“It’s okay.” His mouth brushed against the shell of her ear, his embrace tightening.
“No, it’s not.” She squeezed her eyes closed on a hiccup. An anvil bore down on her chest, making each breath more difficult than the last. “You were right. I could’ve seriously ruined everything—our chances of finding Rachel, of bringing down the Fuentes cartel. All of it. You have every right to be mad at me. I’m mad at me. I can’t even tell you how sorry I am.”
“I’m the one who should be apologizing, Red. Not you.”
He must have heard her snort of derision. With gentle hands, he rolled her over and captured her chin between his fingers until she had no choice but to look him in the eye. Even in the darkened room, his eyes glittered, homed in on her face. “Other than Fuentes thinking you’re a Grade A pain in the ass, we’re fine. One thing you should know about me is that I don’t give false assurances. If this is the only problem we run into on this op, we’re in good shape.”
“But you were so—”
“Angry?” Rafe’s brow lifted. “Funny how I’ve always been able to control my temper—until you.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I have a knack for pissing you off?”
Rafe’s thumb brushed over her bottom lip. When his gaze dropped to her mouth, breathing became an issue all over again. “I’m saying that I was angrier at the thought of you putting yourself in harm’s way than with you possibly blowing the mission.”
He stilled, watching as she traced the wings of his bald eagle tattoo strategically placed over his heart.
“You were worried because I’m your responsibility?” she asked, using Sean’s words from the hotel.
“Yeah. And a hell of a lot more.”
Rafe slowly slid the tips of his fingers up the length of her arm, her shoulder, her neck. There was no alpha-man stoic mask in place at the moment. His gaze held hers, open and curious and just as confused as her own.
“I don’t know how you managed to do it, Red,” Rafe murmured. “I’ve never felt unsteady a day in my life, but worrying Fuentes would get rid of you before I could react…I nearly tumbled right to my damn knees.”
Tense silence hovered over their heads, and Penny didn’t want to be the one responsible for breaking it. Silence was safety. It deepened, had the potential to develop into a bottomless pit, but as long as everything stayed unspoken, it was relatively harmless.
Rafe shattered that safety net the moment his gaze dropped to where his thumb brushed against her lower lip. She saw the kiss coming, yet when he touched his mouth to hers, she startled. It started as gentle exploration, sweet and more tender than anything she’d ever felt before. Rafe was hard in so many ways but this.
When he gradually began to slide away, she slipped her fingers through his hair and brought him back.
Hot and languorous, this wasn’t a savage attack of mouths and limbs. Rafe came over her, careful not to crush her with his weight as he braced his forearms on either side of her head. The warmth emanating off his skin sent her hands into motion.
His chest, all hard muscle and smoothness, was velvet-covered steel beneath her palms. She traced down the width of his torso and around his defined abs. Slipping beneath the band of his boxers, she found his cock, already hard and pulsing.
“What the hell do you do to me, Red?” Rafe murmured against her neck as he slowly rolled his hips and thrust his erection into her hand.
“If you don’t know, then I’m doing it wrong,” she whispered, her bravery encouraged by the dark.
With a low groan, Rafe slipped his hands beneath her body. Over her behind and down her thighs, he lifted her legs around his waist. Penny arched into his touch. The instant her already sensitized breasts caressed the heat of his skin, her satin slip of a nightgown may as well have been nonexistent.
Her body burned. Craved. Needed. It needed him and the impenetrable comfort that came along with his arms. Being with Rafe, it was easy to pretend nothing existed except for the two of them. No operation. No danger. Just them and the warm glow that started forming in the center of her chest.
From somewhere in the mansion, a door slammed. This time, it was Penny who broke the kiss with a painstaking groan.
Rafe tucked his nose into the curve of her shoulder. “Hell, Red. You see what I mean? Unsteady. This isn’t the time or place to ravish you head to toe, and yet I’m one hip roll away from not giving a hot damn about either and taking you right here.”
Penny completely agreed. Fighting the temptation to spread her legs and rub against the hardness pressed against her upper thigh probably wouldn’t have been a battle she’d have won. Rafe unknowingly tested every set of limits she’d ever drawn for herself and probably a few more she should’ve made up.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly slid her hands over Rafe’s bare back. “I guess we should change the subject before we end up starring in our own adult film. Any suggestions?”