Lily didn’t think. Her mind couldn’t form so much as a single rational thought. But then it had always been that way between them. Chase induced a desire too powerful to contain. Fool, the little voice accused. But she banished it.
Vaguely, she was aware of his hands sweeping down her back, brushing the outsides of her breasts. A shiver barreled through her. She didn’t intend to put her arms around him, but the next thing she knew her arms looped around his rock-hard shoulders that trembled with restraint. She kissed him back with equal force, equal passion. Their tongues tangled, breaths mingled. All Lily could think was that she wanted more. If she didn’t get it she would die right here in his arms.
Slowly, he backed her toward the small table. When the backs of her legs bumped into it, he lifted her and stepped between her knees. Desire like she’d never before known knifed her. She went wet. Forgetting about all the reasons she shouldn’t respond, Lily wrapped her arms around him and kissed him with a desperation she didn’t know existed. She was keenly aware of his arousal against her. His labored breaths in her ear. Her own labored breathing rasping from her throat.
It was too much. It was too good. Too late. Too damn insane…
Turning her head, Lily broke the kiss. As if realizing for the first time what he’d done, Chase stepped quickly back. His shocked expression met hers. But within the depths of his topaz eyes, Lily saw all the other emotions he was usually so adept at hiding. She saw affection and shock and the undeniable realization that there was unfinished business between them.
“I didn’t mean to do that,” he said.
Unable to hold his gaze, Lily slid off the table. Wrapping her arms around herself, she walked to the other side of the galley and looked out the tiny nautical window. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to feel. The only thing she knew for certain was that as long as she lived, there would be no other man who could ever make her feel the way Chase Vickers did.
That fact frightened her almost as much as the men with guns.
CHASE COULDN’T BELIEVE he’d kissed her. Couldn’t believe he’d crossed a line he’d sworn he wouldn’t. He chided himself as he stood on deck. Of all the stupid and impulsive things he could have done, getting physically close to Lily was the most self-destructive.
He’d always prided himself on his ability to keep his emotions and his physical needs in check, especially when it came to his job. But then came Lily Garrett with her sunny smile and kind heart, and his resolve had gone right down the tube. She was his one and only weakness. She was a weakness so powerful it scared the hell out of him. When it came to wanting her, every logical thought, every hope of self-preservation, went by the wayside.
Even after she’d sent him packing, he had pined for her. It was a pathetic image to say the least. But Chase had ached with missing her, with wanting her back in his life, and not just for a little while. No, Chase Vickers never did anything halfway. He’d spent months in a black hole so deep he thought he’d never find his way out. His job with Eclipse was the only thing that had saved him. Then, of course, he’d taken it to the extreme, taking on every suicidal mission offered.
Hell of a way to heal a broken heart.
Broken heart?
Where did that come from? Chase wanted to deny that Lily had the power to hurt him. No woman did. He’d seen to it. With every relationship, he’d made certain he never crossed that line. Once he realized things were getting too hot to handle, Chase walked away and never let himself look back.
Lily was different. He hadn’t been able to walk away no matter how hard he’d tried. She’d gotten under his skin, into his head, into his heart. Twenty minutes ago, when he’d taken her into his arms and kissed her until they were both breathless and dizzy and half-insane with wanting more, Chase would have sold his soul to the devil to get her back.
“It’s only lust, you idiot,” he muttered into the darkness.
But the words rang false.
Now Lily was pregnant with his child. He’d brought danger to her life and into the life of their unborn child. It was the one thing she’d always made clear she wanted no part of. She hated his secret work. She hated the danger, the uncertainty, the unpredictability. Early on, he’d laughed at her fears. He’d assured her he was too careful and too damn good at what he did for anything to happen. Not only to him, but anyone he got close to. After all, he took the utmost care to keep his personal life far removed from his professional life.
Evidently, he hadn’t been careful enough.
Lily had been right. Her worst fears had become reality. The irony of that burned like a red-hot branding iron.