He was hard enough to burst through his pants to get to her. He wanted to be inside her. He wanted to feel every inch of her skin with his fingers, his lips, his tongue. He wanted to know how she tasted everywhere and what sounds she made when he touched her in different ways.
He wanted it all.
But, at the sound of a throat being cleared, reality descended like a lightning bolt from the gods, jolting him back to stark awareness.
This was a mission.
She was the target.
Damn.
Chapter Four
“A second,” Mace barked at the couple waiting to enter the elevator.
He placed a dazed Keiko on her feet, adjusted her dress, and took her hand.
“Oops,” she said to the couple as they passed them, grinning wildly while she did it. “Forgot where we were.”
The couple grinned back in understanding. Mace didn’t smile. He had no right forgetting where they were or why he was there in the first place. But he felt like he was on a runaway train, and there was just no getting off until it reached its destination.
Holding Keiko close, he wound his way through the crowd and out into the hot Houston night. Stars glittered up above as the hum of the city enfolded them. He held her hand tight as he strode toward one of the cabs waiting outside the club. Its door opened as they approached, and Mace guided her inside before climbing in behind her.
“The Hilton.” He gave the computer control a voice command because he didn’t have the implants that would allow him to send a mental communication to the vehicle. He hoped Keiko wouldn’t notice what he’d done. Although it wasn’t unusual for people with enhancements to give verbal orders to the machines around them, it still wasn’t the norm.
She snuggled into his side and gazed up at him. He felt the look like a punch to his stomach, because he imagined they both felt exactly the same way. As though they were surfing a wave, lost in the perfection of the curve, riding the high and waiting for the crash. Only, he was the only one who knew the crash was coming.
/> “You feel it, too, don’t you?” she whispered. “The fire?”
At least he could give her honesty in this. “Yeah. I feel it.”
He couldn’t explain it. She drugged him just with her presence. He stroked his thumb down her cheek. Smooth. Perfection. Her lips fell open at his touch, and her eyelids lowered. A surge of pure desperation swept through him at the sight.
It’s a job. She’s the target.
But the words were faint in his mind, drowned out by the sound of his own thrumming need as it raced through his veins. His mouth was suddenly dry as his hand curled over the swell of her hip. The outside world faded, and it took him a second to realize she’d sent a mental command to the car to tint the windows. Now it was just the two of them, racing through the streets toward his hotel. Would it really matter if he took this time for them? A few moments before she met his team. A few heady touches before she discovered he’d betrayed her trust and her look of desire turned to one of loathing.
“How long until we get to your hotel?” Keiko’s voice sounded husky.
“Twenty minutes.”
“Let’s take the long way.” Keeping her eyes on his, she clutched handfuls of her dress at her thighs and inched it upward.
Mace swallowed hard, his hand tightening on her hip. “Keiko?”
She wet her lips. “I don’t want to wait until the hotel. I want you now.”
Such brutal honesty mixed with courage and vulnerability. It was the sexiest thing he’d ever heard. How was he supposed to resist?
The mission. The job. The target.
But even his conscience fell silent as Keiko reached under her dress and tugged her panties down her thighs. They were red. Like her dress and her sexy mile-high heels. They were past the point of conversation. Or reason. They were on that train, heading for the crash to end all crashes. And there was nothing he could or would do to stop it. All he could think about was wanting her.
She kicked the panties away before climbing up onto the seat beside him. Every move she made was slow and sensual. The temperature in the car shot up, the air thinned, and it became hard to breathe. He’d never seen anything as sexy in his life. Never.
He opened his mouth to say something else, honestly unsure what it would have been.
Pressing a finger to his lips, she straddled him. “Shh.”