by Peggy Jaeger
He nodded.
“I’ve helped him with photography, and he’s helped me with improving my shooting skills. That’s it.”
“He likes to touch you,” Ky said before he could stop himself.
He sounded like a jealous idiot.
She rolled her eyes, shook her head, “Rick likes to touch all women. But it doesn’t mean anything. Not to me, anyway.”
Ky wanted to tell her how happy that made him, but he kept it to himself.
“Look, I originally came down here to say good night. I got a little sidetracked with all this talk of agency moles and potential deaths.”
She crossed her arms over her chest again. “I wanted to tell you I’ll do breakfast duty in the morning. You don’t have to cook every meal. I can pitch in.”
“I like cooking,” he said, simply. “It…I don’t know,” he swiped a hand in the air, “calms me. Helps me to think. To focus.”
Gemma nodded. “I get that. Kandy’s the same way, but you don’t have to do all and be all. I can manage. Dinner tasted okay, right?”
His mind immediately flew to how she’d tasted, not the pasta. The food had been nourishment for his body, but sampling her, savoring her, had been nourishment for his soul. His thoughts must have shown in his eyes because her face went bright pink and she bit down on her bottom lip again, a sign he’d noticed of nerves building in her.
“Dinner was delicious,” he said.
He stood and crossed to her. He shouldn’t do this. Not here. Not now. But he had to know the truth. Had to know what was in her mind.
When he was within the distance of a breath from her, he stopped and circled his hands around her upper arms. She jumped, ever so slightly, at his touch, but her shoulders immediately relaxed and he felt her lean into him, not retract.
“You believe me when I tell you I’m not involved in any of this, right?”
He captured her gaze with his own, wanting—needing—to see the truth in her answer.
Without a moment’s hesitation she said, “Of course I do.”
“Why?”
“Why do I believe you?”
He nodded.
Her eyes never left his. “Because you’re one of the good guys, through and through. I knew it the moment I met you.” Her eyes darted between his. “You were obnoxious, overbearing, and so arrogantly alpha, you practically oozed cop from every pore.”
His lips twitched at the description. He knew it wasn’t far off the mark.
“You’d never sell out your men. Or anyone close to you.”
“You seem awfully sure.”
She rolled her eyes again. “Please. In the brief time I was with you and Jon, I saw for myself the respect and loyalty you two had for one another. You can’t fake that.”
Ky’s insides calmed and settled.
“Don’t forget,” she added, “I’m a trained observer. I see things most people miss. My internal bullshit-ometer is the best there is. I never doubt it.”
He squeezed her arms. What he really wanted to do was yank her to his chest, put his mouth on hers again and slake the waterfall of desire cascading wildly within him.
Her belief in him was monumental. She may never admit it, her pride might not let her, but he knew she trusted him. And to Ky, trust was everything.
When he lowered his hands to his thighs he swore he heard a tiny whine blow through her lips.
He took a step back, never breaking eye contact with her.
Confusion creased her flawless brow and her luscious lips pulled into the hottest pout he’d ever seen. He was as hard as steel and the pressure of his erection pushing against his zipper was growing more uncomfortable by the second.
Gemma crossed her hands to the spot he’d just held and said, “Well, I guess I’ll say good night then. Finally.”
Ky nodded and dropped his hands into his pockets. “I’ll make sure everything is safe and secure before I call it a night.”
Gemma stared at him and then shook her head. As she walked away from him she muttered, “No surprise, there.”
Once she closed the bedroom door and was out of sight, Ky fell back into his chair and dropped his head into his hands. With a deep inhale, he settled back, legs splayed, and his gaze flicked to Theo’s laptop.
Work. He needed to work.
He had to get his mind off what he really wanted, which was to have Gemma underneath him, screaming his name while he made her come as many times as he could manage.
He groaned and readjusted himself, the pressure in his crotch growing at the image dancing across his imagination.
The scene in the kitchen jerked back to his mind and he remembered every sensation that had gone through him at the whisper-soft feel of her naked skin under his hands, the erotic sound of her tiny gasps as he sucked on her tongue, even the way he knew without a doubt her panties were wet when he’d snaked his knee between her legs.
The pressure in his pants grew almost unbearable.
He took several deep breaths and started reciting the names of the Greek gods in his head to clear his mind.
After a few minutes, he rose, took the laptop with him and went to his room.
* * *
Gemma rolled over and sighed.
Again.
She’d been trying to fall asleep for the past two hours to no avail. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Ky’s face as he’d kissed her in the kitchen.
Wild and wanting. Hot and steamy. So ridiculously sexy all she could remembering thinking was kiss me, please, kiss me. And when he did, holy mother!
Gemma flipped to her back and blew out an exasperated breath.
How had she gone from loathing the man to wanting his lips on hers—and on all her other body parts, too? She hadn’t been fibbing when she told him she believed he had nothing to do with anything that had happened. The man was as rock solid and steady as they came, and he’d treated her with nothing but professionalism and actual concern.
