“No.”
“Are you hungry?” While he might not share the chef-level cooking gene with Kylie, he could still throw together some basics. She needed to eat if she was going to keep up her strength for this case.
But Isabella shook her head. “No.”
Remembering the look on her face when she’d arrived at yesterday’s fire scene, he quietly asked, “Is it Angel?”
She didn’t answer. Unable to help it, Kellan reached out, his fingers tracing the curve of her cheekbone. “This isn’t your fault, Isabella. You had no way of knowing DuPree would find out you’re a cop. You were doing your best to keep Angel safe.”
A laugh crossed her lips, although the sound held no humor. “I don’t…I really don’t want to talk about what happened to Angel, if that’s okay with you.”
“Okay. Then what do you want?”
Isabella leaned her cheek against his hand for only a second before stepping in to obliterate the space between them. “I want you to let me come inside.”
Her mouth met his in a rush, and holy hell, he could taste her for a month and still not want to come up for air. Capturing her face between both palms, Kellan slid his fingers through the sweet, coconut-scented fall of her hair, holding her in place so he could lay claim to every last bit of her mouth. But for as much as he took, Isabella took it right back, kissing him harder and faster until they were pressed together from mouth to chest to hips with no sign of stopping.
“This,” she murmured, sliding her hand between Kellan’s legs. “I want this, right now.”
His cock jerked at both her touch and her demand, and yeah. Yeah, not stopping sounded like a Nobel Prize-winning idea.
The elevator rumbled softly from a few doors down, momentarily breaking the spell. “Inside,” he said against her mouth, groaning at the friction of Isabella’s lips on his as she nodded a fervent yes. He managed to get his key in the lock on the third try—thank you, raging hard-on—and they spilled into his foyer in a flurry of hot kisses and near-desperate grabs at body parts and clothing. But damn it, he and Moreno had been put on high alert for a reason, and the ingrained defenses of his training weren’t going to let go of him, no matter how badly he wanted to pull off her jeans and fuck her right on the spot.
“Wait,” Kellan grated. “Need to check the apartment, just in case.”
Isabella nodded in agreement, and hell, this woman was perfect. “Your bedroom’s this way?” she asked, pointing down the hallway to the right.
“Yeah. I’ve got the main room and the kitchen.”
“Okay. I’ll take the rest,” she said, turning back to give him one last kiss. “Just do me a favor and don’t dawdle.”
Kellan kissed her back just as hard. “Believe me, sweetheart. That is the last thing on my mind.”
He moved through his apartment, checking both the kitchen and main living space with fast, methodical precision. While the interruption and distance might have killed the mood under different circumstances, he found himself shocked to discover that the wait to have Isabella only heightened his want and turned him on more.
At least, until she didn’t come out of his bedroom.
“Moreno?” Dread pushed his pulse faster against this throat. Coiling his muscles and preparing to strike, Kellan inhaled soundlessly, slipping past the door with his senses on high alert.
And then he caught sight of her, and his heartbeat sped up for a whole different reason.
“Hey.” Isabella looked at him from the center of his bed, where she lay across the comforter in nothing but a lacy black bra and a matching pair of panties. “Your bedroom’s clear. Took you long enough.”
A chuckle rumbled up from his chest. “You’re going to pay for that.”
Her reply rode out over a sassy smile that made him think a thousand dirty things about her mouth. “I certainly hope so. Now come here and take off my panties.”
Kellan whipped his shirt over his head and kicked off his boots, discarding both on the floorboards at the foot of his bed. But as much as part of him was tempted to finish losing his clothes so he could lose his mind in the tight, hot space between Isabella’s legs, a deeper, more instinctive part of him paused.
“No.”
“What?” Her brows shot up, her spine straightening against his bed pillows.
But he didn’t recant. “No.”
Moving to the side of the bed, he took her in with a lingering gaze. Her lush curves surrendered to the black lace that cradled them, dusky brown nipples just visible beneath the fabric, and Kellan barely fought the urge to taste them as he slid in next to her on the mattress.
He kissed her neck, cupping one breast lightly in his palm. “I didn’t spend a lot of time here the other night because I was in such a hurry to fuck you.”