Page 25 of Hunted Hearts (Black Heart Security #6)

T he fire in the library had burned low, casting a soft amber glow across the bookshelves and plush chairs. Theo stood by the window, hands in his pockets, watching Juliette.

She’d pulled a thick blanket over her legs and was curled on the couch, lost half in the flames and half in thought.

She looked so small like that. So quiet. But he knew better—knew the storm she was holding back behind those eyes as deep as the sea.

“Tired?” he asked gently.

She looked up, startled for a second, then gave a small shake of her head. “No. Just…trying to slow my brain down.”

He walked over and crouched beside her. “You’ve got a right to be overwhelmed. But you’re not alone in this.”

Her eyes shimmered. “I know. That’s the part that gets me. I have all the support anyone could ask for, from my parents and from my team. But I’m not used to people showing up for me like this .”

Theo drew his knuckles over her cheek. “Then get used to it. Because I’m…” He broke off, throat working. Could he say what he wanted to say to her?

What did he have to lose when he was already losing his heart to this woman?

He trapped her gaze in his. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Juliette let out a breath, and in that moment, something passed between them—something that didn’t need to be said aloud. He saw it in her soft smile, the way she reached for his hand and held on like he was the only solid thing in her spinning world.

“Come here,” he murmured.

She shifted, and he scooped her up, blanket and all, and carried her to the big chair by the fire.

She fit against him like she was made to be there, her knees drawn up, her head resting on his chest. He wrapped the blanket around them both and held her tight, stroking his hand slowly along her spine.

The quiet stretched between them, but it was comforting—like exhaling after holding it too long, an exercise he knew all too well from BUD/S training.

Theo pressed a kiss to her temple. “I don’t know what this is between us, Juliette. But I feel it.”

She looked up at him, plump lips parting. “Me too.”

Something in his chest cracked open. He hadn’t meant to fall for her. Hadn’t expected her music to shake him loose from the walls he’d built around his soul. But it had.

And she had.

He tilted her chin up and kissed her, slow and searching. She melted into it, her lips soft against his, her fingers tightening in the fabric of his shirt.

The blanket slid from her shoulders as he deepened the kiss. One hand cradled her jaw, the other curved around her waist, drawing her closer. She sighed into his mouth, and that sound—so sweet, so trusting—lit a fuse in him.

“Tell me if you want to stop.” His voice was low and rough.

“I don’t.”

That was all he needed.

He lifted her again, this time without the blanket, and carried her toward his room. Their mouths met again in a hungry kiss, her fingers threading through his hair as her body pressed to his.

By the time he got the door closed behind them, her nightshirt was bunched around her hips and his shirt was half off.

They stumbled to the bed, laughing and kissing and desperate.

She was everything—warmth and softness and light in the darkness. Her silky skin under his hands made his heart ache. She looked at him like he was more than a SEAL or a bodyguard, more than a man with blood on his hands.

She looked at him like he was hers .

“I’ve never wanted anyone so bad—” she started, but he cut her off with a kiss.

“I know. Me either. Not like this.”

He peeled her shirt off and laid her back on the bed, taking in every inch of her. She blushed but didn’t shy away.

In that moment, he vowed to protect this woman with everything he had.

“Beautiful,” he murmured, teasing his fingers over her collarbone, her breasts, her belly. “You’re so damn beautiful.”

She arched into the strokes of his fingers, gasping into his mouth. He plunged his tongue inside, sweeping, tasting, collecting a moan from her and returning it with a growl of his own.

She tugged at his jeans. He helped her, shucking them off. When he worked her panties down her hips, goose bumps rose up to meet his touch.

Fuck. He wanted inside her so bad, but he had to see her shaking apart for him, had to hear his name on her sweet lips first.

He slipped his fingers over her bare mound to rest over her clit. She let out a sharp cry. “Theo!”

Braced over her, he watched her face with all the intensity it would take to carve her image into his memory. He slid his finger down the seam of her pussy, gathering the wetness and spreading it around her hard clit.

She gripped at him, her fingers finding purchase in his shoulders and anchoring there like he was the only thing keeping her grounded to this world. For a creative, beautiful spirit like Juliette, he wouldn’t believe any different.

He swept his finger over her clit again and again, until she was quaking and gasping. When her body bowed, he slammed his mouth over hers and claimed her cries of completion.

She shuddered as he took her beyond the breaking point, driven to claim this woman in every single way. He wanted more than her mind and heart—he wanted her soul.

And then he would gladly hand over his own into her soft hands.

Every inch of him ached with how much he wanted her—but more than that, how much he needed to be close to her. This wasn’t just sex. This was something deeper.

* * * * *

Juliette’s hands trembled as she rolled the condom over Theo’s thick erection. Every inch she eased it over his length, his entire body seemed to crackle with strain like she was handling a grenade.

