His husky declaration brought a rush of warmth to her chest, which only ticked her off. Jeez. She didn’t need Seth Masterson fighting any battles on her behalf. She was perfectly capable of fighting her own battles.

“Anyway, I’ll see you at home,” he said. “I stuck around to make sure that guy didn’t come back to bother you.”

Her heart skipped a beat as he leaned in to open the car door for her. His spicy scent surrounded her, made her feel light-headed. Damn pheromones.

He waited while she got into the driver’s seat, told her to “drive safe”, and then shut the door for her.

Miranda let out a sigh of relief the second he was gone. His presence was so darn unsettling, and her stupid body responded to him, no matter how many times she ordered it not to. Even Trent hadn’t evoked such a powerful rush of awareness, and she had no idea how to suppress the constant waves of lust swelling inside her.

It took twenty minutes to get to Seth’s house in Coronado. His Jeep was idling by the curb behind the babysitter’s car, and he flashed his headlights when he saw her, gesturing for her to pull into the driveway. Right, he was better off parking behind her since he would be leaving first.

Come to think of it, hadn’t he said he needed to report to the base at five? It was nearly three, for Pete’s sake.

“Are you pulling an all-nighter or something?” she asked when they met up on the front stoop.

“Pretty much. There’s no point in going to sleep now.” He unlocked the front door and went in first, which she noticed he did every time they entered a room together. And his sharp-eyed gaze always swept back and forth, as if he was assessing his surroundings for potential danger.

The living room lights were on. Miranda found her regular sitter, Kim, lying on the couch reading a thick biology textbook. The pretty Japanese girl pushed her wire-rim glasses up the bridge of her nose when she spotted Miranda.

“Hey,” Kim said, quickly shutting her book and getting to her feet. “The kids are sleeping soundly. I just checked on them ten minutes ago.”

“Did they give you any trouble?” Miranda asked.

“Not at all. They were great, as usual.”

“I’m glad. Come on, let me walk you out.”

After saying good-bye to Kim and locking up, Miranda drifted into the kitchen, where Seth was preparing coffee. He didn’t offer her a cup, an understandable breach of etiquette seeing as how it was three in the morning and only one of them needed to stay awake.

Miranda poured herself a glass of water before inching toward the doorway. “I should turn in.”

“Wait.”

His gravelly voice stopped her. Biting her bottom lip, she met his gaze, which flickered with something she couldn’t decipher. “What is it?”

“I want you.”

She briefly closed her eyes and counted to three. “Seriously, Seth, do we have to do this again? I know you want me. You’ve made that ridiculously clear since the—”

“Just let me finish,” he interrupted, sounding so frustrated she stopped talking midsentence.

Wrinkling her forehead, she leaned against the doorframe and waited for him to continue.

“I want you, and it’s making me act crazy, all right?” he mumbled. “I’ve never been rejected before, Miranda.”

An unwitting smile tickled her lips. No, she didn’t imagine rejection played a large part in his life. The guy was a supersoldier, built like a Greek god, with the face of a bad-boy movie star. Women probably lined up around the block for a shot with Seth Masterson.

“I understand why you don’t want to get involved.” He met her eyes head-on, his mouth set in a weary line. “And I’m sure I only make it worse with all my flirting and badgering and my attempts to bend you to my will. But I promise you, Miranda, if we do this, there won’t be anything complicated about it.”

Despite the frantic voice in her head begging her not to open this door, her curiosity won out. “What exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I’ll take you any way I can get you. I’ll take you on your terms, not mine.”

A laugh popped out. “Yeah, right. It’s always on your terms, Seth. That’s just the way you operate.”

“Not this time.” Conviction resonated from his deep voice and gleamed in his sexy gray eyes. “I relinquish control, baby. If we act on this attraction, you’ll be the one running the show. When you want it, where you want it, how you want it. The control is yours.”

Shock grabbed hold of her and sent her eyebrows soaring. She knew how difficult this must be for him—heck, there was no mistaking the reluctant crease in his forehead or the way he was white-knuckling that coffee mug. Oh no, he was not the kind of man who handed over the reins.

Her lips twitched with unrestrained amusement. “I’ll have total control?”

“Within reason,” he conceded. “In terms of the when and where, definitely. But the how?” His voice lowered to a smoky pitch vibrating with wicked promise. “I can guarantee that following my lead in the bedroom isn’t something you’ll find complaint with.”

Her sex constricted as a stream of dirty images deluged her brain. God. This man was pure temptation. How on earth was she ever going to resist him? When he looked at her with that burning-hot gaze and licked his bottom lip like he wanted to eat her up, she couldn’t think of a single reason not to sleep with him.