Page 67 of Iron Willed Warrior

“I’m supposed to follow your orders?” I asked, but I was already walking over to him.

As soon as I was close enough, he pulled me down to sit on the knee of his right leg. With his teeth digging into his lower lip, he hooked one finger into the top of my towel. “Can I?”

I lowered my hands, a silent agreement.Do what you want to me. Cole tugged again at the towel, and it opened, pooling around my hips. He groaned as my breasts and stomach came into view.

“Hot damn, you are gorgeous, B.”

My nipples beaded in the air-conditioned chill. Cole brought a finger to one of them and circled the nub. My breaths came faster. His same finger drew a line between my breasts, down my stomach, and all the way between my legs. I gasped as he found those spots that drove me wild. Just a couple of times together so far, and he was getting to know my body well.

“Want to make you come again.” He dropped a kiss to my collarbone. His tongue darted out to lick a bead of water. “But I want to do it in that big tub.”

I playfully pushed away his hand. “Then get cleaned up. You’re too dirty for the bath.”

“I’ll show you dirty.” He pinned me with his arms and rubbed his salty cheek between my breasts. Laughing, I pushed at him and tried to get up.

“Jerk!”

Cole let me go, grinning. And my heart gave a powerful thump. I wouldn’t have described this rugged man as beautiful before, but right now, that fit him perfectly.

I picked up the towel that had fallen to the floor. But Cole swiped it from me. “It’s a crime to cover a view that spectacular.”

My skin heated with a blush. I grabbed the towel back, draping it over my front. All Cole did was smirk at me, stand up, and start stripping his clothes on the way to thebathroom. I felt my eyes bugging as he shoved his boxers down, stepping out of them as he went. The tight muscles of his glutes flexed.

My towel fell to the floor, and I left it there.

When I followed Cole into the bathroom, he was sitting on the edge of the tub and removing his prosthesis. “Want me to switch on the water in the shower?” I asked.

“Nah. I’ve got it. Not my first time showering on one foot, honey.”

“Right.” I was an idiot. But Cole laughed, a sound I was coming to crave way too much.

“You just let me get away with calling you honey,” he pointed out.

I totally had. But him saying it today sounded far different than before. Today, I’d kind of liked it. “Would you rather I get pissed?”

“No, I’d rather you let me kiss you.” He set his prosthesis and the inner sock on the tile, then spread his legs so I could stand between them. Cole’s hands rested on my hips, bringing me close enough to kiss each of my nipples, tongue flicking over them. Desire ignited my bloodstream. Pulsed between my legs.

Somehow, with Cole and me both stark naked amid all this white marble tile and bright light, this scene felt just as scandalous as what we’d done on the hiking trail. He was supposed to be my partner. Sleeping with him, in the middle of a mission no less, went against every iota of my training.

Such a bad idea, I thought for the hundredth time since last night. But this felt too wonderful to stop.

“Start the bath,” he said. “I’ll join you in a minute.”

He got up, balancing on his right foot, and hopped to the shower. My mouth went dry as every muscle and sinew in his body went taut. His raw strength, built through hard workand years of experience, was undeniable. The scars on his skin spoke to his bravery. Everything he’d been through.

And then watching the shower spray roll down every angle and line of that breathtaking body?

I’d said before that hemightbe one of the sexiest men I’d seen. It was no longer a contest.

I managed to tear my gaze from him long enough to get hot water pouring into the tub. While it filled, I got in and rested my chin on the edge, still watching Cole through the glass walls of the shower. He was soaping up his arms, stomach, cock. Every couple minutes our eyes met, both of us smiling. But as he finished up, and the hot water lapped around my hips in the tub, it felt like the connection between us pulled taut. Rich with anticipation.

He switched off the water and pushed open the shower door. “This part might be less sexy,” he joked.

“Not possible.”

“Yet I suspect slipping on the wet floor and falling on my face is not a good way to impress you.”

“You’ve already impressed me. Twice today, in fact,” I added with a teasing wink.

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