Eight hours. It had been a long time since Navarro had found the time, the ability or the awareness of external security to actually sleep for more than three to four hours.
He was rarely at Haven long enough to lock himself into his small home and simply sleep, and the rest of the time he was either off base on a mission or tracking down the remnants of the Omega lab and the remnants of the Genetics Council now working with the pure blood societies to find a way to destroy the Breeds.
It had been fourteen years since the Breeds had revealed themselves, and still there were those who believed they had no place in the world and no right to be there. That because of their creation, because they were created rather than born, they had no rights to their freedom.
So many years since the revelation of their existence, and still they were fighting that battle.
It was a battle Navarro feared they would never win. A battle he feared would end up seeing them once again in hiding and fighting to simply survive.
Now he was showered and dressing in the fine cotton khaki pants, dress shirt and the comfortable leather boots he preferred when not on mission.
Stylish.
He brushed back the thick, straight black strands of his hair before striding from the large bathroom and through the bedroom, coming to a slow, cautious stop.
His head lifted, his nostrils flaring, as the scent of her reached him, sliding across his senses like the softest caress. Like the stroke of her fingers.
His c**k hardened, and damn, just that fast he was so hard it was f**king painful.
He smothered a groan, his hands running through his hair as a hard grimace tightened his lips. This wasn’t his day. It wasn’t his week, that was obvious. That today—he gave his head a hard shake before quickly running his tongue over his lower teeth.
Okay, no swollen glands.
He wasn’t snarling for sex, just on the verge of growling for it.
Not mating. Yet.
Gripping the back of his neck, he wondered what the hell was going on here, but he couldn’t seem to stop hungering for her. His ability to take another woman had even dimmed. All interest in having any female but Mica in his bed had deserted him since the night he’d kissed her at Haven more than a month before.
She was out there. She was waiting on him.
His lips quirked, almost in a grin. And she was certain she was going to surprise him. Because she believed his recessed genetics included his sense of smell.
He almost shook his head. He was going to have to tell her the truth soon, but damn if it hadn’t been nice, the moment she had relaxed, believing she could be herself with him. That she didn’t have to stress out over him sensing her little exaggerations of the truth. Over her body’s hot little reaction to him.
Like how hot and wet her pu**y got whenever he was around.
How hot it was now.
He wasn’t a Breed to ignore such need either.
Continuing his journey through the bedroom, he stepped through the doorway into the comfortable sitting room of the suite, then came to a quick stop, as though surprised.
She wasn’t going to be happy when she learned the truth of that supposed recessed sense.
“Now, I’m fairly certain I locked the door.” His brow arched as he stared back at her, rather impressed at how comfortable she looked as she lounged in the high-backed chair that sat across from him.
Mica smiled demurely. “I’m really quite adept at picking locks. Did Jonas forget to mention that?”
“He did,” he admitted as he tilted his head slightly to the side and watched her with a curious sense of amusement and felt those tendrils of emotion reaching out to him once again.
“I hear you’re the big bad bodyguard here.” Her smile, though tentative, was just charming as hell. The Cupid’s bow curve of her lips and the gleam of laughter that brightened the green in her golden green eyes transformed her face from incredibly pretty to completely sensual.
“I heard I was your big bad bodyguard,” he amended, watching her closely as she moved stiffly to her feet, his senses catching the stiffness and pain in her ribs that she refused to give in to.
“That’s what I heard too.” She tossed him a flirty little smile that had his balls tightening. “And I was told I had to come find you before I could leave the main house. So let’s get going, bodyguard of mine.”
“And where exactly would we be going?” he asked, moving behind her as he picked up the jacket she had thrown over the chair just inside the door.