At Any Cost
The NASSD Counter-Terrorist Agency 1

"No, you don't," Dan growled deep in the back of his throat. As soon as the doors closed, he turned and pinned her into the corner, awakening her body with both lust and fear.

His lips crushed down on hers. She widened her eyes as his tongue thrust deep into her mouth. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer, thrusting her tongue at him with an equal force of hunger. The way her heart tossed itself around in her chest made it hard for her to breathe. She pressed her breasts up against his chest, desperate to create pressure and friction against her already aching nipples.

She thought she couldn't feel anything below her waist. The way she started to tingle in preparation for his touch, she realized how wrong she'd been. His hand rested on her ass, pulling her closer. She felt the swell of his cock hard against her hip and she moaned.

Their kiss was urgent and exploratory. He tried to peel the spandex down. No luck. It would be both their salvation. "Are these painted on?" He pinched her backside and snapped the spandex against her skin.

That hurt. "If they were painted, I'd still be able to feel my toes."

He laughed hoarsely. "Jesus, JT." He rested his forehead against hers. "Have you completely lost your mind? What were you thinking going after Mercado alone like that?"

"Oh, I don't know," she bit back acidly, pushed him away so she could breathe again. "Following in your footsteps, maybe?"

"That's different." He eyed the rip in her spandex, spotted the new cut on her leg. Her shoulder hurt where the bullet had torn through her, but it hadn't opened up. No blood, thank God. "You could have been killed. You could have gotten us killed. You deliberately risked the mission and put us all in danger."

He held her gaze and JT felt tempted to poke those damned hypercritical eyes right out of his handsome head. "I went there to get a feel for the compound. That's all."

"Bullshit. You wanted to get to Mercado before I did. This isn't a competition. This is real. The guns are real. Quit thinking like a rookie." He turned and stared at the numbers on the elevator.

She waited for him to turn around. When he didn't, when all she could stare at was the back of his head, she lost it. Her breath coming in quick gasps in an attempt to hold her emotions in check, she bit back the fear attempting to surface.

She'd never been so scared in all her life. Those men had guns. Very big guns. She had... What? A really bad sense of judgment. A mentor who'd done nothing but point out her faults. The hots for a man who only slept with her to stay with their cover.

Everything compounded together, sending her control over the edge. "I am a rookie! Don't you get that? I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm screwing up left and right. I can't even make the right choices. I need you." God how she hated how pathetic and needy she sounded.

"Wrong." He turned back to her, the look in his eyes blazing a hole right into her heart. "You never needed me. You don't need anyone, JT. You make your own decisions regardless as to how they will affect others. Making the wrong choice can get you, and those around you, killed. You deliberately put this mission at risk."

"Don't lecture me on risking the mission when you were there doing exactly the same thing. Yes, I wanted to get at Mercado. But I wanted to do it with you. You know? Partners?"

"Then why did you go to the compound without me?"

"Because I knew that's where you went."

His jaw tightened as he shot her a glare. He didn't speak, instead just seemed to study her. The elevator dinged on the fifth floor and he grabbed her arm. "Let's go."

She jerked her arm away. The sharp pang in the muscles of her shoulder reminded her her wound hadn't gone anywhere. "I know the way." JT marched in front of Dan and slammed her little card into the door to unlock it. It didn't work. She slammed it again. Nothing. Her hand started to shake. No. No! Do not break down in front of him. It would just give him one more thing to use against her.

Dan ripped the card out of her hand and pushed her aside to use his own card. Furious, she pushed him back. "I can do it!"

The look he shot her conveyed the fury building deep inside him. Apparently she'd just pushed him too far. Literally. He stepped back toward her and JT lost her bravado. Without turning his eyes away, he slipped the card into the slot and opened the door, and motioned for her to enter.

Bastard. Making everything look so easy. Just who did he think he was? At least they had separate rooms. He'd go back to his. She'd get the chance to think of some reason to tell HQ why she didn't take Dan out after what happened. He'd jeopardized the mission. Her orders were very clear.

He slammed the door and JT whipped around. He stared at her, not an ounce of kindness in those dark eyes. Why was he staring at her like that? Just standing there? Why didn't he say something?

"Why don't you go to your own room?"

Silence. He crossed his arms and drummed his fingers on his biceps. She could almost hear his teeth grinding. Trembling, she drew in a sharp breath and put on her best act at nonchalance.

"Fine. Just stand there. I'm going to bed." She started walking toward the bed before she realized she was in his room and not her own. Great. No wonder her card wouldn't work in the door. She turned back to him.

Still silent. And still standing at the door.

She snapped, unable to stand the silence any longer. "What? Just say it and get it over with."

"What do you want me to say?" He kept his voice calm and even. Steady and low.

"Something. Anything!"

"You already know how I feel about what you did tonight."

"What I did?" Of all the arrogant things to say. How could she go from lo—lusting after the man to hating him all in a matter of a few minutes?

