mean she couldn’t make Ben suffer a bit longer. As usual, he had other ideas. He touched his forehead to hers. Their noses brushed together and their heavy breaths mingled between their lips. It was the worst kind of torture he could deliver. Her body thrummed with desire and she couldn’t douse it. She held herself still beneath his warm weight to keep from exploding with want.
“Look at me,” he coaxed.
She lifted her lashes to meet his steady gaze. There was so much honor in the depths of those hazel eyes it made her throat tight.
“You said I was the only one who ever knew you,” he whispered. “Well that goes both ways. Nothing has changed. I’m still the same guy you knew before.”
She wanted to argue. He had changed in many ways. Starting with the sexy sculpted body currently wrapped around hers. But her emotions were too conflicted right now to find words.
“I need you to trust me, Brit. Can you do that? Can you trust me?”
If he only knew. When it came to people she trusted in this world, Ben Segar had always been at the top of that list. Even if she was a bit peeved with him right now, that would never change.
“Good girl,” he said with a smile when she nodded. “This micro card you’re talking about, is it the list of operatives for the Phoenix?”
“Of course, it is!” Why must he torture her by being so obtuse?
“Your parents are on that list?”
She slammed her eyelids shut. A lick of fear ran up her spine. He was questioning her as if he didn’t know what information Alexi was buying. Could he be using her? Damn it! Yet again she was losing her head because her body couldn’t control itself. She lifted her lashes only to be pinned by his steadfast gaze.
“You trust me, remember?” he reminded her.
“My mother.” The words came out her mouth as though he were some sort of snake charmer.
He blinked. Twice. Then the corners of his mouth turned up in a slow smile of wonder. “Well, I’ll be damned. Kick-ass women run in the family.”
“Yes, well.” She grunted as she struggled unsuccessfully to shove him off her heavily aroused body. “If I don’t warn them, kick-ass or not, I won’t have any family left.”
He groaned when she nudged his shoulder again. “Could you please hold still?” He breathed the words against her ear. “Ronoff is not going to kill your parents.”
She stilled beneath him. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because I said so.” His lips began to trace the column of her neck.
Her head reflexively lolled to the side to give him better access. “That’s not enough to reassure me. What makes you so omnipotent?”
He nibbled along her jaw until he reached the corner of her lips which he proceeded to tease with his tongue. She thrust her hips up in aggravation when he didn’t answer the question. Bad idea. He pressed into her body more deeply, his impressive arousal making itself known to her tense body.
“Answer the question, Ben. Who are you?” she demanded using a voice now shaky with pent-up frustration.
“I’m just a guy who’s about to make you blissfully happy,” he murmured against her eyelids. “Multiple times.”
This was wrong on so many counts. Despite the fact her body was reacting to every touch like it was the Sahara Desert and he was water, she had no right thinking about sex. Not while her parents were in grave danger.
“Ben,” she pleaded.
“Ronoff doesn’t have it,” he said before nipping at her lip.
“But you said—”
“I said Ronoff took a micro card. I didn’t realize there was another one.”
As his words sank in, relief surged through her stiff limbs and she relaxed against the mattress. Taking advantage, he delved into her mouth with a deep, drugging kiss that almost wiped her mind clean.
Almost.
“What other card?” she asked.
Her question came out as more of a sigh when his fingers somehow sneaked their way beneath her shirt and began teasing her nipples with the same expert finesse that nearly had her orgasming earlier.
His teeth grazed her collarbone when his mouth began traveling south. “The one containing my AI I’ve been working on for over ten years. It was on a micro card in my cabin. I still can’t figure out how he knew it was there. Only four people knew it existed until the night I used it at the White House.”
She bit back a moan when his teeth grazed her nipple through her