Defender (Seattle Sharks 9)

“Words are always the same. Everything we say is just the same twenty-six letters scrambled about in different ways. It’s the context that changes everything.” She looked back to the computer and then jumped. Actually jumped. “Yes!”

“What? Did you make me as smart as you are?”

She gave me an as if look. “No, but I made it so the data will transfer in real time over the Bluetooth. If I’m in the audience, I can get the data without having to sneak your helmet out of the locker room constantly.”

“It’s less sneaking, and more a matter of walking out with my gear bag,” I teased.

“Shut up!” She grinned, and took off my helmet, placing it on the table. “I can see the impacts as they happen! I’ll literally be in your head for the games! Well, inside your helmet!”

Her joy was palpable, lighting up her eyes, animating her hands while she spoke. Her grin was wide and bright as she spun, her lab coat twirling around her.

She was captivating.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

She stopped mid-spin, her braid swinging around to land beside her breasts. Her eyes locked on mine, her lips parting in surprise.

“You are,” I continued, figuring I’d already said it. “I know I just finished telling you that you’d rather hear how smart you are. And you are brilliant. But damn, are you beautiful, too.”

“I’m not as beautiful as you are.” She stepped between my knees, raising a hand to run through my hair. “Everything about you is...perfect.”

I stilled completely, fearful that if I moved even a muscle, she’d fly off.

“And it’s not like I don’t understand beauty,” her voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s all symmetry and proportions when you get to the science of it. But with you—” her fingers trailed down the back of my neck as her other hand splayed on my chest. “With you, I forget the science and the why of it all because you—” she swallowed and looked away.

I captured her hand on my chest, holding her gently captive. “Because what?” I prompted.

“You’ll laugh.”

“Try me.” I tipped her chin between my thumb and forefinger, and she met my gaze again.

“Because you swallow up the science, and the ideas, and all that’s left is you. You do what no one else has ever done for me. You quiet my thoughts in the best possible way.” She bit her lower lip.

Holy shit. Of everything I’d expected her to say, that wasn’t anywhere near my list. And yet she didn’t want to date me. She was moving. She was leaving as soon as she presented her dissertation.

And somehow I’d gone from not having time for a relationship to making all the time for Harper.

“Are you going to laugh?” she asked.

I shook my head in response.

Then I took a chance.

My hand slid to the back of her neck, and I brought her mouth to mine. I sucked her bottom lip free of her torturous teeth and ran my tongue over the indents she’d left with her worry.

She moaned, leaning into where our hands remained trapped. When she parted those lips and licked across the seam of mine, it was game over.

I slipped my hand from between us and then filled both my palms with her ass, lifting her to straddle me. Fuck yes, she was so perfectly curved and fit against me like she’d been made to be there.

She wound her legs around my waist, locking her ankles and putting the seam of her leggings right over my dick.

Then I was the one moaning, sinking into her kiss, sliding my tongue against hers in a duel where we were both victors, both chasing the fire that ignited between us.

This wasn’t chemistry.

This wasn’t even nuclear.

This was the shit that caused the Big Bang. Entire universes could have been created from this kiss.

She rocked over me, and my cock more than rose to the occasion as I kissed her over and over, thrusting my tongue only to suck hers right back into my mouth. Her little moans fueled me, her fingernails at the back of my neck bit into my skin, hitting me with a shot of NOS straight through my body. This wasn’t enough.

Fuck, I needed more of her. Needed to drive her mindless so she saw what we could be together. Needed to use every second to savor her if I failed—if this was the last time I’d kiss her.

Supporting her tiny weight, I stood, moving to the lab table behind us. I wasn’t so far gone that I’d risk her equipment. Then her ass hit the metal and my hands were available to roam.

I was relentless in my kiss, calling on every skill I’d ever acquired to keep her balanced on the edge of crave and need. I kissed her deep and hard, then withdrew until she was whimpering, her hands gripping my neck, then my shirt to pull me closer.