Paige gave him a worried look on the way up to his room. Once inside, he just stood there, face stinging and throbbing from the blows. Clenching his jaw, the intensity of his emotions threatening to overtake what he knew, what he damn well knew to be true about his dad. His mind and heart reeling. Anderson and Blondie tried their best. Both of them were former CIA and they fought like pansies.

But the CIA’s strength was always their mindfucks. He didn’t want to let Anderson get into his head. He knew who his father was, and he didn’t have to listen to some asshole trying his best to get at him through his connection with his father. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The pain of his father’s death, his loss felt in every aspect of Kid’s life spun on its axis and came back at him with even more pain. Commitment. Was that all tied up in this somehow? Was he not committed to the people in his life? To the SEALs? His gut tightened.

He reached for his duffel, but Paige’s hand clasped his wrist. “Sit down,” she murmured.

He turned to look at her, and it struck him right in the solar plexus that Mia would never have done this. She would have been passive, following his lead. Caitlin as well. They didn’t challenge him, ever.

But Paige did. Every step she had a mind of her own. He didn’t like to think he ever felt fear, but if there was fear, and he wasn’t admitting to it, it came from clashing with a strong woman who would make him look harder and deeper.

Hell, this woman scared the crap out of him. But, with that and the doubts, he still wanted her.

Maybe all this time, all this damn time he’d never been committed, fully committed. His recklessness was his way of flipping his finger at the world that had taken his father, and he dared it to take him. Did he have a secret death wish? Was his military service nothing but a means to an end? Did he want to go out in a blaze of glory like his father so that, deep down, he would feel worthy of his sacrifice, his service, him as a man? Did he have to die for it to matter?

Did he pick weak women like Caitlin, superficial women like Mia on purpose? Did he even know what to do with a strong woman like Paige?

If he didn’t face these fears, these truths, would he die inside? Die on the battlefield? Was it possible to have a life after this was over, this turmoil and pain? Anger and fear trapped with nowhere to go. He would have to forge a path if he was strong enough.

As these thoughts streaked through his head, she tugged on his wrist. “Come on. Sit down.”

He let her lead him over to the chair in the room. He sat down, lost in his thoughts again. Next thing he knew, she was pressing a cold, wet washcloth against his bruised face, wiping away the blood and soothing the pain.

With every tender touch, she quieted the ache in his core.

Slipping her fingers along his jaw to his chin, she lifted it so he would look at her. “Are you okay?”

He stared up at her, then wordlessly, he reached out and pulled her down to the chair. She curled onto his lap, wrapping an arm around his neck.

His chest contracted when she smoothed his hair off his forehead, caressing him, supporting him. He inhaled unevenly and turned his face against her soft neck, his body heavy, his muscles slow to respond. Sensation wrenched loose in his chest, and he closed his eyes and rested against her.

“Don’t listen to what Bryant said. He’s such a jerk. Really, Ashe. He was just trying to get at you.”

He swallowed. “I’m okay, Paige.”

She let out a breath that told him she was disappointed with his answer. He owed her more, he knew he did, but right now he was much too raw to open up about it. He needed time to get his shit together. He squeezed his eyes closed. He didn’t want to act like a fool in front of her. Dealing with fear was a new element, something he hadn’t done before.

“Is this macho shit you’re shoveling at me?”

“A man needs to deal with macho shit in his own way.”

“Oh, for the love of God. All right, keep everything bottled up inside. That’ll help.”

“Paige—”

She cut him off. “Don’t Paige me, Ashe. It helps to talk about it.”

“Maybe, but I’m not ready.”

Her voice lost its edge, her expression softening. “I’m sorry. I’m pushing you just like my dad always pushes me. That’s not fair to you. He’s always worked so hard, been so hard on himself. I guess I got that from him.”

She leaned down and softly kissed his mouth. Kid experienced a rush of throat-clogging emotion. Grasping the back of her head, holding her to his lips while his other arm crushed her to him, he kissed her back.

That’s when everything changed and the tenderness turned into something else, something that coalesced into a thick, heavy feeling in his groin, that condensed in the air between them. An out of control, batshit crazy attraction that wouldn’t stay controlled or tame.

His heart jumped into overdrive, pounding so hard that it felt as if it would come through his ribs. With his mind teetering on meltdown, he shouldn’t want this. But he did. It was basic and primal.

Determined.

