Hers To Take

by Karen Anders

  He relived that moment when her eyes had met his. She had been shaken and he knew why. He suspected that Sienna didn’t make many mistakes and considered it a weakness to do so.

  He watched her from a short distance talking to Captain Sandoval who had showed up on the scene about ten minutes ago.

  A.J. came up to her, his emotions shut down in order to keep himself from acting unprofessionally by taking her into his arms.

  “I want a full inventory of those weapons and a list of serial numbers on my desk in an hour,” she blurted.

  “I think under the circumstances, you ought to go home,” A.J. said.

  “No. These weapons could be the ones. I need to interrogate Rojas.”

  “Sienna. You’re bleeding and exhausted. You need to rest.”

  “No,” she shook her head emphatically, the cop to the core, not willing to leave a job undone.

  “The guns and Rojas aren’t going anywhere.”

  “But your brother…?” she persisted.

  He admired her tenacity and he was worried sick about his brother, but in this case, further interrogation of Rojas wouldn’t get them anything.

  “My brother’s not here. I searched the building, while you were talking to the uniforms. After Rojas tried to shoot you and I took him down, I asked him where David was.”

  “Maybe you didn’t ask him the right question.”

  “I was very persuasive,” he said, arching his brow, his mouth kicking up into a grim smile. “Believe me, if he knew where David was, he would have said so.”

  She studied his face and then said wearily. “Do I even have to mention that using non-police methods can cause problems with a case, like maybe he could use a loophole to get out of prosecution?”

  “I didn’t leave any bruises,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes and sighed. Her shoulders slumped, “You think this is a dead end?”

  “I think that it can wait until tomorrow.”

  “Not if we can get another lead.”

  “Parker, go home,” Raoul said firmly. “That’s an order.” He put a hand on her arm. “Two big busts in one week are enough for any cop. Even you.”

  A.J. nodded to the captain in acknowledgement. At least she couldn’t argue with her boss.

  “Captain, you told me to get those guns off the street. That’s what I’m doing.”

  “You can’t track anything if you drop from exhaustion,” A.J. said quietly.

  Sienna’s mouth thinned. “Looks like I’m outgunned and outranked. Hobart,” she called to one of the uniforms. “Get one of these guns to Kate Quinn in the lab. Have her call me at home.”

  The uniform nodded his head. A.J. took the opportunity to usher Sienna toward his car, waiting for the explosion, waiting for her to tell him that he’d disobeyed her order to stay put.

  He wondered how he was going to get out of this one. He’d rather make love to her instead of fighting with her.

  All the way to her apartment, he pondered her hold over him. Every single moment he spent with her still didn’t seem enough. They’d been together almost twenty-four hours and he wanted more.

  He wanted ties with her.

  He shocked himself when he realized that he wanted commitment.

  He didn’t want nonobligatory sex with a woman who didn’t need him for anything other than to reciprocate the nonobligatory part. He wanted honesty and intricacy. He was moving into a complicated zone, but he couldn’t seem to care. After realizing how close she had come to a fatal shooting, he understood how much he wanted to explore every multifaceted inch of her.

  Then he thought about how demanding his job was and how special a person had to be to put up with a SEAL’s schedule. It was foolish to let his emotions take hold of him, but where Sienna was concerned, he found it hard to care.

  She was definitely having second thoughts about him. Why else would she have left last night?

  He was moving into hazardous territory filled with land mines dangerous to the heart. He had vowed from the beginning he would steer clear of any woman who needed more from a man than sex. But he couldn’t seem to help himself.

  He felt much more for Sienna than he wanted to. He’d been moved by her simple offer of compassion, her interest in his training and the importance of the SEALs to him. Sharing this deep stuff with her had changed his perception of being part of a relationship. The special give and take that a man and woman experienced while moving closer to something…permanent.

  The navy had been his life for a long time. The SEAL team he commanded was his family and it had been enough. Enough until the red-haired vixen with the tight green dress had asked him for a dance.

