2. Rourke
ROURKE
Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.
My blood screams through my veins as I lift her off the snowmobile and carry her into the cabin.
The cold is just starting to get to me. Burning at my skin, turning my hands red.
I even slashed my left side on a piece of ice as I was pulling her from the snow.
But all that can wait. It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is her.
Gorgeous. Innocent. Vulnerable.
Her skin is cherry red from the cold, her lips are plump, and her hair is almost a block of ice. Her tiny body quivers in my arms as I carry her through the rustic-style living room of my cabin and over to the massive stone hearth where a fire is already roaring.
As I set her down on the warm stones, my cock swells beneath my jeans.
My hands move on their own, begging to do things to her. But I gnash my teeth against my cheek and push back the urge.
What kind of a man would that make me?
So what if I haven’t touched a woman in over three years? I’ve been up here, alone, hiding from the world. And now suddenly, I’m blessed with her?
She’s beyond gorgeous. But what the hell is she doing out in this storm dressed like that? Flats, jeans, a T-shirt, and that sorry excuse for a jacket? She’s lucky I found her or she’d be dead.
Lucky, yeah. Real lucky…
My cock twitches as I start stripping her down, not out of lust but because her clothes are essentially ice now. And if I’m gonna warm her up, I need to get her out of them.
I slip off her flats, revealing tiny cute little feet.
Toes like pink gumdrops. It’s tough getting her jeans off over those baby-making hips.
Her panties come with them. It’s like a punch to the gut, but I manage to avert my eyes as I peel off her shirt.
Christ, what is an angel like this doing here?
Here in my hideout near the top of Stoneridge Mountain.
I escaped here three years ago, leaving everything behind.
There’s only a handful of other inhabitants up here, and we rarely run into each other.
I’m an ex-CIA operative. One of the guys they send in when they need something done off the books, aka illegal.
We were chasing a bigtime criminal for over a year, Damon Vale, but he was always one step ahead of us.
That’s when I realized he had a mole in our operation and I had one choice: get out or get killed.
I chose the former.
Nightmares plagued me for the first year.
All the thoughts of the things I did, people I killed, all in the name of national security.
But when I realized just how corrupt many of the people I was supposed to trust were, how many of our operations were really just about getting them rich, I got the hell out.
Using the skills they taught me, I came to Stoneridge and turned into a ghost.
Three years later, I’ve found a semblance of peace. I know I’ll never be normal again, but I’ve got a routine up here, and no one bothers me—
The angel beneath me stirs, and my eyes move down, tracing the lines of her collar bones down to her perfect breasts. Fuck she’s perfect. Blood races to my cock, aching to be inside her.
It would be so easy…
All I would have to do is slide those thighs apart and slip my hard cock into her tender little hole.
I bet that little cunt would be slick in an instant when she felt me stretch her open.
Taking her would be easy, but lasting longer than ten seconds after not touching a woman for this long? That would be impossible.
A growl rises up through my chest, and I reach down and grab my bulge as it continues to expand. It actually hurts now, pressing against the metal of my zipper.
There’s something so innocent about her face. The agency trains you to observe people, deduce who they are, and when I look at this angel, I know instantly that she’s a virgin.
She’s pure. Unclaimed. I could be the one to take her.
I haven’t felt a desire like this ever in my life. Sure, I’ve lusted over women, but this goes beyond that. There’s something about her that is like a piece I’ve been missing. And I need it. Desperately.
Just as I’m about to lose control, her lips move, and she whispers, “Damon…”
My body freezes. Every muscle goes taut.
“What?” I growl. But she can’t hear me.
“Damon…Vale…”
My knife’s in my hand in the blink of an eye. I haven’t held it in years. I’m not that man anymore. But hearing that name brought it out of me, and it feels just as familiar as it used to.
This is impossible. How could she know Damon Vale? I put this girl at twenty years old, twenty-two at the most. I was chasing that bastard when she was still in high school. It’s been three years since I escaped here, and no one from the agency or his family has found me.
I was relaxing by the fire when I heard her car crash. I spotted her with my binoculars as she stumbled out onto the road, and like that, I was on my snowmobile racing down to save her. Did I make the wrong decision?
This girl…she could be a spy. Shit, she could be an assassin.
They could have found me and sent her after me.
Maybe she had a plan to play me, or maybe the car crash was a part of it.
Put herself in a vulnerable position to lure me out.
When you’ve been in spec ops as long as I have, you know never to underestimate your enemy.
I saved her life. I brought her here into my home where no one but me has been since I arrived. But now I’m faced with an impossible decision.
Clean up her wound, make sure she survives, or deal with this potential problem the way I was trained…
I bring the edge of the blade up to the soft skin of her delicate neck. It’s still red from the chill. Her body is still shaking, causing her beautiful breasts to jiggle like they were made for me.
My eyes move up to her angelic face. So tender. So vulnerable.
“Goddamn it…” I hiss under my breath, pulling the knife back.
No. I can’t do it. But I also can’t let her leave. Not until I know the truth.
I stand up, cock throbbing between my thighs, and stare down at my hostage—my potential assassin. And then I go to the closet where I keep the rope.