Striker (K19 Security Solutions 6)

By the time he was ready to join their bodies together, Aine was almost in tears.

“I can’t,” she said each time he coaxed her to the plateau of another orgasm.

“You can. Do it for me, Aine. Show me how good I make you feel.”

When he brought his body to hers and entered her for the first time, he came close to climaxing the minute he was inside her.

“Be still,” he said as he had before.

She calmed herself, taking deep breaths.

“Look at me.”

She opened her glistening eyes, keeping their focus on his.

“It’s perfect,” he moaned. “You’re perfect.”

He couldn’t quell the urgency he felt now that he was finally with the woman he’d spent so many nights dreaming of.

Sex between them had only gotten better. If he’d been asked to define the perfect woman for him, it would be Aine. Whenever they were together, it was impossible for him to keep his hands off of her.

When they’d touched by accident today, he felt the same sense of urgency to take her and make her his that he had every other time their skin had come in contact.

There had been no woman before, and there’d be no woman after who would be as perfect as she was.

That he couldn’t have her, couldn’t claim her as his forever, tore him up inside. Sure, he could be a selfish bastard and tell her the real reason he’d broken up with her. He could accept it when she told him it didn’t matter. She might even suggest they adopt children, just so she could be with him.

None of that would change the fact that the same thing may live inside of him as with his sister. Whether it manifested itself now or never, he couldn’t risk putting Aine through it. She’d already been through too much.

Her father had been a monster. He couldn’t be the man who forced her to live her life with him when he knew he could be just as monstrous. He was damaged, and there was nothing either of them could do about it.

Striker didn’t remember crying before his aunt died, or since, but tonight he let the tears flow freely. He felt the loss of her as profoundly now as he had the day she’d walked out of his condo and out of his life, not because she’d wanted to, but because he’d forced her to.

—:—

“What are you thinking about?” asked Ava, coming out onto the deck where Aine stood listening to the sounds of the ocean.

“The same thing I’m always thinking about.”

“You could always ask Tabon.”

“Ask him what? Why my boyfriend broke up with me? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“I could ask him.”

“I’ll tell you what I was really thinking about, Ava. I was standing out here, wondering if I could possibly make a bigger fool of myself tomorrow than I did today. I’m like Dasher—a little puppy who follows Striker around, hoping he’ll pay attention to me.”

“You weren’t following him around. He came to you.”

“Because he had to. He had to check on me, make sure I was okay. God, I make myself sick, I can’t imagine how he must be feeling.”

“Is this one of those times that whatever I have to say is unsolicited?”

“Go ahead, tell me what you think, but be gentle.”

“He can’t stay away from you. Every time he went to you today, it was his own choice. No one asked him to.”

“He heard you and Tabon talking about me.”