Free Deadly Strain (Biological Response Team) by Julie Rowe Page A

words.
    “Sharp?” she managed to say, her heartbeat a thunder of drums in her ears.
    “The bad guys don’t know where we are. You’re safe.”
    “Sharp?” she said again. “I’m okay, sort of, now.”
    He sighed and held her even tighter for a moment. “God, I thought you were never coming back.”
    “Neither did I.” She trembled and returned his embrace, her hands flexing against his body armor, needing to feel him, solid and real. “What’s wrong with me?”
    “We’ve all got ghosts haunting us,” he said, his voice rumbling out of his chest. “You need to let go of a few of yours, that’s all.”
    She tilted her face up to tell him to stop placating her, she needed the truth, but never got the chance to say a word.
    He kissed her.
    His mouth was hard and hot on hers, his tongue stroking past her lips, his taste waking something cold and alone inside her.
    So good.
    Oh God, no kiss had
ever
felt this good before.
    A voice in the back of her head whispered that this was bad. This would change things between them.
    A whip of pleasure silenced the voice, blinded her to everything else, and she kissed him back, groaning, needing this connection to the real world. To him. Her hips rocked against the erection confined to his pants and she lapped up the growl that came out of him as a result.
    “Grace.” He jerked her closer, pressing her pelvis against him with one hand on her lower back as he rocked upward.
    She wanted that.
    She needed him. Now. Her hands clawed at his body armor, trying to rip it off. When that didn’t work she shimmied backward far enough to work her hand between them to find the long length of his cock, then squeezed.
    He wrenched his head away, breathing hard. “
Fuck.
”
    Grace nipped and sucked at his neck, but his hands pushed her away so he could catch her gaze with his.
    “Grace, honey, slow down,” he crooned to her.
    She blinked, desire a fog clouding her mind. “What?”
    “Tell me you’re with me, sweetheart.” His words were spoken with the same gentleness a man might use to coax a wary animal or small child.
    The fog lifted and reality, with all its cold, harsh truths, intruded.
    They’d survived a helicopter crash, killed extremists who would have killed them, and there was no guarantee they would survive the next twenty-four hours, let alone get rescued.
    Oh, and her best friend turned out to kiss like something out of her most intimate fantasies.
    She still had his cock in her hands.
    She stroked him through his clothing. “I don’t want to slow down or stop.” She did it again and got a groan out of him. “Are
you
with
me
?”
    “Oh, holy fuck,
yes
,” he hissed between gritted teeth.
    She nibbled on his neck again and was rewarded with hands cupping her ass, his fingers curving under her bottom and stroking her through her pants.
    Her breathing had become as ragged as her pulse. What he was doing with his fingers had to be illegal.
    “What,” he growled into her ear, “will get you off?”
    At that moment, he stroked over her, his fingers finding her clit through her clothes, his thumb rimming the sensitive tissues of her body. It didn’t matter that there were several layers of clothing between them. It felt like they were skin to skin.
    She shuddered and whispered in his ear, “Penetration.”
    He reacted like she’d shocked him with an electrode. He jerked her up and took her mouth in a kiss so carnal she was surprised they hadn’t self-combusted. His tongue fucked her mouth while his hands shifted her back until he could open her pants and get his hand down the front of them. His fingers found her clit and began to circle it.
    Then he put the other one down the back of her pants. One long finger entered her and began fucking her hard and fast.
    She ground and rocked against him until she thought she was going to lose her mind. The orgasm that resulted blew every circuit she had.
    He was still kissing her when she finally came down from the