An out-of-control feeling he wanted to get lost in.
He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes. “I want you, Echo. I want to touch you and kiss you and know you. I know this is happening fast. But I have to know if you want me, too.”
“Yeah. I want you. It is happening fast. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Warmth radiated through him. The calm after the storm. Heaven after purgatory. “At least we’ve already seen each other at our worst. That’s something.”
Her lips curved into a smile. “And at our best.”
“No, that’s still to come.” He gathered her into his arms and kissed her. Emotion surged through him, hot and urgent and on the edge of control.
Echo slipped her arm around him. Pulling the tail of his shirt free, she ran her fingertips over his bare skin.
Goosebumps rose, spreading up his sides and over his back. Heat built inside him. Passion, yet so much more. A press of emotion he’d never let himself feel before. He wanted to let himself go, to fall over the edge with Echo in his arms.
He grasped her hand, backpedaling into the hall. She went along willingly, eagerly. As if she was in as much of a hurry as he.
The door to her bedroom stood open. Rand pulled Echo inside. Closing the door behind them, he took her back in his arms.
Her breasts pressed softly against his chest. She looked up at him, hunger in her eyes.
A reflection of his own. He wanted her more than he could say, more than he could even understand. And although the thought of drowning in his feelings for her still scared the hell out of him, he wasn’t about to pull back. Not ever again. He was done with pulling back where Echo was concerned.
He slipped his fingers through her hair, the silken strands winding and tangling as he cradled her head in his palm. Lowering his mouth, he crushed his lips to hers and teased his tongue inside.
She opened, taking him, challenging him to give her more. She hooked her leg around his, pulling his groin against her. A low moan rose in her throat.
The sexiest sound he’d ever heard.
He smoothed his hand down her body and over the soft fabric of her skirt and the firm flesh beneath. He wanted to feel her skin. He kissed her neck, moving down over her collarbone. He nuzzled lower, into the cleavage between impossibly full, ripe breasts.
Pressure built inside him, as if all the passion he’d ever known demanded release. “I want you naked. I need to see you. I need…”
She worked her hands between them and grasped her blouse. She fumbled with the buttons, half tearing the blouse open. She unfastened the center clasp on her bra. Arching her back, she pulled the cups apart.
Her breasts were more full and luscious than he’d even imagined, large areolas dark against white skin. Her nipples were peaked and excited and hard.
Hunger rose in him, hunger he couldn’t control. “You are so beautiful.” He took her nipples into his mouth, devouring first one breast and then the other. She tasted sweet, impossibly sweet. Like he could suckle her forever and never get his fill.
Pressure built in his groin. Need throbbed.
She rubbed her body against him, her belly and skirt soft against his fly.
He wanted to be free of these damn pants. He wanted to be inside her.
“I need more. I need all of you,” he said in a moan. He gathered the soft skirt in his hands, pulling the fabric up her thighs, over her buttocks. He pushed her panties down and let them fall to the floor. Once she was bare, he slipped his hand into the heat and wetness between her legs.
She made a sound deep in her throat. Spreading wide, she moved against him.
He could smell her, light and sweet and so erotic. His erection bucked to be free. He felt as if he would explode, as if he couldn’t hold back.
“I want you.” Echo’s voice was rough, guttural.
He nearly ripped the button off his pants and lowered his fly. He shoved his pants down his legs. He was hard and ready, his tip reaching for her before he’d slipped on the condom.
Her hands found him, helping him sheath himself. Each stroke of her fingers ripped along his nerves. Each touch drove him past insanity.
He lifted her, pressing her back against the closed door, positioning himself between her legs.
Gripping his shoulders, she embraced his waist with her thighs and lowered herself.
He slid deep inside.
Her wet heat surrounded him. Her scent engulfed him. He looked into her face—that tender, angelic face—and all he could see was the inferno in her eyes.
He thrust into her. Hard. Deep. His breath roared in his ears. Sweat broke over his skin and trickled down his back, down his chest. The heat between them built, melting them, joining them, as if he’d never been joined with anyone before.
A cry broke from her lips. A scream raw with passion. Her muscles gripped him, pulling him in, urging him on, pulling him with her over the edge.
He crested and broke, his voice joining hers. And as he spilled into her, he knew he would never be the same.
And special thanks to Officer Greg Dixon,
Officer David Kasdorf and the Middleton
Police Department for their ideas and assistance.
Any procedural errors, intentional
or otherwise, are mine alone.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2247-2
CRITICAL EXPOSURE
Copyright © 2006 by Ann Voss Peterson
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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*Wedding Mission
Table of Contents
Dedication
About the Author
Books by Ann Voss Peterson
Cast of Characters
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixeen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Copyright
Critical Exposure Page 16
