Page 29 of Echo, the Sniper (Men of PSI #2)

The arms around me tightened. “Try again, baby girl. Where are you?”

Slowly the light went on, and my stomach did a weird little flip. “I’m in your arms, in bed. With you, and only you.” Heaven knew why I’d added that last part.

Luckily he didn’t seem to mind it, if his smile was any indication. “That’s exactly where you are. Do you know where the safest place in the world is, at least when it comes to you?”

“Tell me.”

“ I’m the safest place for you,” he whispered against my temple before kissing it once more. Tell me about your dream.”

A shuddering breath rocked out of me as I tried to find my calm.

“Not much to tell. It’s just the same old nightmare—frantic meal prep, 6:31, plates of food knocked to the floor.

Though,” I added with a frown as a memory of strength slipped in as quiet as a shadow, “somewhere along the way I began to realize that I’d attached my sense of worth to those dinner plates.

When he knocked the plates to the floor and turned everything into garbage, it occurred to me that I’d allowed him to impose the belief that I was garbage.

That made me angry—angry with myself, sure, but mainly with him, because I didn’t deserve that. I don’t deserve that.”

“No, you don’t.” Those arms tightened around me again in both a comforting hug and an unflagging support. “That fucker’s a useless little man, a small bully who tries to be big by hurting you. He’d never pick on someone his own size.”

“That was something else that was different in the dream,” I said, my frown trickling away as wonder took its place. “Usually he’d grow huge as he smashed my face into the floor—unconquerable, you know? But this time around... I don’t know. He didn’t do that. In fact, he seemed smaller.”

“Or maybe you’re beginning to realize just how big and powerful you really are.”

“Big and powerful?” I couldn’t have stopped my derisive snort if my life depended on it. “I know we’re lying in bed naked, but have you met me?”

“I’ve met a woman who jumped from a second-story window to save her life.

I’ve met a woman who’s piecing herself back together after an abusive shit of a husband shattered her.

I’ve met a woman who knows she’s being targeted for death, but instead of breaking into totally justified hysterics or hiding in the deepest hole she can find, she’s trying to hunt down who’s behind it.

Believe me, I’ve met you, Rory, but I’m thinking you’ve never met yourself.

You’re starting to, though, and I am fucking here for it. ”

My hand dropped to his, where it rested against my hip while his words made my eyes burn. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Here?” He gave me a squeeze. “Holding you with a bunch of bedclothes separating us? Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great and all, but I can think of other positions that would make you more than just glad.”

“Really?” That sparked my interest like nothing else. “Like what?”

“I had planned on showing you, via another movie called Oral Arguments . Any guesses on what the plot focuses on?”

Oh, did I ever. “I thought there weren’t any plots in a porno.”

“Not plots, exactly. More like... specific interests. Themes, you might say. Some would even call them kinks.”

“This is sounding better and better.”

“I’m curious about your kinks. Care to share?” As he spoke, Echo tugged on the duvet wrapped around me like a cocoon. He then rolled me under him so that my head was against the pillows while his weight settled comfortably over me.

Both the conversation topic and the new position had my girlie parts tingling. “I don’t think I have any. To be honest, I tried to avoid thinking about sex until recently.”

“Oh?” His brows rose before his mouth traced the line of my jaw before he worked his way down my neck to the valley of my breasts. God, this man knew how to melt my bones in the most delicious way. “How recently?”

“Very.” It came out breathy, sounding as hot as he was making me.

He moved lower, taking all the bedclothes with him.

To my shock, I found I didn’t care. I wanted him to see me.

Heaven knew I definitely wanted to see him as he worked his way down to my navel, his hands sliding over the subtle rise of my hipbones. “Like, less than a week.”

“Interesting.” His breath feathered along my lower abdomen as he slid farther down between my legs, his swimmer’s broad shoulders pushing my thighs open wide to accommodate him. “Could that have anything to do with me?”

“It’s possible.” More like probable. “What are you doing?”

“Starting an oral argument.” With that, he drew a finger along my channel and kissed my inner thigh.

Every muscle in my body spasmed at that first caress, and I had to tell myself to calm down and let him guide me into these uncharted waters before I made a fool of myself by doing something stupid.

