Page 19 of Delta Force Defender

Her last taste.

Caradine didn’t waste any more time. She moved around the foot of the bed, determined that she would make this night the kind of night that she could live on forever.

Because she would have to.

Isaac swept her up into his arms, making her feel light and sweet when she knew she was neither, and she loved that. God, did she love it. Then his mouth was on hers, ravishing her, and she loved that, too.

Fierce. Hot.

So greedy and wild that she thought she might scream after all.

He spun her around, throwing her down on the bed and sweeping her weapons aside with one arm. Then he came down on top of her, his body rock hard, pressing her deep into the mattress.

There wasn’t any part of this she didn’t love.

Isaac was like a fever. He always had been. Sensation streaked through her, flaring bright and hot wherever he touched her, and she gloried in it.

Because wherever she landed next, whatever happened to her, this would haunt her. He would haunt her, permanently. She already knew that.

He already did.

Caradine wrapped herself around him and kissed him with everything she had. He met that kiss, amped it up, and tossed it over the edge into something even darker, hotter, more out of control. Then he unpeeled her hands from his neck and stretched them up, over her head. She arched into him, reveling in the press of her breasts against his hard chest.

But when she tried to move her hands to dig them into his dark hair, her eyes snapped open.

Because her wrists were zip-tied together. Tightly.

Isaac was staring down at her, his face like granite.

And Caradine had the disorienting sensation that she’d actually never seenthisversion of him before, either.

“I’m done asking you questions,” he said, his voice darker than she’d ever heard it. And she wasn’t sure if that was fear or a thrill that shivered through her then. “And while we’re on the subject, I’m done playing games.”

“Untie me,” she gritted out at him.

But she didn’t have to see all the silver intensity glaring back at her to know he had no intention of doing anything of the kind. And while they both knew she could untie herself, given enough time, she doubted he was going to step back and let her do that just now.

Or maybe ever.

“New game,” Isaac said quietly. “New rules.”

Five

It was shockingly easy to hog-tie a person and cart them out of a cozy little inn in the middle of the night.

This wasn’t news. Isaac had actually had ample opportunity to make this discovery, and practice it in various forms, in the cordoned-off parts of his past he didn’t talk about.

But it occurred to him—when he wisely secured Caradine’s ankles after she tried to kick him in a sensitive area, then popped in a little gag, too, because she had murder in her eyes and he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t scream for the fun of it—that he should have considered this approach with her a long time ago.

Or, more precisely, he should have acted on it.

Too bad there weren’t any do-overs in this life, or that first night with Caradine would have ended a lot differently five years ago.

This is no time for nostalgia, Isaac told himself, almost entertained.

Onlyalmost, because the fairy-tale version of Caradinein his head wasn’t real. The real Caradine had spent untold hours learning how to get out of situations like this one, always assuming she’d be in the hands of folks a lot less interested in her safety and well-being than he was. He’d watched her in class. He’d even taught her a few tricks himself.

He estimated he had about ten minutes before she freed her hands. Then used them.

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