Free INTO DANGER (Secret Assassins (S.A.S.S.) Book 1) by Gennita Low Page B

different directions. Her lips were rosy and swollen from his kiss. Even now, desire still glowed from those eyes. She had the look of a female about to be claimed. And he had put it there, he noted, with male satisfaction.
    He rubbed her sore tush. “After what you did to me last night, I don’t feel nice.” He was used to talking on several levels with this woman by now. Two could play at these kissing games. He was referring to the incident on her bed as well as her betrayal, getting him in trouble on purpose. Undoubtedly she, queen of innuendo, knew that, too.
    Marlena leaned back against the wall. Its coolness helped to disperse some of the sexual heat emanating from this man. He had surprised her once again. She had expected anger, had anticipated some sort of retaliation, but certainly not in this fashion.
    Dangerous. That was the description she’d come up with at the door. Very dangerous. She frowned when he gave her a crooked, taut smile, as if he’d discovered something she didn’t want him to know. He deliberately crowded her, placing two hands on each side of her head, leaning so close she wanted to rub her face into his chest and enjoy that very male scent of heated desire. Instead she looked up.
    “Nothing to say?” he taunted softly. “Aren’t you going to teach me obedience?”
    “You realize I’m definitely going to lodge a complaint to your handler,” she said.
    “I don’t let anyone handle me.” Then he added sardonically, “Except you, of course.”
    Ah, back to familiar territory. She did so enjoy fencing verbally with him. “Stash,” she drawled, lifting her chin in challenge. “I must have missed the part of the label on you that said, ‘Handle with care.’ I do hate high-maintenance things that need extra attention.”
    She wished he was still in a rage, because the lazy smile that settled on his sensuous lips now gave her heart strange butterfly flutters. His mouth was a mere breath away from hers.
    “Oh yeah? You forgot to read the rest of the label.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It also says, ‘Made in heaven.’”
    She blinked, caught between amusement and desire. It must be the cocky charm, she decided, that kept her off balance. “What do they do in heaven to clean up?” she drawled. “Surely heavenly beings look a lot less...” She paused to find a substitution. No need to let him know she thought him dangerous. “...disastrous.”
    Steve sniffed. Smart ass. “I brought my things in the backpack. I figure I can use the spare room here.” He canted a brow. “Unless, of course, you want me to use the other bathroom. I can be persuaded.”
    “I bet.” Her answering smile was wry, suspicious. “Why didn’t you do it at your own place? All you had to do was call in late.”
    “I overslept,” Steve lied. He hadn’t slept at all. He’d spent most of the night after debriefing going through Marlena’s file, rereading it, trying to fill the holes. “Instead of being late, I just came here as is.”
    She laughed. “As is,” she repeated, wrinkling her nose. “Now you sound like some damaged goods off the rack.”
    “Want to check for damage?” Steve invited, straightening up. He lifted his arms out voluntarily. “You can hardly see it.”
    He almost choked at the place she was staring at. Did she think he was damaged there? On second thought, the last few days’ zipper frustration probably exacted some kind of injury.
    “Are you sure I can hardly see it?”
    “Nothing you can’t easily repair,” he assured her. He backed up, giving her some space. Or maybe it was he who needed breathing room. Anger. He needed some kind of negative emotion to keep his mind on her, not on his needs. He added, for good measure, “And it shouldn’t take that long.”
    The speculative gleam in her eyes curled his toes. Raised his blood pressure in the wrong place. Her look suggested what she had in mind was going to take a long, long time. He felt an answering nudge,