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  The urgency expanded, became all-consuming. He felt as if he had become better somehow. At her harsh cry of satisfaction he anchored himself, grasping her hips tighter as he drove deeply, with long hard frenzied thrusts to the very heart of her need. He didn’t slow until he felt the deep spasming of her muscles clenching around him. It was sweet welcome torture beckoning him to join her in her pleasure.

  The clasping of her heated sheath and the soft cries deep in her throat sent him careening, spinning. The quick lithe movement of her hips rocking him to the deepest center of his being. He shuddered and cried out his release, a release that was so powerful that he threw his head back so far that the muscles of his throat corded in stark relief.

  Sienna relished the sound of his surrender. The response from him was violent, involuntary, as he quivered in his frenzy while driving into her, his passion-stark face tight, his jaw clenching around the rasping groans of sheer undiluted pleasure.

  Never had she dreamed that lovemaking could be so all-consuming, so powerful in its release.

  Her tongue snaked out and tasted the heated moist skin of his shoulder. He jumped in reaction and moaned softly at the wet heat of her caress.

  He tasted salty, male and delicious. The little tremors of her powerful release still vibrated in her inner muscles. He gasped each time she tightened around him, his breathing harsh and breathless.

  His mouth was inches away from hers. She could feel the heat; his eyes were an electric blue, and so beautiful they took what little breath she had. Her eyes traveled down the strong column of his neck, her hands came up compelled, seduced into touching him. She traced his collarbone gently. At a rough spot she looked up at him.

  “Broke it falling out of a tree.” She trailed her finger down to the heavy muscles of his chest where a quarter-size scar felt rough against her sensitive skin. She shivered against him. “Bullet,” he said hoarsely.

  She leaned into him. Her lips found the scar and he sucked in his breath sharply. Her mouth moved because she had to taste him; her tongue snaked out and flicked at his hot skin. Thick heated tang of an aroused male burst against her tongue and she made a low, purring sound in the back of her throat.

  She ran her finger along a jagged scar on his shoulder.

  “Got too close to a grenade.”

  He moved off her and brought her against his side. With quick movements, he managed to get them both under the covers.

  She lay with her head on his shoulder, her hand making lazy circles on the skin of his chest.

  “I should go.”

  “No.”

  He turned his head, his dark blue eyes slumberous in the dim room. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Staring at you.”

  He huffed laughter. Those eyes slid over her like a hot blue flame.

  “I really should go,” she said, but it was halfhearted. She settled more fully against him. It couldn’t hurt to stay for a little while longer.

  After a moment, he asked, “What do you hate about police work?”

  “You mean besides dragging your sorry ass around with me?”

  He smiled; she could feel the rumble of his laughter against her breasts.

  “Yeah. Besides dragging me around.”

  She scrunched up her face. “Paperwork. I hate paperwork.”

  “I hear you.” He nodded.

  Raising herself up on her elbow, she asked. “What about you?” Bringing her hand up, she slid it through his damp hair until she reached the nape of his neck. Gently she massaged his muscles.

  “I guessed it would be paperwork you hated,” he said as his eyes shifted away from her.

  It was a classic example of a man not telling the truth. She saw it every day and could pick out a liar in no time. “Don’t try to change the subject.”

  His eyes came back to hers and were suddenly filled with apprehension. “I hate jumping out of airplanes, helicopters. Any moving objects.”

  “Isn’t the A in SEALs for Air? It’s supposed to be fun.”

  “Maybe to thrill seekers and crazy people, but no, not me. I hate the free fall, that limbo before you break the surface of the water. My heart climbs into my throat and it’s the closest I come to total panic. And if you repeat this to anyone, I’ll deny every word.”

  Another reason not to become involved with a man who put himself in dangerous situations every day. The thought of him free-falling out of a helicopter made her blood run cold. “Are you afraid to die, A.J.?”

  “SEALS are invincible.” He smiled, but sobered when she didn’t smile back. “No. I’m not afraid to die, Sienna. Dying is easy. It’s the living that’s hard.”

  “You have a bullet wound, so you’ve not only been shot at, but have been wounded.”

  “Oh, yeah. Been shot at, been shot. Didn’t like it. Wouldn’t recommend it. How about you?”

  “When I was on foot patrol, I chased down a burglary suspect. I didn’t know he had a gun. When he turned it on me and fired, I really wasn’t thinking at all. I guess it made me mad. I was the police. Who did this little punk think he was? I rammed right into him. Took him down and cuffed him. I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me.”

  “You seem young to be a detective.”

  “In years or experience?” she asked.

  “Definitely in years.”

  She shrugged. “I caught a lucky break.”

  “I don’t believe in luck. I think you make your own luck.”

  “That so?”

  “Sure. Some people acquire the skill and they hone it over years, others have an innate ability. What was your lucky break?”

  “I was working vice and had been on the force for four years. I’m strolling around on these three-inch heels in my skimpy hooker outfit night after night. It was so boring. But even though I’m bored, I keep my eyes open. After working that street for a week, I have the patterns down. Who goes where, who does what, you know.

  “About the second day, I notice there seems to be a lot of activity at this one garage.”

