AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” I answered the question she would never ask. “I’ve never here.”
She let go of me and grimaced, the opposite of what I wanted her to do. “I wasn’t thinking that.”
“You were,” I said, fairly confident I could read the confirmation in her hesitant expression. At least she wasn’t trembling anymore, nor panic-talking.
“You’re confusing,” she whispered as her hands walked up my chest, then up to the sides of my neck.
I nearly lowered my head to nuzzle her face, copying how Dallas was with her. Lucky dog. “I know, and I’m sorry, but it’s your fault.” Shutting my eyes, I leaned in and rested my forehead to hers instead of ravishing her mouth like I craved.
“My fault, huh?” she asked in that sweet, sexy tone of hers.
“Absolutely,” I remarked, my voice deeper than I’d intended, rough with exhaustion and desire.
“Care to elaborate?”
“Not even a little bit,” I said, shocked at the teasing territory I’d dipped into. “Let’s get this over with then, huh? The nap.”
“Sounds like torture,” she commented, hitting me back with her own brand of playfulness.
Mission success in keeping her calm. Now to find out just how tired I really was. Would joining her in the bed calm my body and mind? Or would certain parts of me remain wide awake? “You already know sleeping next to you is not going to be easy.”
“How hard?” More turbulence sent her pressing even closer against me, and sleep deprivation did nothing to tame my desire for this woman. She had to be feeling just how hard she made me.
“Bed,” I grunted. “Now.”
“You’re better at giving commands than I am, I’ll give you that.” She smirked, then pulled away and trained her full attention on the bed, facing it like a problem she needed to combat head-on.
“You going to be good at taking them?”
She shot me a saucy look over her shoulder, but didn’t reply, or give me any indication she’d comply with any of my commands—orders I needed to refrain from giving her unless it was to save her life.
My hand rested over my heart at the sad reminder that keeping her safe meant removing myself from her life after the mission was over. An idea that was too painful to think about, even if true. “Bed,” I said again. “On top of the covers.”
“And if I’m cold?”
I’ll warm you up. I nearly rolled my damn eyes at my own thoughts.
I half expected her to crawl onto the bed on all fours with her ass in the air, just to tease me, but she had the good sense to walk around to the side and slide on that way instead. At least one of us was thinking clearly.
She really had been through a lot, and the fact we had any quasi-sexual banter going on after she’d witnessed war tonight spoke volumes about her. There was a hell of a lot more to this woman than met the eye. Maybe we were even more alike than I thought.
I took a moment to gather my thoughts as she curled up on the bed. She closed her eyes, resting her head on the pillow, her light blonde hair wild around her face.
No, you’re an angel. It was up to me to keep her from falling, from joining me in hell. Which meant sticking to my original plan of not giving in to temptation.
I went around the bed and wordlessly removed her sneakers and socks before kicking off my own. I hated sleeping with anything on my body, let alone covering my feet.
She half frowned, half pouted. Too damn cute it hurt to look at her sometimes. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get your bed dirty.”
“I don’t care about that.” I climbed up next to her. “Just making you more comfortable.”
“Oh, well, thank you,” she said as I turned on my side to face her, maintaining as much distance between us as possible. Which was far too close—a mere three inches between our mouths. “Try and sleep. Like you said, they’ll come for us if they learn something new.”
“Roger that,” I said with a smirk, propping my head on my bent arm while curling my other hand into a fist between us. It was a piss-poor barrier, but the best I could do to prevent me from reaching for her. A physical reminder to keep my distance.
“Carter?” My name floating softly from her mouth guided my eyes to her lips.
“Is it too much to ask you to hold me while we sleep?”
