Page 30 of Gunn's Mission

Finally, he turned, entered the mudroom, and sat to remove his boots. Then he quickly shed his outer clothes and hung them. With his holster draped over his shoulder, he made his way inside the facility. His sock-covered feet passed the darkened kitchen and entered the hallway. Light shone under two doors. One of them was hers.

Like he’d imagined, he paused outside her door, tempted like never before. He heard the click of keys and knew she was working on reports. He shouldn’t disturb her. She was busy.

Sighing, he moved along to his door and went inside. When he was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, he counted as he inhaled and exhaled—trying to draw calm around him, but his cock was resistant. So, knowing there’d be no rest until his tension eased, he pushed down his pants and took himself in hand, all the while imagining someone else’s hand on his body.

Maddie wonderedif she’d imagined the shooshing sound of socked feet pausing outside her door. Had Gunn been tempted? She’d kept typing the final line of her report, her daily diary of things that had occurred and all they’d accomplished. When she’d finished, she’d paused to listen, tempted beyond all common sense to sneak to the door and open it.

But she’d lost her nerve and simply sat there, her laptop propped on a pillow atop her lap. After a tense moment, she’d closed the document and turned off her computer.

Then she’d reached the lamp on her nightstand and turned it off.

The darkness wasn’t comforting. The wind, the sound of the popping roof panel, and the beat of her heart were all too noisy for her to fall gently into sleep. Worse, the thought of where she might’ve been had she possessed the courage to disagree with Gunn’s decision to be prudent and not follow their hormones made her feel cowardly.

She was the girl who jumped into adventures. Gunn would certainly merit that designation. Everything he’d done—the kiss, the gentle handling of her breast—had told her he would be that kind of once-in-a-lifetime lover, the one whose memory a woman would sigh over in her waning years.

Tomorrow might be too late. If he woke in the morning and remembered why he was here in the first place, he might decide that sleeping with her was a bad idea.

Should she take the initiative and show up at his door? Could she be confident enough in her attraction to seduce him? The thought made her uncomfortable. Or maybe she was uncomfortable because she was still aroused just thinking about how far they’d gone on the sofa…under the blanket…where anyone might walk in on them.

At this rate, she was never going to sleep.

Maddie had never been a prude. She’d had love affairs and lust affairs. Not many, but she had never felt shame for following her hormones. A young, healthy woman was entitled. Just because she’d chosen a nomad’s life and had no plans to settle and seek a long-term relationship didn’t mean she had to do without.

And what woman in her right mind, when presented with the chance of having sex with a male specimen built like Gunn, would turn down that possibility?

Before she could talk herself out of the idea, she rose and headed to the shower room to brush her teeth and brush her hair in front of a mirror.

Once in the hallway with her toiletry bag, she hurried there. After she brushed her teeth, washed her face, and brushed her hair until it crackled with static electricity, she headed back, pausing outside his bedroom door.

She took a deep breath, raised her hand, then noted that no light shone beneath the door.

Her shoulders drooped with disappointment. He was likely already asleep. He’d think she was a fool if she knocked now. Plus, she might wake up the others situated up and down the hallway, and no way did she want them standing as witnesses to her foolishness.

She turned away, but then the door beside her cracked open. A hand shot out and gripped her forearm.

A sideways glance showed a shirtless Gunn, with the drawstring of his sweatpants loosened enough that the waistband sat low on his hips. And his cock—his thoroughly aroused cock—was stretching the fabric in the most thrilling way.

Her gaze shot up to his face, and he pulled on her arm, widening the opening to draw her inside his room. Once she stepped across the threshold, he closed the door then pushed her against it. He stepped closer, letting his cock prod her stomach. “What were you doing out there, Maddie?” he whispered in the darkness.

She swallowed. “Losing my nerve,” she whispered back.

“Having trouble sleeping?”

She nodded even though he couldn’t see it. His cock jerked between them, and her belly trembled against it. “I was thinking…about that kiss.”

He chuckled softly, and his hand swept down her arm. He encountered the toiletry bag, tugged it from her hand, and tossed it away. Then he took her hand and slid it between them, wrapping it around his straining cock. “Think about this.”

The fabric separating her fingers from his thick staff didn’t prevent her fingers from noting his heat.

Slowly, she stroked up and down his length. “That’s…a lot to think about,” she said, her voice thin and breathless. She moved her hand upward, slipped it behind the waistband then plunged downward to hold him. He was hot satin cloaking a steel post. She moaned because, in her mind, that analogy just seemed too cliché. He was big and hot and she needed him inside her now.

“I don’t have condoms,” she whispered.

His breath tickled her ear. “I do.”

This is really going to happen!“Sure you’re not too tired?”

His chest jerked against hers. His mouth trailed from her ear to her jawline then across to her mouth. His mouth sucked at her lips then sealed their mouths while he thrust into her hand still gripped around his length. When he pulled back. “Still think I’m tired?”

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