Page 113 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

"It's almost over," he said then, staring around the room before returning his gaze to her. "Almost over."

She moved to him then, because he should have sounded triumphant, eager to see the finish, he should have been anticipating the end of this night, but she could feel his regret as well.

Not because he would be leaving the cartel, she thought. Instead, she felt the heavy knowledge inside him that things weren't as he thought they were.

He wouldn't say it, she could only pray he would realize it before the night was over, but she knew he was realizing there was more than the monster inside Diego Fuentes.

"I came here to kill him." His voice was soft as he stared back at her. "He was going to rape those girls he kidnapped. He drugged them, one of them died. He allowed his men to rape another in front of her father. He tortured Nathan. He's killed, destroyed lives. He won't stop. Letting him live won't stop the hell he spreads."

Kira inhaled roughly. What was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to relieve the pain that he wouldn't admit even to himself that he felt?

"Ian—"

"Son of a bitch, Kira." His expression twisted, his eyes burning. "I see what he wants me to believe, but I know what he is. He'll never stop. That fucking whore's dust he created has destroyed women. The videos he made from them. Those were innocent women. Women who had nothing to do with his games or this world. Those girls he kidnapped. The blood he's fucking shed."

He swung away from her as she felt the first tear fall from her own eyes. She saw what Diego wanted to be, and Ian saw what he was. The contradiction would tear Ian apart if he let it.

"It's not your place to kill him," she reminded him. "Arrest him. Take him in, Ian. Let DHS deal with him. Don't place this on your soul."

She moved to him, her arms sliding around him as she laid her head on his back. "Don't do this to yourself. Don't let him destroy you too."

He inhaled sharply, his hands pressing against hers, holding them close to his body before he turned, surrounded her with his hold, and laid his cheek against her head.

"It's my responsibility," he said, his voice heavy.

"No—" she tried to protest, but his finger pressed against her lips, his tortured gaze locked with hers.

"I have to do what I came here to do," he told her. "He's not my father, Kira. A father doesn't murder. He doesn't allow his men to rape sixteen-year-old girls, and he doesn't torture good men. That's not a father, that's a monster."

She laid her head against his chest, because she knew that. She knew what he was, and she knew DHS would allow it to continue in exchange for the information he provided. But it didn't stop her heart from breaking, for Ian, for Diego, for herself. Because she knew if she stood in his way, he would never forgive her. And if she didn't, the ramifications of what DHS could do to retaliate terrified her.

"You terrify me," Ian whispered then, his hand cupping her jaw to raise her face to his. "I knew Sorrell would find a way to use you against me in this. I knew it, and I let you stay anyway."

"Because you know I'm good." She sniffed, trying to smile, to lighten the pain she knew was flowing through both of them.

"You're very good," he agreed, a hungry flame lighting his gaze. "Too damned good."

"I can be better." She needed to touch him, to hold him, just one more time, she needed to show him how much of her soul he owned.

"Really?" he questioned her suggestively as she drew back from his chest slowly.

Taking his hand she moved for the bedroom. "Shall I show you?"

"I'm all about show-and-tell," he assured her, lust beginning to make his voice huskier, raspier. Sexier.

She cast him a sensual look over her shoulder, her lashes lowered, her tongue peeking out to touch her lips suggestively.

"I can show-and-tell," she promised him, stepping away from him as they went into the bedroom, and turning to face him as she slid her blazer from her shoulders and tossed it to a nearby chair.

The shoulder holster was unclipped and placed on top of the jacket before she sat, unlaced her boots, and pulled them from her feet.

Ian's eyes were burning with hunger now. His tortured emotions were receding beneath the arousal. When she came to her feet, gripped the hem of her shirt, and pulled it from her body, he jerked into action. Clothes were tossed to the side, littering the floor, crumpled and left to

wrinkle as he pulled her naked body against his own.

Sensitive nerve endings screamed in sensation as he lifted her to him and his hair-roughened chest rasped against her nipples. The peaks hardened almost painfully as the blood thundered to them and a gasp left her throat as their lips met in hunger and desperate need.

She was only barely aware of falling to the bed, but she was very much aware of Ian's larger body covering hers. That wasn't what she wanted. She wanted him stretched out for her pleasure now, wanted to watch that muscular, hard body tight and straining for release as he had watched her softer one.

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