  “What’s so strange about cars going in and out of a garage?”

  “Nothing. But this is eleven and twelve at night.”

  “Chop shop?”

  “That’s what I think. So I keep watching this place all the while I’m doing my hooker bit. Finally, I have to go check the place out and I mention to my partner what I think is going on. After our shift, we go over and take a look. I can see that there’s a transaction going on inside and it has nothing to do with cars being cut up for parts.”

  “Drugs?”

  “Yes, a huge operation. My partner and I nabbed three of the city’s biggest. We confiscated seventy-five kilos of heroine. I got a promotion out of it. I was in the right place at the right time.”

  “Sounds to me like you used observation and brains to make the bust.”

  “Maybe. All I know is that I felt as if I’d really done something important. Not that patrolling the streets and keeping order isn’t important, but getting all those drugs off the street and away from potential victims was satisfying.”

  For a moment he stared into her eyes, then he lifted his head and chest off the mattress and brushed a light kiss against her lips. Then he groaned.

  “Your enthusiasm is contagious,” he whispered against her mouth.

  He covered her mouth in a hot starving kiss, and his hands delved into her hair, kneading her scalp.

  Weakness flooded through Sienna. He pressed her back into the mattress. Then his hot, wet mouth was on her skin and it wasn’t enough. Her breasts ached with need. As she arched against him, his mouth took her nipple.

  It was like being touched by a high-voltage wire, and Sienna made a low sound, succumbing to the urgency clamoring in her. His mouth moved to her other breast. A frenzied weakness pumped through her when she felt him harden against her thigh. Another low sound was driven from her as A.J. nipped her ever so slightly, deliciously. Increasing the pressure of his mouth as if some grindin
g need had broken loose, Sienna felt as if she were drowning in the heat, in the sensations, in the drugging pleasure he created in her.

  Sienna held on to him, her fingers kneading the thick muscles of his back. She gave herself—everything, all that she was and felt as if she’d been freed from a prison of isolation.

  She reached down, molding her hand over the length of his arousal. A.J. jerked against her, his fingers snagging in her hair. The way he pressed himself against her made Sienna sob his name.

  A.J. grabbed her hands. “Wait. Protection.”

  She rolled and pushed A.J. onto his back. Grabbing another foil pouch, she opened the packet and sheathed him.

  A.J. shuddered, his arms coming up around her. Roughly grasping the back of her head, he angled her face and took her mouth in another wild, plundering kiss. Cupping her buttocks, he twisted his pelvis against her. Lifting her hips to seek relief from the heavy ache inside him, he began thrusting against her, his mouth hungry and wild. With a cry, Sienna clutched at his broad shoulders. He grabbed her around the waist, flipping her onto her knees, dragging her back against his chest and rock-hard thighs. His hand splayed against her flat stomach, he leaned into her seeking her feminine core. She couldn’t stand the swelling, throbbing heaviness in her. She couldn’t stand the almost unbearable pleasure of the feel of his hot skin against hers. She couldn’t stand the torment of waiting anymore. “A.J.,” she ordered. “Please.”

  “Red, you are so beautiful,” he said raggedly, his chest expanding on a groan.

  “Inside me,” she demanded. “Now, A.J.”

  A violent tremor coursed through him and he buried his face in her curls, his whole body rigid with a shattering tension. The hand against her stomach slipped down, cupping her heat, his fingers sliding over her as he began stroking her.

  With a slow, hot glide he entered her. Buried deep inside her, he rocked against her, and Sienna lost her tenuous hold on reality.

  A.J.’s hands came to her hips, holding her as he moved fiercely against her. She called out in a wild voice as she splintered a second time, arching against the length of A.J.’s powerful body.

  With a strangled groan, he convulsed against her, clutching at her hips. His body jackknifed as he pumped until his body went rigid and he achieved his release.

  They collapsed into each other’s arms. A.J. pulled the covers over them once more. Their breathing slowed and a languorous feeling came over her. She curled against him and it wasn’t long before she drifted off.

  SHE WOKE with a start. Glancing at the bedside clock she saw it was two o’clock Tuesday morning.

  She got up and went to the bathroom. When she was finished, she’d had every intention of getting back into bed with him. She liked the idea of having breakfast with him in the morning. But as she was making her way around the bed, the open closet door caught her eye. The uniform that hung there made her heart skip a beat.

  Drawn to the navy whites, she fingered the material and that edginess inside her returned. He’d done what she feared he would. Distracted her from her routine and the responsibility of her job. There was so much work on her desk. Other cases she’d neglected since she’d met tempting A.J.

  Living in the San Diego area made it almost impossible not to be exposed to the military, especially the navy. With Coronado just across the bridge, the nightclubs were filled with navy personnel. Sienna wasn’t immune to the spit and polish of that type of man—dedicated, resourceful and loyal.

  But Special Forces were a different type all together. And SEALs were in a class by themselves.

  Best leave this as a surface thing and not spend the night in his arms. A whisper of panic shivered through her. There was something very intimate about waking up together, eating together.

  She looked over at A.J. and felt a pang in her chest. It would be smart to leave now.

