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He swore violently. Kissing Katie might just worth be going to Hell for.

Katie stepped into the darkness of the master bedroom and screamed a little as strong arms came out of nowhere to sweep her up against a hard body. “I win,” Alex announced. “You’re the worst spy, ever.”

“Mmm, but I’m the softest and sexiest and love you the best.”

“True,” he agreed as his mouth closed over hers.

The explosive attraction that had simmered between them before erupted, crackling like chain lightning across her skin, striking farther and farther inside her as their kiss deepened.Craving twisted her innards into tight knots of desire. She could never seem to get enough of him.

Her clothes went every which way as passion overtook them, and frantic urgency spurred them onward. Naked and devouring each other, they fell onto his bed. She would’ve laughed, except he speared his hand into her hair and pulled her head back so he could plunder her neck and shoulder with teeth and tongue, and her laugh became a gasp of pleasure, instead.

He took control tonight, demanding everything from her as he kissed and stroked and nipped his way across her flesh. Where she was cold, he was hot. Where she was soft, he was hard. And where she was hungry, he starved her for more.

With hands and mouth, he played her body, using his intimate knowledge of her pleasures and desires to drive her into a frenzy of blind lust. Need to have him crushing her into the mattress, to fill her body with his, to feel his power and desire as he pounded into her…oh, yes. She needed all of that in the worst way.

But frustratingly, he withheld it from her, tonight. Instead, he kissed his way down her body until she gasped with need. His tongue circled her most sensitive bud, wet and hot and maddening until a climax started to claw its way out of her belly. And then his mouth withdrew.

“Tell me something, Katie. How bad do you want this?”

Oh, no. “Umm, bad enough to beg?”

“Is that all?” he murmured in disappointment.

“Bad enough to do anything you want?” she tried.

“You’ll do that anyway,” he replied dismissively.

True. She never could say no to him. “Bad enough to cry?”

His thoughtful silence was encouraging. Although on second thought, she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out how he would make her cry. He’d warned her before that his desires had veryfew boundaries. And he’d just come off a year of pretty dark, violent training, if she had to guess.

Before he could act on her ill-considered offer, she added, “Bad enough to say please?”

He rose up over her on powerfully muscled arms. “Say it.”

“Please, Alex.” When he didn’t move, she continued, “Please give us both an orgasm. Or ten. I want you so much I can’t stand it. Now. Take me now.Please.”

In typical Alex fashion, he continued to stare down at her, letting her frustration and desperation build until she thought she might die.

“Will you beg me to stop, too?” he growled.

“Never.”

He made a skeptical sound. Cynical mood he was in, tonight.

He waited until she all but sobbed with need. The pleasure she knew he could give her hovered just out of reach like a tantalizing piece of candy dangling on a string. Why did he insist on playing these wicked games with her? He knew how he made her feel. He knew how deeply she lusted after him. And still, he made her wait. And suffer. As if he was punishing her for making him feel the same way she did.

She knew why he did it, of course. He hated love. But it didn’t make this cruel game of his any easier to bear.

Her entire body throbbed with unfulfilled desire for the sex that was right there. So close, and yet so totally out of her control. If she could only get him to actually make love to her, his emotional barriers would crumble the way they always did. But for now, he fought it. So hard, he struggled to hold himself apart from her. From everyone.

Tonight his fight was worse than ever. His features pulled into a macabre rictus of suffering half-lost in shadows. It was hard for her to look at. My God, what had they done to him?

She put her hands on either side of his face and tried silently to reach past the suffering to the man beneath. But he was lost. His eyes were black hollows. All she saw in them was pain, and more pain.

“Come back to me, Alex,” she whispered.

His hands went around her neck, his fingers encircling her throat. They were big and capable and strong. He could snap her neck quickly or choke her to death slowly if he so chose. Soul chilling terror flashed through her, along with instinctiveknowing.