Free Time Thief (The Anomaly Trilogy) by Anna Hackett

attention.
    “Sean.” Bay moved restlessly beneath him.
    “No.” The muscles in his neck strained. “No rushing this time.”
    As he moved down her body, trailing his lips over her, her hands gripped the blanket. Her legs shifted and when he dipped his tongue in her navel, her hands slid into his hair. Tugged hard. “I need you.”
    He looked up. His eyes burned hot. For her alone.
    In seconds, he’d shucked his borrowed jeans, yanked off her too-large shorts and covered her body with his. Gripping her thighs, he pushed her legs up and out. Then, with his gaze glued to hers, he pushed inside her.
    He moved slowly. Inch by tortuous inch. Bay’s nails dug into his firm shoulders and she couldn’t think of anything but him. Her eyelids fluttered closed.
    “No, don’t close your eyes.”
    The intimacy of staring deeply at each other while he filled her was a sensation she’d never shared with anyone before. Sex was quick, pleasurable. It wasn’t this intense, soul-stealing experience.
    She’d never felt so connected to someone before.
    Sean was fully lodged inside her, long and thick, filling her up. Her lips parted. As he began to move, a slow, tantalizing slide, she sank her teeth into her bottom lip.
    The delicious friction had desire twisting in her belly. She wanted to race to the finish, to find the intense pleasure of a hard orgasm. But he didn’t go fast. His muscles shuddered as he reined in the urge to rush.
    “Sean.” Her nails scraped over his shoulders. “Please…”
    He leaned down and nipped her lips. “Please what?”
    She sunk her nails deeper. “Move. Now.”
    He did. Increasing the rhythm, driving them both closer to that jagged edge. Then he slowed again.
    Bay wanted to scream. He repeated the pleasurable torture—fast, then slow, fast, then slow—until she was mindless, lost in her pleasure.
    Soon his teasing drove him beyond his own control. He lost the battle and pounded into her.
    “Say my name,” he growled.
    She struggled to focus. “What?”
    “Say my name. I want to hear you say my name as you come.”
    He was like some primal deity, demanding, commanding. A god the foolish mortal would never forget, whose loving she’d dream of until the end of days.
    Her body tensed, muscles turning rigid. She threw her head back as she plummeted and screamed his name.
    Lost in the intensity, she heard Sean groan his own release, spilling himself inside her.
    When Bay could finally sort out her thoughts, she was lying against the warmth of his body. He curled around her, holding her as close as he could. Like he’d never let her go.
    She squeezed her eyes closed. She wanted to imagine he’d never leave her. That she could always lean on him, wake beside him. That when the brutal reality of life got to be too much, he’d be there to catch her when she stumbled.
    Breathing in his scent, she imagined her little beach fantasy. That house by the white sand, the pleasant lap of the waves. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t alone in her fantasy. Sean was there, his strong, scarred body emerging from the surf. A wide smile just for her and the shadows gone from his eyes. Inside, she felt at peace with her own demons.
    She blinked and the dream evaporated. The wrench in her gut was painful.
    It wasn’t ever going to happen. Sean Archer was just a man passing through her life. A damaged man whose mission coincided with hers. For now.
    Eventually they’d part ways. He’d heal from his grief and loss, find some All-American girl to settle down with and have two-point-four kids.
    Bay would never heal. She’d never be whole.
    Her family’s death had broken something inside her. The years of dedication to revenge had infected her, rotting her from the inside out.
    She was no good for anyone, least of all this tough, loyal man who needed someone happy and uncomplicated to help him heal.
    Uncomplicated she was not.
    But she snuggled in closer to Sean’s warmth. Felt the answering