"Be pissed at me and get over it. I have things to do. I'd rather not have to stay in here and baby-sit you all night."

Her fists bunched at her sides. She swallowed hard and squared her shoulders as she looked at him. Desperate to say something as a witty comeback, she haughtily spat out, "Who's babysitting who?"

His expression stilled, hardened. His eyes cooled, an intense and frightening emotion clouding them over. He weighed her with a critical narrowing of his eyes. "He sent you to watch me?"

JT didn't answer. She didn't have to. The look in his eyes changed as they grew darker. And she could tell. He knew. Tears sprang to her eyes. Not out of fear, but of raw and heartfelt regret.

Instead of an inevitable blowup, he lowered his eyes and with them, her resolve. Shaking his head, he turned away from her. "Who better to spy on me than my own partner?"

ADULT EXCERPT

Licking the valley between her breasts, he found the other waiting nipple and drank just as hungrily. He kissed, he licked, he nibbled. Her toes curled at every new sensation. This man had the power to draw reactions out of her body she'd never experienced. She loved every erotically new feeling.

By the time he came back up to kiss her, plunging his tongue deep inside her mouth, she was so wet she felt the moisture pooling in the tiny fabric of her thong. Holy hell, she trembled from her overwhelming hunger for him.

His hand grabbed her ass and caressed it smoothly, playing with the flesh, playing with her. "Dan. Please."

"Please what?" He kissed her chin, traveled the flutter of his lips along her jaw, down her neck. "What do you want, JT?"

JT. He'd called her JT. How could something so simple, a name she'd heard everyday, pull such a reaction from her? Her heart flipped, her stomach fluttered. "T-Touch me."

"I am touching you."

"I need your fingers inside me, teasing me. Please."

He ran his finger up and down her hip, indeed, teasing her. Slowly bringing his hand around, he fingered her wet curls, weaving through them. And then, painfully measured, he spread her lips with his hand, grazing across her swollen clit, driving her into tiny convulsions of pleasure.

"Do you like that?"

"Clearly," she responded in a shallow breath.

He rubbed up and down the inside of her folds, spreading her juices around, all the while continuing to feast on her neck, her shoulder. "Should we take this elsewhere?"

"Off to the shower?"

He chuckled, that wicked grin making her skin tingle deliciously. "Not this time."

JT could barely walk as he lead them to the bed. Gently, he eased her down onto her back, but didn't lay next to her. She tried to sit back up, to pull him down with her.

"Not yet," he explained. "I—" His eyes trailed over her body. With a hungry rasp, he continued. "I just want to look at you."

Laying back, feeling incredibly sexy to have a man look at her the way Dan was looking at her right now, she raised her hands above her head. It hurt and she tried to hide the cringe.

He caught it anyway. "How's the shoulder holding up?"

"About as well as the rest of me." And if you don't touch me, kiss me right now I'll be even worse.

"Well," he slowly, seductively trailed his gaze over her body once more. His cock jerked, eager to take its rightful place between her thighs. "You are simply stunning, bruises, bandages, and all."

JT didn't know how to respond to that, so she said nothing. Sure, she'd been called beautiful before, but never like this. Never in the heat of the moment. With both her previous lovers, they'd only complimented her to get into her pants, not after they already had them off.

Dan knelt on the bed at her feet. Reaching out, his hand seared a path down her abdomen and onto her thigh, his eyes following wherever he touched. It felt so good it hurt. She'd never wanted someone so much it actually, physically hurt.

With his finger, he pulled her panties down, deliberately raking his touch down her thigh as he removed them. He then brought his hand back up and explored her thighs with his fingers, running them up and down before flattening his hand and doing the same. Slowly, torturously, he moved up to touch her mound again. JT whimpered in anticipation.

When he separated the folds, his finger slid right into her slick heat. He groaned as she moaned. She brought her hands down to reach out to him.

"No," he stopped her. "Put your hands up above your head. Yeah, just like that. If you so much as whisper anywhere near me I'll lose it."

Oh God. Why did he have to say that? Knowing how close she had him to climaxing opened up her body to her own climax. She could feel it growing fast. He slipped another finger in and JT felt her muscles start to spasm. Closing her eyes, she grabbed the headboard and let out another moan.

When she felt his mouth close down on her clit, she threw her head back. Oh Jesus. The way he nuzzled her clit between his lips, darting his tongue back and forth, up and down, had her close. So very close. And then he did something she would have never expected.

He started to hum.

His mouth vibrated, the warm air of his breath brushing across her sensitive nubbin. Pulling her clit inside his mouth completely, he increased the volume and started to move his fingers inside her. In and out. In and out.

Her entire body hummed with him. Her climax grew until she was right on the cusp. When he gave her clit a flick with his tongue, she fell off the cliff and straight into orgasmic heaven.

Crying out at the strength of it, she moved her hips in rhythm with his fingers, his tongue. He greedily sucked on her, lapping up every last drop.