Page 24 of The Vow

“No—”

“It wasn’t a question, Robber,” I growled. “Either you work with me, you do exactly what I say, or I have the FBI whisk you away into WITSEC in the middle of nowhere where you can’t fucking jeopardize something bigger than your revenge.”

Anger prickled in goose bumps along her skin. “And how would that even work? Us working together? Because I’m not going to sit in an empty apartment with an earpiece listening to you do all the work.”

A rough laugh bubbled from my chest. The idea of her sitting on the sidelines was as inconceivable as it was incorrect.

“No, Robber. I wouldn’t have you on the sidelines.” I inched my face closer to hers, the hum in my blood like a magnetic pulse, pulling me to her with an unstoppable force.

“Then what would I be doing?”

My gaze struck hers like a flint against iron, sparks spraying into the room. I framed her chin in my hand and crushed my mouth back to hers. She gasped, and my tongue plundered inside, taking every inch of her warmth, caressing and charting every corner to mark its territory.

I pressed her against the door, feeling her hands rise to my chest as my body fitted to the soft curves of hers. I waited for her to push against me—waited for the shove I’d have to ignore and continue to kiss her. It was the only way for her to understand what she’d have to risk—the things she’d have to do, the lengths she’d have to go.

I had no parents. No friends. No ties. No secrets. I could risk everything undercover because I had nothing to lose, and that was why the FBI picked me. Robyn had to be willing to do the same—to put everything on the line without even so muchas a flicker of reservation or Sinclair would know. He’d root out suspicion like a weed and kill it without qualm. Kill her. Kill me.

The thought turned my kiss savage. Brutal, like I wanted to bruise her mouth. Sinclair would have to kill me first if he ever wanted to lay a hand on her, I knew it—felt it in that moment.

But the shove never came. No anger. No protest. Only the gnawing temptation from earlier in Sinclair’s office. The pure want I felt for this woman distilled from who we were and the situation we were in.

I drew back, my chest heaving.

“What was that?” she demanded, breathless. Even though her hands were on my chest, I noted they were curled into my vest rather than flat to push me away.

“The answer to your question.”

“Kissing you didn’t answer my question.”

Well, it sure answered a whole hell of a lot of mine.

“I think it did, Robber,” I said, clearing the husk from my voice. “Kissing me is something you will be doing because if I bring you into this now, the only way is as my girlfriend.”

Her lashes dusted the pink crests of her cheeks, uncertainty clouding her eyes.Good.This should make her think twice.It should’ve made me think twice—bringing a civilian, one with a personal vendetta, into my operation.

“You want to help bring down Sinclair, you come in as my girlfriend.” I repeated the offer, dragging my thumb along the swell of her bottom lip. “You do exactly what I say when I say it. No random jaunts to dark rooms. No picking locks under the moonlight. Either you follow my instructions to a T so I can protect you and this case, or I make sure you are pulled as far away from this as humanly possible. That’s my deal, Robber. Take it or leave it.”

Her hands that were curled into my vest tightened. “Don’t call me Robber around him.”

I tipped my head, the air around us thickening like our kiss had left smoke in the air. “Just around him?” I rumbled, sliding my hand from its position on the door into the thick silk of her hair.

“Yes.” The word was hardly a sound.

“Fine,” I grunted. “Anything else?”

“No.” Her tongue slid out to dampen the tempting swells of her lips. “Are you going to kiss me again to seal our deal?”

My body jolted. I’d kissed her to make a point, but it seemed the only thing either of us had learned was that desire was a whole separate beast from danger. A beast with its own hooks and hunger. A beast that didn’t care what else it risked in order to be fed.

“And if I did?” At my rough voice, lust sparkled in her eyes, or maybe it was the reflection of my own.

Maybe I’d been in this too long—entrenched too deep in this op that the first moment I broke from it to save her was like the first breath of air I’d taken after a year underwater. And now, I couldn’t gasp in enough.

Robyn slid her palm from my chest to the back of my neck, her fingers teasing the hair at my nape.

“Then this time, please don’t stop.” She pulled herself up on her toes and fitted her mouth to mine.

We sealed our deal with tongues and teeth. With hands and touches, hungry bruises on starving skin. With casualties of clothing and caution until we were nothing but stripped, lonely souls desperate to burn ourselves on something that finally felt real even when there was every sign warning us that it shouldn’t. Warning to be careful of the lines we crossed. Of the truths and lies that blurred into something as indistinguishable as the seam where day turned into night.

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