“Brought a lot more condoms this time,” he said in a low rumble. “Plan on using every one of them.”

She bit her lip so she wouldn’t blurt out that they hadn’t been terribly effective the first time. She wasn’t going to ruin the moment, nor was she going to be stupid and play with fire by having him not wear a condom. If she wasn’t pregnant already, not using a condom was the fastest way for her to end up pregnant after all.

“How many?” she whispered.

“A lot,” he murmured back.

“I like a guy who comes prepared.”

He grinned down at her, the urgency melting away as his eyes lightened.

“I plan to get very creative tonight. I’m taking some downtime and I plan to make very good use of it.”

Her pulse accelerated. It sounded very much like he planned to hang around for a while. That was a complete one-eighty from the last time they’d hooked up, when he couldn’t get out of the door fast enough after a night of hot sex.

He frowned as he stared down at her. “That going to be okay with you?”

She reached up to smooth the lines at his brow. “I’m thinking it’s a very good way to spend your time off. I’ll do my best to make sure you get at least one of those Rs. Can’t promise how much rest you’ll get, but I think we’ll have the relaxed part covered.”

“Like the way you think.”

“We’re both naked, and you’re wasting time,” she pointed out.

He reached for a condom and deftly rolled it on before positioning himself between her thighs.

“Going to be fast this first time. I want inside you so bad I’m about to come apart at the seams. But I’ll make it up to you, Maren. I promise before the night is over, I’m going to make you come over and over.”

“Mmmm, I like the over-and-over part. And you have a very talented mouth.”

“I like the way you taste.”

His voice sent a shiver over her body. She quivered in anticipation, on edge, waiting for him to penetrate her.

No, they hadn’t had any foreplay, but she was so ready that it would be a miracle if she didn’t start coming the minute he got inside her. Foreplay could come later. Right now she just wanted him as deep inside her as he could go, and she wanted it fast and hard.

“I want you,” she whispered. “Hard, Steele. Fast and hard.”

“Oh hell yeah,” he breathed out.

He pushed inside her with one strong thrust. She arched her back and closed her eyes as a cry of pleasure ripped from her throat. He paused deep inside her and when she reopened her eyes, he was staring down at her, his gaze glittering, his jaw clenched tight.

“Give me a second,” he ground out. “God, you feel so damn good. I could never get enough. I touch you and I’m ready to come.”

“Then come,” she murmured. “We have all night. You mentioned R and R, right? That means we have all the time in the world. I’m sure I can get you motivated properly after you come this time.”

He smiled again and kissed her lingeringly. “Bet your ass you can motivate me. All you have to do is look at me and I get hard.”

“Then let’s go,” she said urgently. “I need you, Steele. I’m right there with you. Make it happen for both of us.”

He withdrew and plunged forward, rocking his hips against hers. He closed his eyes, his expression one of utter satisfaction. His entire body tightened, his muscles coiling and bunching at his chest and arms.

He rocked against her, withdrawing and then plunging deep, each time molding his body to hers, pressing her hard into the mattress.

He blanketed her, his warmth bleeding into her already flushed skin. She inhaled sharply, savoring his scent, and then she caught his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck to anchor him firmly against her lips.

“Get there,” he ground out. “I’m coming. Tell me what you need, Maren. Want you with me.”

She slipped one hand between them and he lifted his hips just enough that she could slide her fingers over her clit. She stroked and found her sweet spot, rotating as he continued to thrust into her.

Her orgasm rose, quick and breathtaking. He was thrusting faster and harder, his hips straining against hers, trapping her hand between them.

Then he lowered his forehead to hers, so their noses touched and their lips hovered just a breath away.

“You undo me,” he whispered.

Those simple words sent her flying straight over the edge. Her orgasm flashed and then came in wave after wave, pleasure coursing through her veins like a potent drug. She arched into him, straining to get closer. And then she cried out his name just before he claimed her lips again, sucking her breath into his mouth.

His hips crashed down, his body driving relentlessly into hers. She swallowed his hoarse cry as his release tumbled over him. And then finally he came down over her, his weight pressing her into the bed.

She pulled her hand free and wrapped both arms around him, stroking up and down his back as he shuddered with the last of his release.

He buried his face in her neck and she could feel his hot breaths against her skin.

“So damn beautiful,” he murmured just below her ear. “Don’t know how I’ll ever walk away from you.”

She went silent, some of her euphoria evaporating. No, she wasn’t expecting anything permanent or anything crazy like commitment from him. But neither did she want him speaking of walking away when he was buried deep inside her, his body completely blanketing her.

“Then don’t go,” she whispered.

He pressed a kiss to her neck and then rolled to the side, slipping free from her body. When he got up to discard the condom, she reached down, testing for any sign of wetness or evidence that the condom had broken. But she felt nothing more than her own moisture.

Maybe the other was a fluke. Maybe it didn’t break at all and maybe she wasn’t pregnant. She wouldn’t know for sure until those results came back. And if he planned on staying a while, it was likely he’d still be here when she got the results. Then, if she was indeed pregnant, she’d tell him face to face. It certainly wasn’t news she wanted to deliver over the phone or by having a message passed along to him by Sam, Garrett or Donovan.

Satisfied that if he was hanging around he’d be there when she got the results back, she shoved the matter from her mind and focused instead on the gorgeous male specimen crawling back into her bed with a fresh condom in his hand.

