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  It seemed she was just finding her pace when he took hold of her shoulders and set her away from him on a raw, vivid curse.

  “I shouldn’t be doing this with you.” His gaze scorched her, his handsome face fil ed with an awful torment. “You should make me leave, Devony.”

  “That’s not what I want.”

  He scoffed low at her reply. “This has already gone too far.” His words were uttered like a warning, though whether meant for her or himself, she couldn’t be sure. “Daylight wil be here soon enough. If I don’t get back to my place, I won’t be going anywhere for a long while.”

  “I know,” she said. “And I’m stil asking you to stay.”

  She wrapped her hand around his shaft and kissed him again, a scorching mating of their mouths. He didn’t resist it. He didn’t reject her.

  No, far from it.

  On a growl, he tunneled his fingers into her hair and returned her kiss with a savage claiming. The next thing she knew, she was on her back

  beneath him, his big body wedged between her parted thighs.

  His kiss left her mouth and traveled down the length of her body. He spread her wide and devoured her sex, penetrating her with one finger until she thought she would go mad with arousal. He kept going, adding a second digit once her body grew accustomed to the first.

  It wasn’t enough. She craved something more than this. More of him. Stil , he didn’t stop, not until she was screaming with the onslaught of a

  shattering climax.

  He shifted atop her, and then his hard length was a rigid demand against her slick folds. He rocked there for a moment, teasing her body with the promise of what was to come.

  She thought she was ready.

  She thought she had already felt the ful spectrum of ecstasy.

  Oh, God, she was wrong.

  Rafe’s mouth found hers again, and then he gave a thrust of his hips and the blunt head of his cock pierced her. She cried out with the sharpness of it, with the overwhelming sensation of him fil ing her, stretching her, leaving space for nothing but the intensity of their joining.

  She couldn’t hold back her cry as the pain and pleasure merged, becoming something wild and unhinged. She rode it out, her fingernails raking

  his shoulders as wave after wave crashed into her.

  “You feel too damn good,” he murmured, glowering down at her as he watched her come. “You should have ashed me when you had the chance.”

  ~ ~ ~

  He wanted to go slowly.

  He wanted to take care, be gentle with her, but Devony permitted none of that.

  She was Breed, and she was fearless.

  And holy hel , was she exquisite.

  The tightness of her sheath gripped him, her virgin flesh giving way under the battering force of his invasion. He could scent the faint fragrance of blood mingling with the silky juices that bathed his cock as he thrust inside her. It should have rattled what little sense of honor he believed he stil had. Instead, the beast in him responded with a roar of pure possession.

  Her fingernails scored his shoulders, the lean muscles of her thighs wrapped around his hips as she rode the length and depth of every hard crash of their bodies. Her climax broke like a storm beneath him. He’d never felt anything so powerful and electric, so fucking hot.

  And her lovely face. Ah, Christ. Her face was even more beautiful transformed by passion and release.

  A wave of self-loathing buffeted him as he reveled in her uninhibited response. He had no right to be the one to witness her like this, nor to be the man she al owed to take her pleasure for the first time.

  He had no right to any part of her. No claim on her body, and certainly not on her heart.

  Yet the idea that any other male might touch Devony lit a cold fire in his veins.

  No one would be good enough—least of al , him.

  That didn’t stop him from savoring each soft moan that fel from her lips as he pumped into her. Every welcoming arch of her hips to meet his. Al of the powerful shudders that swept her strong body as he drove her mercilessly from one orgasm to the next.

  He was the worst kind of bastard for being her first, especial y when a minefield of half-truths lay between them.

  But this was no lie—his desire for her. He hadn’t been able to hide that truth from her. Not from the beginning, and certainly not ever again after tonight.

  He couldn’t hold back that need as he rocked into her with intensifying fury, powering into the warm, wet fist of her core.

  Her eyes stayed open and fixed on him, no shyness in her fevered gaze as he thrust deeper with every stroke. A jagged sigh sawed from between

  her parted lips, her fangs gleaming.

  Rafe growled, tumbling toward the edge of a steep abyss. He wouldn’t be content to go there alone. Leaning down, he took her mouth in a savage

  kiss as he sank to the hilt and began a deeper claiming of her body.

  “Oh, God,” she moaned into his mouth. “Rafe, I can’t take it.”

  He knew she didn’t mean pain. A strangled cry tore from her. Her body jolted beneath him, her hands stil clenched like talons on his shoulders.

  Rafe kept moving within her, even as her throat erupted with a scream of hard release. He was lost to the erotic pressure of her core wrapped so tightly around him, the rippling contractions milking him. The feel of her was more than he could take too. It wrenched a raw curse from between his teeth and fangs.

  Now, his own need demanded to be sated.

  Bracing himself on one forearm, he drove deeper and harder into her heat, mesmerized by the look of hunger and ecstasy burning in her eyes.

  Her pulse throbbed in the base of her throat, repeatedly drawing his gaze to that hammering beat. Hunger lashed him along with the rol ing wave of the release he’d been struggling to prolong.

