With his arms wound tightly around her back, he pressed his face to her neck and inhaled her scent, let the touch of her body against his soothe the lingering emotions of the last few hours. Never—not even in the most intense of battles—had he been so afraid.
“It’s over now, baby. Your brother will deliver that bastard to the cops,” he said as he lowered her to the bed, coming down on top of her, a grenade pressed between their stomachs.
“Shit.” He unclipped the pouch and carefully set it on the nightstand. The guns tucked into his waistband were next, followed by the knife and flashlight.
Her eyes grew wider as the pile grew. “Jeez, you’re a walking weapons store.”
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Benjamin Franklin.” How he even remembered the famous quote was a damn miracle when the woman he loved wiggled her body so that the V between her legs aligned perfectly with his cock.
“Does that mean you’re prepared for me?”
“You keep moving around like that and I’ll fuck you all the way back to the past so you can hear ole Ben say the words in person.”
Passion glittered in her eyes alongside a dare. “You could try.”
So he would. He kissed her then, hard and needy, and she gave back as good as she got. Her mouth was wet, hot, and spicy sweet, and he couldn’t get enough. Would never get enough.
There were other parts of her he needed to taste, and he kissed a path to her neck, then to her earlobe where he traced his tongue around the swirl of her ear. She moaned and slipped her hands under his shirt, scraping her fingernails up his spine.
He’d thought his dick couldn’t get any harder. He was wrong. “Clothes. Off.”
In a flurry of arms and legs, they shed shirts, jeans, his briefs, and her bra. When he caught sight of her panties, he brushed her hand aside, sat back on his knees, and stared at them.
A furry cat covered the front with the caption, “Pet me.” He lifted his gaze to hers. “You better not wear these for anyone but me, Chiquita.”
“I thought of you when I saw them. You like?”
“Oh, yeah.” And he liked that she thought of him when buying sexy panties, liked the way her eyes went all soft and warm. When she started to push them down her hips, he stopped her. “Kitty needs a pet.”
Starting at the head of the cat, just above the line of her feminine curls, he stroked his fingers over the picture. The cat’s tummy was situated right at Maria’s clit, and he stopped there and circled his thumb over the little peaking nub. Only a few seconds passed before she fisted the sheets in her hands and brought her knees up, feet flat on the mattress.
“You like?” he said, echoing her last words. Her crotch was soaked, telling him she most definitely liked.
She exhaled a rush of breath. “Stupid question.”
“You saying I’m stupid, Chiquita?” He slipped a finger under the material and traced her damp outer folds, down one side and up the other. While he played with her, sliding his finger in and out of her sheath, he took his cock in his other hand and stroked from the base to the head and back.
“Did I say something? I don’t remember.”
The male ego embedded in him from birth sent a satisfied grin to his mouth. “You said I was the hottest man you’ve ever laid eyes on. Then you said you’d never let another man touch you like this.” He braced one hand on the bed near her waist and rubbed the head of his cock through her slick, wet heat.
“I said all that?”
“You did.”
“Then it must be true.” Her eyes dilated, going from dark brown to black as she watched him.
So much passion in her and she still had no clue. She was his and he’d kill any man who dared to say otherwise. All he had to do was make sure he didn’t screw everything up and lose her. The thought of her with someone else? No way he’d allow that to happen.
“Do you want to come?”
Those eyes shimmering with heat lifted to his. “Yes, please.”
“So polite,” he said with a chuckle. The hell if she didn’t make him want to smile, to grin, chuckle, and laugh, but most of all he wanted to fuck all that pretty politeness right out of her. He wanted her barely able to talk . . . maybe just enough to beg.
“Time for kitty to go,” he said as he stripped off the panties.
Maria lifted her hips so Jake could pull her underwear down her legs. Although he’d softened somewhat in the last few minutes, there was something hard and angry in him. Until he’d chuckled just then, his face had been a mask of granite, a little scary and a lot sexy. His cheeks were shadowed with a beard trying to grow back, and it added to his dangerous appearance.