Mine to Protect (Mine 6)

“Guess what else I can use my mouth to do…” He pushed her jeans out of the way. Her panties went down with them. Then he was spreading her legs wide. Positioning her so that he could have full access.

And using his mouth in the very best of ways.

“Victor!”

So maybe she didn’t care about the thin walls. Neither did he. Right then, all he cared about was her. One lick, and he was addicted to her taste. His mouth pressed to her, his fingers pressed in her, and he explored all of her most sensual secrets.

Her hips twisted against him, pushing up harder against his mouth. He could feel the gathering tension in her. Zoe was close to a release—so close, already.

His thumb stroked her clit and she jerked beneath him, coming on a sharp cry of pleasure.

Hell, yes.

He rose back over her. Barely took time to ditch his jeans and grab the condom from his wallet—thank fuck it was still there. He rolled on the condom then put his cock right at the entrance to her body.

But he didn’t thrust into her. Not yet.

Her breath was still heaving in and out. Her lashes had lowered but when he paused, those long lashes lifted and her gaze locked on his.

“Ready to cross some lines?” Victor asked her.

She gave a quick nod.

His hands caught hers. Their fingers threaded together, then he pushed her hands back against the pillow.

He thrust into her. Balls-freaking-deep. A groan tore from him because she felt like heaven. Hot. Tight. Perfect.

I crossed the line, and I will never go back.

He withdrew, then thrust into her again. He was too rough, too hard, and the bed was squeaking beneath him. Her legs wrapped around his hips, squeezing him and pulling him so close. She was whispering his name, urging him on, and all he wanted—

He wanted to feel her come with his cock buried deep inside of her.

He angled his hips. Made sure that his length slid over her clit when he drove into her. The pace was frantic, the urge to reach that wild blast of release consuming him.

“Victor!” Not a scream. Her whisper. A cry of satisfaction and he saw the pleasure wash across her face. Her green eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. Her delicate inner muscles clamped along his length, squeezing him as the orgasm rocked through her.

And then he was exploding. His release hit him with the force of a freaking truck. He emptied into her, pleasure shaking his whole body. The climax went on and on, and he kept thrusting, never wanting that moment to end.

Even as the pleasure lashed him, Victor knew he’d made a serious mistake. The worst of his life, probably.

He’d wanted Zoe. He’d needed her. But he hadn’t realized…

He hadn’t just fucked her. It had been…more.

He’d had sex with other women. Good sex.

This was different. Zoe was different.

She was making everything different for him.

Her lips curled—that slow smile—and that sweet smile of hers that was meant just for him.

It wasn’t just fucking. Not with her.

And he was screwed.

But in that moment, Victor couldn’t care. He leaned toward her. Kissed her lips. Softly. Lightly. With care.

Emotions were choking him, but his body was more replete than it had ever been. He eased from her. Kissed her once more. Then he padded to the bathroom. While he ditched the condom, he didn’t look in the mirror. He didn’t want to look at himself, not right then. He turned off all the lights and went back to Zoe.

When he climbed onto the bed, she immediately turned toward him. Taking her into his arms seemed like the most natural thing in the whole world. She put her head on his chest, right over his heart, and his arms closed around her.

He shouldn’t have been able to sleep that way. Not so easily. Not to just close his eyes and drift off. He never let down his guard. And cuddling after sex wasn’t his usual MO but…

His eyes drifted closed and his hands stayed curled around Zoe as Victor fell asleep.

***

It was the creak of the door that woke Victor, hours later. The little motel room was still dark—no light at all sliding through the thin blinds. His eyes opened when he heard that creak and Victor lunged up in bed.

A bed that only he occupied.

Zoe!

Was she seriously trying to give him the slip? After what they’d done together? Had she just been trying to lure him into some false sense of security with the mind-melting sex so that she could escape from him the second his guard dropped? And it sure as hell had dropped.

He leapt from the bed, naked, and rushed toward the motel room door.

Before he could reach it, Zoe opened the bathroom door—it gave a long creak—and when she stepped out, Victor grabbed her arms as he tried to stop from running her down.

“Victor!”

Yeah, they both almost hit the floor with that collision, but he did some fast and frantic footwork, and he managed to keep them upright—barely.

She gave a quick, nervous laugh. “Do you have some sort of issue you need to tell me about? Not sleep walking but like…sleep tackling?”

He didn’t laugh. “I thought you’d left.”

“Um, no.”

His hold tightened on her arms. “I don’t want you to leave me.” The way she’d ditched the other agents.

Her hair slid over his fingers as she tilted back her head. “I’m not planning to leave you. We have a deal, remember?”

At her soft words, guilt twisted within him.

“Besides, I don’t make a habit of leaving a lover without a word in the middle of the night.”

Lover.

“And I sure hope,” Zoe added a bit darkly, “that you don’t, either.”

He wished he could see her expression. But she was just a shadow to him and he knew he appeared the same way to her. “Is that what we are now? Lovers?”

“I would think so.” She paused. “Lovers and partners.”

His hands slowly slid away from her shoulders. From all of that wonderful, smooth skin. “I shouldn’t have crossed that line.” He backed up. Turned away from her. Tried to figure out how he was supposed to fix things with her. The heat of the moment was one thing, but the aftermath—sanity comes back.

“Do not act like it was all your decision.” Anger beat in her voice. “I wanted you. You wanted me. It was a very mutual thing, I promise you. Screw the lines. Life is short—sometimes, brutally so—we should all take what h

appiness and pleasure we can.”

The problem was that he wanted to take everything from Zoe.

Take and take…

And then he was supposed to just walk away?

His hands clenched as he stood there in the dark. “Do you trust me, Zoe?”

She didn’t answer.

Not yet. She doesn’t trust me yet. She gave me her body, gave me her desire, but I’ve still got a long way to go with Zoe.

“Show me that I can trust you,” Zoe said. He heard her footsteps shuffle closer. “Keep up your end of the deal. Help me to find Michelle. Help me to make sure that she’s alive. Get her safe and secure. Then I’ll trust you plenty.”

He turned back toward her. His eyes had adjusted more to the darkness, but he still couldn’t see her expression. “So people have to prove themselves to you?”

“After my life…and the number of users who’ve swept into it? Yes, yes, I need proof. The days of trusting blindly are long gone for me.”

That was what he’d suspected—and what his boss at the Bureau had thought, too. “How many people have betrayed you during your life?”

He heard her suck in a sharp breath, as if his question had hurt her.

“Too many to count.”

He rubbed his chest, a chest that had—oddly—just started to ache. Victor paced away from her and jerked on his jeans.

“Want to hear something sad?” Zoe asked him.

He was supposed to learn all of her secrets. But… “I think I’d rather hear something that made you happy.”

She came toward him then, a quick tumble of steps. Her arms lifted and wrapped around him. “You.”

“What?”

She leaned onto her toes and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth. “You make me happy.”

No, not him. He didn’t make anyone happy. The other agents were scared of him. His birth family had deserted him and—

“My true blue, always-gets-the-bad-guy agent. You make me happy because I know you can’t be bought. You’re not on my father’s payroll. You aren’t out to hurt me.”

That ache in his chest turned into a burn.

“I had one friend at that boarding school…a quiet girl who was my roommate. We grew really close during my time there. I thought she got me. I thought she cared, and then I found out that she was a plant. Her father worked for mine, and she was going back…telling them all my secrets. All about my plans for sneaking away. For starting a new life. She told them everything.”