HE WAS FALLING in love with her.
As they made a light dinner, shared the cooking, laughed, touched, Rick began realizing that there had been more missing in his marriage to Sienna than he had known.
The simple intimacies that he was already sharing with Hannah had never been present between himself and his wife. She hadn’t wanted to cook from the first week they had been together, and it was something Rick had never thought he would enjoy with her. He’d been used to cooking for himself, so he had never thought to ask her to cook until after Kent had been born. And by then, he’d known Sienna would never agree to it.
He and Hannah cleaned the kitchen together. Another small thing, and yet something else he hadn’t shared with woman.
It was simple things. Laughing when she flicked suds at him, kissing her cheek, or simply touching her as he put the dishes away.
There was a sense of companionship beneath the arousal, a knowledge that he could touch her as he pleased, that he could be comfortable with her.
He’d known last year. Two dates with her, a week of sporadic phone calls, and he’d known that she had already started to touch him. He’d run. Like a fucking coward, he’d forced himself out of her life because he knew he couldn’t face telling her the truth about his marriage to Sienna.
They’d lived a lie for over eight years. From the moment they were married until he’d realized that she’d been involved with the Black Collar Militia and the deaths that had plagued the area for years.
His wife had been the mole in the office. She had been the one who had given the militia the information when agents and investigations had been centered in the area.
Not that he’d ever told her, but she’d had access to his office, his computers, and his notes. And Sienna, despite the rest of her faults, had been perceptive. She had known what to look for in a person, their weaknesses and their strengths, and she’d known an agent when she saw one.
And she’d known how to fool him, despite the distrust that had built up between them.
He’d suspected for years that she was cheating on him, but he’d never caught her. It had simply been an intuition, something that he couldn’t put his finger on.
As Hannah went out to the barn with him to feed the horses, she worked beside him. She didn’t ask what she needed to do to help, she knew what to do. She didn’t care if she got her hands dirty, and she didn’t mind laughing at herself.
And Rick realized why he had run from her the year before. Because he had known that he was falling in love. He had known that resisting her was something he just couldn’t do.
And even now, that scared the hell out of him.
After they returned to the house, he locked up, set the alarm, while Hannah pulled her sneakers off and headed for the kitchen.
Night was falling. The soft muted colors of the setting sun blazed through the windows of the kitchen, bathing her in a golden hue.
He’d noticed that a lot over the past few days. Sunlight loved Hannah, it caressed her features, seemed to sink into her skin and light her from within.
Moving to her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. He was still hard for her. He’d taken her so many times that he knew the need should have eased by now. It hadn’t. It seemed to have settled into his guts to stay, and the wariness he had expected to feel wasn’t there.
“I need to shower,” she murmured as his lips caressed her neck.
Hannah wasn’t moving away from him, though. She never moved away from him. No matter how often he touched her, or how, she was always ready for him.
“I could wash your back.” He bit at her neck, loving the wild, sweet taste of her flesh.
“You could do that.” He heard the smile in her voice and he loved it.
Hell, she was sinking claws into his heart that he knew he was never going to be free of.
Taking her hand in his, he pulled her into the bedroom, then straight to the bathroom. The thought of having her in the shower was more than he could handle. His cock was already straining at his zipper, demanding action.
In the bathroom he adjusted the water to the shower before turning to her. He undressed her slowly, like unwrapping a present. His very own present. Just for him. Revealing each soft silky inch of her body as he dropped the clothes on the floor.
Once Hannah was naked he had to get her into the shower, beneath the spray of water, before he could strip his own clothes. He practically tore them off, tossed them aside, then stepped under the spray with her.
Steam collected in the enclosed space, filling it with an erotic sensuality that wrapped around them and nearly destroyed him with need.
“I’ve dreamed of having you here, just like this,” Rick told her, the words slipping unbidden from his lips.
“I’ve dreamed of being here with you,” Hannah admitted as he worked shampoo into her hair and washed it slowly.
Suds collected and rolled down her body as he spread the luxuriant shampoo through her hair before rinsing it and doing the same with a soft conditioner she had brought with her. When he was finished, Hannah pushed him away, then surprised him by doing the same for him. He bent to her, watching her as she washed his hair, her hands working the strands of hair as though she loved them.
They bathed each other. As Rick washed her, he kissed her. He worked the lather over her breasts, down her belly, and between her thighs. As he rubbed the tender folds of her pussy with the soft washcloth, he gloried in her moans.
Then he was moaning himself when she insisted on doing the same for him. The caressing motions were nearly his undoing when she moved to his dick and washed it as though she couldn’t afford to miss a single spot.