  His blood thirst had been dealt with a couple of nights ago at LaSal e’s party, but the sight of Devony’s vein drumming so near to his mouth was a temptation that rocked him to his marrow.

  “Fuck,” he snarled, unprepared for the impulse rising up in him like a tidal wave.

  He told himself it was only sex. He’d gone too long without it—not once since he’d been played for a fool by the Opus female who’d mesmerized

  him like a siren.

  He’d denied himself out of punishment, but tonight he was paying the price. Devony was paying an even bigger price. Because as intense as this

  desire between them was, Rafe couldn’t al ow it to be anything more.

  His mission was al that mattered to him.

  His vengeance against Opus Nostrum, and the redemption he hoped he would final y seize once the smoke was cleared and the battle had been

  won.

  Until then, everything else was simply an obstacle he needed to avoid. Including Devony Winters.

  He tried to persuade himself that tonight was a mistake he would need to correct, and what he felt for her now was only a momentary weakness,

  one that would fade under the harsh light of day. He needed to believe that, because the alternative was unacceptable.

  Devony Winters was a temptation he had no time for, and no right to indulge.

  But yet he continued to bury himself in the perfect bliss of her body, powerless to stop. He savored every nuance of her response while his own body quickened and a roar exploded from him along with the rush of his staggering release.

  And while everything male in him—everything Breed—roared with the need to possess her.

  To claim her as his.

  CHAPTER 12

  Soft footsteps and the faint floral scent of Devony’s shampooed hair alerted Rafe to her presence moments before she came into the open war

  room of her father’s study the next morning.

  Rafe had been awake for hours, already showered and dressed while she slept. As one of the Breed, he didn’t require much sleep. Devony surely

  didn’t either, but when he left her bedside not long befor
e daybreak, she hadn’t so much as stirred.

  He should have left her Darkhaven as soon as he woke.

  In truth, what he should have done was pack up her father’s files and her col ected intel too, and brought it al directly to the Order. He stil should, right after making his overdue cal to headquarters to advise them to come and pluck Devony Winters off the dangerous path she was on and

  place her immediately under the Order’s protection.

  Not to mention out of his reach.

  Especial y after his spectacular dereliction of duty last night.

  “Good morning.” She walked up behind where he stood perusing the wal of photos and notes and diagrams. Her breasts pressed against his

  spine as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder. “How long have you been down here?”

  He gave a slight shrug. “Not that long.”

  He pivoted around to face her, if only to extricate himself from the enticing warmth of her embrace. Big mistake. She was even more tempting now that he was looking at her. Evidently fresh from a shower, she wore pink silk pajama shorts and a plain white cotton camisole.

  The innocent combination did little to conceal her perky breasts and the sexy dermaglyphs that decorated so much of her gorgeous limbs and

  curves. Last night he’d tasted nearly every square inch of those limbs and curves.

  Today, instead of feeling sated from the hours he’d spent buried deep inside her, he was having a damn hard time pretending he didn’t want to

  start al over again. Fresh guilt racked him over his disturbing lack of control, then and now.

  He scowled. “How are you feeling?”

  “Amazing.” Her satisfied smile should have made him feel anything but remorse. “And a little embarrassed, if you want to know the truth. I’ve never thrown myself at a man before. Good thing I didn’t realize what I was missing until last night.”

  Rafe grunted, a grin tugging at his mouth against his wil . As much as he wanted to regret making love with Devony, it was hard to get there when she was looking at him with a sultry gleam in her eyes. His cock stirred with instant, renewed interest, and his pulse kicked into a stronger tempo.

  “I’ve never been someone’s first time before,” he muttered. “I’m sure I could’ve done a lot better by you.”

  “That sounds intriguing. What do you have in mind?”

  He chuckled. “Don’t ask. You might be shocked to know.”

  “Real y?” Her bourbon-hued eyes widened in interest. “Try me.”

  Fuck. How the hel had they gone from “good morning” to talking about having sex again?

  Rafe took a step back and cleared his throat. The document he held in his hand when she came into the room was now crushed in his fist.

  Devony noticed it. “Is that one of my activity logs on Cruz’s gang?”

  “Yeah.” He’d been combing through her files for the past couple of hours, absorbing every detail he could, and snapping photos of the items that were too extensive to commit to memory.

  He learned that she had been embedded with Ricardo Cruz and his gang for nearly two months. Before that, she had infiltrated a different area

  gang, and stil another before that. She had been dogged in her pursuit of information, and during that time had managed to keep a journal of

  each group’s various criminal jobs, relevant conversations, even minutiae that might otherwise be overlooked.

  To say she was thorough was an understatement. And fearless.

  He didn’t want to consider how great the loss would be to his mission once he arranged for the Order to come in and remove her from the field.

  Rafe set the log down on a worktable in the war room, then strode up to the four wal s of intel that reminded him of a general’s plan for a sweeping war campaign. “How long do you believe Cruz has been associating with Judah LaSal e?”