I tried to even out my breathing as he kissed my inner thigh, his tongue drawing leisurely designs on that silken inner flesh.

Since I was positive that particular part of me had never been deliberately touched by another, I couldn’t help but shiver.

As I did, I fought an instinctively modest need to close my legs against him.

In my humble opinion, that part of a woman’s anatomy wasn’t the most attractive, and it had been hours since I showered.

What if he didn’t like the way I looked or smelled or felt, or heaven help me, tasted ?

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

Unease had me shifting, one leg coming to push against his shoulder. “Echo, I think—”

“Uh-oh, thinking.” His voice was a deep, honeyed purr, and it made me flush all the way from my knees to my scalp. “That’s the last thing you should be capable of doing when I’m between your legs. I better step up my game.”

Um, what? “No, it’s just that I’m—”

My intention of telling him that I was feeling a little uncomfortable and a lot exposed vanished as his fingers slid through the pale curls at the vee of my thighs to once again slide into my slit.

Tightness coiled deep in my belly as wetness surged, and a low moan whispered from my parted lips when he grazed that hard bundle of nerves that throbbed with need.

Oh... yes .

“Just curious, Rory,” he murmured, his fingers now wet with my slickness as he drew them over that hyper-sensitive nub in a way that made my muscles jump involuntarily. “Are you still thinking?”

“Echo.” That was all I had. His name, his touch. Just him, and nothing else in my brain. If he wanted to have a lucid conversation, he’d have to wait until he completed his so-called oral argument. “Echo, please.”

“That’s better.” There was a smugness to his tone, but I decided to be magnanimous and forgive him since he slid a finger inside me.

“You know, I’ve learned a lot about you and that fucked-up marriage with that bastard your parents chained you to,” he went on, surprising me.

Apparently he wanted to have a conversation now.

“Because of all that intel I’ve gathered, I’d bet everything I own that your ex never put his face between your legs and ate you out. Am I right?”

His shoulder nudged the leg I’d tried to close. I instantly opened it the whole way, eager to please him... and myself. “Yes.”

“A selfish man only thinks of his pleasure.” As he spoke, his thumb landed on my clit, and he massaged me with a reckless rhythm.

Heavy, erotic pleasure bloomed like a drug in every cell, and my head fell back as he inserted a second finger.

“I can almost— almost —feel sorry for that miserable fucker for never discovering that giving you pleasure is a thousand times more satisfying than just selfishly seeking his own. But I’m also glad he didn’t, because once again I get to be your first.”

“Lucky, lucky me.” The words rocked out of me, because he was slowly shaking me apart.

Muscles in my thighs quivered as his thumb relentlessly stroked that little bundle of nerves, and my stomach muscles tightened with a near-painful tension as his fingers moved and curled inside me, brushing against that spot that made me wild.

The pleasure delved deeper and deeper, making my fists clench the sheets and my lungs shrivel until I could barely breathe.

God help me, this man knew what to do with his fingers.

I wasn’t even aware that I was moaning until I saw him grin with wicked smugness.

“Always so responsive, so eager—better than any fantasy I’ve ever dreamed.

” His praise made me even wetter, and I knew he felt it when he chuckled under his breath.

“What a goddess you are. My goddess, discovered only by me , and I fucking love that.”

Fueled by his words, the pleasure twisted and coiled and grew inside me, a living thing so vast I wouldn’t be able to contain it much longer.

“Echo,” I whispered. Maybe pleaded. I needed more .

I needed to be filled and kissed and thoroughly, utterly fucked .

I just didn’t know yet how to say it without sounding like a needy idiot.

“You’re like a feast, and I’m a starving man.

” His words shook with reverence, reverence for me .

It made my eyes sting, I was so deeply touched.

“What makes it even better is that I know every touch is new for you. Every sensation, every position. In my mind I have the patience to show it all to you, but my body’s got other ideas. ”

“Don’t hold back.” That was all I could pick up from what he was saying, and the words burst from me in something akin to panic.

I wanted to be educated by him just as much as he wanted to do the educating, but right now I just needed him , and that was all that mattered. “I need... God, Echo, I need you.”