Cynthia Eden - Sharpshooter

Make this good for her. Give her pleasure.

Because he only wanted Sydney to know pleasure. She’d known too much pain in her life.

He crossed the threshold with her. Pushed the door shut behind them.

Her breath came a little too fast, and she shifted from her right foot to her left. He’d been in this house before. It carried her sweet scent, light vanilla, and he knew just where her bedroom waited.

Down the hallway, second door on the right.

Could he make it that far?

“Gunner…”

He loved the way she said his name. Breathless. Eager.

Can’t make it that far. He’d done well to make it out of the street and into her house.

Gunner pulled Sydney against him, breathed in that vanilla scent and locked his hands around her waist. Those jeans had been driving him crazy. “I—I can’t go slow.”

“Good.”

She surprised him. Always.

Then his mouth was on hers. He thrust his tongue past her lips, and she was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted.

Before, he’d told himself to stay hands-off, but in Mexico, when she’d walked away and hadn’t looked back, he’d realized that she was too important to lose.

Now his hands were most definitely on her.

Her breasts were pressed against his chest. Her hips arched against him. He wanted her naked. He wanted to kiss every inch of her.

And he would. The second time.

The first time—the time that should have been perfect—need was controlling him. Raw lust.

So he stripped her. He couldn’t take his mouth from hers. His hands learned her body and slid over her silken flesh even as he shoved down her jeans.

He heard her kick off the sandals that had made him ache. He would have liked for her to keep them on— another time.

Then they were falling together onto her sofa. He was kissing her neck now, inhaling more of that wonderful scent, even as his hands went between her thighs. He meant to pull away her panties, but his fingers were too rough and the silk tore.

Sydney just laughed.

He loved her laugh.

After Peru, it had taken too long for her laugh to come back.

No. He slammed the door on that thought and instead enjoyed the soft heat of her flesh. She was pushing up against him, whispering his name.

His head lifted. He stared at her and told her the simple truth, “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Her lips curled in a smile.

Take.

He yanked open his jeans, pushed his body deeper between her thighs. Waited right there at the entrance to her body. This was the moment. No going back. No—

She arched toward him, and he sank inside her.

The pleasure was so incredible that he had to clench his teeth together to hold back a groan. Nothing, nothing, had ever felt so good.

Or so right.

He began to thrust. Withdrawing slowly, then plunging back inside her. She was paradise to him, the best dream he’d ever had, and he kissed as much of her body as he could.

Her nipples were tight, pink, and when he licked one, she tensed beneath him.

Gunner felt the pleasure rock through her.

Her legs lifted, locked around his hips. Then she started pushing up with her hips.

He couldn’t hold back. His own thrusts became even harder. He caught her hands and laced his fingers with hers.

He stared into her eyes.

Saw her climax. Her green gaze went wide, then wild as the pleasure crested through her.

His release swept him away on a wave so intense that he shuddered and pushed deeper into her. The release shook his whole body. Seemed to gut him and never end.

I don’t want it to end.

He wanted to keep holding her to make the perfect moment last as long as possible.

He kissed her again because he needed to taste her pleasure, to taste all of her.

And he swore that before the night was done, he would.

The ringing of her phone woke Sydney. Her hand flew out automatically, reaching for her nightstand—for the phone. But instead of scooping up her phone, her fingers collided with warm, strong flesh.

Not a dream.

Her eyes snapped open, and she found herself staring straight into Gunner’s dark gaze. There was no sleepiness in that gaze, just a deep hunger.

For her.

Then he reached out and grabbed the ringing phone from her nightstand. Silently, he handed it to her.

“S-Sydney Sloan.” Her fingers tightened around the phone. Gunner’s tanned fingers were sliding down her arm.

Goose bumps rose on her flesh as she remembered the night before. The things he’d done to her. What she’d done to him.

More, please.

“Sydney?” Logan barked. “Sydney, are you okay?”

She shot up in bed, clutching the sheet to her chest. “I’m fine. Just…sleeping.” Gunner didn’t stop stroking her. He raised himself, and his lips brushed over her shoulder.

She shivered.

“Look, I know you were due to have a few weeks off, but we’ve got a case that we can’t refuse. I’ve got you booked on a jet to Peru at three today.”

Peru.

“I’m going to call Gunner and Cale. They’ll be meeting up with you there.”

I can tell Gunner. He’s right here kissing me, lying naked next to me. She cleared her throat. “What’s the case?” She hadn’t been back to Peru in two years. Not since Slade had died in that jungle, and the place had nearly become her own grave, too.

“An American is being held hostage by a group of rebels.”

Hostage rescue. That was what their team did best.

“He needs us,” Logan said. “So be on that plane.”

“I’ll be there,” she whispered, and then, because Logan would figure the situation out when he had to make reservations for Gunner—and those flight reservations had Gunner leaving from Baton Rouge, Sydney said, “Now hold on, and I’ll get Gunner for you.”

Gunner’s gaze rose to hers. She knew that her cheeks flushed; she could feel the burn. But this wasn’t the time for secrets. They had a case to work. And when a civilian’s life was on the line, there wasn’t room for embarrassment.

Gunner took the phone from her but didn’t look away from her eyes. “Gunner.”

There was a beat of silence. Then Sydney rolled away from Gunner and climbed from the bed before she could overhear Logan’s response to the discovery that Gunner was so close she could just, ahem, hand him her phone first thing in the morning.

She grabbed for a robe. Her body ached in a way that felt so good, and she hated that their time together was already ending.

No, not ending. They were just beginning. They’d turned a corner last night, and there would be no going back for them.

“I’ll be there,” she heard Gunner say, and she looked up as he ended the call.

No man should look as sexy as he did. His hair was a little tousled. A line of stubble coated his square jaw, and his eyes blazed as they raked over her.

“We have at least six hours,” Gunner told her.

Six hours.

She nodded.

“I want you.”

Her fingers clenched around the belt of the robe. “Again?”

“Always.”

She dropped the robe and climbed back in bed with him. Six hours.

This was perfect. What she’d hoped for.

And this time, things would end well for her in Peru. She wouldn’t lose Gunner. Not the way that she’d lost Slade.

Gunner’s lips pressed to hers, and she shoved away the fear that wanted to rise within her.

Peru. The last time she’d been to Peru, her lover had died there.

It won’t happen this time. She’d finally gotten her chance with Gunner. It wouldn’t slip through her fingers.