Yeah, she liked a man who came prepared, and she was going to enjoy using every damn one of those condoms.

CHAPTER 10

MAREN woke from a dreamy fog that surrounded her. She was utterly sated, her body deliciously sore. Parts of her still throbbed and she stretched experimentally only to collide with a hard male form.

She turned her head, instantly seeing a muscled chest. She was lying flat on her back and Steele was on his side facing her, his leg and arm thrown possessively over her body. She let out a sigh and his eyes opened. He regarded her lazily, making no effort to loosen his hold on her.

“Good morning,” he murmured.

“What time is it?” she whispered.

“Oh six hundred.”

She groaned.

His eyebrow went up. “Everything okay?”

She grimaced. “No. I have to get up and get showered. My patients start showing up at the clinic at around seven. Sometimes earlier. It’s first come, first served, and so they line up early and wait for me to open.”

“Want some help?”

She blinked, not knowing what to say. She wasn’t entirely certain what he’d planned to do while she was working or if he’d even planned to stay. They hadn’t discussed it other than his saying he was taking some downtime. That could mean anything. Maybe she was just a stop on his way to somewhere else.

“Uh sure, if you want to come hang out at the clinic, I’d love the company.”

“You jump in the shower first. I’ll wash up after you’re done. Do we have time for breakfast? I’ll see what I can rustle up while you shower.”

Okay, this was not Steele. Aliens had descended and taken over his body. Or maybe he’d been cloned. But this was not the Steele she knew at all. He sounded positively domestic.

“What’s that look for?” he asked.

“You have to give me some time to process this, Steele. I mean, the first night was unexpected enough, and you made no bones about the fact that it was a onetime deal, you wouldn’t be calling and you were working me out of your system. Next thing I know, you’re back, we have hot monkey sex all night long and then you want to come hang out with me at the clinic after cooking me breakfast. Are you seeing why I’m a little befuddled here?”

The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Hot monkey sex? Is that what you call it?”

She rolled her eyes. “Trust you to ignore everything in my statement except the sex part.”

“It’s the most important point,” he said smugly.

She stared balefully at him, waiting for him to expound.

He gave an exaggerated sigh. “If you want an explanation, I can’t give you one because I have no idea what the hell is going on either. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. It was bad enough before we actually had sex, but after? I haven’t thought of anything else but you, and it’s fucking with my focus. So now I’m here, and I’m liking being here a hell of a lot, and I’d like to hang out with you at the clinic because I came to see you, and if you’re there and I’m here, I won’t see you. And if I help out, maybe you’ll get done quicker and we can go back to having that hot monkey sex you’re talking about.”

“Well, all righty then. I guess that about covers it all. You go make breakfast. I’ll hit the shower and then we’ll go to work.”

He leaned over and kissed her thoroughly. “It’s a plan then.”

* * *

HAVING Steele at the clinic made for an interesting day. Not to mention he was terrific with her patients. She’d spent much of the morning gawking at just how good he was with the children. And the women as well. At first, they were intimidated by him, but in no time at all, they warmed up to his gruff personality and the children all clamored for his attention.

It was hard not to picture him with his own child. A child she could very well be pregnant with. She caught herself drifting off several times and then jerking herself back to the patient she was treating.

Seeing Steele in a nonprofessional capacity when he wasn’t Steele the team leader, but rather Steele the ordinary, not-so-superhuman badass was . . . eye-opening. Not that he was lacking in any way, but she was accustomed to his stern exterior and seeing him locked behind his warrior armor. The Steele she’d seen not once but twice now was challenging every preconceived notion she’d ever formed about him.

He was approachable. Suddenly very human and not the machine other members of KGI only half-jokingly called him.

She was drawn to the badass Steele, but the Steele she had been treated to the last two times they’d been together? Utterly irresistible.

She was in deep, deep trouble. Apart from any pregnancy concerns, she was fast falling under his spell, and that was the dumbest thing she could do. He wasn’t relationship material. Hell, he’d been brutally honest about not liking the fact that she was under his skin. He didn’t want her there and he didn’t want to be sexually attracted to her. After he was satisfied, he’d be gone again, and she’d likely never see him again unless his team needed her services.

Which made her an even bigger idiot for agreeing to do this with him. Spend time, have sex, have a cozy, almost romantic breakfast for two. Him in her kitchen, shirtless, wearing only a pair of jeans she’d never seen him in, and day-um he looked mouthwateringly delicious in those jeans. They beat the hell out of the fatigues he always wore, although he made camo look pretty damn good.

If she had any self-preservation, she’d stay the hell away from him and not let him come and go on a whim when he got the urge to exorcise her from his system. So she was an idiot. Because she had no intention of denying him anything, even knowing this road was going to lead to heartbreak.

Steele poked his head into the exam room where she was finishing up bandaging an animal bite on a child’s leg.

“I just put the last patient in the second exam room. The waiting area is clear. Want me to close down while you work the last one?”

She uttered a wistful sigh. How nice it was to work in tandem as they had today. Things had gone so much smoother with his help in organizing the patients, finding out histories and doing triage for her. His company had been a great comfort to her today. She liked it. Liked him being here in her space, her world. She was seeing a side of him she hadn’t known existed because she’d never seen him outside the realm of KGI and his missions.

“Yeah, check outside to make sure no one else is coming or has arrived. If it’s clear, lock up and we’ll let the last patient out when I’m done.”