He already knew how this was going to end from the moment he set eyes on her. He knew they would be naked together. Struggling with the thick surge of desire, he clenched his jaw and rested his forehead against hers, his body painfully engorged. With a breathless catch to her breathing, she rose and dragged him up and to the bed, pulling his shirt out of the waistband of his cargo pants as he toed out of his boots.

This time there would be no brakes, no banter, no stopping.

Paige was already half undressed, going between pulling on his button and zipper to shimmying out of her pants. When she pulled her top over her head, exposing her bra, soft and see-through over her breasts, it was more than he could handle.

He reached for her, pulling at the rest of her clothes as she freed him of his pants and underwear.

She choked out his name and came into his arms. His heart laboring against the frenzy in his chest, he caught her against him and carried her down onto the bed. Heat to heat. Skin to skin. And it was too much. Dragging in a ragged breath, he closed his eyes in a grimace of raw pleasure as she shifted beneath him and opened to him. When he touched her with his fingers, she was hot and moist, so ready. In moments, she was gasping, her cry spurring him on. He wasn’t usually so turned on, he couldn’t wait. He was definitely a foreplay man, but her response, the need to seat himself inside her now was too powerful.

On a ragged groan, he settled himself in the hot cradle of her thighs. And lost himself in her tight, wet heat.

He could feel her tension, the delicious mounting moment when a woman let go. He shifted his hips, and her breath caught on an agonized groan as she clutched him tighter. Kid reveled in the way his dick fit to her, too perfectly, gloved in her warm, moist heat. He moved his hips again, maximizing body contact, and her sharp intake was his reward.

He slowed it down, flexing his hips with slow, deep thrusts. She arched her neck and closed her eyes, the pulse point in her throat beating erratically.

Watching her lovely face, he moved again, and he could feel the tension mount in her. He was so tuned into this woman. He had felt her climax only moments ago, but she was once again in Kid Chaos sensory overload that it would take nothing—nothing—to push her over the edge again.

His fingers tangling in her hair he whispered, “Stay with me babe.” Then moved again. His gaze locked on hers like a heat seeking missile grateful for his honed instincts and his hard, muscled body that he could give her so much pleasure. She clutched his arms, her hands palming his biceps, her eyes glazing even more, and she drew up her knees grazing his hips, her body arching with tension. His breathing turning erratic, he continued to move, watching her respond, her tightness driving him on. She gripped his biceps, nails digging, a desperate look turning her eyes dark and feral. On a fragmented moan, she twisted her head, and he felt her contract hard around him, her release shuddering through her. Feeling as if something wild and unbearably beautiful had been set loose, he closed his eyes and gathered her up in a fierce embrace, experiencing feelings that went far beyond sexual.

It took several moments for her to come back down to earth, and he grasped her by the back of the neck, holding her tight and secure. Finally, she shifted under him, letting go a long shaky breath.

Her hands travelled to his shoulders as she turned her face against his neck, licking, biting, and kissing him until he gathered her hair in his hand and wrapped it around his wrist, pulling gently.

Paige whispered, “Ashe,” as she locked her legs around him, her movements urging him on, and Kid crushed her against him, white-hot desire rolling over him. Angling his arm across her back, he drove into her again and again, pressure building and building. A low guttural sound tore from him, and his release came in a blinding rush that went on and on, so powerful he felt as if he was being turned inside out. He wanted to let it wash over him, but he forced himself to keep moving in her, knowing she was on the verge again. She cried out and clutched at his back, then went rigid in his arms, and she finally convulsed around him, the gripping spasms wringing him dry.

His heart hammering, his breathing so labored he felt almost dizzy, he weakly rested his head against hers, his whole body quivering. The thin air hadn’t messed with his equilibrium, but this sweet babe was spinning him on his axis. He felt as if he had been wrenched in two.

He didn’t know how long he clutched her, breathing around the pleasure she’d given him and the aftermath of having her.

He was aware of her toying with his hair at his nape, then periodically running her palms up and down his back. Sex was always good, even bad sex was good, but this... He couldn’t really catalog this into anything but fantastic. He buried his face in her neck, kissing her collarbone, nuzzling her, getting her scent all over him. A feeling of overwhelming protectiveness rose up in him. He couldn’t let her go. Not yet.

Fuck, not yet.

He didn’t know how long they lay like that. Hauling in an unstable breath, he turned his head and kissed her on the mouth, her face flushed, her eyes sated. “We’d better get out of here before they come banging on the door.”

