Free Through the Veil by Shiloh Walker

his tongue pushed hungrily into her mouth, stealing her breath away. With a delicious forceful-ness that had her swimming, he took and claimed, threading his hands through her hair as his tongue stroked across hers.
    Lee whimpered deep in her throat, rising on her toes and curling her hands into the surprisingly supple material of his shirt. With teeth and tongue, he kissed her, making love to her mouth with a thoroughness that she knew would leave a mark on her for the rest of her life.
    An animalistic growl rose on the air as he withdrew to nip on her lip and then kiss a hot, stinging line of kisses down the curve of her throat. Lee grabbed at his hair, the thick, silken locks sliding through her fingers. “This shirt you wear—I can see the shadow of your nipples through it,” he rasped as he traced the low scooping neckline of the halter top. The pale lavender top knotted at her neck and low on her spine, and she wore it with a pair of harem-style pants that rode low on her hips. The sheer material of both garments was entirely too transparent to wear anywhere outside of her office, but since she hadn’t exactly been planning on going visiting when she put it on, she hadn’t thought anything of it. “Why bother wearing it at all? You might as well be naked.”
    Her cheeks flushed pink. “I . . . ah . . . I sleep in them,” she said.
    The embarrassed flush only spread as he bent her back over his arm and ran his palm down the center of her torso. He petted her through the thin material as he mused, “This wasn’t something made for sleeping in. It’s made to drive a man mad. If you were to lie beside me wearing that, and then expect me to sleep . . .” His voice trailed off and a wicked smile curved his lips. “I do like it, Lee. Quite a lot. Too much.”
    Kalen stared at her breasts through the pajama top. His eyes were hot, so hot she could almost feel the burn. His dark head lowered, and she cried out as the wet, heated silk of his mouth closed over the distended tip of her nipple, his tongue circling over it delicately before he bit down lightly.
    The groan that rumbled out of him vibrated up her skin, and she shivered as he slowly straightened, holding her tight against him. She pressed her fingers against her buzzing lips, still staring up at him.
    Kalen’s eyes were opaque and unreadable, but hot flags of color rode high on his cheeks and she could see a pulse beating rapidly in his throat as he reached up and flicked at the long silver strand of stars that hung from one of her ears. “I’ve wanted to do that for years,” he whispered.
    “You haven’t ever?”
    A hot smile curled his lips and he shrugged. “How much do you understand about what’s going on?”
    Scowling, she said flatly, “Nothing.” Trying to shrug his arms away, she shoved at his chest, but his arms never loosened. “I don’t understand a damn thing.”
    Kalen laughed, hugging her just a little closer. Since she had her hands pressed flat against his chest, he couldn’t draw her upper body too close, but her lower body—she felt the heated length of his cock through the material of their clothes, hard, pulsating against the soft pad of her belly. A rush of blood heated her face as she stared up at him.
    “I wanted nothing more than to do just that, every time I saw you. But saving lives is a little more important than discovering if you taste as sweet as you look. And part of me suspected that if you knew how much I wanted you, you’d take off running,” he whispered, burying his face in the heavy mass of her hair. “But you can’t run away now. Not yet, anyway.”
    His voice went all raspy and intent, practically vibrating with all the emotion she could feel coming off him. “You can’t run.”
    She was here.
    Kalen wasn’t going to question whatever twist of fate, whatever quirk of God had brought her here.
    But she was here.
    The waistband of his jacket just barely skimmed the taut little curve of her ass.