He did, in one swift, uncontrolled thrust so hard it drove her an inch up the bed. He groaned and dropped his forehead to hers. “Too much?”
She raked her teeth over his earlobe. “More.”
He groaned again.
And he let go.
Each powerful thrust streaked through her like the lightning outside. But instead of discharging the tense connection that had built between them, it only made it more intense. Nina clung to him, swept away by something deeper than lust or pleasure.
Swept away by him. Knox, unrestrained, his caution stripped away. Not the soldier. Not the captain.
The man.
His mouth seized hers, hot and desperate, as he urged her legs higher up his sides to wrap around his back instead of his hips. The new angle turned the lightning into fire, and Nina came hard. She bit his shoulder to stifle her cries, but the thunder outside drowned them out anyway.
She was still shaking when he rolled them again, urging her over him. Too far gone to tease, she picked up a new, faster rhythm, dragging her nails down his chest as she rode him. He hissed his approval of the pain and pressed his head back against the pillow, the muscles in his neck tense and trembling.
Then he planted his feet on the bed and drove up to meet her rocking thrusts, harder and harder, until the force of their bodies coming together slammed the headboard against the wall. Knox spoke to her, low, encouraging whispers lost to the sound of the storm raging outside, drowned out by the blood pounding in her ears.
Just a little more. Maybe he said it, or maybe the thought swirled up out of the lust driving her. Either way, Nina obeyed. She shifted her hips, leaning forward, her hands slipping on the sweat-slicked skin of his chest with every desperate thrust. A heartbeat later, he went rigid beneath her and choked out her name—
His expression reflected the deepest agony and the most incandescent pleasure. Just looking at him might have been enough to get her there, but then his grip on her hips tightened past the point of pain, and Nina lost it. She shuddered above him, every muscle clenching so hard it hurt, and it felt so good she never wanted it to end.
But it had to. Nina collapsed on his chest, shivering as he panted roughly against her neck. His arms came around her, one hand sinking into her hair, the other splaying across the small of her back, as if holding her in place.
As if he thought she might leave.
“Relax, Captain.” Nina lifted her head and grinned down at him. “We’re just getting started.”
* * *
SECURITY MEMO
Franklin Center for Genetic Research
HS-Gen16-A failed to report in for her first shift with her contracted employer this morning.
Lock down medical. Lock down everything.
Dr. Baudin, November 2077
* * *
FIFTEEN
The patio door squealed a quiet protest, jolting Knox from sleep.
Disorientation claimed him for a dizzy moment. His body was a riot of conflicting sensory input—pain in his shoulder, aches in his muscles, bruises that would no doubt be glorious by morning. But lazy pleasure and bone-deep satisfaction competed with the discomfort, a sated feeling he hadn’t experienced in years. The sensation of having fucked so deep and hard and good that he’d worked a decade of holding back out of his system.
When he decided to screw up, he didn’t do it by half.
The blankets tangled around his legs. The sheet next to him was still warm from Nina’s body. He turned his head just enough to squint through the darkness. Lightning forked across the sky, illuminating her silhouette where she stood at the open patio door, watching the storm rage outside.
Something inside him had broken tonight. His instincts. His common sense. He’d fucked the woman he was going to betray, and then he’d fallen asleep in her arms. A pin dropping thirty feet away usually jerked him from restless sleep, but he’d slept so deeply she’d disentangled herself from him and slipped from the bed without waking him.
He could keep lying to himself, but his body was done playing along. He wanted her—no surprise there, but the depth of his craving startled him. The sex should have worked her out of his system. He’d satisfied his curiosity about so many things—the feel of her hair wrapped around his fingers, the way her hips fit the curve of his hands. The noises she made, desperate and playful, needy and demanding, and everything