She hated to admit it but she trusted him. To her core. After just a few days of being together she knew he’d do whatever it took to keep her safe. He’d proven it time and again.
Trust was the one thing Gemma never gave freely. But Ky had earned it—multiple times over.
Wiggling to her side, she drew her knees to her chest, unable to get comfortable no matter what position she got into, and she knew the reason why.
She didn’t want to be in this bed, alone, and wanting.
She wanted to be in Ky’s bed, with him, and satisfied.
It took one second to make her decision.
When she opened her bedroom door, the living room lights were off, but the small glow from the range hood illuminated all she needed to see as she made her way down the stairs.
From the kitchen, a small beam of light slipped through the partially opened door to his room.
Gemma licked her lips, gave a tiny knock, and opened the door at the same time.
Ky’s eyes tracked on her immediately. Shirtless, he was sitting up in bed, the laptop across his thighs.
“Gemma?” His voice was soft, due to the hour, raspy and filled with just enough late night promise to make her fingertips tingle.
“You moved the Lucy and Ricky beds together.” She closed the door and leaned back against it.
Ky glanced down at the beds and shrugged. “It’s more comfortable because I’m so tall. I can stretch out better.”
“Oh.”
He stared at her for a few beats. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Why do you always think there’s something wrong when I want to talk to you?”
His left eyebrow cocked. “Because there usually is.”
Gemma pouted. “I just want to…talk.”
And there went the right eyebrow in the same direction. “Ta
lk?”
Gemma licked her lips and inched into the room.
He stayed silent as she approached the bed. Since he was reclined in the middle of it, she slid down on the edge and sat, drawing one leg up on the bed, bent, facing him.
Now that she was here, the realization that this might not be the best idea she’d had in a while shot through her. With any other guy she knew what do, how to convey what she wanted.
But Ky wasn’t any other guy, as he’d proved all too many times.
“Yes. I want, well—” She stopped, bit down on the side of her cheek.
The air in the room suddenly changed and Gemma swore she heard his breath catch.
“What?” The low, soft, seductive timbre in his voice sent her thighs to shaking.
“Were you working?” She chinned the laptop.
“If you could call it that.” He took a breath and scrubbed his hands down his face. “I’m trying to find any link I can between those phone calls Bannerman found and my men.”
“Any luck?”
“None. I don’t know whether to be happy or mad that I can’t. It makes no sense. I know all these men. I vetted them.” His gaze lit on her face. “But you didn’t come in here to ask me about this.”
Because it wasn’t a question, she didn’t respond.
“Gemma, come on. Tell me what’s wrong, what’s bothering you.”
The Gemma Laine she showed the world, the confident, snarky, assertive one never at a loss for words and always able to state what she wanted in no uncertain terms, wanted to tell him, “What’s bothering me is that you’re not inside me right now.”
The real Gemma, the shy, uncertain, untrusting one, couldn’t bring herself to be the aggressor this time. The kiss they’d shared should have been proof enough he wanted her, but she just wasn’t totally sure, a fact that unnerved her.
“I want to know why you kissed me,” she blurted. “Before. You know? In the kitchen.”
His face could have been a virgin slab of stone. He held her stare a few seconds, then his shoulders relaxed and he closed the laptop. He stretched across the bed to place it on the night table.
Gemma’s pulse kicked up at the length of long, toned, and wickedly hard muscles rippling across his back. Her fingers actually itched to reach out and run across them.
“I want to apologize for that.” He sat back again. “I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t very…professional.”
Deflated, she said, “Oh. I thought…”
“What?”
“That, you know.” She waved a hand in the air. “You, well, wanted to…” She blew out a breath and closed her eyes. “This was so much easier when I was talking about it in my head.”
A movement on the bed had her opening her eyes. Ky had shifted toward her, enough that she could see he wore black silk boxers, the sound of the material as it whispered across the sheets intoxicatingly soft and supple. And if she wasn’t mistaken, a very large, very solid, very pulsing erection was barely hidden under them.
“The simple truth is I did it because I wanted to,” he told her.
“Really?”
Jesus, Gemma, do you have to sound so hopeful and needy?
“Yes, really. You were upset and emotional—”
“I was not emotional!”
“—and I felt bad for you.”
The hope sailed away in a heartbeat. “You kissed me because you felt bad for me?”
“Yes-NO!” He scrubbed his hands down his face again and took another breath. “That’s not what I meant.”
“That’s what you said.”
“Gemma, please.” His eyes lasered on hers. “I kissed you for several reasons, but mostly because I wanted to and couldn’t convince myself right then why I shouldn’t.”
Okay, that shot some hope back into her. “Why would you need to convince yourself you shouldn’t? It’s not like I was fighting you. Or not kissing you back.”
“Do you really need me to lay all the reasons out for you?”
She shrugged.
