“How did you get in here without waking me?” I demanded quietly, pressing the knife deeper. Not deep enough to draw blood. Not yet.
“Very easily. Now answer the damn question.”
“Claudia insisted I stay here.”
“Claudia, huh? You two are on a first-name basis?”
“She’s not so bad. She wants to protect me from you.”
“Baby, nothing can protect you from me.” The darkness of his voice cut through the darkness of the room.
I tried to wriggle out from under him, but he had me pinned by his strength. More than that, my halfhearted wriggling wouldn’t have dislodged a feather. It did spark my desire for him to new heights, though, causing my br**sts to mesh into his chest. The scent of honey began to encompass us in a fragrant cloud. And perhaps, just perhaps, I intentionally spread my legs so his lower body would sink into mine.
His nostrils flared, and tension radiated off of him in decadent waves. “We’ve got to do something about your perfume.”
“Why?”
“It gives a man ideas,” he grumbled.
I swallowed. “What kind of ideas?”
“The naked kind.” His eyes narrowed. “Did you bring Luc?” Undiluted and unrestrained menace dripped from his tone.
I almost smiled. Almost. “Agent Luc is here, yes.”
Even in the moonlight, Lucius’s eyes visibly darkened. His ice-blue eyes. No contacts. He’d come to me as himself. My heart picked up in speed, drumming hotly in my chest.
“I told you what would happen if you brought him. Where. The hell. Is he?”
“On the floor,” I said, bending both of my knees. An innocent (I swear) action that cradled him intimately against me. I kept my knife steady.
“The only thing on the floor is a f**king lazy-ass dog.”
“Exactly.” The word emerged on a smug breath. “And she’s not lazy. She’s finally getting some rest after a horrible life with a predator.”
In that moment, he understood how I’d played him. How I’d purposefully made him jealous. Watching me, he popped the muscles in his jaw. “You’re going to pay for that, cookie.”
“Yeah, and you’re going to pay for sneaking into my room.” At last I pressed the knife hard enough to nick him. A tiny drop of blood slithered down his neck. “I named her after you.”
“If you couldn’t have me, you’d have the next best thing, right?”
“Can’t you take an insult as it’s intended? Now get the hell off me.” If only I sounded convincing…Angry with myself, I pressed the knife a little more deeply into his neck.
He didn’t answer or comment; he was too busy staring at my lips. For a moment, however, itdid look like he wanted to say something, something smart-assed and cutting, but then he changed his mind, pressed against the blade, and swooped down.
He kissed the breath right out of me.
His tongue plunged inside my mouth, and I opened eagerly. Helpless to do otherwise. He tasted like man and heat, firing my blood, igniting my senses. I could become addicted to his flavor, I thought dazedly. His lips were soft, so soft, the perfect contrast to the hard battle of supremacy our tongues waged.
Suddenly he jerked back, his breathing ragged and unsteady. He glared down at me. “Getting involved with an agent is stupid.”
I glared up at him as I dragged in my own unsteady breath. The blade winked between us. “Getting involved with your partner is stupider.”
“Do you care?” he said, brows arching.
“No.” I should have, but I didn’t. Not here, and not now.
“Me, either. Drop the knife, Eden. We finish this.”
“Do we?” I smiled slowly, seductively, though how I was capable of the action when my mind had long since forgotten everything but Lucius I don’t know. I moved the blade over his collar like a caress. “I could kill you, instead.”
“Drop it.”
“No.” I used the blade to cut his shirt. His eyes widened; his nostrils flared. I tossed the tatters of his shirt aside.
He grabbed the knife and cut off my top then flung the blade aside. It landed on the floor with a thump. We were chest against chest. My ni**les abraded him, and he sucked in a breath.
“You better be worth the wait,” I said.
Neither one of us commented on the fact that we hadn’t truly known each other long. It just seemed like we’d waited for this for an eternity.
When he didn’t move, I prompted, “Do you need an engraved invitation?”
He groaned a sound more animal than human, and his lips instantly slammed into mine. I moaned when one of his hot, callused hands found my breast and squeezed, then plumped. My ni**les beaded. I’d told him once that if he ever kissed me again, I’d kill him. To be honest, I’d kill him without thought or hesitation if he dared stop. We’d been building to this moment since we first clapped eyes on each other. Why not get it out of the way so we could at last focus on our jobs?
“This isn’t safe here,” he said, tearing his mouth away.
“Then hurry.”
“You read my mind.” He uttered a ragged chuckle. “Everything about you turns me on.” He laved my lips with his tongue. “The way you move. The way you talk.”
Weapons were strapped all over him. My hands unsteady, I tugged at the cords holding them to his chest. He let me, too. All the while, his mouth slanted over mine, his tongue plundering deliciously inside. Soon, his knives and guns surrounded us. He jerked off his pants. I jerked off mine. I shoved at the covers that separated our lower bodies until finally, we had total skin-to-skin contact. I sucked in a breath at the sheer heat, the rightness.
Luc whimpered.
Lucius tore away again. “Good girl,” he said over his shoulder. His eyes met mine, and his tone changed, deepening with his next words. “Very good girl.” Sweat ran down his temples, and he breathed as shallowly as if he’d run a marathon uphill. Lines of tension bracketed his eyes. “You’re a screamer. I can tell. Just try and keep it down.”
“I am not a screamer,” I whispered roughly.
A look of sublime pleasure consumed his features, tempered only by amusement and satisfaction. “Then get ready, baby, because you’re about to.”
“Enough talking.” I jerked his head to mine, claiming his lips in a kiss that branded my very bones. My hands were everywhere. All over him. His ni**les speared my palms; the muscles of his back jumped under my assault, and his ass tightened. I bent my knees…and felt the weapons that were strapped to his thighs. Another barrier. I cursed under my breath.