She nodded and tightened her arms around him. Sharply aware of her body so warm and slender underneath him, he cursed the fact he had to move at all. He wanted to lose himself in her again. This was…different from all the other times he’d been with a woman, any woman…it threw him, but he fought his instinct to withdraw. This wasn’t meaningless sex, he knew what that was. He’d engaged in it enough the last few…fuck. He popped up, his heart pounding. Protection. He hadn’t even thought about it.

“Paige, fuck.” He raised his head. “What a cluster.”

“What?” Her body stiffened at what must be an alarmed look on his face.

“I didn’t use anything to…protect you.”

“Oh, God. We…you…I…you’re right, but I’m on the pill.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “I just wanted in. I wasn’t thinking.”

“I wanted you in and neither was I.”

“I’m clean. Damn, I always take precautions. We have to take tests in the military all the time.”

She nodded. “I don’t doubt that. You wouldn’t ever compromise me in any way.”

“I wouldn’t.” Hit with a rush of affection for this beautiful woman, he nestled her tighter against him, stroking along her body, needing the feel of her against his hand. He felt her shiver again and melt around him, his heart rolled over.

After a long moment, he pushed up. “We’d better go,” he said, his voice low.

This time he went to his knees and backed off the bed. He reached out his hand, and she clasped it. He pulled her up and hugged her against him. She took a deep breath, then withdrew from his hold, reaching for her clothes. He wanted to watch her, but he looked away and got dressed in silence. He stuffed his shirt into his cargo pants, then went over to her, silently brushing her hands aside. He finished doing up the buttons on her shirt, then helped her into her jacket. Tucking her hair behind her ear, he tipped her face up and met her eyes, caressing her cheek. She smiled. Then he grabbed his duffel and packed up.

He wasn’t quite sure where he was going to go. This was a nice central location, and he wished he could shove his fist into Anderson’s face again for getting him kicked out.

Before they left the room, he crowded her against the door. Trying to sort through all these pesky feelings. With the rawness that Anderson rubbed open, he covered her mouth with a soft, searching kiss, trying to find a way to close up a wound he’d thought had healed a long time ago.

“I thought we had to go. So get going, Wilder.”

He tightened his hold on her jaw, his tone commanding as he whispered against her mouth, “Don’t tell me what to do unless you’re naked.”

Her breath caught, but she yielded to the pressure of his thumb, and Kid adjusted the alignment of his mouth against hers, deepening the kiss with slow, lazy thoroughness. Working his mouth softly, slowly against hers, he enjoyed her, probing the moist recesses, savoring the taste of her. Her breath caught again; her response as unrestrained as his, and he grasped the back of her head, her hair tangling like silk around his fingers. His chest tightening, he massaged the small of her back, and he felt her muscles go slack as if he had released the rigid tension inside her.

When he let her go, she said huskily, “Come stay with me.”

Kid just couldn’t argue.

* * *

Paige couldn’t seem to get her head around what had happened between them. As they walked toward her house, he reached out and clasped her hand. Not exactly what she thought a temporary boyfriend would do. She bit her lip and tightened her grasp. Damn, but she liked him so very much. The sex they’d shared, mindless and out of control was something that she had never experienced before. Ashe was…special, and she knew it. She just wasn’t sure how everything would work out.

Anderson had hurt him, and she wasn’t referring to the physical. He’d just tarnished Ashe’s hero. He was processing. She worked with men long enough, lived with them long enough to know when they were in denial. She wanted him to open up to her in the worse way, showing her that he was getting as lost in this thing between them as she was.

But she had her own demons, and they were tied to her own dad. Something she could easily deny and hide her head in the sand, but Ashe’s struggle with his own pain made her feel small and petty for not facing up to her own internal musings.

Her life had revolved around work for so long, she couldn’t really see where she fit in a future that included something different. But when Atticus graduated from high school, he was going into the Navy…into BUD/S. Ashe would be such a great role model for him.

She bit her lip again. What the hell was she thinking? She was getting ahead of herself. Ashe was a SEAL, and he had told her he wasn’t good with relationships, had said he was gone almost all the time. She didn’t think she would like that. She glanced over at him, so handsome, charming, and freaking adorable.

All she wanted to do was kiss him again, losing sight of the future or the past. Right now seemed so damn important.

“Do you know where I can get a knife around here.”

She turned to look at him. “I guess it would be prudent to have you armed. There are always ways to get anything you want.”

