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  Andi realized she was babbling and forced herself to stop. This close she could actually smell him, a spicy kind of musk made up of leather and clean sweat. It was a very masculine smell, a frightening smell as far as Andi was concerned.

  But she wasn’t the only one using her nose. From the darkness in front of her came a low sniffing sound. Suddenly Agent Alpha’s voice hardened.

  “You’re not what the Agency usually sends over. Who are you?” He reached for a lamp beside the couch and suddenly the room was flooded with muted golden light.

  “I…I’m sorry, I know I’m not what you expected,” Andi stuttered, blinking in the sudden brilliance.

  She was trying to focus on his face but she was afraid to meet his piercing blue eyes. He had black hair cut short to his scalp and features that looked like they’d been carved out of some unforgiving rock. A surprisingly full and sensuous mouth balanced out his chilly eyes and knife blade nose. He was wearing a pair of black leather pants and nothing else and she couldn’t help looking at his muscular chest. It was smooth and bare except for the tattoo of a wolf’s head on his upper right pectoral. She wondered if the Agency had put it there to identify him or if he’d had it before he was inducted into the program.

  “Damn right you’re not what I expected.” The look in his eyes made her so nervous that Andi started babbling again, trying to keep her mind off of what was about to happen to her.

  “I would have sent one of the girls but they were all, er…occupied and the best one is in the shop and so there was no other choice but to come myself and I’m sorry because I know I’m not what you wanted but—”

  “You’re real.” The lust in his voice was unmistakable.

  “I…what?” Andi looked at him, meeting his pale blue eyes for the first time. He stared at her so intently that she soon had to drop her own eyes, unable to stand the intensity of his gaze.

  “I said, you’re real. A real woman. Not one of those fucking whore dolls they always send us.”

  “The girls, yes. They were all busy or broken tonight. That’s how you ended up with me. I’m so sorry—”

  “I’m not,” he cut her off. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been with a real woman, not some fake collection of silicone and collagen run by a microchip?”

  “Agent Alpha, I—”

  “Matt,” he said, still looking intently into her face. “My name—my real name—is Matt. Bet you didn’t know that, did you, Andrea?”

  Andi didn’t know what surprised and frightened her more—the fact that Agent Alpha knew his own real name or the fact that he knew hers. In either case it pointed to a break-down in his conditioning. She was going to have to be very careful here.

  “How…how do you know your name?” she asked, starting with the obvious question.

  He shrugged shoulders that were easily twice as broad as hers. “It just came to me. I’d been having dreams…flashes of people I used to know, things I used to do. Did you know I played in chess tournaments and that I collected baseball cards when I was a kid?”

  “I…” Andi swallowed and heard a dry clicking in her throat. “They didn’t really give me any background on anyone when they set me up here.”

  He laughed, a dry, humorless sound. “That’s because they don’t give a shit about any of us. We’re all expendable. Even you, sweetheart. That’s how you ended up here tonight, isn’t it?”

  “Please…” Andi could feel her pulse pounding in every part of her body at once. “Please don’t kill me.”

  “Why would I kill you?” His voice softened and the hand on her arm relaxed a little.

  “B-because, that’s what you do,” Andi stuttered.

  “Not any more.” Black eyebrows came down over his ice blue eyes and he scowled. Then he gave Andi a searching look. “I’m not going to kill you, but the damn conditioning makes it impossible for me to just let you go. You know what I need.”

  “I…I know.” Andi fumbled with the buttons on her blouse with numb fingers. Have to get this over with…

  “Stop.” Agent Alpha—or Matt as she supposed she should think of him now—pulled her hands gently away from the red silk blouse.

  “But…but I thought you wanted…”

  “I do want you. More than you know.” He pulled her gently into his lap and buried his face in her neck, inhaling deeply. He was so big she felt like a doll seated on his knee. “God, you smell so good. So real,” he rumbled.

  We’ll see how excited he is about real when I lose the bra and he sees I’m a B cup instead of a double D, Andi thought apprehensively. She didn’t struggle to get away although having such a dangerous man so close was triggering her fight or flight response almost unbearably. But she couldn’t relax in his arms either. Not even the fact that his big hands rubbing up and down her back and his warm breath on her neck was surprisingly erotic could make her lose her fear of him. He was a trained killer and she’d seen what he could do.

  He seemed to sense her apprehension because he pulled back from her and looked her in the eye. “Andi,” he rumbled softly. “How long since you’ve had a man inside you?”

  Andi felt her face burning but she was afraid not to answer the frank question and she knew that he would sense a lie. “Two…two years,” she murmured, looking down at her hands which were trembling in her lap.

  He sighed. “It’s been three times that long since I had a real woman. Look at me, Andi.” He lifted her chin with one finger, forcing her to meet his gaze again. “I need you tonight—need to fuck you.”

  Andi felt a shiver that wasn’t entirely fear ripple through her at his coarse words. Not trusting her voice, she only nodded.

  “I need to fuck you. Need to open you up with my cock and come deep inside your pussy. But I won’t hurt you.”

  If her cheeks had been warm before they were on fire now. Two years was a long time, she realized. A long time to be without a man, a long time to go without being touched, being held and taken. She knew that sex with Matt was going to be rough but if she could really trust him not to hurt her…

  “Do you promise?” she asked softly, looking at him intently. The piercing blue eyes were half hooded with lust now but she saw sincerity in them as well.

  “I swear it,” he breathed, pulling her close to bury his face in her neck again. “Now can you relax and let go with me? I don’t want to fuck a block of wood—might as well be using one of those damn whore dolls.”

  “Are they that bad?” Andi asked breathlessly. She had never seen the girls in action, she just saw the results afterwards.

  “They’re not real. They smell like plastic instead of skin.” He inhaled her scent again as his large hands began unbuttoning her blouse. He cupped her right breast through the black lace bra she was wearing and Andi gasped and bit back a moan. “They don’t react when you touch them.” He popped open the latch at the front of her bra and pealed back the black lace, baring her breasts. For a moment he just stared at her and she felt fear rising to the surface once more.

  “Look, I know I don’t have…have as much up top as you’re used to…” she began but he shook his head.

  “Andi, they’re beautiful. Real. Soft.” He stroked one bare breast with his large, warm hand and Andi moaned softly as her nipple hardened under his palm. “Responsive,” he continued, leaning down to take the nipple in his mouth.

  “Oh!” Andi gasped as his hot mouth made contact with her bare skin. She felt like a thousand volts of electricity had suddenly shot through her. Apparently encouraged by her reaction, Matt sucked harder, taking as much of her breast into his mouth as he could. He flicked the other nipple with his fingers idly, making Andi squirm in his lap. The hot sensation of his tongue lapping and sucking her bare flesh seemed to course from her breasts straight to the tender cleft between her legs. To her embarrassment she realized she was actually getting wet.

  “God, you feel so good in my arms.” Matt’s voice was low and hoarse with need. He shifted her suddenly