Page 35 of Too Guarded to Love

The blush in her cheeks darkened. She looked at her boots.

Nic raised an eyebrow. Now that was different. In Gran’s room, she seemed so confident about what she wanted.

Him. She’d wanted him.

A rush of macho pride expanded his chest. Charming a woman into his bed was easy. He’d been blessed with good looks and an inherent charisma he turned on to get what he wanted, whether it was an extra slice of pizza when he’d been in foster care or information vital to national security.

He’d never been a guy who craved the chase. Never had to pursue women. They flocked to him. But he’d let Olivia lead, and this damn blistering attraction he couldn’t shake scared him more than his need to rip apart the sniper who put a bullet in her beautiful body.

He stepped into her. She backed up against the desk. An inch of space and a bottomless well of anticipation sizzled between them. Wrapping a hand around her neck and his fingers through her hair, he angled her head with a firm jerk. “If you hadn’t been shot, what would have been your next move?”

A gasp slipped through her lips. A sound like that from a woman usually resulted from some type of kinky play. Olivia’s reaction to the dominance he only let loose in the bedroom—if asked and discussed—thrilled him more than any other woman he’d held in his grip.

He dipped his head to her ear. “Tell me. What would you have done next with your pretty mouth?” His hand at her waist snaked under her T-shirt. “Would you have stayed on your knees, taking all of me until I hit the back of your throat and your eyes teared?”

She arched into his body. “That was my plan.”

“And what would you have done when the sight of you at my feet and the feel of your hot mouth wrapped around my cock made me explode?”

A soft moan sang from her throat.

Christ, he had to stop talking like this or he was going to come in his pants like a teenager.

She pressed her palm into his steel hip. The tips of her fingers grazed his hard length. “I would have tasted all of you.”

“Fuck, Olivia.” He skated his lips over her cheek and stopped centimeters from her mouth. Her hot breath triggered another surge of desire as he pressed his hips into her. She’d already witnessed the effect she had on him. Now he needed her to feel it. “Are you going to finish what you started? Is that the deal you were going to propose? I wouldn’t want you to regret missing out on something you craved so badly.”

“I thought you were angry with me.”

He brushed his lips against hers. “I’m furious, but my body doesn’t seem to care.”

Footsteps sounded outside the door. A moment later, Kane and Edgar’s voices filtered through.

Olivia stiffened. “We need to go.” She moved her palm from his hip to his chest and pushed. “Kane and Edgar will be looking for us.”

Nic backed away. Even though every breath, every move she made said she wanted to take this further, he retreated. When a woman said no, playtime ended. Except he wasn’t playing with Olivia. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he was nowhere near done.

She looked around the room as if someone was watching them. “Uh, about what I said about a deal. Forget it. I was tired and worried about Gran.” Shoving a curl from her face, she averted her gaze. “It’s a lot for a girl to get run off the road, get shot, and learn that her ex-boyfriend is a pathological liar all in one day. Forgive me if I’m a little unhinged and just pretend we never had that conversation, okay?”

Nic shrugged. “What deal? Already forgotten?” He beamed a smile at her as he opened the door and ushered her into the hallway. His neck buzzed again, but not because he was uneasy. It buzzed because he was planning something stupid.

If she could lie, so could he.