Cash strained his ears toward the sound as he rushed to the door. A quick check of the peephole revealed a man in a hotel uniform shoved against the opposite wall. The man holding him was one of Hawk’s.

Cash didn’t holster his Glock as he yanked the door open. “What the hell is going on out here?”

“This is a reporter,” Hawk’s man said. “Caught him trying to slide a microphone under the door.”

Cash glanced down at the snakelike apparatus lying across the carpet. It was small, thin. He yanked it off the ground and studied it. Sure enough, on the end of the snake was a small receiver.

The man against the wall didn’t look apologetic at all. Though he did look measurably concerned that he was being held against his will by a man with a weapon.

“What the hell do you want?” Cash demanded.

“A story,” the reporter said.

“So you’d listen in on private conversations between a man and his wife?”

“It’s nothing personal. It’s news.”

“What outlet are you with?”

“Star TV.”

Star-fucking-TV. Nothing but a gossip rag in television form. The kind of network that gossiped about everything from which star was being dumped to who’d gained weight and who was paying off God and everyone not to give away a secret. Vile shit, mostly, and little of it true.

If Star TV had found their room, well, it was probably time to move on.

Hawk came striding down the hall, looking pissed as hell. Gina wasn’t with him, which was a good thing considering who this scummy bastard represented. Guess Ella had figured out the phone after all. Smart girl, his princess.

His princess?

Cash shook that thought away. Nope, not his princess. Just a smart, sexy, bookish princess. Don’t forget the porn, a little voice whispered.

God, he was trying really, really hard—jeez, don’t say hard—to forget the porn. The fact that she’d watched it and she was both worldly and virginal at the same time. How the hell did that happen in this society?

Hawk grilled the man while Cash dragged his mind back to the problem at hand.

“Get him out of here,” Hawk growled when he was satisfied.

“Yes, boss.”

“Hey, what about my equipment?” the man wailed as the security guard frog-marched him down the hall.

“Trespassing, buddy. We’re keeping it.”

“I’ll sue!”

The guard didn’t even slow down. “Do you really want to get into a pissing contest over this shit? I’m not thinking the casino will take this kind of thing lightly, you know? Spying on guests, invading their privacy…”

The grumbling and arguing continued as the two men disappeared down the hall. Hawk turned to Cash.

“Is Ella okay?”

“She’s probably a little scared, but otherwise she’s fine. I made her lock herself in the bathroom and call you.” He drew in a breath. “I think I need to get her out of here. Back to DC and a somewhat normal existence.”

“I don’t disagree. You won’t be as visible there. HOT will make sure she’s protected until the attention dies down. And if you need me, I’ll be there too.”

“I appreciate that. You and Gina have done so much already. I don’t know how to thank you.”

Hawk shrugged. “We’re family. Once HOT, always HOT. I’ll have your back and you’ll have mine. It’s what we do.”

Yeah, it’s what they did. It was always true of a SEAL team and even truer of the brothers and sisters he’d found in HOT.

“You ever need me, I’m there,” Cash said.

“Thanks, man.” Hawk nodded his head toward the closed door. “Better go tell your wife the trouble has passed. I’ll let you know what time I can get you out of here. We’re staying for now. Gina has a show in the next couple of days.”

“Yeah, sorry we’ll miss that.” He meant it too, because Ella had been more than a little starstruck over Gina at first. She was a fan and she would have enjoyed the concert. But there’d be more concerts.

Would there?

Not with him, there wouldn’t. Once they got back to DC, Cash didn’t think they’d spend too much time together before they went their separate ways. Even if she was still a virgin, the damage had been done in the eyes of the world. Antonella Rossi was no longer as pure as new snow. Her value as a commodity her relatives could sell had been eroded overnight.

“Next time,” Hawk said.

“Sounds good.”

They parted ways, and Cash went back inside, locking the door behind him. He was thinking about how he and Ella would live in his apartment for the next week or so—thank God there was a spare bedroom now his roommate had gotten married—when something came flying at his head. He barely saw it in time to duck, but he managed to drop to the floor as the object sailed over and smacked the wall.

A second object—a human object—barreled into him as he pushed upright, knocking him flat again. She was small and fierce, and he rolled her until she was beneath him. He caught both her wrists in one hand and locked them tight to prevent her from breaking away.

“What the fuck, Ella?” he demanded.

She was twisting like a tiger, but she stilled when he spoke. “Cash?”

