Page 44 of Cops and Robbers

“I’m probably not the woman you pictured for yourself.”

“You’re so much more.”

Her startled gaze met his. Fucking beautiful.

“I see who you are. A survivor. The bubbliest woman I’ve ever fucking met. And I want to learn more about you. Be with you.” Shit. That’s true. His mouth dried. He’d run out of his comfort zone the minute he caught her. Even if she was protecting Midnight, he didn’t care. And that was fucking scary. Because Midnight had already killed someone important to him—a team member.

“Raz…” The vulnerability in her voice tugged at his heart. “I’ve done things in my past and don’t know what the future will bring.”

He swallowed. “I’m not perfect either. Like you said, the Dragon SEALs are a vigilante group.”

Her chest rose and fell, breathing deeply. She ran her fingers through her hair, the bob going askew over her face. “I’ve never felt this way. And…” she scoffed. “You deserve better, and maybe I’m being selfish, but I don’t want you to go against your nature. Because I get it…the pull between us.” She placed her hand on her hip, jutting it out. “Just make sure you want this pool of fun before you dive, okay?”

His chest swelled with a full, surprised breath. Screw diving. He wanted to drown.

“If you’re willing to take that dive too, come here,” he said, unable to move and mess up again. His dragon prowled too close to his skin, anticipation making him lightheaded.

Eyes locked, she strutted to him without hesitation. His dick swelled to attention, straining against the seams of his briefs. When she stood a step away from him, he hauled her against his chest. His lips pressed to hers in a searing kiss. She opened to him, and their tongues danced.

Shaking, he felt his dragon’s energy heat his fingers as they moved through her hair against her scalp, careful of her injury. Skin-to-skin, the spirit energy of his dragon raced from his body and met her own greedy energy. Tingles scored over his chest and down his body like the caress of a lover toward his groin.

Their two powers entangled, snapping and melding into a cohesive link in his mind. The power arched into a pleasurable familiarity that engulfed him like an explosion of nostalgia. Kate gasped as if lost in the same sensation. His dragon felt languid, slow and shaken, but in no way satiated.

He needed to Mark her again.

Warmth cocooned Kate. Raz held her close as the sentimental waves of finding oneself died down. The linking of their spirit energies was unlike anything she’d felt before. And the worried thickness of her tongue warned her that she might have gone too far.

But she couldn’t resist the pull between them. The need to belong was a beautiful painting in her head waiting to be stolen, and if there was a chance to have Raz after all this was over—she had to take it. She’d always wanted a place to belong—an honorable person who wanted her for who she was. And she had finally found that someone. She was being terrible and selfish, but fuck—the way he looked at her like he accepted all the darkness. The way he made her feel strong and capable. She couldn’t give that up, even knowing she’d probably break his heart.

Raz kissed her slowly, dragging her attention to the present. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Something moved under his skin, like heat sweeping from one part of him to the next. Not again. She didn’t know if she could take more of that too-happy-to-contain-oneself sensation like that back-to-back.

“Raz…” She barely made the murmur before he nibbled on her lip, and that intense fire latched onto her again. Their energies collided and raced over her skin like rough hands down her breasts toward her sensitive flesh. Not quite an orgasm, but the second link tore her from reality and into a cloud of warmth and breathtaking happiness. She was home with the feeling of Raz so close to her—under her flesh. Her spirit coiled and snapped, reshaping with Raz’s being—again—deeper. Brighter.

Strength left her. Weightlessness ensued, followed by tangling limbs as they fell to the floor in a heap.

Minutes passed in a euphoria as if she’d shot up, a happy numbness seeping throughout her muscles. The haze in her brain cleared, and she blinked. Her head bobbed from lying on his heaving chest, his heart thrumming against her ear.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” she breathed. Soulmates…that’s what he said. If it came with similar moments…she wanted more.

He chuckled. “Me either. I don’t think I should have connected us twice so quickly.”

She strummed the connection between them with her mind, inspecting the blue energy strand connecting his Spirit Cavity to hers.

“Hmm…” His chest rumbled, a smile spreading across his stubbled face.

“Did you feel that?” she asked.

“Yeah. I can feel you.”

She felt him, too. His happiness. His arousal. Though a calm dragon slept in his mind. What could he feel from her? Could he feel her lies about what they’d find in that submarine?

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

The desire to have someone who cared and potentially have a family with had blinded her to making any other decision. She hadn’t thought of what ‘deeper’ than sex meant, but a literal tie to each other’s minds?

Panic kicked her in the abdomen. He can’t find out. She jerked up. “I’m going to take a shower.”

He grabbed her hand, stilling her from leaving. “Kate, are you all right?”