Can I just tell you how freaking excited I am to read this book? I really like this series and after I read the synopsis, I was like… SOLD!!! Early reviews are excellent and I cannot wait to read it!
The connection is still there…
I chose to share this scene because there is so much emotion here, bubbling under the surface. It’s the first time Mara and Quinn see each other after he walked away from her 6 weeks earlier and there’s so much they’re not saying to each other, but the spark between them is still there, strong as ever, and eventually they decide giving in to it is easier than talking. This scene pretty much sets up their relationship throughout Broken Honor. Until they learn how to communicate with each other outside the bedroom, they can never have their happily ever after.
***
“BJ!” Mara scolded and hung up her cell phone. She returned to the living room and scooped the little dog up, and Quinn was able to draw in a breath again.
“BJ,” he said on an exhale and then scoffed at himself. “Snippy as ever, I see.”
“She doesn’t remember you, that’s all.”
“I remember her.” He reached out to pet the animal, ignoring BJ’s grumble of annoyance. “And your ornery one- eyed cat, Hawkeye. You named them after the characters from your favorite TV show, M*A*S*H. You like it because it was your father’s favorite, too.”
“Your first day here we binge-watched it together,” she said softly. “And you laughed. Like, really laughed. I’d never heard you do that before.”
“Yeah, I did. It’s a good show.” He exhaled hard. “It was…a good week.”
“Then why—”
“Wait. Please.” He stepped toward her, but still didn’t touch her. He didn’t trust himself enough to touch her before he said what he needed to say. “Just let me… I need to say this. I didn’t ever tell you why I came back in November. During my last mission, things got really fucked up and for a while, it didn’t look like I was going to make it out alive. And even though the shit was hitting the fan and one of my teammates was bleeding out in front of me, the only thing I could think of was how much I wanted to see you again. How much I wanted more than only one night.”
Tears gathered in her eyes and, dammit, that wasn’t the reaction he’d been aiming for. He couldn’t stay away for a second longer, not when she looked at him with those big brown eyes brimming with emotion. He stepped forward and risked losing a finger by taking the dog and setting it on the floor, then he pulled her against him.
Christ, she felt good in his arms again. She felt right. And it scared the ever-loving hell out of him.
Her fingers tightened in the fabric of his shirt. “I don’t like that image,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest. “You, nearly dying alone in some foreign country.”
He didn’t bother telling her that was very likely going to be his end. He didn’t see himself living to be an old man in retirement that was for sure.
He rested his cheek on top of her head and breathed her in. Her hair smelled faintly of berries, a scent he remembered from when she’d leaned over as she rode him and her hair had fallen in a curtain around them both. The scent memory triggered an erection he had no hope of hiding, and she drew away slightly, gazing up with lust-darkened eyes.
“Travis.” She breathed his name, and the raspy sound of it went through him like a lava flow.
Holding her gaze, making sure she read his intentions loud and clear, he lowered his head until their lips were centimeters apart, silently asking permission.
Her breaths came faster, and her eyes half closed. “We need to talk.”
He weaved his hand into her drying hair. “I know.”
“Oh, this is such a bad idea,” she whispered, then pushed up on her toes to close the distance between their mouths.
The kiss was of the rock-your-world, knock-your-socks- off, never-gonna-stop caliber. In that moment, Quinn would have been perfectly content to stand there in Mara’s living room kissing her until his heart quit beating. But then she moved, set a tentative hand on his hip and stood higher on her tiptoes, pushing her breasts against his chest, and that idea suddenly held a lot less appeal. Kissing was good. Burying himself inside her heat would be even better.
Quinn spun her around so that her back pressed against the wall, shocking a gasp out of her. He lifted his head and stared down into dark eyes gone wide with shock.
Cursing himself but unable to stop tasting her, he bent to nip her puffy lower lip. “If you want me to stop, I will.”
She muttered something in Spanish. “No. God help me, no, I don’t want you to stop.”
“I don’t do gentle, Mara,” he felt compelled to warn even as he worked his way down from her lips, over her chin, to the tender spot where her neck met her shoulder. He scraped his teeth over the frantic beat of her pulse and reveled in the delicate shudder that shook her body. “So if that’s how you think this is going to go, back out now.”
“I know. I remember, and I don’t want gentle. I want you to…” She sucked in a breath as he shoved aside her robe and found her nipple with his teeth and tongue.
“Oh, God.” Throwing her head back against the wall, she hooked one soft leg around his thigh. “I want you to fuck me, Travis. Hard. Right here.”
