Page 38 of The Mech Who Loved Me
If she was any other woman, you wouldn't say no,said a little voice, deep in hisheart.
If she was any other woman, he wouldn't care if he said yes. A quick tumble in the blankets and then he'd be on his merry way, without another thought in herdirection.
But thiswasAva.
There are rules, damn it.Both his own, and the unspoken one among the Company of Rogues that said Ava had to be protected at all cost. Not a single one of them hadn't had blood on their hands at some stage. All of them wanted to protect their country, no matter what that took. None of them were angels, particularly nothim,but...
Ava was the oddoneout.
You couldn't look at her and not know she was innocent through and through. Somehow, despite the past events she'd mentioned—and wasn't that a fucking horror story—she still looked at the world with bright-eyed optimism. Not naïve. Never naïve. But she was somehow untarnished, unlike the rest of them, which was both miraculous and a tribute to her courage. And then, of course, there was Byrnes's recent marriage. He wasn't stupid. Ava had to be smarting from the loss of... whatever hopes she'd held in that direction, regardless of whatshe'dsaid.
She was also sitting there in her thin lawn nightgown with expectant eyes, and that fleshy lower lip caught between her teeth as she waited for him to take the first step. The mere sight of her stirred him in a way he'd never feltbefore.
His cock roused, throbbing behind the buttons of his breeches. He'd never been a hero. He'd never played the gallant champion. He'd never wanted to. He'd taken what he wanted in fleshly sins, drowned himself in drink to hide his demons, and told himself if he was going to die young, then at least he'd know what pleasurefeltlike.
Ava should be just one more conquest. Another night of lust and stolen kisses, and considerably more. But for some damned reason, he couldn't stop himself from offering her this one lastchance.
Kincaid cupped her face in both hands. "One kiss," he told Ava, his voice hoarse. What the hell did she do to him? "Tonight all we're going to do is kiss. You need time to process this decision, and I don't intend to rush youthroughit."
She unexpectedly rolled her eyes. "All I do is think, Kincaid. My mind keeps going day and night. You have no idea what it feels like to stare at the ceiling all afternoon, when you're supposed to be sleeping. Ihavethought about thisdecision."
That was interesting. "That's an awful lot of thinking in sofewdays."
Ava froze, and then swiftly tucked a strand of hair behind herear. "I—"
"Youwerethinking about this before I made the suggestion.Weren'tyou?"
"This is all your fault," she blurted. "I wasn't imagining anything of the like until the night we all went to the Garden of Eden, and I got lost in the garden, and you found me, and then unlaced my corset because I could barelybreathe—"
"When you felt me up and stole my coat?" he asked, mildlyamused.
"I didn't stealyourcoat!"
"You never gave it back," he pointed out. "I like how you're not denying you had your hands all over mychest."
"I had no choice. You were holding me there by the lapels ofmycoat—"
"Mycoat."
"Which I was wearing at the time," she said swiftly, her cheeks blazing with heat. Then— "You never asked for it back. And I forgot toreturnit."
"Then maybeIneed time to think," he admitted. There was danger here. Not for her. She seemed remarkably clear-eyed about the entire process. But... though he'd said Ava was the weakest link on the team, he was also growing awareshewas becoming the chink in hisarmor.
He remembered the night at the Garden of Eden. He'd been two seconds away from seducing a delicious little morsel who'd found him in the gardens, when Ava stumbled onto the scene, shivering like a wet kitten. Protective instincts he'd not felt in an age sprang from nowhere. He couldn't remember what he'd said to the other woman, but then she'd been gone, and he'd put his coat around Ava's shoulders as she fought to suppress herpanic.
"I see," Ava replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "You've never once met a woman who you've refused, but suddenly you turn into a dainty miss with delicate feelings when Ipractically—"
"I amnotsuffering from delicatefeelings."
"Of course not.You'rejust—"
That did it. Kincaid slid his hand through the thick mess of curls loosely gathered at her nape and captured the base of her skull. He dragged her closer, Ava's hands abruptly meeting the wall of his chest as her eyes widened. And then those maddening lips were beneath his, and his mouth captured hers, claiming it with afuriouskiss.
Months of frustration, of trying to keep away from her, suddenly unleashed within him like a dam wall breaking. His tongue stabbed into her mouth, claiming her in some strange, utterly proprietary way that suddenly wasn't enough. He wanted to bite her throat; to rub his stubbled face across her pale, delicate skin until he saw the pinkness of his mark painted there; to kiss every last thought of every other man she'd ever seen out ofhermind.
It was meant to be a kiss to make his point. A kiss to prove he wasn't protestingtoodamnedmuch.
Instead it became a kiss that captured both of them within itsgrasp.
