Page 26 of Covert Temptation (SEAL Team Blackout Charlie #4)

She didn’t waste time. Stripping out of her jeans and sweater, she slipped into the lingerie ensemble.

The sheer bodice that hugged her torso and dipped low in front, trimmed in lace, with matching thigh-highs and a garter belt, made her feel far more dangerous than anyone under constant surveillance ever should.

She added a perfume—just a spritz between her breasts—then ran a hand through her hair and stepped back to glance in the mirror.

Her pulse kicked harder. She didn’t just look good. She looked like a woman in control for once.

She cracked open the door and called softly, “Dante?”

His footsteps were immediate, heavy and sure, but when he turned the corner and saw her, he stopped cold.

His eyes traveled down her body in a slow, reverent sweep that made her knees go weak.

“Well,” he muttered, voice rough and low, “is this what the government splurged on?”

“Mmhmm.” She leaned a shoulder against the frame, lifting one brow. “Tell me it’s not the best purchase we’ve made.”

Dante took two slow steps toward her. “Best. Purchase. Ever.”

She grinned, grabbed his shirt in both fists, and yanked him through the doorway. Their mouths met before he could say another word, her back hitting the wall with a soft thud as she kissed him like he was hers.

Because in this moment, he was .

He reached for her thighs, dragging them around his waist, and walked her to the bed like he’d done it a hundred times in his mind. She felt the strength in him, the urgency, but more than that, the care. His mouth worshiped her even as his hands roamed over satin and skin like every inch mattered.

“Christ, you’re beautiful. Give me your mouth.”

With a purr, she tipped her face up, in offer. The lust between them seemed to have shifted. Maybe it was the flimsy lingerie he couldn’t stop exploring with his callused hands.

Maybe it was something more.

Please let it be something more.

In her heart of hearts, Kennedy had already started falling for Dante the minute he started seeing her. He kept her on her toes. She dragged him out of his grumpy shell. When it came to whiteboards and intel, they were a force to be reckoned with.

And in bed…

She slid her hands over his strong back, pulling up his shirt. When she tugged it over his head, he shifted his body to assist. Once those strong swells of muscle pinned her torso to the bed, they shared a groan.

His kiss grew bruising, demanding. And Kennedy’s heart cracked open with each claiming caress of his mouth and hands.

She was falling harder than she’d ever fallen for anyone before. The two boyfriends she had before him were nothing but child’s play compared to him.

She could give this man her entire heart and soul, and do it without a backward glance. If he gave her a chance, she would show this man every single day of her life just how important he was to her.

Her hands shook as she skidded them down his washboard abs to his fly. Beneath her fingers, his cock was solid steel. When she traced the shape of it beneath the denim, he let out a growl that reverberated through her nerve endings.

He sucked her breast through the satin of her lingerie. Once it was damp from his lips, he drew back, eyelids drooping with desire. Then he trailed a fingertip around the raised bud until she arched and cried out.

When he showered the same attention on her other breast, her hips bucked upward with a mind of their own.

He settled a hand low over her belly where it clenched hard and stared down at her as he eased a hand between her legs to cup her pussy. She moaned into his mouth. He answered with one of his own.

“Touch me,” she rasped. “Make me come.”

His jaw flexed, the crease bulging under the force of his restraint. “I’ll do more than that. I’m going to make you scream my name until you’re hoarse.”

She dug her fingers into his spine, eyes slipping shut on his dirty talk that sounded like the sweetest love language to her.

He eased a finger down the seam of her pussy, over her swollen clit, sending electric sparks to her core. She flooded, and he rumbled at the warm flood under his fingertip.

With rough urgency, he kissed her again. She barely got a chance to respond before he flipped her over and yanked her onto all fours.

“Jesus. Fucking. Christ.” His gritty tone sent shivers over her skin. “Don’t move. I’ve never seen anything so goddamn perfect.”

Her breaths came in heavy pants, and she twisted her head to see him work open his fly in a swift flick of his wrist. When he shoved his boxer briefs down his muscled thighs and his thick length came free, she flooded with more want.

Her pussy throbbed. Her insides clenched.

Her heart…god, her heart wasn’t going to last. Tonight she was going to give it away. To Dante.

The bed dipped beneath his weight as he moved in behind her. Anchoring one hand on her hip, he eased his fingers under the thin satin covering her pussy and tugged it aside, exposing her soaked folds.

He took instant advantage, stroking her and then pushing his fingers in deep. Twisting them and drawing them out again, inch by slow inch. When she began to shake, he replaced his fingers with his cock.

In one solid glide, he filled her. Her moan mingled with his growl. He went dead still inside her.

“Kennedy. Fuck, baby…I don’t want to let you go after this.”

Her heart tumbled…then soared.

“Then don’t.” She reached back, covering his hand on her hip with her own. Their fingers tangled, and he leaned in, mouth pressed to her ear.

Only the sound of their harsh gasps filled the air as he thrust in again and again. Driving her high, higher. She tightened around his length, milking him. His groan rumbled through her body and the spot where his lips grazed her ear.

In the next slow, devastating thrust, she came apart, trembling and contracting, calling out Dante’s name.

More than his name fell from her lips, though.

“I’m falling in love with you.”

He stilled again. Then he jerked his cock free of her pussy.

She whimpered, regret filling every corner of her body.

But then he sank to the bed and gathered her into his arms. When he cupped her face and stared deep into her eyes, she wasn’t sure where she stood anymore.

“Say that again,” he roughed out.

“I…I’m falling in love with you.” Hell, maybe she already had. All she knew was she didn’t want to be parted from her SEAL.

His dark eyes slipped shut. A quiver that was almost like pain shuddered over his features. “Christ, Kennedy.”

He didn’t give her the words in return. But he didn’t have to.

She felt it in the way he kissed her, with a slow thoroughness dripping with emotion.

In the way he stripped off her lingerie, fingers working over the clasps and ties, inching the satin off her.

Even in the way he hooked a finger under the garter belt around her thigh and gave it a little snap that echoed through her core.

When he finally pressed inside her, their bodies locked together in one slow, mind-bending thrust.

She gasped his name. He growled hers.

It wasn’t just sex.

It was claiming and trust. It was melding more than their bodies—their minds merged.

Chest to chest, she felt her heart throb against his and knew he felt something for her too, even if he wasn’t ready to say it.

She clung to him, legs tight around his hips, head thrown back as he moved inside her, deep and rhythmic, like he already knew her body better than she did.

And when they both shattered—her fingers buried in his hair, his mouth at her throat—Kennedy knew this wasn’t just about survival anymore.

It was about them .

And they had something worth fighting for.