Page 27 of Too Guarded to Love (Project VIPER #3)

N ic gritted his teeth. Feeling Olivia’s scream spiral through his steel and reverberate inside him like church bells in a chapel resurrected something inside him. He’d only meant to keep her quiet so they wouldn’t be discovered. And he’d only meant to turn the tables to get her out of his system.

Angels, or devils disguised as such, weren’t supposed to sing in his head and urge him to take more. He wasn’t supposed to want more, and not just more of her body, more of everything.

He let go of her chin and tapped her forehead, powerless to stop himself from asking questions he shouldn’t care about.

“You told me what you were thinking up here.” He trailed a finger down her cheek, to her neck, and patted her chest. “And in here.” He didn’t dare ask about what she felt in her heart as he resumed a path down her body and landed between her legs. “What did you want here ?”

Her eyes widened. “You.”

That was a given based on their history, but hearing it from her lips soared his curiosity and his ego. “What about me?”

“I wanted the dark stranger who rescued me from the rain even though I put up a fight. ”

He gripped her knee to stop her from riding his hand. “What else?”

She cursed under her breath. “I wanted to put a smile on your face because you looked so sad.”

“You did put a huge fucking smile on my face. Was that your only goal, Olivia? I think there’s one more thing you’re not telling me. Get it right and I’ll let you come.”

She clamped her hand on his bionic leg and squeezed. “I wanted to know everything about this.”

The pressure spiraled to his cock. He groaned as it strained against his zipper.

She slid her hand up his arm and gripped his bicep. “And I wanted to know everything about this too.”

He bit back a groan. “What exactly did you want to know?”

“Just how super they, and the man they gave life to, really are.”

“Why?” When he was naked in front of a woman, most asked what he could do with his enhancements.

Requests for demonstrations, like he was a circus act, typically followed.

He’d lost count of the number of times he’d been asked if his hand vibrated like a sex toy.

Sometimes women asked if he could use his steel to punch their exes.

But Olivia had only asked him to be quiet. In that moment, he’d questioned if her reverence was for the surgeons who put him back together or for the man they’d made him into. He’d hoped for both, and now that she granted him that wish, he needed to hear more.

“Keep talking.”

She placed her fist over her heart. “I’m a doctor and you’re a medical marvel.

I’m also the daughter of a fallen soldier and the sister of an almost fallen one.

I know what you risk when you put on that uniform.

And I know what you went through to reclaim your life, and not just on a clinical level. ”

She shifted her hand to his shoulder. “I know how risky and terrifying all the surgeries must have been.”

A slow burn ignited in the seam where man met machine. The tingling sensation had nothing to do with the stitches Patience had resown earlier and everything to do with Olivia’s understanding.

She brushed her hand over his hair. “And I know how draining therapy can be on a patient.”

He bit back a groan as the agony of learning to walk again—of feeling helpless and weak because, in those first few days, he cried with every step he attempted—poured into his psyche.

Emotion clogged her voice as she skimmed her fingers over his features and down to rest where his VIPER tattoo lay underneath his shirt. “And in here, I know you struggled, and still likely do, with anger and doubt, and trauma I won’t pretend to understand.”

Gripping her wrist, he pressed her palm against his ink where every emotion she’d just described lived inside his heart, in his head. In every waking moment, and every nightmare, he masked with humor and charm.

She dug her nails into skin hard enough to leave marks around his tattoo.

“I’ve worked with amputees and wounded warriors.

Collaborated with their therapists and counseled their families.

I’ve seen men and women demolished by a fraction of what you’ve endured, but you, Kane, Chris, and Linc didn’t let it defeat you.

At the beach, I called your steel miraculous. ”

“I get called that a lot.”

“I was wrong. Your bionic parts aren’t a miracle, and neither are you.

A miracle is pure luck without any effort or risk.

You didn’t win the lottery when the folks at VIPER said, ‘Hey, want to become a super soldier?’ They saw something exceptional in you.

I saw that something at the beach—in the way you offered your help and gave me control—even before I saw this. ”

She glided her fingers over the back of his steel hand.

“I had faith you wouldn’t hurt me. VIPER had faith you’d endure the pain and loss and work your ass off so you could serve your country again, and you took on the challenge and made the commitment like a superhero.

