"When you felt me up and stole my coat?" he asked, mildly amused.
"I didn't steal your coat!"
"You never gave it back," he pointed out. "I like how you're not denying you had your hands all over my chest."
"I had no choice. You were holding me there by the lapels of my coat-"
"My coat."
"Which I was wearing at the time," she said swiftly, her cheeks blazing with heat. Then- "You never asked for it back. And I forgot to return it."
"Then maybe I need time to think," he admitted. There was danger here. Not for her. She seemed remarkably clear-eyed about the entire process. But... though he'd said Ava was the weakest link on the team, he was also growing aware she was becoming the chink in his armor.
He remembered the night at the Garden of Eden. He'd been two seconds away from seducing a delicious little morsel who'd found him in the gardens, when Ava stumbled onto the scene, shivering like a wet kitten. Protective instincts he'd not felt in an age sprang from nowhere. He couldn't remember what he'd said to the other woman, but then she'd been gone, and he'd put his coat around Ava's shoulders as she fought to suppress her panic.
"I see," Ava replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "You've never once met a woman who you've refused, but suddenly you turn into a dainty miss with delicate feelings when I practically-"
"I am not suffering from delicate feelings."
"Of course not. You're just-"
That did it. Kincaid slid his hand through the thick mess of curls loosely gathered at her nape and captured the base of her skull. He dragged her closer, Ava's hands abruptly meeting the wall of his chest as her eyes widened. And then those maddening lips were beneath his, and his mouth captured hers, claiming it with a furious kiss.
Months of frustration, of trying to keep away from her, suddenly unleashed within him like a dam wall breaking. His tongue stabbed into her mouth, claiming her in some strange, utterly proprietary way that suddenly wasn't enough. He wanted to bite her throat; to rub his stubbled face across her pale, delicate skin until he saw the pinkness of his mark painted there; to kiss every last thought of every other man she'd ever seen out of her mind.
It was meant to be a kiss to make his point. A kiss to prove he wasn't protesting too damned much.
Instead it became a kiss that captured both of them within its grasp.
Somehow he tumbled her onto her back. Ava splayed on the blankets beneath him, stiff with shock for all of a second before she surrendered, his hips sinking between her parted thighs. His weight pressed her into the mattress, and Kincaid groaned as his heavy cock was crushed between them.
Damn, she truly was exquisite. Lantern light gilded the soft gold strands in her hair, turned her skin to pure, molten honey, and for a second he couldn't believe she was real. That this was happening. He captured her mouth again, teasing her with his tongue, coaxing her to kiss him back when she hesitated, before she finally began to capture the rhythm of it.
Fuck. Kincaid eased the collar of her nightgown open, fisting his hand in her hair and turning her face to the side as his lips followed the smooth column of her throat down, down to the sweeping curve of her breasts. Breathing hard. Panting in fact, his hand sliding down to cup her breast-
"What are y-you doing?" Ava gasped.
And he realized where they were, and what he'd promised, and the fact she probably hadn't experienced anything like this before.
Damn it.
Somehow he pulled himself together. Kincaid looked down at her face, breathing hard. Her nightgown was bunched between them, barely clinging to the curves of her puckered nipples. The thin silvery scar rested between her small breasts, but he didn't have time to explore more. He had a nervous virgin on his hands, and he'd pushed too far. "I'm showing you what you asked for."
Her hands fluttered between them, then she hesitantly rested her palms on his bare chest. "I... see."
No, you don't, not truly. And the lie came undone in his mind as he realized everything he'd told himself in the last month was untrue. She means nothing; you only want her because you can't have her; you're just bored and her innocence is appealing; she's not for you.... That last one, and only that, was the truth.
Ava McLaren was dangerous.
"May I touch you?" Ava whispered, and there went his mind into dark places.
Yes. He wanted to drag her hand lower and curl those curious fingers around his cock.
Even as he knew she wasn't ready for that.
Kincaid caught her hand in his, and kissed her palm. She followed the movement with those expressive eyes, and when he licked the sensitive skin there, her eyes widened. God, she was so damned perfect. He wanted to see those eyes widen when he slid his cock inside her for the first time, to see the wonder in them. "I don't think touching me is a good idea right now."