Her mouth landed on his just as they reached the door. Sweet Lord above. If he’d thought Kenna simply walking into a room had an impact on him, he’d had another think coming. His back hit her front door, air seeping from his lungs as she locked their mouths together and slowly dragged away, taking his bottom lip with her. Both of their mouths opened on cue for a pull of oxygen before melding together, meshing hotly, moving in a slow, sexual rhythm, matched by the pulsing between his thighs. As if she’d made an unexpected discovery, she climbed higher on his body, thighs gripping his sides, hands holding his head steady as she delivered the kiss of his life. As soon as the notion rocked through his fevered brain, he reversed their positions, shoving her up against the door, determined to deliver the same to her. Their tongues tangled in an eager slide and he finally let himself do what he’d been fantasizing about since yesterday. He reached beneath her skirt and manhandled her sinner’s backside. He gripped the taut flesh and tightened his hold, lifting and stroking. She alleviated any fear he had of being too rough by moaning into his mouth, digging her heels into his waist.
Kenna tore her mouth away. “Inside, Beck. Take me inside,” she wheezed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’d done this before. A lot.”
“Nah, darlin’. Just you.” He took the single key she offered, turning it in the lock. “You make everything I do feel right. That has nothing to do with experience.” Walking them into the darkened apartment, he kissed her collarbone. “Thinking maybe that’s all to do with Kenna.”
Her legs dropped from around his waist. She turned before he could see her expression, but he knew he’d said too much. Shown his hand too early. When the light came on, there was a line of tension in her shoulders. No. He wouldn’t let her shut him out after they’d come this far. Hadn’t she said he made her ache, too? When she’d taken off her bra, he’d never been more turned on in his life. Would it work in reverse? Figuring he had nothing—except everything—to lose, Beck started unbuttoning his dress shirt. When he’d nearly reached the bottom, Kenna turned, shifting in her boots. Her green gaze sparked like a firecracker when he tugged the hem from his waistband. “W-what are you—”
Right before Beck let his shirt drop, he remembered the wound in his side and lifted a hand to hide it. Jesus, if this girl could make him forget the painful shrapnel wound, she could do anything. But he’d never willingly shown it to anyone, and he didn’t want her pity. He wanted her to need him. Needed her lust. Her touch. Anything but pity.
Kenna came to him, tension still visible in her shoulders, but it was a different kind. “I thought you were in a support unit.” Her hand hovered over the wound, as if trying to cure it. “You saw action, too?”
“I did. Of course I did.” He ran a thumb over her top lip, relieved to see her eyelids flutter. “I wouldn’t send men into a situation where I wouldn’t go myself.”
She traced the edge of his wound with her finger. “You’re a good man, Beck Collier. Some woman is going to snatch you up one day and never let go.”
Something akin to denial speared his chest and spiked his temper. He tipped her chin up and stooped down to bring their faces close. “Don’t talk about me with some other woman when I came here to be inside your body, Kenna. Because I promise you this.” He backed her toward the living room. “I aim to get so deep inside you, neither one of us will think of anyone else for a damn long while.” Ever again, if he had his way. “Now get your clothes off and show me the only woman I have plans to fuck. Show me.”
A beat passed in the living room where Beck thought he’d gone too far. Showed too early the secret, primitive part of himself he’d worked to suppress. Let more honesty slip out than was acceptable. It all vanished into the racing river of his pulse when she smiled, slow and sensual. “You know, I thought you were all sugar when we met.” She let her tattered shirt slide to the floor, palmed her breasts in a way that nearly brought him to his knees. “But you’re just a little bad underneath the sweet exterior, aren’t you?” She swayed toward him, right into his space. He thought she might kiss him, but she nudged him backward instead, sending him down into a deep-bottomed leather arm chair. “Why don’t we find out exactly how deep the bad goes, Major?”