from her body with single-minded focus. Her underwear joined the growing pile of clothes on the floor as he stretched out over her, his jeans rough against her inner thighs, his body trembling with tension.
For a charged moment, he simply stared at her as thunder roared and the lights flickered under the force of the unleashed storm. The same storm seemed to be raging inside him, held back by the finest of threads.
Holding his gaze, barely even breathing, Nina unbuckled his belt.
He shuddered, and his hands fisted in the blankets on either side of her head. He let her work the leather free, but when she reached for the button on his pants, he snapped.
“Wait.” He grabbed her hands with a growl and dragged them up over her head. His fingers formed a gentle, implacable cage as he pinned her wrists to the pillow. He settled next to her on the bed, his bare chest blazing hot against her bare skin, and trailed his free hand down between her breasts. “My turn first.”
“I’m not one of your men, Captain.” She fought to be still, but her body arched to his touch anyway. “What makes you think I’ll follow orders?”
“What makes you think I want you to?” He dragged his finger in a taunting circle on her abdomen. “A leader who relies on mindless obedience gets what they deserve. I have subtler methods of persuasion at my disposal.”
Oh. “Such as?”
Knox slid a leg over hers and used it to edge her thighs wider as his fingers drifted even lower—implacable, relentless. His first touch was maddeningly gentle, just the soft brush of his fingers between her thighs. But his eyes fixed on her face with that look he got when they settled into a new place for the night, the one that meant he was memorizing every detail and committing it to memory for use in some future battle plan.
Recon had never been hotter.
He touched her slowly, tracing fire over her slick, swollen flesh until she clenched her fists in sheer frustrated anticipation. She tried to buck up, to meet every careful caress halfway, but Knox kept her hips pinned to the bed.
A satisfied smile tugged at his lips, and Nina shuddered through the realization that he was playing with her. Teasing her.
Did he understand yet that his turn really would come? Or was he counting on that?
The careful, teasing stimulation built, twisting tighter until Nina’s legs were shaking and she ached to feel the graze of his nails or his teeth on her skin—something, anything, to kick-start the slow, inexorable swell of pleasure.
Something hard enough to get her off.
Then, just as she was sliding into desperation, opening her mouth to beg, Knox pressed his thumb firmly against her clit.
“Fuck!” She arched again, galvanized by the blinding heat. His grip on her wrists broke, and she drove her fingers into his hair and pulled.
His groan shattered on a curse as he kept his thumb moving in firm, demanding circles, keeping time with the pleasure pulsing through her. Nina gasped with every fresh wave—and whimpered when he didn’t stop. She tilted her hips in invitation, and he eased one finger inside her.
“Look at me.” The desperation seething beneath the command was what drew her gaze like magnetic north.
He wasn’t just watching her, gauging her reactions. He was utterly focused, every tiny shred of attention dialed in like he wanted to drown in her. And maybe he did. Whether he crawled into that bottle of tequila or into her, Nina didn’t blame him for wanting to escape for a little while.
Whatever this was, the scant space between them seethed. Nina fell into it, closing the distance between them to capture his mouth. He met her kiss, then took control of it, rough and deep, as the fine edges of his perfect control began to unravel.
He nipped her lower lip and sank another broad finger into her. Nina broke the kiss and rubbed her cheek against his, hungry for as much sensation as possible, even the rough chafe of his beard on her face.
His breath fell hot on her ear. His whisper was a low rumble. “I can do this all night, you know. My hands aren’t just flesh and bone. They don’t get tired.”
“Never doubted it.” Shivering, Nina rubbed her hip against his erection. “Your dick might start to feel left out, though.”
His warm chuckle flowed over her like honey. “If you want it, you’re gonna have to ask nicer than that.”