That’s not a miracle. That’s a man I admire. ”

The force of her words hijacked his breath as they sank deep beneath his tattoo. If he didn’t stop them from sinking into his heart, he’d pay the consequences of daring to hope this thing between him and his best friend’s sister was more than simple attraction.

She cupped his cheek in her hand. “I’ve told my brother how proud I am and grateful he’s alive in our joking, sarcastic manner.

” She pulled in a breath and let it out slowly as she met his gaze.

“And now I’m going to tell you something that’s probably impulsive and reckless, yet somehow right.

I’m blessed to have met you at the beach.

I’m honored you let me explore your glorious body.

I appreciate your sacrifices and am so happy you reclaimed your career. ”

His heart swelled big enough to burst through his chest as every reason he shouldn’t get himself in deeper with the first woman to see the man beneath the bionics snapped.

With a growl that sounded way too possessive to his ears, he consumed her lips and her breath as he drove his steel fingers deep inside of her.

Gasping, she clung to his shoulder and arched into his hand. “Nic. That feels…dear Lord. I take it back. What you can do with that hand is miraculous.”

Basking in her praise, he slid his fingers out and shoved them back in.

Her raspy curse made him feel like a god.

Or a superhero. Or a combination of both.

He’d never touched a woman like this with his steel, but for the first time, slick, silky moisture coated his fingers.

Her walls spasmed around his hard, unforgiving metal.

Sensations that rivaled the thrill of her screaming into his palm pulsed up his wrist.

If losing his arm and gaining a super one meant he could immerse himself in an experience more out of this world than the technology coursing through his body, he’d offer his other limb as tribute.

“Nic, please. I need another miracle. Make me come.”

Dipping his head, he captured her mouth and consumed her plea like it was precious sustenance he needed to survive.

With the finesse and control he’d taken two years to master, he grasped her bundle of precious nerves between his deadly fingers with just the right amount of pressure and made her scream.

Olivia clung to Nic, her mouth still fused to his as the last spasm rippled through her. She hadn’t realized how deep her motivation for not sharing her identity had run until he’d coaxed it out of her, but it was a truth she’d been honored to share.

Cool air caressed her overheated body as he pulled his head back. Hungry satisfaction blazed in his eyes as a smile quirked his lips.

“Did my miracle live up to your expectations?”

“I’m…” An aftershock rippled through her and she shuddered. “I’m good.”

“Baby, you’d better be a whole lot more than good or we’re going to have to do that again. I have my Latin-lover reputation to uphold.”

She rolled her eyes. “And the charmer is back.”

“He never left, sweetheart.” He slid his hand up her leg. “Want another demonstration?”

She slid her hand underneath his shirt and pressed her fingertips into unrelenting muscle. “I don’t know. I’ve already had two demonstrations of your superpower today. It’s a lot for a girl to take.”

He stilled. “Two? I've only given you one orgasm so far.”

Her body cheered at the thought of another, but he’d offered her a bargain, and he hadn’t fulfilled his end of the deal yet.

“That’s not the kind of superpower I’m talking about.

You said if I answered one question of yours, you’d answer every one of mine.

I answered your questions about why I acted like I did at the beach. Your turn, Casanova.”

“I’ll tell you anything that’s not classified.”

“You bet your ass you will.” She slapped his firm, rounded cheek.

“I watched a trail of heat burn a door off a car. You were the only one standing there with no equipment except your bionic arm. I’ve always suspected my brother’s leg was engineered to do more than kick ass, but I didn’t pry because as a doctor, I respect privileged information. ”

She tugged up his shirt to reveal his tattoo.

“I know what I saw was as spectacular as unexplainable. As a woman of science, I have to ask.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his ink.

“But as a woman who witnessed the scariest, sexiest, strongest man she’d ever met rescue a car full of people with what appeared to be just a swish of his finger, I need to know. What are you?”

Panic, respect, and something she couldn’t discern flashed in his eyes. A moment later, he jutted his chin and turned from her, much like she’d seen him do before.

She placed a hand on his stiff shoulder. “What is it?”

He spun back. The charmer who pulled the best orgasm of her life from her depths was gone.

The soldier who set the world on fire with superpowers she couldn’t explain, but would find out about before she left, stood in his place.

The hard, beautiful planes of his face and the tension cascading from his shoulders sent a clear message.

Somebody was about to feel the wrath she sensed inside the wounded warrior.