Showering with her was an adventure. It was one Rick knew he was going to want, to need, to repeat, over and again.
By the time they were scrubbed from head to toe the laughter had died to strangled moans, sudsy strokes were replaced by the soft spray of the water rinsing their bodies, and he had her in his arms.
His lips were devouring hers as though he had never kissed before, never caressed a woman’s body. He was so hungry for her that it could have been four lifetimes rather than four years since he had touched a woman.
But then, he had never touched Hannah’s body. The past days had been like a dream he didn’t want to awaken from.
His lips moved to her swollen breasts, covered a hard nipple, and sucked it inside. He stared up at her as he drew on the tight little point, watching her face flush, her eyes darken.
He groped along the small shelf to the side, gripped the opened condom he had laid there earlier, and hurriedly rolled it over his erection. He wasn’t going to last long and he knew it. He needed her too bad now.
Hannah’s hands speared into his hair to hold him closer as she arched toward him, moaning as he lifted her so she could wrap her legs around his waist.
She was so sweet, so delicate in his arms. It was like holding a live fire, one that warmed him from the inside out.
As he licked at first one nipple, then the other, he lifted her, allowed the head of his cock to tuck against the soft folds between her thighs before stilling against her.
Lifting his head he stared into her dazed eyes.
“What’s wrong?” She was panting with pleasure as she stared back at him, her nails biting into his shoulders as her thighs tightened around him.
“I want to watch,” he whispered. “I want to see your eyes as I take you, Hannah. Don’t close them.”
She was breathing harshly, heavily, a little whimper breaking from her lips as he penetrated her the slightest degree, stretching the entrance open as her eyes darkened further.
“I love watching you,” Rick admitted. “Watching your face flush, your eyes growing drowsy and dark as I fuck you.”
Her long hair, slick and wet with water, spread around her shoulders like a dark cape that contrasted with the silky smoothness of her pale skin.
He pressed in further, feeling the muscles of her pussy clamp around the head of his cock. He felt the pressure of it wrap around his balls as the need to come nearly broke his will.
He’d barely remembered to slip a condom on, and wished he could take her without one. He wanted to feel her holding him, gripping him, flesh on flesh, and promised himself that one day soon he would do just that.
The tight, hot grip of her sheath was ecstasy itself. It fluttered around his cock as he worked inside her, stretching her, feeling her burn around him.
This was like no other experience he had ever had. It was like nothing he had ever known before. He wanted more. He wanted it to last forever. He wanted to come inside her, sate the hunger, and hold her close as he slept.
“Rick.” She cried his name, her lips moving over his shoulders, his neck, his jaw. “Oh God. It’s so good.”
It was too good. It was paradise. It was heat and life and he had no idea how he could ever survive without her now. He couldn’t imagine letting her go. Couldn’t imagine never touching her again. He couldn’t envision a day that he didn’t have her kiss, her laughter, or her smiles.
Or this. Her legs tight around his waist, her lips at his shoulder, teeth raking, nipping, as he thrust inside her, filling her with his cock. And when she came, she would bite him as she tried and failed to hold back her screams.
“Yeah,” he groaned, feeling her pussy clamp around his cock like a hot little vise, trying to hold him inside. “So sweet, baby. So sweet.”
Hannah cried out his name as he moved harder, faster, shafting into her with a hunger so desperate it shocked him, even now. It shocked him every time, the well of desperation, the aching need and satisfaction she could inspire inside him.
That need was tightening inside him now. Rick could feel the heated grip of her pussy intensifying around his dick as she grew closer to her own release. Her nails were digging into his arms as those sharp little teeth pressed into his shoulder.
God, she was going to come. He could feel the muscles of her pussy growing tighter around him, flexing, fluttering, until with a hoarse cry she gave in to the pleasure. Her teeth locked into his flesh, her body arched into him, thighs tightening, pussy milking him until he had no choice but to follow her over the edge.
His hand slapped against the shower wall as he fought for the strength to hold them both upright. His release pumped from him, sending lightning-hot surges of ecstasy racing from his balls to the base of his spine where they exploded in a feeling so intense it weakened his knees.
He became lost in her. He poured a part of his soul into hers, and swore he felt a part of hers enter him. They were locked together more than just physically. Something more bound them now, and that something more was so unfamiliar, and yet so satisfying, that he couldn’t fight it. He didn’t want to fight it. He wanted to stand there with this pleasure flowing between them forever.
And he might have, but the hot water began to grow cooler, warning him that soon their heated flesh would receive a chill they didn’t want.
Easing his drowsy lover to her feet, Rick supported her as he shut off the shower then disposed of his condom.
