Maya Banks - Forged in Steele

“Just see to Baker so we can be out of here,” Steele said.

“I’ll try not to take your desire to be quit of me so personally,” she said dryly.

Dolphin cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably. Maren smiled to ease his discomfort.

“Why don’t you hang out in Christina’s room and keep watch on her. She should be out for a while but if she wakes, I’d hate for her to be disoriented. She’ll need a friendly face and well, Steele’s not the friendliest-looking guy. I’ll go look in on Baker. I’d hate to hold up his majesty when he has better places to be.”

Dolphin nodded. “I can do that.”

He sent a reproachful look in Steele’s direction, but it didn’t faze Steele one iota. He continued to stare at Maren like he wanted her gone five minutes ago. Who was she kidding? He did want her gone five minutes ago!

Maren shook her head and walked back to the room Baker occupied. He was leaning against the exam table, his butt just barely perched on the edge. Renshaw was sitting against the wall, and he looked up when she entered.

“Okay, so let’s see what we have here,” Maren said in a cheerful voice. “Why don’t you lie down on the exam table so I can actually reach your head.”

She poked and prodded while Baker grumbled under his breath and winced when she debrided the wounds. She sutured two of the cuts to his scalp and then bandaged the rest.

“You’re going to feel like shit in the morning,” she offered when she finished.

“I feel like shit now,” he muttered.

“You want me to give you an injection for pain?”

He hesitated and then shook his head. “If we’re bugging out, I need to be alert.”

“Hey, Baker,” Cole said from the door. “FYI, we’re stuck here until eight in the morning. Pilot was just in touch. He had mechanical issues that grounded him for the night. So get the damn injection. Maren, you care if we crash here until then?”

“Of course not,” she said. “Mi casa es su casa. Or rather my clinic is,” she added with a grin. “You might have visitors in the morning. The locals are often here before I arrive, waiting for me to open up. Just don’t shoot anyone, okay?”

Cole grinned. “We’ll do our best.”

She turned back to Baker. “Now, how about that injection? You could use the rest, I’m sure.”

He sighed in resignation and then rolled, presenting his ass as he yanked at his fatigues. She laughed. “I’m taking that as a yes.”

After administering the pain medication, she glanced toward Renshaw. “Everything okay with you? Anything I need to look at?”

“No ma’am. I know when to keep back from explosives.”

“Fuck you,” Baker grumbled.

She smiled. “All right then, I’m going to go tackle Steele’s injuries. If you guys aren’t heading out right away, then he can suffer like the rest of you and have me patch him up.”

Renshaw snorted. “Good luck with that.”

She stuck her head into the exam room where Dolphin and Steele were still standing over the girl. “Steele? Can I see you in the next room a minute?”

Steele frowned—of course—but he nodded and then headed her way. She led him into the next exam room and rifled through the cabinets to find the stuff she needed.

“What’s up?” he asked shortly.

She turned back to him and motioned toward the exam table. “Have a seat.”

His brow furrowed as she came nearer to him.

“Look,” she said in exasperation. “You aren’t superhuman, no matter what you want the rest of us mere mortals to believe. Sit your ass down and let me look at your wound. Cole said you all were grounded until eight in the morning.”

The look on Steele’s face was priceless. He actually looked . . . caught off guard. She wanted to do a double fist pump, but that would be incredibly obvious. So she continued to stare serenely at him, not backing down as she stood waiting for him to comply with her orders.

He was used to giving orders, not taking them, and she’d admit it gave her a tiny thrill to play the boss card.

Sending her a disgruntled look, he plopped down on the table and pulled his shirt off, exposing a ripped set of abs and a broad, muscled chest with a smattering of blond hair over the hollow. Her hand twitched to check her mouth for drool, but again, way too obvious.

“Let’s make this quick,” he muttered.

Her eyebrow rose and she sent him a look she knew he wouldn’t appreciate.

“What’s your hurry? Cole said you didn’t have any place to be until eight in the morning.”

She smoothed her hand up his arm until it reached the cut that still oozed blood. His muscles twitched underneath her fingers and then tightened. She thought she heard his sudden intake of breath, but maybe she imagined it.

“Not too bad,” she murmured. “A few stitches and some antibiotic ointment. Doubt it’ll rot off anytime soon.”

“My point exactly,” he said. “No need to make a fuss over it. Slap a bandage on it and be done.”

Her mouth twitched. “I’m beginning to think you don’t like me, Steele. I wonder why? Everyone else in KGI doesn’t seem to have a problem with me. What’s yours?”

Her gaze lifted to his eyes and they narrowed at her. “I never said I didn’t like you.”

“Your actions speak far louder than words,” she said dryly.

“Why the hell are we even having this conversation?” he demanded.

She shrugged and then set to work deadening the area around the wound. She worked in silence as she set the sutures and focused intently on her task. When she set the last stitch, she raised her head, stretching the knotted muscles at her neck. She pushed her glasses back up her nose and let a small sigh escape. So much for her quiet evening at home with a cup of tea and going to bed early.

“Long day?” Steele asked quietly.

Her gaze yanked upward, surprised at the question. He never initiated conversation with her. Getting anything from him was like trying to pry open a steel trap. Ridiculous pun intended.

“Yeah, but then it would appear so was yours,” she said in amusement.

