Secrets. Cynthia Eden

Maybe you thought you were with someone safe, but the truth is...beneath his surface, your lover was as dangerous as they came.”

      The hardwood floor creaked as she made her way back to him. She stopped, less than a foot away. Close enough to touch. To hold. Her voice was husky and low when she told him, “You’re the most dangerous lover that I’ve had.”

      Brodie’s heart started doing a double-time rhythm as he stared down at her.

      “As for secrets...” Her voice as a throaty temptation. “You might be my biggest one. The SEAL I seduced on the night I should have died.”

      That night was burned in his memory. The desperate raid... Finding her bound and afraid in that dirty room... His job had been to get her to safety while his team provided cover. But the mission had been compromised because they had been given bad intel regarding just how many enemy combatants would be at that location. He’d stolen a Jeep and driven away as gunfire blasted into them.

      They’d taken shelter at one of the few safe houses that he knew. And...

      “I should have kept my hands off you,” he said. She’d been the victim. She hadn’t needed him to—

      Jennifer laughed. “That wouldn’t have worked. Especially since I wanted my hands on you.” Her head tilted to the side. “You didn’t realize it, did you? How close to death I truly was. They’d left the room moments before you arrived so that they could get ready to kill me. They were going for the weapons...and a video camera. They wanted to record my last moments.”

      No, she’d been a ransom target—

      “I was minutes from death—I knew that. You came in...and changed everything. I wanted to be with you that night because I wanted to celebrate being alive.” A small pause, then that soft voice of hers continued. “And I just wanted you, the way I don’t think I’ve ever wanted another man.”

      That confession was like a punch to his stomach. “Be careful.”

      Her eyes widened. “Why?”

      “Because we’re alone here.” Miles away from anyone else. “And I still want you, more than I’ve wanted anyone.” The chemistry between them was white-hot. One touch—incineration. He knew the risks, and his body had been far too tuned to hers from the moment she’d walked into his office.

      “I...didn’t realize.” She took a step closer to him.

      The woman should be backing away.

      His muscles stiffened.

      Her dark gaze held his. “If I remember our morning after correctly, you weren’t exactly begging me to stay with you.”

      Because he’d had a job to do. He’d been in the field. The mission waited. He’d needed to thoroughly eliminate any threat to her—that had been the goal. But once he’d left the SEALs...

       I looked for you.

      He cleared his throat. “Are you sure there isn’t another man out there, someone who might have begged you to stay?” Someone who won’t let you go now?

      “There’s been no one in the past year.”

      That revelation surprised him. A woman like her? With those bedroom eyes and sinful lips? She probably had men begging for her affection everywhere she went.

      “I’ve had lovers before,” she continued, her voice still husky, “but I hardly think those men would wait so long and then suddenly decide they needed to kill me.” And, amazingly, her lips tilted up in one of her slow smiles. “I really do try to only date men who don’t want to kill me. It’s a rule I have.”

      But she didn’t know what was beneath the surface those men presented to her. Hell, if she knew the darkness that lurked beneath Brodie’s surface, then Jennifer would never have let him get close to her.

      “I’ll give you their names,” she said. “But those men aren’t after me.” Her words held utter certainty.

      He thought back to that hit-and-run. Brodie hadn’t seen the driver of that Mustang. “When you were attacked in the alley, did you see the man’s face?” Maybe that was why she was so sure the stalker couldn’t be a former lover.

      “He wore a ski mask. He was big, about your size, muscled.” Her breath blew out. “Caucasian. I saw his hand—when he stabbed me, I saw the skin near his wrist. He was wearing black gloves but I saw that part of his body.”

      He waited.

      “His body was pressed to mine. His breath on me. I just... You know a lover’s body, okay?”

      Brodie certainly knew hers.

      “You don’t forget it. You don’t forget a touch.” Her breath expelled. “That man isn’t a former lover.”

      Maybe he was someone who wanted to be a lover, but she’d turned him away.

      “Brodie, I just want this guy found. I want this mess stopped. I thought my life was finally safe, until he came along.”

      Finally safe?

      She started to turn away but then stopped. “Do you ever wonder... Was it really as good as we remember?”

      Her words rocked through him.

      Her gaze fell to his mouth. Jennifer’s tongue swiped over her lower lip. “It was just the adrenaline, right? The danger? The whole life-or-death situation that we were in. I mean...there’s no way that we’d kiss again and—”

      “Ignite?”

      Her lips parted.

      He wanted her mouth. He also wanted to show her that he could be more than the rough SEAL she’d known before, but playing the gentleman wasn’t exactly his starring role.

      “Yes,” she whispered. “Ignite.”

      Hunger, desire pulsed through him. “You should walk away now.”

      He’d said words like that to her before. Another time, another place.

      She’d been hugging him, her body trembling. He’d tried to do the right thing. Tried to warn her away.

       You should walk away.

      But she hadn’t walked away then. She’d stood on her tiptoes and put her mouth against his.

      And now...now she was walking toward him, stopping only when their bodies brushed.

      “Are you...are you seeing someone?” she asked as her head tilted back.

      “No.” The one word sounded like a growl. Mostly because it was.

      “Neither am I, but I guess I already told you that, huh?” Her gaze was on his mouth. “It can’t be as good as I remember.”

      How many times had he told himself the same thing?

      “One kiss...just to find out?”

      Brodie didn’t know if he’d be able to stop after one taste of her.

      “One kiss...because I don’t want to be afraid tonight.”

      His hands had curled around her waist. He’d pulled her even closer to him. “You should have walked away.” Then he did just what they both wanted. What they both needed.

      A kiss.

      To see if the memories were wrong. To see if that white-hot connection, the electrifying need, could possibly be real...and still there.

      He began softly, slowly. His head lowered, and his lips brushed over hers. Her lower lip was full and plump, her top a sensual tease. He kissed her lightly, a brief caress.

      Then her lips parted more for him. His tongue swept inside and—

      They ignited.

      Her hands