“Let’s not test that with little poison darts,” Rafe drawled. “Here, I have something better for you.” He rummaged through one of his bags and resurfaced with a smooth cylinder. “This stun-stick hasn’t even hit the market yet. Makes the ones that Ava’s mercs were wielding look like kiddie versions.”
He slid it to Maya, who beamed at him in delight as she swept it up. Rafe glanced at Dani, clearly eager for her approval, because he broke out in a brilliant smile when she winked at him.
“Someone’s going to get worse than shot,” Knox growled, stopping next to the table with his most fearsome glare. “Could at least one of you pretend you have some weapons training and stop throwing them around?”
Dani shot him her most innocent look. “Relax, Dad. We’re professionals.”
Knox raised both eyebrows. “Sloppy thinking leads to—”
“Sloppy deaths,” everyone finished for him in unison. Even Dani and Maya joined in, while Luna stifled a snicker and hid behind Conall’s back.
Knox glowered at them, and Nina’s pulse hitched.
What do you want?
“Settle down, all right?” she said firmly. “There’s plenty of printing to monitor, and someone should go ahead and set up the vacuum-sealer. So get to work.” They started to scatter, and Nina jerked her head at Knox. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure.”
He fell into step with her, but he wasn’t moving fast enough. She had to get these words past the lump in her throat now, or she never would. So she grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the nearest room with a door—a supply closet with nothing in it but two broken brooms, an ancient sink in the corner, and a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Not the most romantic location for a heartfelt speech, but it was so them that Nina swallowed a nervous laugh.
Knox looked around, then down at her. His eyebrow quirked up. He looked on the verge of a smile. “This is an odd place for a chat.”
“I can wait,” she lied.
“Can you?” he murmured.
No, not even close. “I want this,” she confessed in a rush. “You and me and our crews, working together. Even when it gets hard or we fight, I want the last forty-eight hours, all the time.” She finally paused to drag in a breath. “I want this.”
“You want us.” His smile was beautiful, riveting. Everything she’d imagined it would be, and real for the first time, with no lies between them. “You want me.”
She reached for him, sliding her hands up his arms. “If you’ll have me.”
“If?” Knox gripped her hips and dragged her against him. “If? Being with you is the only thing I’ve ever wanted for myself. Before I met you, I didn’t even remember how to want, and now I can’t stop. I want everything.”
She twined her arms around his neck and closed the distance between them to capture his mouth. He met her kiss with a groan, lips parted, head tilted, his fingers flexing on her hips before sliding down to cup her ass. Then he hauled her up, urging her to wrap her legs around his waist.
Nina tore her mouth from his and kissed her way to his ear. “Here?”
“Everywhere.” Two steps and her back hit the wall. He leaned into her, his teeth teasing along her jaw. “Unless you want me to stop…”
“Don’t.” She reached up and gripped a shelf for leverage so she could rock against him. “Don’t stop.”
He murmured something unintelligible against her throat, his beard rasping over her skin. Nina shuddered as his fingers slipped under the hem of her tank top and up, stroking her sides as he guided the fabric higher.
She twisted, trying to arch into his touch. “Say it again.”
“Which part?” His thumb traced the lower curve of her breast. “That I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you?” He plied her nipple through the soft fabric of her bra with just enough pressure to make her gasp. “Or that I’m going to spend the next year figuring out how many different ways I can have you?”
“Why wait?” she whispered. “We have a sink. Walls. There’s even a bed upstairs—I hope.”
“Oh, I’m not waiting.” Knox hauled her away from the wall and spun to balance her on the edge of the sink. Before she’d caught her balance, he was coaxing her tank top up over her head, his gaze drinking her in. “But it’s going to take more than one night. Maybe