“You have a permit to carry that Glock?”

“Yes, it’s already been sanctioned by the government. They know I’m here and only that I’m searching for suspects in the MP murders. The Navy doesn’t want to broadcast information about the arms. We might be able to procure you a sidearm.”

He gave her a half-smile, a slight up-turn of his mouth. “All I need is the knife. Usually when the shooting starts, there’s plenty of weapons to be had. I’ll just procure one of those.”

Okay, more shivers and was it kinky that she was so turned on by his badass, boy wonder confidence?

She took him to the market and they bought a wicked looking tactical piece of steel that was nothing but a killing tool. He paid extra for the sheath. When they reached her house and they stepped in the foyer, she knew her way around her cozy little place in the dark. But she dropped her key on the foyer table, the ping of it barely registering.

She could feel him in every pore of her body as he closed and locked the door, dropped the duffel. She’d never lived with a man like him. It had only been her father and brothers. It galled her that she still lived with them.

He pressed her up against the wall as if he was trying to climb inside her, the crazy sexual tension that had been brewing between them since she’d laid eyes on him ratcheting up. She’d forgotten about the danger of exposure, about the fact that this was one complicated mess, about…what the hell was she thinking about…her train of thought just derailed—crashed, twisted metal, chaos.

Her hand slid up his amazing torso, up his heated, strong-muscled back to the nape of his neck. Burrowing into all those thick, dark waves, so soft, so the opposite of him. He pressed his hips into hers, growling just a little as she tightened her fist and pulled his hair.

He fit perfectly between her legs. She pushed back as she clutched at his head to keep his mouth on hers, cradling the hard bulge pressing there. She knew what that hard part of him felt like deep inside her.

He dueled with her tongue, controlling the kiss as he drew his thumbs along her jawline, before sliding his fingertips down the length of her neck to her collarbone. Now it was her turn to groan as he efficiently popped the clasp to her bra, his palm following so fast, the tactile feel of him cupping her breast making her moan. He broke the kiss and started to leave a trail of kisses and nips along her jaw, around to the skin below her ear, setting off fireworks popping all over her body.

The memory of what he had done when he’d saved her from going over that cliff made her want to get closer to him. The strength of him was overwhelming, the power in his upper body and his legs turned her on. She’d drawn herself closer to him, all but laminating herself to the length of his body, pure, unadulterated reaction to the anchor who had pulled her from the jaws of death by sheer physicality and mental determination. The closer she’d gotten to him, the tighter he’d held on to her, but whether that was for her sake or his, she didn’t know. He’d felt like he’d been falling apart, and she hadn’t been in any better shape. If he hadn’t been there, she would have no future to contemplate, and it had weighed on her ever since. How much time had she wasted? Working herself to death—was that any way to live? But how disappointed would her dad be in her if she lost this promotion over being stupid when it came to a man, letting Ashe derail her from her duty? She was undercover and on the job. This wasn’t her vacation.

But there was so much Ashe, so much Kid Chaos piling up on her, over her, around her. The way he had so fearlessly walked right into her weapon and kissed her, turned her on even more. She was melting, her sex tingling where his fingers had only been just a short walk ago. Lifting his free hand up to her face, he gently brushed the backs of his knuckles against her flushed cheek before threading his fingers through her hair and curling them around the nape of her neck. He drew her face closer to his, and the last thing she caught was the blue fire in his eyes. His lips grazed along her jaw, all the way up to her ear.

He pressed his cheek against hers, the electric scrape of his stubble on her soft skin a stirring sensation that heightened the heady danger he posed.

“I want to put my mouth on you. Kissing you with long, slow, deep-tongue-swirling kisses. Hard sucking kisses against that place that makes you cry out my name. Then, when you’re wet and soft and ready for me, I’d slide deep, deep inside you,” he murmured, his breath warm and damp against her ear. “I’d fuck you slowly, make it last so I can savor everything about how you feel, inside and out…how hot and tight you are, the way you moan when I thrust high and hard, and the way your soft breasts and hard nipples feel rubbing against my chest. But, there’s nothing more exquisite than the way you feel gripping my dick as I come.”

She’d never been with a man who was like this…a dirty-talker. Most of them did the deed with the lights out and in one position. But she had a feeling, Ashe “Kid Chaos” Wilder was much more creative, much wilder than that.

She’d been in tough places before, and this most definitely didn’t count.