  She let go of the uniform, made her way over to her clothes, and dressed quickly. She paused and turned, taking one more look at him. With a hunger that was new to her, she slipped out the door.

  6

  KATE QUINN WAS at her desk, her head bent over a file folder.

  “Hi, Kate,” Sienna said, setting down a grande mocha on her desk.

  “Yum, thanks,” Kate said, pushing her tortoise-shell reading glasses into her thick blond hair. She reached for the cup and took a sip of the coffee. She studied her friend. “I’m no trendsetter, but isn’t it a fashion gaffe to wear the same clothes twice?”

  Sienna smiled and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her cluttered desk.

  She sipped from her own chai tea. “I was with A.J. After I left his place, I couldn’t sleep, so I came here.”

  Kate snorted and said, “Right. Our home away from home.” She took another sip and savored the taste. “So how goes it with the SEAL? Any trouble?”

  “Yes, in that he’s still around. And no, in that he’s a really interesting guy.”

  “Did you sleep with him yet?”

  “Yes, I slept with him twice.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kate studied Sienna’s face. “You’re not falling for this guy, are you?”

  “Maybe a little. That’s really why I left. I was feeling…I don’t know…proprietary. He’s not mine. I told you both that A.J. and I weren’t compatible. There’s no future relationship for us.”

  “But…?”

  “I can’t deny that he makes me feel alive. I’ve never felt this way about a man, Kate. We didn’t even make it out of the building on Friday night.”

  “What? Details!”

  “We had the most mind-blowing sex in the elevator. That was before he pulled strings with his senator father and got himself assigned to work this stolen military weapons case with me. His brother is involved and it really looks like Buckner stole military weapons and is trying to sell them. I think he’s got a badass on his tail.”

  “Right, the weapon that was taken off—” she consulted her notes “—Tyrone Knight. You asked me to check with the FBI on the serial number.”

  Setting her tea aside, Sienna rested her elbows amid a maze of file folders and printouts. “That’s why I’m here. Have they called you back yet?”

  Kate bent down and opened the desk file drawer and searched through it. She pulled out a manila file and glanced at it. “They haven’t. That’s strange because I got the information on the other firearms you confiscated from his car, but not on the military weapon.” Kate consulted her notes. “The shotgun was purchased legally, but the two handguns were stolen from a shipment in Colorado.”

  “They were? Hmmm, seems like Tyrone and I need to have another little chat.”

  Sienna took the file out of Kate’s hands and picked up the phone. She dialed the FBI and waited while it rang. When the person picked up the line, Sienna stated who she was and what she needed.

  The receptionist transferred her to the lab and they put her on hold. She glanced at Kate and leaned back against the chair, the fatigue dragging at her.

  Kate tilted her head and gave her a scolding look. “I’m telling this to you as a friend, Sienna. Get more sleep. It’s clinically proven that sleep deprivation will take years off your life.”

  “Spoken like a true scientist.” Sienna switched her attention back to the phone as the lab attendant came back on the line.

  “Detective Parker, we’re very sorry, but somehow we overlooked that serial number when we were processing Ms. Quinn’s request. We’ll try to get to it as soon as possible,” he said without an ounce of apology in his voice. If anything, he sounded annoyed and distracted.

  “Make it a priority. I needed that information yesterday,” she ordered.

  “We’ll do the best we can,” he promised.

  Sienna ended the call. “Great. Lab mix-up. Would you call me the minute you get the report?”

  “I will. Keep me updated on your progress.”

  “With the case?”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “No. With the SEAL.”

  S
ienna rose, giving Kate a grin in acknowledgement. “I’ve got to go. Gotta check in with the cyber geeks and see what progress they’ve made on Buckner’s smashed computer, and check on a list of gunrunners active in the San Diego area, which I requested this morning.”

  “I’ll see you later. Hopefully, I’ll be having some hot sex of my own soon,” Kate said, giving Sienna a cheeky smile.

  “You bet, girlfriend. We’ll make sure that Jericho St. James doesn’t overlook you.” With a wave Sienna slipped out of Kate’s office.

  A.J. HAD BEEN cooling his heels in Sienna’s office for an hour. He was impatient to find out why she’d left him without even a note. He also had to admit to himself that he was miffed about it.

  To take his mind off the reason he was miffed, he flipped through some of the files on her desk. The reports were filled with that strange cop jargon, a language that was both succinct and elaborate. Suspects were in possession of controlled substances, committing a B and E and aggravated assault.

  Although Sienna had told him she hated paperwork, she wrote a damn good report. Rules-and-Regulations Parker, he thought and closed the file. Maybe most of his anger came from the fact that he wasn’t prepared to accept that there was a lot more to her than the straight-arrow cop.

  He’d seen her track down leads like a bloodhound, her eyes alive with determination. He’d felt her electric response, a spontaneous and burning embrace. Most importantly he couldn’t ignore her deep compassion.

  There had been plenty to take in, but he knew there was more beneath that tough-cop act.

  David was his priority, had to be. Yet Sienna was like a loaded gun with a hair trigger—dangerous.