisted in confusion, calling attention to his mustache and the pointed beard that hung at least three inches below his chin. “Why would I have called? It’s my house.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Kade said, now his face twisting in annoyance as he stashed his gun back onto the shelf, “maybe because I left you a message that we’d be here and to call me back.”

“I lost my phone.” Jamie’s face darkened for a moment, then he walked to Kade and narrowed his eyes. “New one’s getting delivered here tomorrow.”

Laia watched the two men, fascinated by the testosterone-charged confrontation as they stared each other down for several seconds, then grabbed each other in a bear hug that would have crushed a brick.

“Good to see ya, buddy,” Kade said.

“You, too.” Jamie clapped Kade’s back. “Your new K-9?”

“Yep. Smoke, meet Jamie.”