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She made a small, desperate sound and surged forward, capturing his mouth again, her fingers threading into his hair,pulling. He groaned, deep, almost a growl, his control slippingfor one dangerous second before he forced himself to grip her wrists and press them against the wall, breaking the kiss, breaking the madness.
Her whiskey-colored eyes were dazed, lips swollen, breath coming fast. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head, trying to move closer again. “Don’t stop.”
His jaw clenched, his pulse slamming in his throat. “You like to test me, woman,” he rasped. Fuck, this was killing him. He knew damn well how easy it would be to justlet it happen. To let lust take over. To give in to what both their bodies were screaming for. Butthis…This thing between them, it was more than just need.
If they started this on easy, they’d never survive the hard.
He closed his eyes for a beat, exhaling roughly before meeting her gaze again. “I could sink into you, Quinn,” he said, voice thick with longing, raw with truth. “I couldget lostin you. Hell, I think I’ve been waiting my whole damn life for this.” His hands slid up her arms, then back down, slow, reverent. “But I’m not about to fuck this up before it even starts. There’s more to us than just our bodies, and I don’t want that to define this moment.”
Quinn swallowed, her chest rising and falling fast, the battle playing out in her expression, want warring with understanding. His stomach clenched as her gaze flickered to his lips, like she was about to argue, about topushagain.
Then something shifted in her.
The fight melted just enough for acceptance to slip in.
His chest heaved, his body going taut, and that…that fucking acceptance meant more than her kiss because that right there was a mental shift to something more, something changing, something different, opening up possibilities, opportunities, perspectives. No fleeting orgasm could compete with that beautiful transition.
She lifted a hand, fingers gentle as they brushed along his jaw, tracing the edge with her thumb, her expression full of somethingdangerous. Not just want. Not just need. Something deeper. There was thatrealagain. “You’re serious,” she murmured, almost in awe.
Dagger huffed a breathless laugh, his hands still wrapped around her wrists, reluctant to let go. “Deadly.”
She exhaled shakily, her fingers pressing lightly into his cheek before she leaned in, tilting her chin, and kissed him once more,slow, deep, deliberate. No heat, no desperation, justQuinn. A kiss that left him utterlydemolished.
When she pulled back, her voice was quiet. “Then we need someplace private.”
His grip on her tightened, and his gut clenched as his mindimmediatelywent to the worst possible option. “Not your room,” he ground out. “I don’t trust myself anywhere near a bed with you.” He exhaled. “Not mine, for the same reason, and there’s a bunch of nosy assholes I share that space with. I’m afraid they’ll punch your lights out.”
She gave a soft, breathless laugh, her hands slipping over his biceps, lingering over his forearms before dropping away. “I know you’re trying to make this lighter, but they’d be justified.” She shook her head, looked away, the air charged with all the tension between them. Okay,” she murmured, thinking, then her lips curled slightly. “The roof of this Camp Med has a lounge.”
Dagger exhaled slowly, a smile at her joke ghosting his mouth as he nodded, trying to get his damn heartbeat under control. “That’ll do.”
She turned, stepping out of the shadows, and he forced himself to follow. He could still feel the heat of her, taste her on his lips, his body tight with restraint, his dick harder than diamond.
Then she did something thatdestroyedhim all over again. She reached back, snagging his hand. His chestclenched, his heart goingbonkersin his ribcage.
Yeah, a completely beautiful, strip-you-down-to-your-skin goatfuck.
There was no getting out of this.
He was already gone.
The secure compound had once been a high-end boutique hotel before the Venezuelan government repurposed it for visiting military and CIA, transforming the structure into a fortified stronghold. The perimeter was now reinforced with a concrete barrier, topped with razor wire and patrolled by armed guards. Inside, the original elegance of the hotel remained in places, polished tile floors, lush courtyards with tropical plants that had survived the transition, but the space had been altered for function over aesthetics.
A gym had been set up in what used to be a separate suite of conference rooms, but now the walls were gone and it was heavy with weights, treadmills, and punching bags. The former banquet hall now served as a mess hall where operators could eat between shifts. The conference room, once a lavish meeting space, had been stripped down to its essentials, a long table, chairs, and high-tech monitors for debriefs and mission planning. An armory had been established on the ground floor, fully stocked with weapons, ammunition, and tactical gear, while an adjacent room housed secured cages for personal equipment, each SEAL had a designated space for their gear, a level of organization that suited their team.
Unlike most deployments, where space was limited and conditions harsh, this compound afforded them individual rooms, each with a bed, dresser, and small bathroom. It wasn’t luxury, but it was better than a tent in the desert, and after yearsof rotating through war zones, a real bed and privacy were rare commodities.
But the best part of the compound, at least for the moment, was the rooftop lounge.
Dagger led Quinn up the stairs, his fingers still tingling from where she’d held his hand. The lounge had been left mostly intact. A bar stretched along the back wall, its glass shelves empty, while lounge chairs and outdoor couches were scattered around the deck. Below them in a separate structure, there was an enclosed Olympic-sized pool where he and his brothers trained. It was quiet up here, deserted at this late hour.
Dagger exhaled slowly as they approached a couch near the bar, dropping onto it, his body still thrumming from the kiss, fromher. His dick was still hard, his body on fire, a testament to what she did to him, but he forced himself to push that aside. Quinn needed this moment.Theyneeded this moment.
He cleared his throat, forcing himself to focus. “How are you doing?”
Quinn hesitated, her gaze shifting to the skyline, her fingers lacing together in her lap. The quiet stretched between them before she finally spoke.
“All that I put you through…” Her voice was hushed, weighted with something raw. “It was unfair.Cruel.” She swallowed, her throat working. “I was so angry at you, but you took everything I dished out.”