He shifted on the exam table as if he were about to get up. Her gaze drifted downward and she froze when she saw the evidence of his erection bulging at his fatigues. Her eyes widened and then her gaze shot upward to see him staring back at her. Busted. Completely busted. He knew she knew.

She took a step back and waved her hand airily. “It’s not unheard of for men of, uh, action to experience adrenaline-induced erections. It’s been documented, in fact. I’m sure there’s a ton of research to back it up.”

God, she sounded like a complete moron. Her cheeks were flaming as she took another hasty step backward.

Steele’s features tightened and his lips formed a grim line as he stood to his full height and loomed over her. He leaned his head, just enough that his mouth was closer to her ear.

“If you think my hard-on has nothing to do with you, then you’re deluded.”

Her mouth gaped open as he pushed past her and stalked from the room.

“Ooo-kay,” she murmured.

Not what she’d expected him to say at all.

MAREN let herself into her cottage and softly shut the door behind her. When she scanned the room, she let out a startled exclamation when she saw Steele sprawled on her tiny couch.

“Jesus, you scared me,” she breathed.

He sat up, his stare intense as he locked onto her. She shivered and a knot formed in her throat. The way he was looking at her was . . . different.

“Do you always walk back to your cottage by yourself?” he demanded.

She lifted one eyebrow. “How the hell else would I ever get home?”

“Let me rephrase that. Aside from the times that we pull you out at all hours of the night, do you routinely walk back to your cottage alone after dark?”

“You know, I think that’s the most words that have ever come out of your mouth at one time,” Maren said thoughtfully.

Steele raised a hand to run raggedly through his hair, and he growled. Actually growled! Then to her utter shock, he closed the distance between them and hauled her against his chest. She landed with a soft thud and he cupped her chin with one hand and slid the other around her nape, anchoring her in place so she couldn’t move. As if she wanted to!

“Steele?” she whispered nervously.

“Shut up,” he muttered, just as his lips came down over hers.

His kiss was an absolute shock to her system. Electric. Fierce. Demanding. His warm tongue slid like velvet over her lips, coaxing her to open. As soon as she gave in, he deepened the kiss and pushed inward, tasting her, letting her taste him.

She shivered from head to toe. One continuous quake, her knees turning to jelly.

His hold on her was strong and possessive. She sighed into his mouth and he swallowed it up. This was crazy. Insanity at its finest. Steele was in her living room kissing her. A man who never even spoke directly to her. Yet he was obviously attracted to her. The erection earlier. He was kissing her now. Yeah, there was definitely something here and she wasn’t going to question it too hard.

Or maybe he was coming off a mission and any woman would do.

That put a damper on her enthusiasm. She went still as she pondered that very real possibility. Proximity was a definite factor. Steele and his team had just worked a tough assignment, gotten shot at, cut and God only knew what else. They were stuck here for the night and she was female, reasonably attractive, and she had all the prerequisite equipment to sate his needs.

He drew away, his brows drawn together as he stared at her in question.

“What’s wrong?”

She would have laughed but she was too unhinged to do more than just stand there gaping at him.

“You just kissed me and then you ask me what’s wrong?”

He frowned. “Was it that bad?”

This time she did laugh. “I think you know it wasn’t bad. Why did you kiss me, Steele? What the hell is going on here?”

“I want us to have sex,” he said bluntly.

She blinked owlishly and stared back at him in silence. Though her glasses were fogged with the heat from their kiss and she itched to remove them so she wouldn’t miss any part of this exchange.

“Ooo-kay,” she began slowly. “You want to have sex with me. You want to have sex with a woman to whom you’ve never spoken more than a few words at a time. Tell me something, Steele, is this one of those situations where any pussy will do? Is it a guy thing, coming off a mission and you’ll dip into the first available well you can find?”

He looked completely taken aback by her blunt language. Surprised even. Then he seemed to figure out that it was possible he’d just been insulted.

“I don’t fuck around,” he growled. “I’m clean. I use condoms. I haven’t had sex in a year.”

“All righty then,” she said, more than a little surprised at his admission. “Maybe a little more than I needed to know.”

“If you’re sleeping with me, you need to know.”

This was true. But wait, was she sleeping with him? Was she entertaining the idea of sleeping with him? The mind boggled. A man she’d spent plenty of time fantasizing about was here in her living room calmly discussing the matter of sex between them as if it were something they did on a regular basis. Not that she’d have a problem with that. But she definitely had questions because this was shaping up to be the most bizarre day in a very long time.

“Why?” she asked softly. “You don’t even like me, Steele. You can barely stand to be in my presence.”

He pulled her back close, trapping her in his arms, his gaze boring into hers. “Why do you think that is, Maren? You’re an intelligent woman. You saw the hard-on I had for you earlier. Put two and two together and I bet you’ll find your answer.”

“You’re attracted to me,” she whispered.

He stood a long moment without saying a word. Finally he broke the silence, his jaw clenched. He was positively ill at ease. Cool, unflappable Steele was agitated.

“You’re under my skin. Can’t get rid of you. Sometimes when I sleep . . . I can smell you,” he admitted. “I can see your eyes and those cute glasses you wear. I wonder what it would feel like to run my fingers through your hair.”

Ho-ly shit. This was . . . epic. This . . . There wasn’t even a description for what this was. This was huge!

She raised her hand, self-consciously adjusting the frames. “You think my glasses are cute?”