Page 23 of Herding Cat

He nuzzled her neck. She felt herself weakening, dampening, melting into him. “Not even a tigress?”

She growled.

He chuckled. “Not even a civet?”

She leaned back and smacked him, but he knew, they both knew, it wasn’t an angry smack. It was a playful one.

And how the hell had he done that? How had he seduced her into a good mood? A playful mood? She was never playful.

And how, on God’s green earth, had he battered through all her defenses without her even realizing she was under attack?

But he had.

With a laugh and a joke and some stupid byplay about cats of all things, he’d demolished her carefully constructed battlements.

She did want him.

She was the kind of woman who took what she wanted.

And damn it all, they were here, alone in his room. All night.

By God, she would have him.

And if this was the only tryst they had, she’d make damn sure it was the most mind-blowing sex this handsome SEAL would ever have.

And by God, she’d make sure he never forgot her after he left.

Because he would. At some point, he would.

That was a given.

Chapter Six

He knew the moment she made her decision. He felt it in the flex of her muscles, tasted it on her breath. It sizzled between them, a potent energy.

Something in his core relaxed, and tightened at the same time.

He was going to have her, this woman he’d ached for since the instant he’d laid eyes on her. This woman he’d protected for weeks, followed, watched, fantasized about.

She insisted she was too old for him, but that was complete nonsense. She was everything he was attracted to in a woman. Strong, smart, independent, fearless.

Gorgeous.

He cupped her cheeks with his hands and stared at her features. Her forehead high and intelligent. He kissed it. Her brows were slightly quirked in a perpetual sarcastic arch. Kissed them too. Her eyes were a piercing silver gray and fringed with thick lashes. Yes. A kiss for each of them. And her nose, a straight, slight slope turned up just a bit at the end. Ah. A kiss there.

And her lips... Lush and tantalizing.

He settled in for a long exploration. He already knew her scent, her taste, and he gloried in it, but when she responded, when she raked her nails over his scalp and down his neck, shivers of insane passion rocked him to his core.

“Catherine,” he growled. “I want this to last.”

She smirked at him. “Then you’d better leave the room.”

No. Freaking. Way.

“I have a feeling this isn’t going to be one of those slow and easy fucks.”

She snorted and began unfastening his belt. “I think I’ve waited long enough.”