Pulling two fluffy towels from the towel holder outside the shower, he dried her off gently. He took his time to make certain the sheen of water was gone before he exposed her to the cooler air outside the shower. Wrapping her hair in another towel, he drew in a deep, satisfied breath as she leaned against the bathroom wall and watched as he dried himself off quickly.
“One fantasy down,” Hannah murmured, her gaze roaming his body as he pulled on clean jeans.
“A shower fantasy, huh?” Rick grinned. He couldn’t help grinning. Damn, but she made him happy. He hadn’t smiled in more years than he could remember.
“Well, I have to admit, you were definitely better than the fantasy, but yes. A shower fantasy.”
Hannah looked like a tempting pixie standing there teasing him with nothing but a towel wrapped around her.
Zipping his jeans, he reached for the heavy robe hanging behind the door when he suddenly froze, his gaze focusing on the cell phone he had laid on the bathroom counter.
Before Hannah could process what was going on, he plunged the bathroom into darkness, flipping off the lights and jerking her back, his hand over her lips in a warning to be silent.
“The alarm,” Rick whispered at her ear as he hurriedly began helping her into her robe. “Someone’s in the house.”
Hannah stared back at him in horror. Someone had managed to break into his house?
“Help will be on the way.” He pushed her farther back along the wall. “Stay here. Stay quiet.”
Help? On the way? He was depending on someone to get out here, from town, to help them? She looked at him, fighting the fear for him that was suddenly overwhelming her now.
She couldn’t lose him. She had just gotten him. She had fought for two years to make him see her, to finally find the emotion in his eyes that she had the past few days. And now, someone was going to try to take him away from her.
Hannah shook her head desperately. “I can help.” She kept her voice as low as possible. “I can use a gun, Rick. Don’t leave me here.”
She couldn’t handle the thought of it. That he would face danger alone.
“Stay.” Rick’s voice was hard, brutal, as he pushed her back into the shower stall. “Please, Hannah. Let me do this. Don’t let me lose you, baby.” He cupped her cheek, his eyes shadowed as he stared back at her. “Please, God. Don’t let me lose you now that I have you.”
She watched, her heart in her throat, fear racing through her system now, as he backed out of the shower and disappeared into the darkness.
Crouching down, Hannah listened, trying to hear over the pounding of her heart and promising herself, swearing, once this was over she was stripping a piece of hide off his ass for leaving her like this, for not taking her with him. As though she were helpless. How many damned times did she have to remind him? That she had three brothers. Older brothers. Marine-trained brothers. She was not a helpless little debutante that didn’t know how to shoot a gun.
Hannah might not know how to deal with stalkers while her brothers were away on a mission, but she did know how to shoot one when he showed his ugly little face.
She’d wanted an excuse to see Rick. A reason to come to him. The attempted break-in had served that purpose. But now, he thought she was as helpless as a child.
Biting her lip she listened intently, sure the pounding of her heart was loud enough for a deaf stalker to hear.
She couldn’t hear a damned thing. Not the creak of a floorboard, a breath, or a struggle. Hannah was in the dark in more ways than one and her nerves were ready to jump out of her skin.
God help her if she lost him. If Rick thought it would hurt him to lose her, then he had no idea what it would do to her, to lose him.
RICK MOVED THROUGH the dark house, his weapon held steady at the side of his head as he searched for the intruder that had managed to get in.
He could feel the cell phone in his pocket, a series of silent vibrations assuring him that help was on its way. He’d expected this for two years now, lived in fear of it happening while Kent was home, and now his heart was in his throat because Hannah was here, in the middle of the danger he was responsible for bringing to her doorstep.
A few people might have been capable of getting into his home without setting off the main alarm. But no one could have suspected the silent backup alarm. Its installation was so precise, so well hidden behind the main system, that it would have taken someone who was aware of it to trip it.
And only Rick and the Elite Ops were aware of that system.
His chest ached with the knowledge that only a few people he knew could have gotten past the unique code word he used for that main system. Only one other person knew it. And it was the person he had suspected, the one he had prayed he was wrong about.
He had prayed that Hershel, his former deputy, and Sienna had been the only ones close to him who had betrayed him. He had tried to convince himself during the past two years that the lack of action was proof that they were the only ones.
But now, he knew he was wrong.
At least Kent wasn’t here, he told himself, grieving at the betrayal. His son would have been terrified.
Slipping silently into the living room, he caught the slight shift of movement at the doorway into the kitchen. Tall, lean. The intruder slipped out of the room, heading for the bedroom as Rick followed quickly, silently.
He was almost on the intruder. He could see the slope of the profile, the dark mask that covered the face to hide it from the camera that activated when the alarm went off.
He didn’t have to see the face. He knew who it was.