Her hair covered her face, blinding her as she lay on the floor beneath him. Her chest heaved, her breasts rising and falling with her exertions. The buttons of her shirt strained from the wrestling they’d done, gaping in a couple of places. His dick began to harden.

He pushed her hair aside, revealing a flushed face and flashing eyes. Before he could get a word out, she attacked.

“You didn’t announce yourself,” she accused. “You could have been anyone!”

Cash frowned. Yeah, he’d walked inside and locked the door behind him—but he hadn’t announced himself. Hadn’t told her to come out, that it was safe.

Which meant, dammit, that she’d opened the bathroom door anyway. That she’d thought she could stop whomever broke in and tried to attack her. With a fucking book.

“What the hell were you doing anyway?” he demanded. “You weren’t supposed to come out until Hawk or I told you to.”

Anger seethed in his veins, boiling furiously, scouring his insides. She’d risked her safety. She’d disobeyed.

“I called Hawk. I knew he was coming. What if someone got you, Cash? I was trying to help. I was here to distract him until Hawk arrived.”

He didn’t know what to say. Just didn’t. Fury, frustration—and a healthy dose of lust—rolled through him.

Take her. She’s yours. She wants you.

The voice didn’t stop, and his dick swelled. Any second and she’d know it too.

He dragged his thoughts back to the anger. Propped it in front of his mind’s eye and focused on it. Anger. Danger. Fury. Yes, that’s it. Be pissed. Don’t think about fucking. Don’t think about being balls deep in her tight wetness—

Oh, hell.

He was losing this battle. Losing it so spectacularly that at any minute he was going to start peeling off her clothes and drowning in her gorgeous body.

Fight it, Cash. You’re a damn SEAL!

Yes, he was a SEAL. He could face hardship, deprivation, danger. He could conquer anything he set his mind to. Including the temptation to devirginize a princess. He could most certainly conquer that impulse. He’d been tempted a couple of times to ring the bell during SEAL training, to give up and let the instructors know he was done. That he’d never be good enough.

Only the memory of what waited for him at home if he failed had kept him going. But he had kept going, and he’d conquered his impulses. Surely he could do that now. He could annihilate this one small impulse to thoroughly corrupt Ella body and soul.

She shifted beneath him then, moving her hips, pressing her center against his aching cock.

“Ella, don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Move. Don’t move.”

But she didn’t obey. Of course she didn’t. She arched upward, the contact between them setting off sparks behind his eyelids.

“I can’t help it,” she whispered. “It feels—it feels amazing, Cash.”

He rocked against her, hard as stone. Pressing his cock against that sensitive spot she was trying to gratify. She whimpered and grasped his biceps. Squeezed her fingertips into his muscles so hard he was pretty sure she would leave a mark. If not a physical mark, then a psychological mark he would feel for a long time to come.

“You shouldn’t ask me for this, Princess. It’s getting too hard to keep control. I’m going to snap and do everything you ask—and some things you haven’t thought of—if you aren’t careful.”

Her dark eyes searched his. “That’s what I keep hoping, Cash. I want it to be you. Not because I love you, but because I know you’ll do it right.”

No virgins, his brain said. Why not? his heart asked.

Ella wasn’t like other women. She was logical and levelheaded. She wasn’t going to get tangled up over him. And he wasn’t going to get tangled up over her. They were married, but it was an arrangement. They both knew it. And if she left the arrangement with a little knowledge about how to please a man, how bad would that be?

Besides, what if he didn’t touch her and she chose a guy later who thought she was more experienced than she was simply because she’d watched porn? What if she didn’t tell the truth and that guy hurt her when he took her virginity? Ella didn’t deserve an awful experience. She deserved to be initiated with skill and patience, brought to orgasm again and again before she took that ultimate step.

He had the control for it. The patience. He could make it good for her. When she moved on to someone else, she’d know what to expect. What to demand.

Maybe he’d been thinking about this all wrong. Maybe he owed it to her to make sure she had a good experience.

Yes, that’s right. He was a fucking philanthropist. Santa Claus, but with sex instead of presents.

He dropped his lips to her neck, ghosted along her skin until he reached her ear. She shuddered beneath him, her fingers curling into him again. Her breath hitched and a growl of possession rolled through him.

“I give up, Ella. You win.”

---

She won?

