Duty At What Cost?

And she knew he knew what that felt like.

He was so strong, this warrior of a man who had shielded her so well all she’d ended up with was a bruised hip and sore hands.

Fortunately her plasters didn’t hinder her fingers from spreading cream onto him, and by the time she’d worked her way down to the base of his spine she felt his muscles start to relax.

And then other sensations started to creep into her consciousness. Sensations like the fact that his warm, toned flesh was beneath her fingertips. Like his size. The fact that she was standing so closely behind him she would only have to move a centimetre to be plastered against all that heat.

Just like that lust unfurled like a flower low in her pelvis and turned her insides to liquid. She glanced at his face in the mirror and found his eyes were shut tight, his knuckles as white as the basin he gripped. It was as if he was holding on to his control by a thread. As if her touching him was affecting him the same way it was affecting her.

Without allowing herself any time to think about it, she leant forward and placed her lips along the indent of his spine, feeling rather than hearing his sharp inhalation. He smelt of soap and the cream now absorbed into his skin. And all man. Ava breathed deep, careful not to press against his bruises but unable to stop kissing him on every undamaged section of his back.

He was tall, so much taller than her, and she had to stretch to reach the base of his neck. As soon as her lips found their mark a deep sound rumbled through his body and he spun towards her, his hands gripping her waist to hold her back.

A tap dripped in the quiet room but neither of them paid it any attention.

Ava knew her eyes showed how aroused she was but she didn’t try to hide it from him. She knew he would never want a future with her, but at this point she didn’t care.

Last week she had pledged that she would dedicate her life to her country. But that seemed irrelevant tonight. Tonight they had both nearly lost their lives. Tonight she just wanted to be a normal woman with a man who made her feel so much.

‘What are you doing, Ava?’

His deep growl sent a frisson of awareness straight to her core.

She spread her hands wide over his magnificent chest. ‘What does it look like?’

‘It looks like trouble.’

She smiled. ‘I want to make love with you, Wolfe.’

His nostrils flared and his fingers bit into her waist. Like a sinuous cat Ava arched towards him, powered by the knowledge that he seemed to be as aroused as she already was.

When he continued to stare at her, unmoving, she wondered if perhaps she’d misjudged him. Misjudged the depth of the chemistry between them. Misjudged his infinite self-control. The old feeling of not being good enough swamped her, but just as she might have withdrawn he hauled her up onto her toes and claimed her mouth with his.

Ava sighed blissfully against his lips. Her body knew his, trusted his. When he groaned and slanted his mouth to widen hers she didn’t even think of holding back. She had wanted him to touch her—had wanted to touch him—for weeks, and it felt as if her whole body just melted into his like a boneless mass.

Possibly she was just being driven by the need to be physically close to someone right now. The ghosts of those she had loved and lost lay heavy in her heart after her horrifying ordeal. But she didn’t care. She had never wanted a man the way she wanted James Wolfe.

‘I want you, Ava.’ His voice was as rough as a cat’s tongue against her ear. ‘God knows I’ve tried to resist you. Tried and failed. If you don’t stop me now I won’t be able to.’

Ava gazed into eyes as black as the night sky outside. He was giving her a message, she knew it. He wasn’t the one for her no matter how good it felt to be with him.

Maybe it would have been smarter to heed that warning. Maybe it would have been smarter to push him away. But her body refused to cooperate. Something inside her sensed that he needed her equally as much as she needed him, and that feeling was stronger than any maybe.

‘I don’t want you to stop.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

IT WAS AS if those passion-drugged words had unleashed a beast inside him. Wolfe forgot all about the gut-wrenching pain in his back and instead could only feel the gut-wrenching ache in his body. For her. Only for her.

Before, when she’d looked at him so guilelessly and told him that everyone needed someone, he had vehemently denied that he did. But right now his body made a mockery of those words. Her concern over his injuries had completely undone him. No woman had ever treated him so tenderly before and it was appalling how badly he wanted to soak that up.