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Her fingers tightened in his hair. He moved to the other side with the same patience, his bandaged hand cupping what his mouth had left, and she felt him breathing against her skin. Her head fell back as his mouth sucked, his tongue laved, his teeth bit with just enough pleasure/pain to send heat coursing through her.

She pulled his mouth back up to hers and kissed him, slower this time, her hands sliding down his chest and stomach until her fingers hit the waistband of his pants and found his belt. Tactical pants and a rigger’s belt—he’d gone to the gym in whatever he’d been wearing, hadn’t even stopped to change before he started hitting that bag.

She slid the belt free and let it fall. Then undid button and zipper, pushing his pants and underwear down over his hips. He stepped out of them and stood there unmoving, letting her look at him.

And she did. She took in all of him from head to toe, in a way she’d never been able to before. At the lodge, there had always been a backdrop of danger, the chance that the Diehls or one of their men might decide to burst in at any moment. While the sex had been fantastic, they’d both known they were undercover. There was no time to savor.

There was time to savor now.

So she tarried, unhurried as she looked down his hard lines of muscle and scars, ones she’d never noticed in the dim light and overall hurry of the lodge. He was strong where she was soft, his feet planted, unmovable. Someone who could defend her even now, completely undressed with no weapon, if he needed to.

Ryder Sutton was a warrior in every sense of the word.

A warrior making no attempt to hide his own arousal.

She reached for him, wrapping her hand around him. Their eyes stayed connected as he let out a low groan and pulsed in her hand.

“Mine,” she whispered.

Before she could even wonder if she’d crossed some line, his hand wrapped over hers and began to move it, stroking himself with her fingers.

“Yours,” he agreed.

She let herself play, teasing him the way he’d teased her breasts…soft strokes then changing without warning, gripping him tighter, moving faster.

His forehead fell against hers as he thrust into her hand as if he couldn’t stop himself. “Yours,” he whispered again.

“Good. Because I want you. I want you inside me, Ryder. Right now.”

He moved faster than she expected, hooking an arm around her hips, spinning her so her back was to his front. He unbuttoned her jeans, hooking his thumbs into the waistband of her panties and sliding both down her legs.

He kissed the backs of her knees as she stepped out of her clothes, then traced his mouth back up her thighs, over her buttocks and along her spine. His fingers moved from her waist, down her belly, and slid inside her. One then two, stretching her, working her without mercy until she fell forward, catching herself on the edge of the bed with her hands.

Pleasure arced through her in an almost violent wave as he teased her clit with one hand, while his fingers slid in and out of her with the other at a pace that kept changing.

“Ryder.” The word broke into a moan. “Please.”

Unable to stand it anymore, she reached for his wrists. He stopped immediately, freezing, then stepping back from her just enough so he wasn’t touching her anymore.

Despite this heat about to consume them both, Ryder was still waiting for a rejection.

She turned in his arms and found his brown eyes studying hers. He was reading her, trying to use his skills to make sure she got what she needed.

Even if he didn’t.

She reached up and cupped his cheeks. “I do want you.”

“I felt that.” He gave her a half grin, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He was still so certain she was going to pull away. That he deserved nothing less than that.

“This isn’t an accident. This isn’t a situation where I don’t have other choices. I want you, Ryder.”

“Cassie…”

She stepped closer, her hands sliding down to his chest, her eyes still locked with his. “I choose you.”

“You don’t⁠—”

She didn’t stop. “I choose the man you are now, acknowledging that man is partially made up of who you once were. I choose the whole you.”