Taste Me Deadly (Sensory Ops) (24 page)

Read Taste Me Deadly (Sensory Ops) Online

Authors: Nikki Duncan

Warning:
This book contains a not-so-naive virgin, a pissed-off former cop, lots of frustration, if you know what I mean, and more trouble than either of them know what to do with.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
The Innocent:

“Linc…”

Her voice was soft, sad.

The sympathy in her eyes practically tore him open.

When she lifted a hand to touch his cheek, the very last thing he needed to do was stand there, let her touch him when he was feeling so raw.

Her fingers brushed his skin and he caught her wrist, twisted it behind her back and glared down at her. “Don’t,” he panted, pressing his brow to hers. “Don’t stand there and look at me like that if that’s why you’ve come.”

“It’s not.”

Her voice was steady, gentle as a soft summer rain, but the truth was stamped on her face. “I came down here to have it out with you, the way you went and dumped me, you big ass.” She shoved his shoulder with her free hand, then her hand curled into his shirt, her fingers kneading at him like a little cat. “I didn’t even know you
had
a daughter.”

The relief that hit him was almost devastating. Head swimming, he collapsed back against the windowsill, clutching her against him. “But you… Morgan…”

“My boss.” She rested her brow against his chest. “I had a feeling there was going to be trouble and she sent Taige here to help me cover my ass. Linc, there are some big-ass problems going on here and I need to know what’s going on with your daughter.”

He stared at her face, her eyes vivid and intent.

The tension, the fear that had been mounting in him for the past hour—more
—
felt like it abruptly drained out of him. A little
pop
practically sounded in his ear and he sagged, hauling her against him, uncaring of the blood that stained her shirt. It didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered.

He had a reprieve.

He was a cop and he knew what the truth was, knew it waited for him.

But that wasn’t why Jay was here.

All that frustration and fear came out of him in a shaking sigh and he slowly lifted his head, stared into her eyes.

Then, focused on just one thing, he nodded. “That’s not why you came.”

She touched his cheek. “No.”

Eyes closed, he pressed his brow to hers. Everything else could wait. He drew her body against his, breathed in the warm, soft scent of her. Right now, this was all that mattered. He could have
one
night where he pushed everything to the side…right?

The shower was made of jet black and jade and gold and it was the last place she’d expected to be.

Her head spinning, off-balance from too little sleep, too much emotion and everything else that was going wrong in this bloody town, Jay reached up, rubbing her temple as Linc locked the door behind her.

“Why are we in here?” she asked, feeling a little stupid as he turned toward her and hunkered down at her feet. “We need to talk.”

“Morning.” That was the only thing he said.

“Morning?” Staring at the crown of his head, she tried to process that word.

Linc leaned in and pressed his lips to her thigh. He found one of those rips in her jeans, his mouth unerringly seeking her flesh. “Do you honestly have anything to tell me that is going to change
anything
that’s going on right now?” he asked, his voice raw. “Because I can’t think of a fucking thing that I can tell you that will change shit.”

Jay blinked, trying to process that question.

Did she have anything…?

Her brain was overloaded. Her senses were strained to the breaking point. Even if he tried to tell her jack and she tried to take it in, she had to have rest before she could do anything more. But they could talk—

His hands pulled her boots away, stroked up her calves. “I didn’t want to hear it,” he muttered, leaning in and pressing his lips to her hip. “I’ve read some of her cases, how she’s closed them and I know, in my gut, that too much time has passed and I didn’t want to hear it. I won’t hear it.” Then he slid up, his hands under her close-fitting shirt, and the shocking feel of his calloused palms on her skin sucked the air right out of her lungs. “I can’t… I just…don’t. If that’s what you are, what you had to tell me…I…fuck, I’m glad that’s not why you’re here.”

Abruptly, he stood up and yanked the shirt off. She blinked, startled. Head spinning, she braced her hands on the counter at her back and gaped at him as he caught his own shirt and all but tore it away. “Tell me you came for this,” he rasped, bending down and catching her face. “Tell me this matters.”

The words were trapped in her throat, but it didn’t matter because his mouth was on hers, his tongue stealing between her lips.

How could she tell him she’d come for this when she’d never been able to
have
this?

That the feel of hands skimming around her back and pulling her close, like he’d just done, was completely alien?

And completely delightful.

She whimpered as he pressed his mouth to the curve of her neck as his hand cradled the back of her head. “How do you feel?” he muttered, rubbing his lips across hers. “Should I stop?”

Stop?

If he stopped, she was going to cry.

Taste Me Deadly

Nikki Duncan

Under the knife, under the gun…and under no illusion he’ll sacrifice everything for her.

Sensory Ops, Book 5

After five years in Witness Protection, Greycen Craig’s life of careful routine is upended when she learns her sister is the victim in a hit and run, hospitalized, unconscious, and needing a kidney only Grey can give.

Despite warnings that this “accident” is a ruse to draw her out into the open, Grey risks everything to race back to Miami—where she comes face to face with the one man she aches to trust.

FBI agent Liam Burgess thinks he’s prepared for the moment Grey walks into her sister’s hospital room. But the moment the woman who holds his heart appears, his tongue is almost too tied to remember to ask one burning question—why she disappeared in Las Vegas two years ago.

As Grey struggles with what to tell him—everything or nothing—the danger that drove her underground resurfaces, threatening everyone she loves. And the only safe place to run is the arms of the one man she can’t tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Warning: This title contains a hero who knows who he wants and isn't afraid to fight for her and a heroine with secrets she fears hold the power to unravel all their dreams.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

Cincinnati OH 45249

Taste Me Deadly

ISBN: 978-1-61922-066-9

Edited by Tera Kleinfelter

Cover by Kanaxa

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: March 2014

www.samhainpublishing.com