PROLOGUE
Five Years Ago, Air Station Kodiak, Kodiak, Alaska
“We agreed, Jason. I’m only here to make sure you understand that we can’t do this. We’re putting everything at risk.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” he growled. “But whenever I’m near you, it doesn’t seem to matter.” His voice turned low and mesmerizingly deep. “Ever since we parted, I’ve been thinking of all the things I want to do to you, and all the places on your body I want to kiss, and caress, and taste. And now I’m harder than I’ve ever been in my entire life, wishing that the Coast Guard rules didn’t exist.” As he spoke, he got closer and closer until she was pinned between him and the wall. She knew what she was supposed to do. But there was the issue of their affair being clandestine—two strangers giving in to their undeniable attraction to each other, no strings attached. She understood this forbidden relationship made for a powerful aphrodisiac, enabling her to free her inhibitions without fear of anyone learning what she’d done and with whom. She could do anything she wanted with Jason, be anyone she desired—even the brazen, sensual woman Jason had brought out in her.
But she wanted to be a part of Jason’s passion, too, and find out what turned him on. And that meant trusting him to handle her and keep her safe. She closed her eyes. Everything about Jason appealed to her, from his gorgeous features and hot, virile body to the honesty and integrity she’d seen on every mission they’d been on. She had expected that from him, and he hadn’t disappointed her. He was a man she could trust.
“Just let me be with you this last time, Kelly. I promise I’ll keep my hands off you in the future.” His voice was a low raspy drawl that made her shiver. His sensual words and tone made her eyes pop open, her chest heave.
He was too irresistible, and there was just no defense. If she’d been smart, she would have had Nova, her coworker, come with her as a buffer, but she knew, deep inside, she had wanted this. Her guard and better common sense crumbled. She didn’t even have to speak her acquiescence. Jason looked deeply into her eyes, satisfaction and need in them, then his mouth pressed to the pulse point in her throat, his lips trailing all the way down to the top of her breasts.
He grazed his thumb over a puckered nipple. Sharp awareness flared in her belly like a ball of fire and spread through her bloodstream, eliciting a slick, erotic warmth between her thighs. He made her feel more alive than any man who had ever touched her. She never felt she couldn’t be herself with him and that was such a treasure.
“Just this last night we’ll fucking do as we want.” He stared down at her, his eyes a seductive shade of blue, the hunger in his expression so hot and intense it was as though flames were licking across her skin, setting her on fire.
The low growl in his voice was enough to let her know that being a gentleman with her was the furthest thing from his mind. “Jason,” she murmured. “Please.”
Sliding his hand into her hair, he lowered his mouth to her aching lips and murmured, “Let’s be bad as hell.”
She opened for him, and his tongue slipped between her parted lips, damp and hot and seeking. She dropped into sensation, the exciting lure of temptation grabbing her, and the heady rush of wonder and desire that this man so easily evoked in her resonated inside her like a tuning fork.
His hands pushed at her pants until they were off her hips, and she stepped out of them. Their lips broke apart only long enough for him to undo his jeans and shove them off, and then he was back, taking her mouth yet again in a tumble of deepening, darkening kisses that made her mind spin.
She shoved at his T-shirt, desperate to get at his smooth, firm skin. She touched his chest and moaned as she felt the heat pouring off his skin and the tension rippling through his muscles.
His big hands swept down her spine and over her buttocks, kneading and stroking her flesh. She twined her arms around his neck to get closer, and he molded his hips intimately to hers, the size, the intoxicating scent of sexual heat and fully aroused male filling her up.
He pushed her back, the slide of his warm, hard frame along the length of hers making her pulse leap higher and faster, as did the way he fitted his lean hips between her trembling thighs. Lifting her, she wrapped her legs high around his waist. Her back hit the wall, pinned to him like she’d fantasized about.
His chest crushed her breasts as he supported her and his erection, so hot and thick and eager, unerringly found her soft, slick entrance. Before she could recover from the aftershocks of their dizzying joining, he drove into her, high, hard, and shockingly deep.
She sucked in a sharp breath at the abrupt sensation of being stretched and filled so completely in a way no man had ever filled her before. Her fingers curled around his biceps, her back arched, and her nails bit into his straining muscles.
He throbbed inside her, on the verge of losing it. He moaned, deep and thick, eliciting a thrilling friction and pressure that was as possessive as it was arousing.
She panted against his neck, her legs locked tightly around him, urging him to a faster rhythm.
He gave her everything, increasing the pace and pounding into her with a wild, fierce aggression. Capturing her lips, he kissed her, his mouth and tongue just as demanding and as insistent as the way he was claiming her body.
His thrusts grew stronger, deeper, harder, his hips pistoning powerfully as he buried himself in her, over and over, until her orgasm crested in a liquid rush of gratification. The pleasure was so intense, so all consuming, she wrenched her mouth from his and cried out, giving herself over to the sensation and him, completely.
He was right there with her, tossing his head back with a low, feral growl, his hips grinding against hers as his own climax thundered through him. After one shuddering thrust, he slumped against her and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “You are so amazing,” he murmured.
Kelly closed her eyes, thinking the same damn thing about him.
When she opened them, he was staring at her. He let her slide down his body, such a work of art, and his thick gilded hair tousled around his head from her hands and fingers, making him look like a golden angel as he watched her with intense blue eyes.
He held her gaze and brushed back the tendrils of hair lying against her cheek with a touch so gentle and tender her chest tightened with a startling connection that seemed to transcend the physical.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, his worry genuine.
She swallowed hard. His selfless concern for her at such a crucial moment blew through her defenses in a way she’d never anticipated—a scary prospect when this was supposed to be a short affair. She told herself she couldn’t afford to form an emotional attachment to this man, not when they were breaking all the rules.