Her body hummed from the release he’d given her, but she throbbed for more, more, more of him.

When her fingers lingered on his length for a beat too long, he gently curled his around her wrist and pinned it over her head. At the same minute, he performed one of his insanely sexy pushups and captured her lips in a kiss.

The taste of him, the pressure of his lips and tongue, ignited her. She gripped him, dragging him closer. The weight of him pressing her into the bed was something she’d never forget long after this ended.

She rocked into him, clasping her legs around his back.

He stiffened as the tip of his cock poised at her opening. “Christ, honey. You’re dripping wet for me.” He groaned out the last word as he slid home.

Gasping, she grazed her lips over his. “Take me, Theo. Every bit of me.”

“Fuck!” He churned his hips, grinding his cock against her neediest spot. His stare blazed into her, and she watched her lover unravel slow stroke by slow stroke.

She angled her hips to take him deeper, and they shared a low cry. Passion rose up, flooding her heart. The intensity inside her was building again, low and deep, tightening with every slow stroke of his cock.

Her heart fluttered from the glimmer in his gray eyes. She saw more than lust.

So much more.

She tilted her face up to his, her breath brushing his lips. When she pushed against his chest, his eyes narrowed with a playfulness that belied the tic in the crease of his jaw.

Suddenly he rolled, settling her on top.

Her thighs cradled his hips tight. And he was rooted to the hilt.

“Jesus, Juliette,” he ground out, hands planted on her hips. “You feel so. Damn. Good.”

“I’m not done with you.”

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, that rugged, devastating one that made her thighs press together instinctively. “No?”

She shook her head and pushed him gently back, watching the way his muscles rippled as he gave in and let her take control.

She braced her hands on his chest, fingers splayed across the solid warmth of him. Her breaths came faster. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

Theo tightened his grip on her hips, guiding her, a hunger in his eyes that made her pulse spike all over again. “Then show me.”

She rocked her hips forward, slow and deliberate, feeling him slide back inside her, inch by exquisite inch. The stretch made her gasp, and Theo’s fingers bit into her thighs like he was trying to hold on to control.

She leaned forward and kissed him, tongues tangling, heat surging between them like wildfire.

Juliette began to move—grinding in a slow rhythm, her hair falling forward as she arched above him, dragging her hands over his chest and down his abs. She could feel his restraint burning just under the surface, and the thought that she could unravel him made her clench harder around him.

“Theo,” she rasped, head falling back as pleasure wound tighter and tighter.

“You’re killing me,” he growled, one hand sliding up her back to fist gently in her hair. “You’re so goddamn beautiful, you don’t even know.”

She leaned down, bracing one hand beside his head, and whispered, “Then lose control. I want all of you.”

His groan was ragged, torn from his throat, and in the next second, he surged up, flipping her beneath him with a fluid strength that made her heart catch.

She gasped as her back hit the sheets, but it was nothing compared to the way he drove into her again—deeper now, more urgent. Her legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer, anchoring them together as he thrust hard and slow, every movement claiming her in a way that made her ache.

Their mouths met again, drugging and desperate, all tongue and heat. His hand slid under her thigh, lifting it higher, opening her more, and her body answered with a cry.

The need twisted tighter inside her, pleasure building in waves as he changed angles, dragging against the spot inside her that made her vision blur.

She clung to him, nails scraping lightly down his back, and he groaned into her mouth.

“Juliette,” he rasped. “Come for me again, honey.”

She was already there, the heat and love and overwhelming everything crashing over her in a pulse of white-hot sensation. Her body arched, legs trembling, the air torn from her lungs.

Theo followed with a grunt, his whole body going rigid above her, buried deep, and she felt the shudder that rolled through him as he poured everything into her.

They collapsed together, tangled and winded. Still pulsing in tiny aftershocks, she blinked up at the ceiling, trying to come down.

Before, she thought that she’d found a family she wasn’t looking for. But with Theo, she found a home.

He shifted to his side, tucking her into his arms again. One strong hand smoothed over her hip, anchoring her there against him.

“Jesus,” he muttered into her hair.

She laughed softly, burying her face in his chest. “Yeah.”

They lay in a cloud of silence that spoke of something bigger than just satisfaction. Something sweeter. She felt it thrum in her chest, so much bigger than anything she’d ever felt, even with a violin in her hand.

Juliette tilted her head back and studied the rugged lines of his face. His eyes softened as if he was looking at something precious.

“I don’t know what this means,” she whispered.

“Me either.” He swept his thumb across her lower lip. “But I know I’m not ready to let go of it.”

She buried her face against his neck, fighting back tears. Neither was she.

And that scared her more than anything yet to come.