This time I couldn’t say no. I raised my arms and let her rid me of the shirt. Then she unbuckled my belt, unsnapping and unzipping my jeans before pushing them and my boxer briefs over my hips.

Her silvery eyes turned a smoky gray as she glared at me. “Now,” she said through clenched teeth.

Without even taking off my boots and jeans, I pushed her back on the bed and thrust into her welcoming warmth.

Oh, the glory, the glory of finding the one who had been sculpted just for me. For that’s what Jade was. No one gripped me like she did. No one gloved me like she did. I thrust inside her, and then I had to wait, willing myself to hold off. I wanted to plunge into her one more time and release my seed inside her.

Like an animal, I wanted to spread my seed, impregnate my mate.

She was on the pill, so that wouldn’t happen. I had never wanted children before, but the thought of her swelling with my child excited me, surged through me like primal joy.

I pulled out and thrust in again, and she sighed beneath me, that soft sigh that always escaped her like a sweet breeze when I entered her.

I brought my mouth down to hers and kissed her deeply, our tongues twirling together, letting her taste her own flavor from my mouth. She kissed me back with so much fervor, so much passion, that I thought I would come right there.

But again I held off. Determined to make this last. Determined to make this about her for once—not about me.

She moved her thighs upward so her knees were right at my armpits. God, the angle was so deep, so perfect. I thrust and I thrust and I thrust once more, and then, with an explosion of stars behind me, I released into her honeyed pussy.

My breath came in rapid pants as I held fast, not moving, just letting my cock stay embedded in her wet heat.

Emotion swirled thick around me, gutting me. And when I finally opened my eyes, hers were piercing me with that silvery-steel gaze.

I could no longer stop the words.

“God, Jade, I love you. I love you so much.”

Chapter Eighteen

Jade

The warmth of a summer day burst through me. Had I heard him right? I didn’t want to ask, for fear he might take the words back. Perhaps they’d only been said in the throes of his orgasm.

No. That couldn’t be. Talon was too closed off, too walled in to bring forth words he didn’t mean.

As I stared into his dark, blazing eyes, I knew he had spoken the truth.

As much as I wanted to ask him to repeat the words, to say them over and over again until I tired of hearing them… What a crock. I would never tire of hearing them.

But I wouldn’t ask him to repeat them. They had been hard for him to say, I could tell. The last thing I wanted was for him to take them back or regret saying them. I wasn’t going to be one of those needy women who had to hear her lover profess his devotion over and over again.

I had been that way with Colin.

But with Colin…

Things had never been like this with Colin.

As much as I’d thought I was in love with Colin, those feelings paled next to what I felt for Talon now. Never had such a primitive force taken me over, demanded obedience…demanded Talon. It was lust, it was desire, it was passion, and it was…love. Love like I’d never known or imagined.

I simply smiled at Talon and hoped the smile said what I feared my words couldn’t.

He stroked my cheek and pressed his lips gently against mine. Then he rose and sat on the bed next to my supine form. He removed his boots and socks and then his jeans and underwear, which were still down around his knees. He lay next to me, still silent. For once, the silence seemed natural. I reveled in it, in the emotion that was thick around us, in the love we shared.

I didn’t delude myself into thinking this could be something permanent…even though I wished with everything in me that it could be. Talon still had too much he needed to work out, and plus… What would he think when he found out I was investigating him and his family for Larry?

What a conundrum. I didn’t want to quit my job. I needed it, even though I didn’t have a lot of respect for my boss. And on a personal level, I wanted to know more about Talon and his family. I wanted to know why he had tried to get himself killed overseas when he was saving all of those troops.

Something poisoned him inside, and he needed to work through that before we could even think about being together in the long-term.

But for now, I simply wanted to lie next to him, feel his closeness, his warmth. With all my soul, I wanted to help him through whatever was nagging at him. I just wasn’t sure he was ready for that yet. I would have to be content to do for him what I could at the moment, and that was to be here for him. To love him. To let him know how important he was to me.

“I meant it,” he said.

I smiled again, looking to the ceiling. “So did I.”

He turned to me, got up on his shoulder with his head in his hand. “But I don’t know if I can…”

I pressed two fingers to his lips. “Don’t worry about anything right now. Just know that I love you, and I don’t have any expectations. All I need to know right now is that you love me. We don’t have to think about anything past the end of today. At least not yet.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, there is one thing I do need to talk to you about.”

His gaze was intense and fiery, his eyes serious.

“All right. What is it?”

“I don’t want you to get a tattoo.”

The calming love permeating me morphed into a defensive knot in my gut. “Why not?”

“I just don’t.”

I sighed, willing the calm to return…and failing. I had been dreaming of a tattoo for years. I loved them, and I really felt that they could tell a story, be a part of me inherently. “I don’t understand. Why would you have anything against a tattoo?”

“I hate tattoos.”

“Then you don’t have to get one.”

He sat up, clearly agitated, gripping the bed clothes. “I would never mar my body like that.”

“That’s your choice, Talon. And I respect it. I just need you to respect mine. I think tattoos are beautiful when done tastefully. And I do plan to get one.”

“I forbid it.”

This time I sat up, the defensive knot rising into indignation. “Did I just hear you forbid me to do something?”