Heated Pursuit (Alpha Security #1)(19)
This was unlike any lust he’d ever felt. His body ached when she wasn’t close enough. Her scent invaded not just his nostrils, but his entire damn thoughts. He needed her. To be in her. Around her. The only emotion stronger was the need to keep her safe and unharmed—laughable since she’d proven multiple times already that she could take care of herself.
Worn down from the effort to maintain both a physical and emotional distance, Rafe tossed his reservations on their ass and inserted a leg between her warm thighs. As far as maneuvers went, it was the tamest of what was happening around them. Couples danced, hands roaming and pillaging beneath undergarments. One partner. Two partners. A few couples down, one man had four overzealous women attending to his every need.
If anything, he and Penny stood out like saintly sore thumbs. Arousal smoldered in her eyes as she fixed her gaze on his mouth and enflamed his own. He gently shifted his leg and her stance widened, the distractingly high slit in her dress making it easy for her to straddle his thigh.
“Tell me when to stop, Red.” Head bent, he trailed his lips along the curve of her bare neck. He f*cking loved the way she always smelled of lilac and vanilla. He drew his tongue out for a quick taste only to find her pulse beat nearly as fast as his.
Each provocative sway of their bodies brushed his cock against her stomach, a steady and persistent pressure that had him fighting the urge to thrust into her softness.
Her fingers massaged the nape of his neck. “Would a lover really tell you to stop…Rafael?”
“If she ever felt uncomfortable with the progression of things, she’d damn well better. I’m following your lead on this one, sweetheart. If it were up to me, we’d be going somewhere with a lot fewer eyes.”
And that was the damn truth. Cover or not, he wanted her. He also didn’t want to scare the hell out of her or push her even an inch past her boundaries. When a shadow of uncertainty shimmered in her eyes, Rafe worried it was too late.
He nudged her gaze back to his with the crook of a finger. “Those were some heavy thoughts rolling around in there just now. Care to share them?”
“Not particularly.”
“Red, if you’re having second thoughts about this, you need to tell me. And it’s more than the danger it could bring. I don’t want you to feel you have to drop to your knees and su—”
She silenced him with a finger to his lips. “Stop. Trust me—you’re not the only one eyeing that relatively dark corner of the room.”
“Then what is it?”
“You constantly checking to make sure I’m all right makes me feel as though you don’t trust me.”
“It has nothing to do with trust—in you or your abilities. I’ve seen you in action, remember? I witnessed firsthand what kind of damage you can do. Call me a caveman, but I’d be concerned even if you were one of our female operatives.”
“Do you even have any female operatives?”
“Not yet,” he admitted hesitantly, “but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.”
She nailed him with a look that could’ve easily surpassed Maria’s best hairy eyeball. “So you’re saying that you’d give a female operative on your team a chance to back out of a mission?”
Rafe recognized the land mine he was about to step into, but it didn’t make him back away from the truth. “Truthfully, I don’t know. But this assignment isn’t our regular grab-and-go. Besides polishing up our backgrounds, there wasn’t much time for all the other shit that goes along with an operation like this. Like setting limitations. Expectations. I want to make damn f*cking sure I’m not making you cross any lines you’re not willing to cross.”
Penny studied him a moment before gifting him the slow curl of her mouth. “You’ll know I’ve reached my limit when I knee you in the junk. Okay?”
“Do you think you can tell me before that happens?” Rafe requested with a faint grin. “My junk’s never going to be the same as it is.”
Penny didn’t have time to reply when they were approached by a server with an offer to join none other than their target himself—Diego Fuentes.
*
Impeccably dressed in a suit that easily cost more than two of Penny’s paychecks, Diego Fuentes looked the part of the polished businessman. His more salt-than-pepper hair pegged him to be somewhere in his midsixties, and though he smiled as she and Rafe approached, there was no hiding the emptiness lurking in his eyes. Cold and hollow, they conjured a combo surge of anger and nausea that pitched her stomach to the side as Rafe accepted the man’s hand.
“Se?or Manuel, it is an honor to finally meet you.” Diego’s too-white smile flashed. “I have heard a great many things about you and your company.”
“And I’ve heard many varied things about you as well, Se?or Fuentes.” Rafe’s arm, linked solidly around her waist, tightened as she stiffened in response to his remark.
Fuentes paused a moment as if shocked that someone would speak to him so candidly, but when he let loose a low laugh, Penny slowly let her muscles relax.
“I have heard you are a straightforward man, Rafael, and this I like. And who may I ask is this exquisite creature draped on your arm?” Diego brought her hand to his lips as his eyes dropped in a breast-to-ankle assessment.