The Girl Next Door (Shadow Agents #6)(42)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Licked.

She kissed his scars. Gabrielle hated the pain that Cooper had suffered, and as she felt those scars with her fingers and lips, she realized just how close he truly had come to death.

What if he’d really died on that mission? What if I’d never met him?

Her eyes squeezed shut. She didn’t want to think of a world without him. He’d come to mean so much to her, so quickly.

She placed another kiss on his scar, on the one right above his hip. Her fingers slid down—

“Enough!” The word was growled. He tumbled her onto her back. Positioned himself between her legs. “Sweetheart, I can’t take any more.”

His fingers threaded through hers as he thrust into her.

She’d found release moments before, but the instant he drove into her, that wonderful friction from his body had her tensing.

Eagerly, she met him. Thrust for thrust. The need spiraled and built. The desire beat between them.

There were no more words. She didn’t have the breath to talk. Their lovemaking was fast and raw and consuming.

Her hips rose to meet him. Her heart raced.

When her release hit her, Gabrielle’s whole body tightened. The pleasure was so intense—rolling over her in endless waves.

Cooper kissed her. He shuddered against her then drove into her core once more.

A tear leaked from the corner of her eye. Nothing had been like that for her before.

Moments passed, and the only sound she heard was the ragged catch of their breaths.

Finally, Cooper’s head lifted. His eyes held hers. “The case has nothing to do with what is happening between us. Right here, right now, it’s only about you and it’s about me.”

She wished that things could stay this way.

Because as she gazed up at him, cloaked in the shadows of the room. Gabrielle realized just why his betrayal had hurt her so much.

And why, even despite the secrets he’d kept, she hadn’t been able to turn away from him.

I’m falling in love with Cooper.

No, not falling.

She was already in love with her secret agent.

His mouth pressed to her cheek. He kissed the tear that she’d shed. And then he held her close.

Fear snaked through her because she liked the way his arms felt around her. She liked it too much.

The case had brought him to her.

Would the case also take him away?

* * *

RACHAEL MANCINI WAS exhausted. She’d just pulled a twenty-hour shift at the EOD’s headquarters, and she was due back on duty at 0900. She shut her apartment door behind her, threw the lock and seriously thought about collapsing right there.

Into a very unglamorous puddle on her floor.

She lifted a weary hand and raked it through her hair. She’d crash in bed. After all, she was about 50 percent sure she could make it to the bedroom. After a few hours of refueling, she’d meet up with Dylan again.

He’d dropped her off, and the team leader had said he’d be back to pick her up so they could head in to the EOD together.

She shuffled away from the door.

Ten minutes later, she was just climbing into the haven of her bed when she heard knocking.

What the hell? She glanced at her clock. No one should be coming to her place at this hour.

Rachel grabbed her gun and padded, barefoot, for the door. She glanced through the peephole.

The Dragon waited on the other side of that door.

Her hands trembled around the weapon.

Thomas “Dragon” Anthony was a martial arts expert. He’d worked with the EOD since she’d been brought on board. The guy was quiet, dangerous—and he made her nervous. She’d heard too many tales about just how deadly he could be.

In the EOD, all of the agents were lethal. But Thomas was in a category all by himself.

She curled her fingers around the weapon and opened the door a few inches. Rachel kept her security chain in place, not that it would do any good at keeping someone like Thomas out.

Not if he wanted in.

“What are you doing here?” Rachel demanded as she kept her gun close.

His golden eyes glittered at her. “I was worried about you. I heard about the profile that’s developing for the killer.”

A profile that indicated the rogue was going after couples, killing one victim to make the other weaker.

“You don’t need to worry about me.” She and Thomas weren’t close. Actually, as far as she knew, no one was close to the Dragon. He didn’t let anyone close. But…

She’d saved his life. On a mission in the Middle East, Rachel had been on the team that pulled Thomas out of his prison. Sure, his captors had been dead by the time she arrived—courtesy of a weaponless Thomas—but he’d been bleeding out from the wounds he’d sustained.

She’d put pressure on the worst wound, had kept that wound closed all during the rough flight to freedom.

Not that Thomas knew about what she’d done. He’d lost consciousness right after takeoff.

“I think you and Dylan could be the next targets,” Thomas said. His voice was deep, rumbling, and completely without any accent.

She blinked at his words, and she made sure her grip on the weapon remained steady. Thomas couldn’t see her gun, but if he made a move toward her, she’d have it up in an instant.

After what had happened to the other EOD deaths, she wasn’t going to trust anyone—

Except Dylan.

“You’re wrong,” she heard herself say. “We aren’t a couple. We wouldn’t come up on the guy’s radar.”

Thomas shook his head. “I see, so others see. I wanted to warn you.”

Adrenaline pumped through her. She wasn’t exactly feeling sleepy any longer. “You could have just called me.”

His hands were fisted. A show of emotion, unusual for Thomas. “They’re going to think it’s me,” he said softly.

Alarms were going off in her head.

“I lost her…my second mission. I lost her, and when the profiler digs through our files, she’s going to think it’s me.” His breath heaved out. “It isn’t.”

“You need to talk to Noelle—”

“Warning you was priority.”

But why hadn’t he called?

His eyes glittered at her. “Can I come in?”

No way. “We can talk in the morning.” They just had a bit of the waning night left. “I’ll be at headquarters by 0900.”

He leaned toward her. “You have to be careful—”

Rachel lifted her gun. “I am.”

Every minute. Every moment.

“I’m going to ask you again,” Rachel murmured. “Why didn’t you just call me?”