Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(52)

Her lips parted in surprise.

Another kiss. This time, his tongue dipped inside her mouth and tasted that sweetness.

“If your brother is being set up, we’ll find the evidence that links Jimmy to the kills. We’ll clear Cale.”

And if he isn’t innocent...if Jimmy and Cale are somehow working together...

He’d still be there for Veronica. From now on, he planned to be the man she needed him to be.

“Why?” she asked him softly. “Why are you changing your mind? Is it because of—”

“It’s because of you.” Simple. “I won’t lose you.” Not when she was everything that he’d ever been looking for his whole life.

Once, he’d told Logan that if a woman ever looked at him the way Logan’s fiancée, Juliana, looked at that guy...well, Jasper had said that he’d hold as tight to that woman as he could. Jasper hadn’t known a lot of love in his life, but he’d seen it in Juliana’s gaze when she looked at Logan.

And, too late, he realized that he’d seen the same look in Veronica’s eyes. Hope, trust, love—all of that had been in her eyes.

I want that look again. He’d work for it, do anything necessary, in order for her to look at him that way again.

“You wanted me once,” he whispered against her mouth. “I can make you want me again.”

Her hands rose, slowly, and settled lightly on either side of his jaw. Her stare was guarded now, but he could be patient. He could prove his worth to her.

“Jasper...”

He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm. “I can’t lose you.” How had she come to mean so much to him, so quickly? The image of her on that rain-soaked road would haunt him until he died.

“I’m not going anyplace,” Veronica told him. She stepped closer to him, erasing the last bit of distance that separated them. “I want to be with you.”

His control began to fracture. He kissed her again. Harder. Her hands dropped to his chest, smoothed over his skin. His fingers went to the belt of her robe, pulled the tie loose and slid inside to find smooth, naked skin.

But she pushed against him. “Jasper, your shoulder, your wound...”

“I’ll hurt more if I can’t have you.” The need to take her again blazed through him. Death had been too close. He had to know that she was safe. Jasper wanted her body against his, and he wanted the pleasure to wipe away the fear that made him feel hollow inside.

And to think that some of his EOD buddies believed he was a man who didn’t understand fear.

I understand it now.

Jasper kissed his way down her neck and enjoyed the shiver that slid over her body. Her hands were being so careful on him, but a little pain wasn’t about to slow him down.

He led her to the bed. Kissed her, caressed the flesh that seemed to have been made just for his hands. Her nipples were tight, pink and he laved them with his tongue. She liked that. He could hear her pleasure in the moan that slipped from her lips. Good. Because he sure liked tasting her.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said again. Her hands were hesitant on him. He glanced up at her. Desire was warm in her eyes, and her flush had deepened.

He caught her hands, pushed them back over her head. Held them there with his left hand. “You’d only hurt me if you turned me away.”

Her legs were open, parted slightly. He eased between her thighs and placed a kiss on her stomach.

“Jasper?”

His right hand caressed her flesh. He wanted her as aroused and eager as he was. Lust was a constant heat in his blood now, burning him from the inside out. But he wouldn’t take, no, he wanted to give the pleasure to her.

Needed to see the pleasure on her face.

He pushed his fingers into her, stroked the most sensitive part of her body. Her hips arched up toward him. Eager. Not as eager as he was, not yet.

His fingers thrust again. He released her wrists, bent and tasted her.

She gasped out his name and that was the moment he’d been waiting for. The moment when pleasure and need merged for her.

After quickly taking care of the protection, he positioned his aroused length at the entrance of her body. Met her gaze. Saw the desire.

The...trust?

Yes.

He drove into her as his control shattered. She met every thrust, rising up with her hips, wrapping her arms around him—but not touching his shoulder. His Veronica. Always so careful.

So perfect for him.

His thrusts grew harder. Deeper. Her sex tightened around him, and he knew another release was close for her. His own climax was bearing down on him. He kissed her, because he wanted to taste her pleasure.

Then she was tensing beneath him as the wave of release hit her. Her sex contracted around him, and his climax ripped through Jasper, sending pleasure pouring through his body as he held her tightly beneath him.

They hadn’t just had sex. He got that. He’d had sex with plenty of women over the years. The pleasure he took with her, the way he felt...

So much more.

He stared down into her eyes. He could hear the drumming of his heartbeat filling his ears. She was everything he wanted, and he’d been a blind fool not to realize it sooner.

“Veronica.”

She smiled up at him. “I didn’t think it could get better.” Her hand lifted. Traced a sensual path down his chest. “I was wrong.”