Ella blinked, confused for a moment—but then his mouth took hers in a hungry kiss and her body melted into the tile beneath her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, lifted her head, and opened her mouth so that his tongue could plunge inside and dance with hers.

It was the kind of kiss that changed a person. A shattering kiss. A soul-grabbing kiss that stole her breath and her sense and turned her into a creature of sensation rather than reason.

“Bed,” he muttered as he dragged his mouth away. “Not on the floor like animals.”

“I don’t care,” she gasped, hugging him tight when he tried to rise. And she didn’t. She simply didn’t want this to end, which she feared it would when he got a little distance between them.

She didn’t know what had happened to make Cash change his mind, but whatever it was, she didn’t want him to change it back again. Or maybe she did, because suddenly she was scared. Just a little bit.

She knew there would be pain when he took her, but she hadn’t thought it would happen. He’d been so adamant, and she’d gotten accustomed to the idea that she couldn’t persuade him. It had perhaps made her bolder than she would have been otherwise.

“Bed,” he said again, untangling her arms from around his neck and climbing to his feet. He pulled her up with him, tugging her against his body. His hands on her hips dragged her in close, let her feel what was waiting for her beneath his clothes.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Princess,” he murmured, cupping her face, his thumbs stroking her cheeks. “I can stop whenever you ask me to.”

She put her hands on his wrists, held them lightly. “Why did you change your mind?”

“Because I’m selfish, Ella. Because I’m aroused and aching and if I don’t do something about it, my balls are going to turn blue. But more than that, I know I can make this good for you. I’m not sure the next guy can, and I don’t want that to happen. You believe I’ll do it right, and I will. You still want me to?”

Ella sucked in a breath. There was only one answer, no matter how hard her heart beat or how hot her skin got. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. But yes, I want you to be the one. I trust you.”

He bent and hooked an arm behind her knees. She squeaked as he swept her up and against him. Then he carried her toward the bed and laid her down on it. He unholstered his weapon and set it on the night table before he followed her down, one knee beside her hip, his body dominating hers as he pressed her down into the mattress.

“Cash,” she breathed as he stretched out on top of her. His palms were beside her head, holding his body up, keeping him from crushing her. His mouth lowered to hers by slow degrees. Too slow, because she lifted her head to close the distance, sighing when their mouths met.

His tongue stroked into her mouth, tangled with hers, left her feeling weak and hot and achy. Her body responded to his kisses with a surge of wetness and an ache deep inside that she’d never quite felt before.

His fingers went to the knot at her waist where she’d tied the shirt, and her heart skipped. He undid the knot quickly, tugging it open, and then he unbuttoned her shirt with one hand, his mouth never leaving hers. He’d shifted to the side, his weight pressing into the mattress beside her, his body still partially on top of her but not suffocating her.

When her shirt was unbuttoned, he pushed it wide open, revealing her skin to the cool air circulating in the room. His mouth left hers then, trailed down her neck to her collarbone and then farther down to the swells of her breasts. She threaded a hand through his hair and rubbed it between her fingers. She liked that she could touch him freely now.

He made a noise of approval—at least she thought it was approval, as his tongue continued to explore the swell of her breasts. When he dragged one cup down to expose her nipple, her heart throbbed with anticipation.

His eyes met hers over the dusty pink of her nipple. “Beautiful.”

She didn’t think her nipple could get any tighter, but she was wrong. It thrust up toward his mouth, demanding attention.

“No one has ever licked this pretty nipple, have they?”

“No.”

“Touched it?”

“Only me.”

“Show me, Princess.”

“Cash, I don’t think—”

“Show me, honey. I want to do it right for you.”

The heat of shame flared over her skin, but she did as he asked. She closed her thumb and forefinger around her nipple and pinched it softly. Sensation streaked from her nipple to her core. Ella bit her lip and tried not to moan. She wasn’t successful.

Cash’s eyes were heated as he watched. Instead of taking over, he dragged the cup from her other nipple.

“Keep touching yourself, Princess,” he said. And then he stuck out his tongue and licked the tip of her aching flesh.

Ella gasped. Liquid heat flowed between her thighs. Her pussy tightened as if he were touching that instead of her breast. Every lick of his tongue over her nipple made a corresponding ache happen down below.

She thought she might die of pleasure simply from his hot tongue licking around her tight flesh—but then he sucked the little bud into his mouth. Sweet pleasure spiked through her body at every tug and pull. And when he lightly nibbled her tight peak?

Heaven.