“Royce... oh... ah…” She rose up on her elbows. ”Stop. This is unfair.”

He slid two fingers inside her and lifted his head. “You don’t want me to stop.” He licked her up and down. “Do you?”

“This is torture... oh hmmmm... you’re...”

“What was in your head when you came out of the bathroom?” he asked again, swirling her cl*t with his tongue.

“I... okay.” He pumped into her, stroked her. “Ah... okay… I’ll tell you. Just please don’t stop and I’ll tell you... after.” Her head dropped to the cushion. Royce sucked and licked her, his hand covering her breast, teasing her nipple. His finger pumped in her like he planned to do with his c**k again, and very soon. And when she spasmed around his fingers, he licked her and lavished her with soft caresses of his tongue until she collapsed, panting from release.

He settled her leg down beside him, and eased up her body. “I really need you inside me right now,” she whispered.

“No condom,” he said, unable to resist pressing the thick ridge of his erection in the silk heat of her sex. “And you owe me an explanation.”

“I’m on the pill, “she said. “So please. Now. I need you.”

A strange feeling expanded in his chest with the understanding that she’d been on the pill for her ex, for another man. Something possessive and uncomfortable that he’d never felt before. Something that made him need to feel her, to claim her.

He slid off the couch and took her with him, turning her to face the cushion, and spreading her sex with his fingers to enter her. He drove into her, hard and deep, when he’d never taken the ‘pill’ explanation from another woman. But she wasn’t another woman, and she wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever known. He wrapped his arm around her, squeezed her br**sts and pressed his lips to her ear.

“What happened when you came out of the bathroom?”

“Nothing,” she panted. “I just... wanted you.” She gasped as he sped his pace, pumping and thrusting, and twisting her nipple roughly.

She covered his hand with hers, dropped her head against him. “Oh God. It... you... I’m...” Her tight little sex grabbed a hold of him and squeezed.

He exploded inside her, groaning loudly with the force of it. Shaking until she had all he had to give, every last pump and drop of him.

When finally they were quiet, he didn’t let her go. He held her there. “Now, tell me.”

She buried her face in her hands. “There’s nothing to tell.”

He pulled out of her and grabbed his shirt, turning her to face him and giving it to her to dry off. He pressed his hands on the couch on either side of her, framing her body with his. “Talk to me, Lauren.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I’ve told you before. The truth. Say what you feel.”

“Confused. I feel confused. You went from one night stand to my private bodyguard.”

“You were never a one night stand to me, Lauren. But maybe that’s the problem. This has gone way farther than you wanted it to.” He started to move away. Damn, this woman had a hold on him that he didn’t understand.

She grabbed his arm. “No. No. It’s not that. I... I just don’t understand what we’re doing.”

“I thought we were getting to know each other. Apparently, I’m helping you work another man out of your system by way of sex.”

“Oh God, no, Royce. No. There isn’t anything to work out of my system.”

“He hurt you and messed with your head.”

“He did. You’re right. That doesn’t mean I’m using you. It means,” she inhaled and let in out, “it means you scare me. If this is just sex then I need it to just be sex. Clearly. Cut and dry. I don’t want to mix it in with conversation and pretend fluff to feel better about that.”

There it was. The truth. What she really felt, and he was damn glad she’d told him, that she hadn’t played games. That she had honesty in her. And what was he doing? Hiding things from her, lying to her. Anything he said to her now, she’d question later and he knew it. But he was in too deep to turn back. If he confessed, she’d kick him out, push him away, and he’d struggle to protect her.

Royce kissed her and then pushed her away to stand up and grab his pants. He stepped into them, and she blinked at him, looking dazed and confused. He yanked the blanket off the floor and crossed back to her, wrapping it around her and squatting in front of her.

“I need you covered before I try to prove to you this isn’t just sex. I want you, Lauren. I tried to resist and I was weak and if you sit there na**d I’ll be weak all over again. There’s something going on between us, and I know it’s happening fast, but I’m not sure there’s any other way two people as drawn to each other as we are can do things. This is new territory for me. I’m not the stay-the-weekend kind of guy, Lauren, but you have to kick me out if you want me to leave.”

“Because you’re trying to protect me. You’re law enforcement. It’s your nature.”

Those words punched him in the gut, because he knew they were a preview of what was to come, what she would think when he finally confessed his deal with her father.

“I have a staff,” he said. “I have resources. If I felt some obligation to protect you, I could put surveillance on you and you’d never know it.” He traced the delicate line of her jaw. “I’m here because I want to be. Because I thought you wanted me to be.”