Chapter 8 Keeping Sydney Safe #3
The sisters shared a sweet smile. “Love you back, sissy.”
Knock-knock-knock.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Tank said.
Sydney turned toward the open doorway, and her heart skipped a beat.
Tank didn’t just fill the space, he damn well owned it.
The intensity in his eyes seared her. She did a slow up-and-down, appreciating every single thing about him.
His handsome face, that beautiful, wavy blond hair falling softly on his shoulders, piercing dark eyes that drilled into her.
He had to be six-three, his expansive shoulders dwarfing the entryway.
She loved his thick thighs, her thoughts jumping to how she’d straddled them just hours earlier.
Stop.
She pushed off the bed. “Tank, come on in.”
Instead, he stood like a pillar of strength in the doorway. “How’s the new digs?”
“Perfect,” she replied.
“I see you got your weapons.”
“My faves.” She shot him a little smile. “Now, I just gotta find the apex predator.”
“Same,” he replied. “Too bad they’re not the same person.”
Sydney paused. “Who’s to say they aren’t? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
Both he and Caroline laughed as Caroline pushed off the bed. “I’m gonna head back to my office.”
“Caroline, swing by the conference room,” Tank said. “Check out the chat group I found. The team agrees that the group’s message is directed at us. We just can’t figure out their target.”
“You go after one of us, you go after all of us,” Caroline said before she addressed Sydney. “We’ll leave around six.”
“Whoa, you’re leaving?” Tank asked.
Sydney pulled a wig from her duffle. “I’m gonna disguise myself up, sit in the back of the armored vehicle. We’re going to our parents’ house for dinner.”
“I’ll ask Dad to park in the driveway,” Caroline said. “And I’ll take his spot in the garage.”
“Come with,” Sydney said to him.
So much for being chill.
“I’m having dinner with Greystone,” he answered, his heated gaze drilling into her.
“Right,” Caroline said. “You’re meeting Grey’s dad. His mom’s awesome, don’tcha think?” Caroline couldn’t exit with Tank blocking her way, so she tugged him into the room and hurried out, leaving Sydney alone with the sexiest man on the planet.
She was too warm in the clothes she’d borrowed from Slash, so she opened her suitcase, pulled out a knit shirt and a pair of tight black jeans. “I gotta change real quick.”
Tank didn’t leave. Hell, he didn’t even move.
She had a choice. She could either nudge him out and shut the door, or pull him in and shut the door.
That’s a no brainer.
She wrapped her fingers around his bulging biceps, escorted him in, and shut the door.
Tunnel vision as she soaked up all that male hotness. Nothing but Tank, Tank, and more Tank. A groan ripped from his granite chest as he raked his gaze over her face.
“Ohgod,” she murmured as the energy in the room shifted.
Desire spun through her, weaving her into a ball of need that she desperately wanted to unleash on him. To hell with reality. She wanted him in the absolute worst way. She wanted to escape in him… in all of him.
“Fuck,” he ground out as he grasped her shoulders.
They came together in a torrent of erotic energy. His lips on hers, his tongue crashing into her mouth. She loved how he took charge. She needed to feel his intensity, the strength in his touch, his gritty sounds that sent a relentless throbbing to the small space between her legs.
It was wrong, it was terrible timing, but she did not care. She wanted him. Now. Right now.
He was nibbling her earlobe. His moans had her grinding against him. It was a messy tangle of arms until she jumped into his, and he caught her. His reflexes so fast, he’d pinned her against the wall, the passion in his kiss sending her flying higher and higher.
Soaring with the eagles, never wanting to return to reality.
His erection pressed against her tummy, and she wanted to beg him, plead with him to take her to the limit. To fuck her with a relentless energy that brought her to the brink of insanity. She wanted it more than her next breath.
And then, he slowed the kiss, ended it. Breathing hard, he held her close against him. Forehead to forehead, they peered into each other’s eyes.
“I could eat you alive,” he ground out.
“I’m dying for you,” she said. “And I’m not beneath begging.”
His shoulders dropped, sending her heart plummeting.
“Later.” Then, his black-as-night eyes gleamed with the brightness of a thousand suns.
Blinded by everything Tank, she smiled.
“Pinky promises are unbreakable.” She didn’t care how juvenile this was. She needed to know he wasn’t rejecting her.
Rather than locking fingers with her, he held her with one strong arm, pulled her pinky to his lips and kissed her skin. Mini-explosions of excitement skittered through her.
“You have my word.” He set her down, leaned down and kissed her once more. “You coming?”
“Just about,” she replied.
He chuffed out a laugh.
“I have to change. Sit or leave.”
“Not gonna miss this.” He moved her duffle to the floor, sat his ass in the corner chair.
“How are you gonna resist?” She unbuttoned Slash’s camouflage shirt, slipped it off her shoulders, revealing the strapless bra she’d been wearing beneath her Halloween costume.
The muscles in his cheeks started ticking, his gaze turned fiery. When she unhooked her bra and pulled it off, his raspy groan ripped through her like a bullet. His breath hitched, but he did not move.
“I’m impressed.” She stepped out of the camouflage pants, pulled on a pair of tight black jeans.
“That’s the look,” he said through clenched teeth.
She loved torturing him. Loved that his already dark eyes were filled with lust, that he was hard as fucking steel, his boner filling the already-tight space in his pants.
But more than the effect she was having on him, she loved his willpower.
Loved that he would wait until later, despite their desire now.
She pulled on a sports bra, then a shirt. On went socks and her combat boots. She might be hiding at Creepy Secret Zone, but she was ready to take out a predator in a moment’s notice.
When finished, she shouldered her computer bag, stepped close and peered into his eyes, dark as midnight. “I’m ready.”
“Jesus, I’ma lose my mind, woman.”
“I’m starting a countdown timer,” she said. “Midnight, you’re mine.”
“Why midnight?”
“That’s when the crazies come out to play.”
He leaned down, kissed her. “Are you one of them?”
Her lips curved. “I’m the worst kind.”
“You ready to hunt down the bad guys?”
As they walked side-by-side down the hall, she said, “You and me, we’re gonna have ourselves some fun.”
“I think you’re right, Sydney Austin. It takes evil to chase down evil.”
In that moment, she knew she’d met her match.
She just hoped he felt the same.