Wicked Attraction (The Protector) Read online

  “I don’t hate you,” she said. “I want to, but I can’t. I love you, and I don’t want to do that, either, but I can’t seem to stop.”

  He was on his feet in the moment after that, scooping her into his arms so suddenly that she clung to his neck and let out a squawk of surprise. He was taller than she was, but she had so much muscle that she thought he would stagger beneath her weight. He didn’t, not for a moment, as he carried her through the doorway and down the hall to the living room, where he settled her on the couch and covered her with his body as he kissed her. Long, slow, and deliberate swipes of his tongue soon had her desperate for more. When he moved down her body though, to push at the hem of her nightshirt, Nina stopped him.

  “No. The last time you did this, we never finished,” she breathed.

  Ewan shook his head, eyes aglow and his mouth glistening from their kisses. “You did.”

  “I want you inside me,” Nina told him. “Now.”

  Still, he hesitated, until with a small growl, she reached between them to stroke his thickening cock through the soft material of his pajama bottoms. When she pushed the waistband over his hips, Ewan gave in, helping her get him naked as she shucked off her panties. He slid his length inside her within a matter of seconds.

  “Oh, yes. That, right there,” Nina murmured as he filled her. She arched, tipping her hips to take him deeper, offering him her throat so he could nibble.

  She ran her hands up his sides, letting herself finally give in to the impulses to touch him that she’d been trying so hard to resist. Over his back, the muscles working as he thrust inside her. Down to his fit, firm ass. She grabbed a double handful of that sweetness, then let her nails scratch upward to the dimples at the base of his spine. Then up Ewan’s sides, pinching inch by inch until he shuddered and his movements became ragged.

  “I love that,” he said into her ear. “More, please.”

  Nina lost herself in the joy of this. It bubbled out of her in laughing gasps as she moved beneath him. She pinched harder and took his groan into her mouth with a kiss. She sucked his tongue, drawing it gently between her teeth and nipping at the last second. His cock got rock hard inside her, and all of this sent a surge of desire spiraling through her so tight, so deep, that she tipped over into climax with a startled cry.

  Ewan joined her a moment after that, their bodies moving frantically together until he eased the pace and dipped his face into the hollow of her shoulder. He rested his weight on her for a moment before pushing up on his hands. Their bodies were still joined. He leaned to kiss her lightly.

  “I love you, Nina. And I swear to you, I’m going to do whatever I can to make everything right between us. I promise you that. No more hiding things from you,” Ewan said. “I know you deserve better than that. I should never have tried to decide what was best for you. Clearly, I’m a hyper chump.”

  In the aftermath of the sex, she ought to have felt languid and replete, at ease. And she did . . . to an extent. She also felt scourged and barren and emptied, as though the surge of entangled passions had cleaned her out.

  This wasn’t the time to say “I told you so,” and Nina allowed her kiss to answer him, instead. She toyed with his tongue for a few seconds, her fingers threading once more through his thicket of dark hair. She pulled him down on top of her again, wriggling until they both settled into a tangled, if slightly uncomfortable, pile on the couch. She didn’t want to speak. She wanted to sleep.

  “Nina . . .”

  “Hush,” she told him with a kiss to his temple, her eyes closed. Her arms around him. Holding him close. She snuggled against him, ignoring the awkwardness of their position.

  This was where she belonged.

  * * *

  Ewan woke alone again, this time on the couch with an indent from the cushion on his cheek. He stretched, thinking of the night before, then sat up abruptly. Nina wasn’t in the living room, nor could he hear her clattering in the kitchen. He tried to judge what time it was by the light slanting through the front windows, but wasn’t able to.

  Scratching his head and rubbing at the sleep in his eyes, he went upstairs to the master bathroom to run the shower hot, hoping to ease the stiffness from his muscles. It helped a little, and by the time he got out, his head was clearer, too. He dressed quickly in sweatpants, thinking he’d get in a workout. His comm pinged as he tugged on a T-shirt, and, thinking it might be Nina, Ewan lifted it. Katrinka had sent him a series of messages Ewan wasn’t sure he wanted to answer, but he lifted the comm to thumb the screen awake. As he did, the comm pinged again, this time with a viddycall.

  “Katrinka,” he said before she could say a word. “Listen. About last night . . .”

  Katrinka shook her head to silence him. “Last night was a debacle, Ewan.”

  “I can’t quite deny that.” He yawned broadly and scratched at his head again. “I can’t apologize for her, Katrinka, that’s not my place.”

  “I’m not asking you to apologize for her. Far be it from me to wax caustic about my own offspring,” Katrinka said lightly, “but my son has not been the easiest child to raise. Whatever she did to him, I’m sure he did something to deserve it. He’s so deep into the candy that he’s become an obnoxious little twit, and he wasn’t a prize to deal with before that.”

  “He’s got a brilliance to him that will take him far, if he can get it under control,” Ewan countered, not wanting to agree with her on the subject of her child’s annoying personality.

  Katrinka rolled her eyes and waved a hand. She set down her comm so she could walk as she spoke, her hands waving and the fringed edges of her tunic fluttering as she paced. “The facts are, if you want to get anyone behind you on this issue, we can’t have your girlfriend punching people out in the middle of the fundraisers. It’s bad for business.”

  “I also can’t deny that,” Ewan said.

  “The initial approval reports were fantastic. I mean, listen, everyone at that party last night was there because they’d supported the original act, of course, but also because they were the ones I figured would have the easiest opinions to change.” Katrinka paused, then started pacing again. “Let’s face it, the enhanced soldiers have fallen out of the public eye, even with the dustup you experienced recently. Nobody’s been thinking much about them at all. Of course, punching my kid is going to turn some gazes back that way, and they won’t be the kindly sort.”

  “Dustup?” Ewan gave a rueful chuckle. “Is that what you call repeated attempts on my life over a course of months?”

  Katrinka twirled to face the comm screen. “Ewan, darling, you know as well as I, perhaps even better, how quickly public trends change. How easy it is to lose favor and attention. I’m not saying that the entire situation regarding the enhanced isn’t still viable, of course—”

  “Good,” Ewan interrupted. “Because I intend to fully get behind the support of repealing that act as well as forwarding the integration and implementation of upgrades to the tech for those thirteen who are left. That’s going to require a huge change in public perceptions.”

  “Well,” Katrinka said, “we can start with your girlfriend.”

  * * *

  Nina had paused outside Ewan’s bedroom doorway when she heard the sound of voices, one of them female. She wasn’t the sort to hover in doorways, but she did hear the term “girlfriend.” It gave her mixed feelings. One, a still giddy joy lingering from the night before. Two, another burst of pride and pleasure that someone other than Ewan was referring to her that way, that someone else had seen them as a couple. Finally, third, a slight wince at the term itself, which seemed somewhat ridiculous, all things considered, and a final small grimace at her taking pleasure at any of it in the first place.

  Talk about a complicated mess of feelings.

  She didn’t need to use enhanced hearing to notice when Ewan came to the door. She didn’t jump or look startled, but instead gave him a dry grin as he gestured for her to come inside. He held up the comm so she cou