Page 36 of Honor ’N’ Duty

Yeah, there is that. He’d never taken a date there before for just that reason, but it was exactly why he would have taken Laia there.

Laia stood, then smoothed her hands down her dress. She sat down again, this time parking her pretty little butt right next to him. The air conditioner took that untimely moment to kick on, sending her intoxicating and sweetly flowered scent directly into his nose. At least he had Smoke there to—

But his dog’s snout now rested between his paws. His eyes had closed, and his chest rose and fell evenly.

Way to abandon your partner. He’d been hoping Smoke would have wedged himself between them the way he usually did when someone got into Kade’s personal space.

She rested her hand on his forearm, lightly swirling her fingers across his skin. It was like being stroked by warm satin and velvet. His skin erupted in goose bumps and his heart hammered faster. “Laia, don’t do this.” He reached for her hand, intending to remove it when she clasped it, threading their fingers.

Sweat trickled between his shoulder blades. She had him in a corner—literally—and he was powerless to move.

“Don’t do what, touch you?” She skimmed her hand up his biceps, over his shoulder to his neck, caressing him there with lightly stroking fingers.

Oh, boy. He swallowed again, then had to open his mouth to get enough air to breathe. And that hammering in his chest was now a loud and constant pounding at every one of his pulse points. Including the one he could swear was in his dick.

Wasn’t this what he’d always wanted, what he’d dreamed about during so many hot, sleepless, sweaty nights?

“What would we have done after dinner?” Again, she licked her lower lip, only this time there was no doubting her intent.

“I, uh…” Christ. Soon he’d be out of religious expletives.

He’d participated in countless high-risk warrants involving drug dealers, gun smugglers, and violent terrorists without sweating a drop and with his heart rate barely in the sixty-beats-a-minute range. Now he was sweating bullets and his pulse had to be soaring into the nineties.

She cupped the side of his face, and before he knew what was happening, he was leaning into her palm. “Well? What would we have done?”

“I’d have taken you down to the beach.”

“Would you have held my hand?”

“Uh-huh.” To start with.

“Would you have kissed me?” She leaned in, placing her hand on his hip, way too close to his groin. “Would you?”

Yeah. This was what he’d always wanted. She’d been a craving he’d never been able to eradicate, never been able to erase with anyone else. So what was he waiting for?

Don’t do it, the rational part of his mind screamed again.

Once he had the taste of her mouth and skin on his tongue, there’d be no stopping him.

Laia leaned in closer until her soft breasts pressed against his chest.

“Laia—” He clamped his jaw together. If she were any closer, she’d be under his skin.

So much for religion because she was already under his skin.

“Kade,” she whispered, his name warm and gentle across his lips, the way he imagined a butterfly’s wings would feel.

Her teasing gentleness was the spark, the emotional catalyst that set off a nuclear chain reaction.

His head grew hot. His blood started to boil. Then an explosion rocked his heart, releasing everything inside him that yearned to take full possession of the woman he’d wanted for so long he couldn’t remember.

With a loud groan, he cupped the back of her head, then slanted his mouth across hers. She answered with a throaty moan, throwing her arms around his neck.

Her taste was nectar on his tongue, and he wanted more. Deeper, hotter…he wanted to take all she was offering.

With a hungry, feral growl, he pushed his tongue inside her mouth. Molded to him as she was, with no space between their bodies, hers was warm, soft, and infinitely perfect.

He crushed her against him, wrapping his arms around her back, skimming his hands over her bare shoulders as he deepened the kiss. How he thought he could ever manage walking on this earth without her, without kissing her, touching her, breathing in her very essence, he didn’t know.