  “More than a year, I would say.” She walked up next to him to look at the dossiers and the red strings connecting one individual to another on the wal . “Not long after I met Fish, he told me about one of the first jobs LaSal e hired them to do. It was a break-in at some energy sciences lab in the Berkshires.”

  Rafe nodded without commenting that he likely knew the company in question. He would be wil ing to wager his right arm that the product being

  developed there was one of several ultraviolet technologies that fel into Opus Nostrum’s hands earlier this year.

  “Did Fish say what they were supposed to steal for LaSal e?”

  “No. And they weren’t successful, anyway. Security was too tight, so they had to abort.”

  “No. And they weren’t successful, anyway. Security was too tight, so they had to abort.”

  “But LaSal e kept hiring them for other jobs?”

  “He needs people like Cruz and his men.”

  “Expendable men,” Rafe said.

  “Right. Men who wil do almost anything—risk almost anything—so long as it comes with a large enough payout. From what I’ve observed, they’re

  simply boots on the ground for LaSal e, and he’s untouchable so far. Besides, there’s no clear evidence yet that he’s connected to Opus.”

  Rafe wasn’t so sure about that. The Berkshires break-in gave him hope that he was on the right track. He was already months ahead in terms of

  reconnaissance, al thanks to her.

  Devony retrieved another one of her logs and handed it to him. “Here’s a list of their most recent jobs for him.”

  Rafe scanned the record of random pickups and drops of unstated merchandise, assorted robberies, even a few instances of money laundering.

  She pivoted to face him as he reviewed the document, leaning her back against the wal of intel. “I heard Ocho and Axel talking about a big job Cruz has been promising recently. I don’t know what it is yet, but Cruz hasn’t mentioned it to me at al .”

  Rafe stared at her, his mind calculating the fastest way to fix that problem. “I need to get one of the guys alone somewhere. I’d only need a few minutes, just long enough to interrogate the son of a bitch under a trance.”

  She was shaking her head even before he finished talking. “I’ve done that.”

  “You have?” He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t surprised—and impressed. “Which one did you question?”

  “Al of them, including Cruz.” She arched a brow. “What do you think I’ve been doing with them al these months, just beating them at pool and

  pretending I don’t despise drinking rot-gut whisky with them?”

  He chuckled. “You’re incredible, you know that?”

  She smiled. “That’s what you kept tel ing me last night.”

  Yes, it was. He’d meant every word too.

  And he had to be some kind of asshole for the way he stil craved her, even considering that this time tomorrow she would be in Order custody

  and wishing she’d never met him.

  She was so confident and fearless in normal situations, it was hard for him to reconcile the fact that she had been untouched until a few hours ago.

  Until him.

  “You are an incredible woman, Devony.” He approached her and gently cupped her face in his hands. “Last night was incredible.”

  She nodded, and he couldn’t deny himself the pleasure of one more kiss, even though he cursed himself for taking it from her with a clearer head than he had a few hours ago. And stil the feeling of her lips brushing softly against his sent a torrent of jagged desire through his veins.

  He groaned and pul ed away.

  “This isn’t a good idea. I promised myself I wouldn’t do this to you again.”

  “Do it to me? I kind of thought we did it together, Rafe. I mean, I may not have a lot of experience in this area, but I thought we did it together real y wel .”

  She came toward him now, her eyes glittering with sparks of amber and the determination he was swiftly finding irresistible.

  “I think you and I do
a lot of things real y wel . Too wel to keep doing them on our own.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “This.” She gestured to the wal s around her, al of her work over the past five months. Al of the heartache and loss she had channeled into her pursuit of the ones who hurt her. “We want the same thing, don’t we? To see the end of Opus Nostrum. Neither one of us is going to rest until those bastards are no more. So, why don’t we do it together?”

  He glanced between them, where she now extended her hand to him. “Together?”

  “As a team. As partners. What do you say, Rafe?”

  He knew damn wel what he should say. That his loyalty was already spoken for. He had a team of partners counting on him back in D.C., as wel

  as the brethren he hoped to rejoin as soon as possible at the Boston Command Center. Until his mission was completed, he didn’t have room for

  anything, or anyone, else.

  He should have told her al of that last night, before he let the situation with her get so far out of his control.

  As much as she deserved to know the truth, until he spoke to Lucan Thorne and Sterling Chase, he couldn’t breach the Order’s faith in him by

  divulging his continued role as a warrior.

  And there was a selfish part of him that didn’t want Devony to hate him.

  Not last night, and not right now, when she was looking at him with such open trust and affection.

  “I’l have your back and you have mine,” she said, stil waiting for his answer. “Do we have a deal?”

  Rafe looked at her, swamped by respect and admiration, and something deeper that he didn’t want to name. Of al the things he owed her in the

  short time since they’d met, this was the one promise he could give her. That regardless of his obligation to the Order, he would do whatever it took to keep her safe. That much he could commit to without reservation, and with ful honesty.

  “Okay,” he said, the word like sandpaper in his throat as he took her hand in his. “We have a deal, Devony.”

  The Order wasn’t going to like it.

  He wasn’t convinced that he did, either.