  He came around the car to help her out and she looked up at him with a whimsical look on her face that said she wasn’t an invalid. He studied her upturned face, trying to gauge her state of mind, but she was like a closed book, giving nothing away. He bet she was one hell of a poker player.

  He followed her to the elevator, to her door and then inside her apartment.

  When he closed the door, she said very quietly, “You were supposed to stay put.”

  “I know, but—”

  She put her fingers over his lips to silence him. She looked up at him, her eyes wide, her fingers soft against his mouth.

  “You never do anything you’re told. I wonder how you ever live a military life.”

  “If you’re going to read me the riot act…” he said around her fingers.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, cutting him off, “for saving my life.”

  He looked down at her, surprised that she acknowledged the fact.

  Damn, she was beautiful, standing in the glow of the moon cast through her large windows. Like a sweet angel come to earth minus only the halo and wings. Something shifted inside him as he stared down at her, and he suddenly wanted to be the kind of man she needed.

  He gathered her up and pulled her tightly against him, realizing that he could have lost her tonight. It shook him how much that thought made his heart skip a beat with fear and something else.

  “It was my pleasure, Red,” he whispered hoarsely against her hair. He smoothed her locks back with his thumb, then brushed his mouth against her temple. She reached up and cupped his jaw, her fingers gentle and warm against his skin.

  That innocent caress took the breath right out of him, and he turned his face against hers. She froze for just a moment, as everything seemed to spin down to utter calm and stillness, then she sucked in a sharp breath when he lifted her face. Neither of them even gasped as he covered her mouth in a searing kiss.

  Her mouth was hot as sin; a low, rough sound escaped his lips. No woman in his past had ever generated this kind of heat, this urgent need to sink into her in every way he could. The warm, lush feel of her was beyond his imagination as he savored the forbidden taste of her. He soaked up the sensations of the silk of her hair against the rough tips of his fingers, the softness of her breasts against his chest.

  He ran his hands down her arms and his palm came in contact with something wet and sticky. He broke the kiss and flipped on the hall light.

  “You’re bleeding,” he said, all the desire draining out of him at the sight of the blood on her blouse.

  “And it stings like hell, I don’t mind saying.”

  He lifted her chin to get a better look at her eyes. Dark green, weary pools, as if she fought a draining internal battle. He thought she might be on the last remainder of her energy. The protective feeling that descended over him was sudden, he couldn’t deny that he wanted to take care of her.

  Gently, he unbuttoned the cuff and peeled the torn, grimy silk away from the skin of her forearm. With as much gentleness as his big hands could muster, he inspected the injury in the bright light of the hall. There was a small cut near her elbow. It didn’t look deep enough to require a hospital or stitches, but it was slowly oozing blood with dirt and shards of glass clinging in the sticky mess.

  When he moved her arm to che
ck for any other sign of injury, she clutched at her shoulder with a soft cry.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, stroking her dirt-streaked face.

  She managed a smile for him to lessen his guilt. “It’s okay. It really doesn’t hurt that bad.”

  “Right,” A.J. said softly. “This needs cleaning up and a bandage.”

  “I can do it myself,” Sienna bristled.

  “Yeah, well, you aren’t going to.”

  “I don’t need to be coddled.”

  “Maybe not,” A.J. said, slipping his arm around her shoulder. “But I need to coddle you.”

  He led her to the bathroom and reached for the button of her shirt.

  “I can do it,” she said in an irritated voice.

  He let her.

  He clenched his jaw as she undid the buttons and struggled out of the shirt, wincing a little. This was just about him helping her to clean her wound, not about how the sight of her stirred him. He wanted to take care of her, help her out. But as the shirt slid down her shoulders, revealing a see-through white, gauzy bra, he could see her nipples were puckered and a succulent pink.

