He stared into her beautiful blue eyes, and his chest hurt so damn much. “You don’t want to know why.”
“Meaning, you won’t tell me.” She shook her head. “Then tell me when you officially left the CIA.” Her brow creased as she waited for a response, and he knew his answer would only create more questions.
“July of last year,” he admitted.
“What day?”
Shit. He pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead for a moment before finding her eyes again. “July fifth. That was the day I left.”
Ella looked over at her iPad for whatever reason before returning her attention to him. “Keanu’s character left for love. But then she died. And well, someone killed his dog, and he started killing again. Are you going to start killing again? Because of me? Are you going to become an assassin again?”
He sat next to her, unable to stop himself, but he refrained from reaching for her. “I told you I’m never going back to the Agency, but what I do with Falcon now . . . may result in the loss of life. I can’t make promises I won’t kill again.” He had every intention of killing Zoran and anyone else who posed a threat to Ella. “You need to stop watching these movies. They’re messing with your head.”
“The only one messing with my head is you.” Her words and the sadness in her tone had him reaching for her hand on instinct, but she pulled her palm free of his touch.
The sudden movement caused the comforter to slip down, revealing a skimpy white tank top so sheer that he could make out her breasts perfectly.
All thoughts of movies and assassins fled from Jesse’s mind, and he was now solely focused on his desire to set her on his lap, rip that flimsy material from her body with his bare hands, and fucking worship her breasts.
Was she wearing panties? She’d told him at the hotel in New York that her normal bedroom attire was a tank top and panties. Or just the panties.
He dropped a hand over his crotch and hoped she didn’t notice the erection pushing against his jeans. Fuck.
“Cover yourself up,” he said in a deep, commanding tone. His mind was still playing out the next seconds. And this time, it wasn’t to hurt someone. No, he was calculating what he would do to this woman. How long it would take for him to make her scream his name. To finally be able to devour her pussy like he’d wanted to three years ago and make her come with only his tongue.
“Does it make you uncomfortable seeing me like this?” Her silky tone and the provocative way she spoke had his balls tightening, and he pressed down on his cock with the heel of his hand, trying to control himself.
Jesse slowly slid his gaze from her tits to her full mouth and then to her eyes. “You know what you’re doing to me, Ella Mae,” he gritted out harshly.
“Then let’s get that kiss out of the way. It’s meaningless to me, but if you want our first kiss to happen in private before our last one in public tomorrow, then so be it.”
Oh, this woman. She was evil right now. Tempting. But the little vixen had every right to torture him. And hell if he didn’t find himself getting off on her attitude. He’d need to relieve his tension, so he didn’t punch a wall after this.
But damn that mouth. Such a naughty girl. He could see it wrapped around his cock. See her on her knees with his fists in her hair while she took every inch of him.
“Kiss me. Get it over with.” She was using anger to hide her nerves, and he knew it.
“If a kiss is so meaningless, why wouldn’t you let me do it in New York?” He gave his aching cock one firm squeeze over the material of his pants, and he didn’t bother to hide what he was doing.
Her eyes latched on to the movement, and the tip of her tongue peeked out from between her lush lips.
“Why didn’t you let me spread your legs and swipe my tongue along your p—”
“I hate you,” she bit out, equal amounts of lust and loathing burning brightly behind those blue eyes.
“I know you do, darlin’.”
“No more calling me darling,” she snapped. “Just kiss me and get it over with. I—I don’t want to make this a big deal.” She jerked a thumb toward the iPad. “And I have important things to do. Like learn more about you.”
“Kissing you will be a big deal. There’s no way around that, darlin’.”
“Oof.” She shoved at his chest, and he captured both wrists with one hand, trapping her in his hold. He peeled the comforter down farther to confirm his guess.
“Red lace panties.” He eyed the strip of fabric between her legs, his breathing quickening.
“You know I hate being hot.” Ella struggled to pull free of his hold, but he cocked his head and stared at this wild, passionate woman.
He’d just begun to slide his finger up along the inside of her silky thigh when the bedroom door burst open.
“Oops, sorry!” Deb Hawkins had impeccable timing.
Ella quickly drew the comforter up to her chin, and Jesse stood, pocketed his hands, and faced his future fake mother-in-law.
“I’m so sorry. Why didn’t they tell me you two were . . . in here together?” Ella’s mom swiped both hands over her blushing cheeks, looking slightly scandalized. Jesse bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “But why do you look more like your dog died and you wanna kill someone than, well, you know?”
She directed her such-a-bad-timing comment toward Jesse, and he did his best not to glance at Ella for her reaction to her mother’s words.
“We’re good,” he forced out, teeth clamped as he tried to will away his erection.
“Are you sure?” Deb’s gaze moved to Ella for confirmation.
“Absolutely,” Ella forced out.
“Well.” Deb clapped. “Then get up and prove to me this wedding isn’t a sham and that you actually want to walk down that aisle tomorrow. I need your help, sweetie.”
“A sham?” Ella coughed. “Of course it’s not.”
Jesse turned to the side to peer at Ella, and he could tell she was working hard not to shoot him a menacing look.
“Also, why does your kitchen look like a T-O-C?”
“A T-O-C?” Jesse blinked in confusion.
“TOCK?” Deb strung the letters together this time and spoke the acronym. “Tactical operations center? Or something like that? That’s what they call it in those military movies, right?” Deb’s hands went to her hips, and the last woman in the world, second to Ella, he wanted to piss off was this particular Hawkins.
“Oh, um.” Jesse smiled. “My team took a new security job. They came down here so they can work around the, uh, wedding. It was unexpected.”
“Suuuure.” Deb closed one eye and cocked her head. “What’s really going on? I’m Southern. Not slow.”
“Nothing, Mom.” Ella shooed her away with her free hand. “Mind if I get dressed before I go with you? I don’t think my future husband would like me to walk around in front of his teammates in a tank top and underwear.”
No, no, her future husband would definitely not like her walking around like that. Too many single men out there. It was bad enough any man other than him had set his eyes or hands on Ella in the last three years.