Hell, who was she kidding? She was in so much danger right now.

She shivered, and with his fingers tangled through her hair, he gently tugged her head back so their gazes met once more and their lips were mere inches apart. There was something strangely exciting about being at this man’s mercy, as she currently was. God, she wanted him, with a fierce, powerful kind of need she’d never experienced before.

If she couldn’t get past this thing…this conviction that work was what got her attention, recognition, everything she craved, then she was looking at one lonely, empty life…like her dad who had never moved on after her mother left.

With her own mouth poised so close to his, she issued a challenge to get exactly what she desired. “That’s some great talk. Let’s see some action.”

“Paige,” he whispered, his voice husky with what she already knew as he roughly took her mouth with his. How could they want each other so much after just having each other less than half an hour ago? “Your bedroom. I want to get naked and tell you what to do.”

* * *

Security was tight at the warehouse, but Cris knew the code. It seemed that Bryant and his two lackeys had left. Cris had to know what he was dealing with here and how bad it was. Closing the door softly behind him, he carefully avoided the guard they’d left behind. He slipped into the cavernous warehouse, the silhouette of bikes in a row in need of various repair were easy to see from the light streaming in from the long windows alongside each wall. He wended his way through metal shelves until he came out to an open area. Two big double doors at the end of the storage area were closed, but they were big enough to drive a semi through.

His heart lurched in his chest when he saw the crates, hundreds of them stacked everywhere, but what caught his eye were the ones set on a table that looked like they were brand new. One lid was off the container closest to him. His heart in his throat, he looked over his shoulder to make sure the coast was clear. He walked quickly over to the table. He peered inside and his gut clenched.

Reaching into the box, he pulled out a rifle, the stock was collapsible. He wasn’t any kind of soldier, had never served, but he knew a military grade rifle when he saw one. Looking over his shoulder, he took a picture of it, then the boxes around him.

“Slow down, man,” Bryant’s booming voice echoed through the warehouse. Cris ran and ducked behind a large stack of boxes. He knelt down, his heart in his throat.

“Wait. I need to put you on speaker.” He peered out of the shadows and saw Bryant with Dean and Reggie. He set the top on the box and nodded to one of them. “So what is so important?”

A hushed male voice on the other end of the line said, “Plenty. I couldn’t find shit on the girl.”

“What do you mean?”

“The file was too clean. I’m looking into it, but Paige Sinclair is more than what’s in her file.”

“Dig deeper. I need to know what I’m up against.”

“If you were a better judge of character, we wouldn’t be in this mess, Anderson.”

“Yeah, Duffield made a fatal error.”

“I handed that job to you on a silver platter. Easy in and out. Instead, you kill two MPs. You think the Navy is going to look the other way? This is turning into a royal cluster fuck and you’re the architect. Clean up this goddamned mess.”

“What about Ashe Wilder?”

“More good news. He’s a fucking Navy SEAL, decorated, lethal, and black ops primed. And, Anderson, he’s a sniper. If you don’t want a target on your back or a cold zero in your forehead, eliminate him asap. Those guys don’t stop, and if he finds out we were behind that Coronado job—”

“I can’t do that right now. There are weapons all over the Incachaca and the Tunari mountain range and I’m still salvaging them. We didn’t go to all this trouble for millions in profits for nothing, not to mention, if someone else discovers those weapons, we’re screwed. There are only the three of us. I can’t get help and jeopardize this op with locals. If Wilder disappears, there will be an investigation.”

“You’re in the Andes, for Christ’s sake, Anderson. Push him off a cliff. Make it look like an accident, take care of the girl, too, just in case. How you’ve survived all these years both in the CIA and out is beyond me. Get it done or I’m washing my hands.” There was an audible beep. “Stand by.”

In the ensuing silence, Cris watched as Anderson wiped his face with his hand. He looked stressed, the scowl on his face intimidating.

“I have a solution for your manpower problem.”

“What?”

“I contacted our buyer. He’s already got boots on the ground. We all will be in the crosshairs if this deal doesn’t go down.”

“I guarantee you I’m not going to be the fall guy for this.”

There was nothing but an ominous click.

Anderson swore, just as the grinding sound of the galvanized doors split and silhouetted in the glow from the sun were several SUV’s with tinted windows. This was like something out of a movie. But his worst fears realized, Cris was certain he didn’t really know Bryant Anderson and that his partner, his friend would carry out his threat to his family. Cris couldn’t let that happen.