  He was hard-pressed not to remember how he had rolled those nipples between his fingers, sucked on them until she’d cried out his name. His breath came a little harder, his jeans got a little tighter as his gaze followed the swell of her breast above the sexy bra.

  Then she raised her arm to push at her hair and the ugly cut on her forearm came into view, the sight of it sending guilt to tighten his chest. Jeez, could he stop thinking about her in a sexual way for five minutes?

  “Have a seat,” he ordered gruffly.

  He saw how she tried not to react when he applied the antiseptic, but she couldn’t help it as she made a small noise. “Can we talk about the real reason you left my apartment last night?”

  She looked up at him, startled by his question. “I told you that I couldn’t sleep, so I went into work.”

  “That’s bull and you know it. How long have you been hiding behind your job when the emotional stuff starts getting too much for you to handle?”

  “You just don’t like being second fiddle to my job,” she snapped.

  “Well, now that you mention it, no, I don’t like it.”

  “I’m trying to find your brother and clear this case. Why do we have to get bogged down with hurt feelings?”

  “Sienna…”

  “It was you who said it was just fun.”

  “Are you going to tell me that you don’t feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “That buzz along the skin, the bond that’s forming.”

  “It’s natural to form a bond. We have a common goal.”

  “No,” he growled. “I’m talking about this. When I touch you, I want to be closer, know all your secrets.”

  She sighed and rested against him. “Okay, you win. I feel it. Are you happy now?”

  “That’s good to hear.” He leaned in close, his warm breath sending goose bumps all over her body. “I was afraid you didn’t care.”

  She reached out her uninjured arm and cupped his cheek in her hand. “No. Don’t think that. I just need some time to assimilate this. I thought we’d be a one-night stand and it’s now much more than that.”

  He smiled, clasping her around the waist. He helped her rise.

  “I feel caught off guard, too. You’re not what I expected.”

  He moved a little away from her, but didn’t let go of her waist. “Are you scared of me?”

  She leaned into him and he smiled at her small concession. “A little. I’m not hiding behind my job. I love my job.”

  “You’re good at your job,” he said, smoothing his hand over her hair. “Does this mean you wouldn’t want to move to the next level?”

  “Right now, I’m so exhausted, I can’t think straight. Do we have to make any decisions about this now? I know that I want you and I’m not ready to let you go. Is that enough?”

  “For now.”

  When they got to her bedroom, he helped her to the bed. “No, I want to take a bath. I feel so dirty,” she said, looking up at him with pleading eyes.

  “I’ll help you undress and then…”

  “You’re not leaving,” she asked. “Not after that confession about how you feel about me.”

  “You should rest.” He wasn’t made out of stone, for God’s sake. If she didn’t stop looking at him like that, he wasn’t going to be able to leave.

  “If you insist, but could you help me with my pants first?”

  He gave her a wary look, but she just smiled at him. He gave in and walked into the bathroom with her. Reaching for the button on her pants, he released it and her slacks slid down her long, mouthwatering legs.

  “All set?”

  “Not quite,” she said, softly wrapping her arms around his neck. “I don’t want to bathe alone.”

  “I’m trying to…”

  “I know and you don’t have to.” She pulled his shirt out of the waistband of his jeans. “Take it off.”

  When he complied, Sienna’s hands slid over his skin. Her hands on his chest felt like two fiery brands burning his skin. He was burning up with aching need.

  Her hand moved down his torso, running over the ridges of muscles along his ribs down to the thick, seriated muscle of his abdomen.

  He could feel the frantic beating of her heart, her labored breathing by the quick rise and fall of her chest. He closed his eyes to better concentrate on the way her hands felt against him.

  “Touch me, A.J. I want your hands on me,” she demanded hoarsely.

  His name on her lips uttered with such wanton need made him groan softly as he buried his face in her soft red hair. He closed his hand around her breast, his thumb brushing over the silk-clad nipple, clenching his teeth as he felt it bead under his thumb.

