“I know, Special Agent Palmer, that you’re used to being independent, with freedom to do as you see fit, but this is my operation. If you overstep your bounds again, I will see that you are reported for insubordination. Is that clear?”
“I was getting a jump on a mission to find your nephew. I know what I’m doing, and now there is no delay in getting to the site where they disappeared. Have a good evening, Mr. Bates.” She brushed past him and could feel the weight of his glare as she went through the door. Screw him. She didn’t overstep her bounds. She did what any agent would do. He just wanted to bust her balls.
She got to her room and went inside, her body alive. She could barely wait for Hemingway to get there. The last time she’d seen him was much too brief. God, she’d been such a fool. The last two years she’d kept herself in check and away from him, gathering intel, lining up witnesses, building a secret case that she could use to draw Bates out. Giving up Hemingway, relegating him to insignificance by her need for revenge.
That shamed her. It humiliated her because she’d never really been present in his life. She’d just been visiting when he’d been giving his all to BUD/S, to her. She knew it and had tried to duck it, hide from it, but it had caught up to her. That night when she had lost her reason and sanity, when she had given over to the temptation of oblivion, drowning in alcohol, that was a result of her inner meltdown. Her purpose went hazy, and her thinking had begun to shift.
She’d called him to confess everything. To tell him that she loved him. There was no denying it anymore. She might have been drunk off her ass when she’d come to that conclusion, but she was stone cold sober now.
She loved him. She had to decide if she loved him more than she wanted to see Bates dead. Did she love him more than she wanted to see her sister’s killer as cold and lifeless as she was? Six feet under like Madison, who would never laugh, love, marry or have children?
She covered her face. Maddy. I’m so sorry. She knew in her heart Maddy wouldn’t want this. She would want Shea to laugh, love, marry and have children. Live a fulfilled and happy, beautiful life.
That was the wall she had to break down, the one full of guilt and anger. The one that was keeping her from Atticus Sinclair.
She was pacing when the soft knock on her door made her tremble. She ran to it, and there he was, dressed in a brown T-shirt and jeans, his sexy stubble and shaggy hair making him look more like a young party animal than a Navy SEAL.
He pushed into the room and closed the door with his heel, locking it.
His hands slid around her, molding the curves of her body. His body shook against hers like they were both in need of this drug they generated between them.
They came together like a car wreck, two vehicles colliding. His mouth claimed hers, hoarsely whispering her name. His kiss was raw sexual energy, hitting her with the power of a lightning bolt. Her breathing out of control, she opened her mouth, needing the heat of him. Hemingway shuddered again, grinding his mouth against hers as he crushed her even tighter.
Her wall crumbled while she yielded everything to him, her need fired higher by his.
His hand swept lower to cup her smooth behind, pull her tighter, and she moaned and thrust her hips against his, latching onto his belt, undoing it with a frantic pull.
The next few minutes were nothing but their mouths devouring each other as he ripped off her top, trapped her against him with one hand, the other exploring her body with brutal intent. She groaned as he covered her breast, and wildly thumbed her nipple, sending a pulse of heat through her body, straight to her screaming core.
She pulled off his T-shirt, her hands all over the hard, wide planes of his chest. He slipped his arms under her armpits, lifting her easily, his mouth capturing and sucking her nipple. She arched back, crying out.
He moved toward the bed, threw her back on it, yanking on his jeans, shoving them down and kicking them violently off.
He was powerful and hard, his erection jutting from his body in full