Beck strode toward the alley, unable to ignore how poorly lit and deserted it was. Anger and worry trickled through the permanent heat she’d inflicted on him. “I don’t like this. I don’t like you here.” She tugged on his ear with her teeth and his stride faltered. Distracting me. It’s working. For now. He stomped up the staircase, groaning at the way she slid up and down his bulging fly with each step. “While we’re on the subject of things I don’t like, Kenna, I haven’t even kissed your mouth. You can be damn sure that’ll be happening before we go any further—”

Her mouth landed on his just as they reached the door. Sweet Lord above. If he’d thought Kenna simply walking into a room had an impact on him, he’d had another think coming. His back hit her front door, air seeping from his lungs as she locked their mouths together and slowly dragged away, taking his bottom lip with her. Both of their mouths opened on cue for a pull of oxygen before melding together, meshing hotly, moving in a slow, sexual rhythm, matched by the pulsing between his thighs. As if she’d made an unexpected discovery, she climbed higher on his body, thighs gripping his sides, hands holding his head steady as she delivered the kiss of his life. As soon as the notion rocked through his fevered brain, he reversed their positions, shoving her up against the door, determined to deliver the same to her. Their tongues tangled in an eager slide and he finally let himself do what he’d been fantasizing about since yesterday. He reached beneath her skirt and manhandled her sinner’s backside. He gripped the taut flesh and tightened his hold, lifting and stroking. She alleviated any fear he had of being too rough by moaning into his mouth, digging her heels into his waist.

Kenna tore her mouth away. “Inside, Beck. Take me inside,” she wheezed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’d done this before. A lot.”

“Nah, darlin’. Just you.” He took the single key she offered, turning it in the lock. “You make everything I do feel right. That has nothing to do with experience.” Walking them into the darkened apartment, he kissed her collarbone. “Thinking maybe that’s all to do with Kenna.”

Her legs dropped from around his waist. She turned before he could see her expression, but he knew he’d said too much. Shown his hand too early. When the light came on, there was a line of tension in her shoulders. No. He wouldn’t let her shut him out after they’d come this far. Hadn’t she said he made her ache, too? When she’d taken off her bra, he’d never been more turned on in his life. Would it work in reverse? Figuring he had nothing—except everything—to lose, Beck started unbuttoning his dress shirt. When he’d nearly reached the bottom, Kenna turned, shifting in her boots. Her green gaze sparked like a firecracker when he tugged the hem from his waistband. “W-what are you—”

Right before Beck let his shirt drop, he remembered the wound in his side and lifted a hand to hide it. Jesus, if this girl could make him forget the painful shrapnel wound, she could do anything. But he’d never willingly shown it to anyone, and he didn’t want her pity. He wanted her to need him. Needed her lust. Her touch. Anything but pity.

Kenna came to him, tension still visible in her shoulders, but it was a different kind. “I thought you were in a support unit.” Her hand hovered over the wound, as if trying to cure it. “You saw action, too?”

“I did. Of course I did.” He ran a thumb over her top lip, relieved to see her eyelids flutter. “I wouldn’t send men into a situation where I wouldn’t go myself.”

She traced the edge of his wound with her finger. “You’re a good man, Beck Collier. Some woman is going to snatch you up one day and never let go.”

Something akin to denial speared his chest and spiked his temper. He tipped her chin up and stooped down to bring their faces close. “Don’t talk about me with some other woman when I came here to be inside your body, Kenna. Because I promise you this.” He backed her toward the living room. “I aim to get so deep inside you, neither one of us will think of anyone else for a damn long while.” Ever again, if he had his way. “Now get your clothes off and show me the only woman I have plans to fuck. Show me.”

A beat passed in the living room where Beck thought he’d gone too far. Showed too early the secret, primitive part of himself he’d worked to suppress. Let more honesty slip out than was acceptable. It all vanished into the racing river of his pulse when she smiled, slow and sensual. “You know, I thought you were all sugar when we met.” She let her tattered shirt slide to the floor, palmed her breasts in a way that nearly brought him to his knees. “But you’re just a little bad underneath the sweet exterior, aren’t you?” She swayed toward him, right into his space. He thought she might kiss him, but she nudged him backward instead, sending him down into a deep-bottomed leather arm chair. “Why don’t we find out exactly how deep the bad goes, Major?”

* * *

Out of self-preservation, Kenna pretended not to see the absolute possession in Beck’s eyes as she removed her bra and kicked off her boots. If she let herself think about the hints he’d been dropping, her intuition that he wanted more than a one-night stand, her conscience wouldn’t allow her to go through with it. Unfortunately, her body gave her zero choice in the matter. She’d known Beck was a large man, a handsome man, but then he’d gone and taken off his shirt. If she stared at his brick-house body any harder, she’d need smelling salts to be revived. The angry wound in his side, the jagged, rough-hewn cut of his muscles made him rugged when she’d been expecting a teddy bear. Uh-uh. Not Beck. Beck was ripped as shit, and that little display of anger he’d let slip through the cracks had made him unexpectedly dangerous. He was a coin with two very appealing sides and she wanted to flip him, see where he landed. Since danger suited her need to keep this temporary fling as casual as possible, she would be anything but sweet. Memorable? Hell yes. But not sweet.

When only her short black skirt remained, she used Beck’s shoulders for balance. She placed her knees on opposite arms of the chair, leaving her center exposed for his perusal, shielded only by a sheer red pair of panties. Beck cursed under his breath, the muscles of his chest and abdomen shifting powerfully, making her even bolder. She took a moment to tease the hem of her skirt before sliding the material over her hips, baring the wispy red thong that barely covered her center. “You want to touch me where I ache, Beck?” She nudged aside the red strip with two fingers, whimpering as they made contact with her sensitive clitoris. Her eyes tried to close at the flood of pleasure when she circled her nub once and pressed down, but she kept them open. On Beck. “Right here, sweetheart?”

“Yes. Christ, yes.”

She slid her hands up to cup her breasts and squeezed, thigh muscles tightening at the delicious quickening in her belly. “I’m all yours.”

Beck shot forward, latching his mouth to her clit, sucking her panties and flesh into his mouth on a thunderous growl. Kenna screamed at the unexpected action, nearly losing her balance until his hands molded to her bottom, holding her steady as he sucked. Licked. Oh God. Her body convulsed, stuttering just on the edge of orgasm. Impossible. Too soon. Wasn’t it?

He pulled back by the barest of inches, his rapid puffs of breath feathering over her flesh. “D-do you like this?”

“Yeskeepgoing.”

“Thank God. Tastes so good.”

Beck made contact again and Kenna’s mind shut down, focusing only on the perfection of his suctioning mouth. He was a starved man who’d forgotten his last meal and needed sustenance. One of his brawny arms wrapped around her hips, freeing his other hand to slip between her thighs, a thumb brushing her entrance. As if he wanted her permission but refused to stop tonguing her damp core long enough to ask.