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“It never occurred to me that a beautiful widow, obviously hung up on her dead husband, would be seducing me.”
“Is that how you see me?” She tilted her head to look into his face. “Hung up on Shane?”
“You’ve spent the better part of five years skating on the edge of danger trying to identify his assassin. How would you describe it?”
“I want justice for him.”
“And justice for your mother.”
She jerked back. “Of course.”
“What about you?” He rubbed a circle on her back. “What about Claire?”
“I—I don’t need justice.”
“Maybe not justice, but you need a break from all this. You need to put yourself first, Claire.”
“I put Ethan first.” Her tense muscles were screaming at her. She didn’t want to have this conversation with Mike. He saw too much.
“I know you do.” He hand crept up to the base of her neck, where his fingers kneaded her taut muscle. “Outside of your child, you need to start putting yourself first—because nobody else ever has.”
The truth, voiced aloud by someone else, punched her in the gut, and she doubled over. “Sh-Shane.”
“Shane left you for a story opportunity in a dangerous part of the world, knowing full well the US government does not negotiate with terrorists. He walked into a trap, blinded by visions of a Pulitzer.”
“Why are you saying this? You sound just like my stepfather.”
“God help me, but Correll was right about that.”
She bolted up from the love seat, but Mike was beside her in a second, grabbing her around the waist. “Give yourself a chance, Claire. Give yourself a chance at life...at love.”
Her body stiffened as she tried to hold her world together, and then Mike crushed her against his chest. He bent his head to hers and pressed a hard kiss against her lips, which parted under his assault. Then he thrust his tongue inside her mouth.
She wanted to repudiate him, reject everything he’d said about her and Shane—reject the truth. Digging her fingers into his back, she squirmed in his viselike hold.
He broke off the kiss that had seared her lips and then released her, catching her arm as she staggered back. His dark eyes kindled with that predatory look again and he growled deep in his throat. “Say the word, woman. Just tell me no—once.”
Her chest heaved with each ragged breath she took, the thin cotton of Mike’s T-shirt abrading her erect nipples adding pain to the pleasure that surged between her legs. Never breaking eye contact, she twisted out of his grasp and knocked his arm away.
A pulse throbbed in his throat, and the line at the side of his mouth deepened. Holding up his hands, he took a step back.
She licked her bottom lip, wedging the tip of her tongue in the corner of her mouth. Then she pinched the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it up one inch at a time, watching the fire reignite in his eyes.
She hadn’t bothered with underwear after her bath, and when the T-shirt hit her waist, Mike’s gaze dropped, scorching her, weakening her knees. She rolled the shirt over her breasts, heavy with desire and aching with need.
Yanking the T-shirt over her head, she tossed it behind her, standing in front of Mike totally naked, bared to his scrutiny and judgment.
He reached out and cupped the back of her head, entangling his fingers in her hair. He took possession of her lips again, walking her backward until the backs of her calves brushed against the cushion of the love seat.
The fire crackled and spit behind him, the glow highlighting the silver in his hair. He tugged gently on her hair, lowering her to the love seat. As she sat down, he hovered above her, her lips still captured by his.
By the time he broke the seal of their kiss, molten lava coursed through her veins, pooling in her belly—and below.
He traced a finger from the indentation of her throat to her mound, and she quaked at his touch. He knelt in front of her and opened her legs by placing his palms on the insides of her thighs.
His dark head moved toward her and she curled her fingers in his thick hair. The touch of his tongue made her gasp and throw her head back.
His lips against her swollen folds teased her to dizzying heights and she had to force herself to take a breath before she passed out.