“First,” he ticked one index finger with other, “you’re under my care. It’s my job to keep you safe and secure, and I take my responsibilities very seriously. Two, it’s frowned on for agents to get involved with civilians in cases like this no matter how attracted to them they are. Emotions and physical desires have a way of shifting focus off the main objective. And three, you can barely tolerate being in the same room with me. I was staggered when you didn’t drop-kick me in the balls afterward.”
She cocked her head at him and wrinkled her nose. Okay, this might not be as hard as she thought it would.
“One,” she ticked her own fingers together now, mimicking him, “It may be your job to keep me safe and secure, but I’m no slouch. I can take care of myself if I have to. I’ve proven that.”
“But—”
“Two, no one in the FBI is here right now, watching and evaluating what you’re doing or how you’re acting toward me—”
“—I know how I’m acting.”
“And number three is just too stupid to even really comment on. We’ve been constantly together for almost a week. Living, eating, running from maniacs together, so forget that excuse. It doesn’t hold water. Let’s remember, I did kiss you back.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, he shifted his legs, dropping them to the side of the bed, glared at her, and said, “Stupid?”
“Yeah. Major league stupid.”
Her gaze bore right through his, challenging, not giving an inch.
His St. Michael medallion dangled in the cavern of his pecs, swaying as he moved closer to her, so close she could smell the clean, fresh scent of the soap he’d used in the shower. So close, she could see his eyes darken as he looked at her, those gorgeous seafoam colors roaming over her face and turning stormy. So close, she did what she’d been dreaming of doing since she first saw him without a shirt, drenched in sweat and looking like a warrior: she leaned in and trailed her tongue along the angle of his jaw. He didn’t move, but did hiss in a breath, his abdominal muscles contracting inward.
A fine line of spikey stubble tickled her tongue and made her want to explore more.
Ky choked. “Did you just…lick me?”
When she pulled back there was surprised mirth crinkling in the corners of his narrowed eyes, his lips twisting up at the corners.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I’ve been wanting to do that for days.”
Ky’s mouth straightened. “You’ve been wanting to…lick me… for days?”
She nodded, feeling her cheeks burn like wildfire. Oh well, here goes nothing…
She kept her gaze steady, and said, “Well, yeah. Ever since that morning in the basement when we worked out together.”
Something in his eyes shifted; eased.
“You were all sweaty and…hot.”
And then they darkened again, but this time not in anger. No. This time the heat in his eyes wasn’t to be laid at fury’s door, but at something deeper, more primal. Sensual.
“And to be honest,” she added, “I want to do more than just lick you. But, yeah. Days.”
She didn’t even have time to process what he was doing. Before she could blink Ky hauled her up to her feet by her arms and flattened her body against his. One hand snaked around her waist holding in her place, while the other cupped the back of her neck. His mouth hovered a breath from hers when he said, “You realize what you’ve just said, right?”
“That I’ve wanted you…like this, for days?” She nodded.
She watched the hard line of his jaw contract as he swallowed, his gaze intense and filled with raw hunger and she was his meal.
Oh my.
“Be sure, Gemma. Be very sure this is what you want to happen between us. I’ve been walking around as hard as nails, so before this go
es anywhere, goes any further, be sure, because I don’t think I’ll be able to stop once we start.”
Encouraged by those words more than she could possibly imagine, Gemma coiled one hand around Ky’s neck and tugged. Against his lips she challenged, “Prove it.”
His mouth crushed hers, possessed it, claimed it. His tongue plundered, took hers prisoner and stroked it with his own. He kissed her as if he were starved for a lifetime, drawing every bit of nourishment and sustenance he could from her.
And then he went back for more.
Her heart was pounding so wildly in her chest she swore she could hear it thumping in the air around them.
The man had a perfect mouth for kissing: hard, insistent, and punishingly gentle. If she was never kissed by another man, she’d die knowing what it was to be kissed by a man with no equal.
The hand at her waist crept below the band of her pajama shorts, roved along the curve of one butt cheek and squeezed. Gemma’s body reacted unconsciously by contracting her muscles. Ky’s lips danced into a smile as he pulled back from the kiss, a tiny sucking sound filling the air. His bedroom eyes twinkled down at her as he nuzzled her nose. “You’ve got the sweetest ass.” His other hand followed the first. “Watching you and not being able to touch it has been driving me nuts.”
While he squeezed them both, Gemma grabbed his head and dragged him back to kiss her. “Squats. Thousands of them,” she said as she nipped at his bottom lip and kissed her way along his jaw. At the little notch between his neck and shoulder, she opened her lips, wet the spot with her tongue and sucked.
His entire body went rigid. A feeling of feminine supremacy eclipsed through her at eliciting such a reaction. The man oozed control from every pore. She was dying to see what would happen when he lost it and know she was the cause.
“You taste so damn good.” She pulled his earlobe into her mouth and bit down.
In the next second she was flat on her back, the mattress springs bouncing against her.
Ky stared down at her, his eyes raking her body in one smooth, possessive glide. When his gaze settled on the top of her thighs, she squirmed, trying to draw her legs up. His hands caught her knees.
