Page 12 of Dangerous Obsession

He pulled her into his arms, crushing her desperately against him, and he kissed her. He kissed her deeply. There was nothing timid about the kiss. He poured every bit of his passion for her, so long denied, and his love for her, which had never faded, into the kiss.

She opened her mouth to him, and her lithe body seemed to meld against his.

Her curves, her lips, her heat had his desire surging.

God, it had been far too long since he’d held her like this.

He had desperately missed it. He hadn’t fully understood just how badly he’d missed it until now, after holding her again. Kissing her again.

He’d nearly lost her for good twice today. Once when he’d been trapped underwater. And just now, when she’d been walking away because she was no longer able to deal with the tension and bullshit of this crazy situation they’d forced themselves into.

He refused to lose her. Cole could go. The world could go. But he had to have her.

Slowly, he ended the kiss and drew back so he could look into her beautiful eyes.

She drew in a shuddering breath. “Max…we can’t.”

He kissed her again to shut her up. She half laughed, half groaned as she wrapped her arms tightly around him again.

When he was sure she wouldn’t say anything else foolish, he ended the second kiss and looked into her eyes again. “I never stopped loving you. You know that.”

She slowly nodded, her eyes very wide. He could read the joy, the emotion in them.

“I made a mistake,” she said. “I thought I was doing the right thing. You trusted me, and I was wrong.”

“The only thing that matters is what we do from now on, Jade. I don’t care if it’s unprofessional or risky or sloppy or whatever reason we had for denying each other.

I’ll take that risk. Hell, I’ll hire an entire squad of bodyguards to back you up if you think that’s best. If it means you can belong to me.

You’re worth more to me than anything. I won’t lose you. ”

She hugged him again tightly. She pressed her head against his chest. He enfolded her in his arms, embracing her, letting her know that things were all right.

From now on, they were going to be all right.

COLE

He stood off to the side about a dozen feet away and watched them. Yeah, he should’ve given them their privacy, but he couldn’t help it. It was so damned heart-lifting, seeing this. He would’ve hated to miss it.

Hell, he was just another sappy romantic after all. He was a damned fool.

He should’ve used this chance to toss the villa, find the AI program and get the hell out of here. He might never have a chance as good as this one again. It was perfect.

Except he didn’t move. He shouldn’t have cared about them.

This sure as hell wasn’t his life. He had his own problems. Yeah, Jade was smoking-hot, and Max was damn gorgeous, but he could leave here with blue balls and a full bank account and still count it as a win.

He didn’t need to keep chasing his attraction, seeing where it led.

He didn’t need phase whatever of the plan if he could get the code and take off.

But he didn’t move.

The blue expanse of the Mediterranean stretched from this side of the island of Patroklos to the horizon. The ocean was empty of everything but a few boats in the distance. It made a charming scene, seeing the two lovers wrapped in each other’s arms with the beautiful seascape behind them.

He couldn’t help but grin, feeling damn good deep down for the first time in a long while.

What the hell was wrong with him? He actually cared for the two of them, as silly as that sounded.

Lusted after them, definitely. But cared about them?

It seemed too soon for that kind of emotion, but he couldn’t deny what he was feeling.

Still, he should give the happy couple some privacy.

It was only right. He finally turned and began to walk off.

He wasn’t going to head back to the house to search, even though a professional would’ve done exactly that.

No, he didn’t want to ruin this moment for them in any way.

He still had time after this to do what he’d been sent to do.

“You lost?” Jade called to him. “Because you’re walking in the wrong direction.”

He turned back around with a huge grin. Both of them were smiling at him.

“Wanted to give you guys some space. Besides, watching you two is turning me on. I think I need to find the hand lotion.”

Jade burst out laughing. Maxim only looked at him like he was crazy.

He shrugged. “Inside joke.”

Maxim nodded and waved him over. “I want to thank you.”

“ We want to thank you,” Jade corrected, still snuggling against Max. She was a hardass, but he loved seeing her this happy. It was like a complete transformation. He knew Max was going to get very lucky tonight.

He obeyed anyway, walking close to them. “You don’t owe me a thing. You’ve been more than kind, taking me in. Giving me a place to sleep. Teaching me how to fall on my ass. Over and over again.”

“We do have to thank you,” Maxim insisted.

“I might not be standing here if you hadn’t been there for me on that dive.

You saved my ass.” He shook his head slowly.

“Having that happen… It made me realize what was important and what wasn’t.

” He hugged Jade tighter against him. “She’s important. I let myself forget that.”

He decided to play it off as nonchalant, to not make a big deal about it. “Glad you two idiots decided to stop denying each other.” He tried not to look smug and probably failed. “I guess it’s good I crashed the party after all.”

“You certainly shook things up,” Max admitted.

“So. Guess I’ll head back to the spa then. My work here is done.”

“No,” Jade said, her voice filled with steel. “You’re not going back to the spa. We’re going back to the villa. We’re going to have a nice meal. We’re going to have a couple of glasses of wine. And then we’re going to fuck until we’re exhausted. All three of us.”

Both of them looked at her. Maxim’s mouth was open. Cole knew his own eyes were wide. He didn’t exactly know what to say to her announcement, but his cock certainly knew. That selfish bastard was so hard it was trying to rip its way out of his pants.

She was giving them both a wicked smile. “Oh, you’re forgetting I saw that kiss the two of you shared.” She looked right at Cole. “And then there was our little kiss when we were fighting…”

Maxim frowned. “You were fighting?”

“Hush,” she said, giving him a kiss. “It was a misunderstanding. All better now.”

Cole sure as hell wasn’t going to correct that. The grapple session with her was going to be wet-dream fuel for the rest of his life. But he was definitely interested in where this conversation was going.

Definitely interested.

“Besides,” Jade continued, her look still challenging him. “You told me there were ways to make all three of us happy. Now I’m telling you to put up or shut up.”

He grinned, loving her sass. “That sounds like a challenge.”