  He filled his hands with the soft weight of her exquisite flesh, flicking his thumbs over each nipple, liking her soft gasp each time he did it.

  He jerked her toward him and stripped off her bra. Her hands flew to his shoulders, her fingers digging into his flesh. She gasped when he captured a taut swollen nipple, sucking hard and urgently, moaning again when she arched her back in response to his hot mouth. His tongue teased each nipple into throbbing, aching buds.

  His lips sought her mouth, sought it in a mindless search. He kissed her with ravenous demand. The sensation was sucking him into a turbulent maelstrom of spinning, whirling need, a dark realm of bliss. A tight knot of heat coiled low in his belly where his swollen flesh met hers. He moved against her, unable to withstand the urgent need inside him. With each driving thrust of his powerful hips, the heat escalated.

  He picked her up and carried her to the edge of the tub, setting her down into the smooth curving indentation that would cradle their bodies perfectly.

  The warm water flowed over his heated skin. She slipped off his lap and knelt between his legs running her hands along his inner thighs.

  A.J.’s breath hissed in and then he moaned deep in his chest as pleasure ran like quicksilver along his shaft when Sienna took him into her soft moist mouth.

  Arching his hips uncontrollably in a primitive movement, her touch was driving him to the edge of ecstasy.

  He groaned as she encircled the head of his swollen shaft with the tip of her tongue.

  He thought he was going to explode as the water, like a shimmering liquid rainbow, lapped gently around their heated bodies.

  She rose and with slow enticing movement, climbed onto his lap, kneeling over his throbbing hardness. With slow, heated movements, she teased him with her succulent moistness, the tightly clustered curls brushing sensually against him.

  Unable to stand the compelling seductive assault, A.J. shifted restlessly, his hands on her hips, his fingers digging rhythmically into her soft moist flesh. He dropped his head back, breathing hard. She moved wantonly against him again, and a low moan escaped him.

  Slowly she was losing more of herself to him.
Bit by tiny bit, he was taking everything she had to give him and still it amazed her how much more she wanted to give.

  With a quick lithe movement, he grabbed her hands and twined them around his neck as his very blue, very hot eyes blazed into hers with such hunger and sensual intensity that Sienna ached to feel his chiseled lips on hers. She didn’t have to wait long. He jerked her against him with such power that the force of it wrung a cry of surprise out of her. Without giving her a chance to even think, his lips descended to hers, fiery and demanding, as if his very life depended on her response. She reveled at the feel of the heated bare flesh of his sleek chest against her own naked skin. Her breath was dammed in her lungs and the hard pressure of his mouth sent delicious sensations to pool with hot tingles in her lower body.

  She wanted more, felt as if she couldn’t possibly get close enough to him. She was only aware of him and nothing else.

  His hand slid over her buttocks, holding her in place as he pushed against her softness, kneading the firm curves while he pulled her tighter to him. And Sienna stilled suddenly, her breath caught between breathing in and breathing out as she felt the hot rigid length of him pressed against her.

  Unable to help herself, her hands went to the part of him that was quintessentially male. With the flat of her hand she pressed against him, then cupped him, squeezing gently. It was so arousing to touch a man like this.

  A full-throated groan escaped A.J.’s lips as he abruptly stopped. Sienna could feel the coiled need in him as he strained to hold on to his self-control. She felt the quivers throughout his body as he tried to master his raging desire, and she felt him lose the battle with himself. He gripped her buttocks tighter and drove himself upward, grinding his hips against her hands and stomach.

  She gasped and twisted in response to the glorious feel of his hard-muscled frame.

  His thighs were solid and powerful flush up against hers, his chest was unyielding, like rock.

  Sienna was caught in the mindless rapture and at the desperate urging of his hands, she raised her hips and sank down onto his burning shaft. She took him deep inside her, crying out with gratification as she felt a powerful tenseness tighten with each stroke as she frantically glided over him.