Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

her hair, keeping her steady under the hot assault of his mouth. All while his hard, lean body pressed against hers.

When his tongue touched her lips, she opened them for him, greedily. She threw everything she had into that kiss. Somehow she felt braver than she had learning hand-to-hand self-defense. She felt stronger than when she was shooting his gun. The kiss was better than everything that had happened to her for far too long in her life.

He was strong, and he was sure, and she wanted all of that. All of him. She wanted the way it curled inside of her, pleasure and light, breathlessness and a kind of steadiness she didn’t know existed.

“I can’t be doing this.” But he said it against her mouth, as though he had no intention of stopping. She didn’t want to have any intention of stopping. She didn’t want to stop until this aching need inside her was completely and utterly obliterated.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, arching against the hard wall that was him, and somehow she felt powerful and in control, even as the need and desire ping-ponged through her completely and utterly out of control.

No matter how wrong it was, no matter how little they should do it. It was what she wanted, and didn’t she deserve a little bit of what she wanted? What she wanted without worrying about if her choices were furthering her investigations into Gabby’s disappearance. Her whole life had come to center around Gabby, and this had nothing to do with it except that she and Vaughn were in the same place at the same time.

Oh, and he’s trying to work to help you find your sister and keep you safe.

She wasn’t sure who pulled away first. She would’ve expected it to be Vaughn, but the insidious voice in her head that was telling her this was a betrayal of her sister and her quest to find Gabby made her pause just as much as him coming to his senses probably caused him to pause.

“I apologize. I apologize. This has gotten out of control. It is all my fault. I’m sorry. That was...”

“Really great?” she interjected, pressing her fingers to her kiss-swollen lips. Really, really great. Had anyone ever kissed her like that? With that searing intensity she didn’t think... Even if that was all it ever was, she’d never forget it.

He glanced at her then, and for the first time his eyes were very, very blue. The gray had diminished, and the blue that was left was warm, and she felt like that meant something. That it could mean something, anyway.

“I’ve never...” He cleared his throat and squared his shoulders, slowly coming back to Ranger Cooper. All business, no pleasure. All by the book, conventional, Vaughn Cooper, Texas Ranger.

What a shame.

“This was a mistake. While I freely admit that I am physically attracted to you, any involvement between us could only cause problems with this case. I know how much this case means to you. It means a lot to me as well. This has gone unsolved too long, all of it, and I need to get to a point where I’m solving things. So, this can’t happen again.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to determine how to change his mind. Except, she knew he was right. Any kind of romantic thing between them could only get in the way of this case that was so important to both of them.

She could keep flirting with him, and pushing his buttons, and wanting more, but the bottom line was everyone involved would be hurt.

There was a selfish part of her that didn’t want to care. For the first time in so long, she didn’t want to care. It had been so long since she’d put her wants or needs ahead of someone else’s, except in her want and need to find Gabby.

“Say something,” Vaughn said, his voice that rough, ragged thing that shivered across every last nerve ending in her body.

Now she knew what it felt like to have that firm, unrelenting mouth on hers. Surprisingly soft, though unsurprisingly demanding. It felt like a reprieve from the harsh realities of where they were and what they had to do. The harsh reality of the possibility of this case remaining unsolved, and she could remain in danger, and her questions about Gabby could never be answered.

It was silly and awful to be concerned about a kiss. To be wrapped up in it and want more of it. Her whole focus should be Gabby until she could find her. She was closer than she’d ever been. To get distracted by Vaughn now...

“I don’t know what to say,” she finally managed to get out. Which was the truth. She didn’t know what to say to him when so much of what she wanted was simply to forget, to lose herself in a kiss and more, and not think or fear.

At a time when they probably didn’t have the luxury of forgetting much of anything. At any point someone could burst into this cabin and take out both of them. They could pretend that she was learning how to shoot a gun in self-defense all they wanted, but the bottom line was those things only worked when you had a warning, when you knew what was coming.

“You’re just a little mixed up because I saved you, so to speak. It’s a little case of rescue wor—”

“No,” she snapped, most of the want cooling into irritation. No surprise he could flick it off like a switch. “I’m not stupid, and I’m not mixed up. You are the one who kissed me. I didn’t initiate that. Don’t insult me that way. I know my feelings, and I know why I kissed you back. It has zero to do with rescue worship, you arrogant jerk.”

“I only meant...”

“No, I don’t want to know what you meant. You kissed me. Accept that. Or should I worry that you’re just mesmerized by my