Revealing Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 4) by Kat Cantrell

one harmless fantasy about Rachel—because nothing about her was anywhere in the realm of harmless.
    “Let’s make a deal, shall we?” She cocked her head with a small smile and crossed her legs at the ankle, drawing his eye. “While we’re at home, you can lie to me all you want. Hell, lie to yourself for all I care. But on Ilhota Rosa, there’s nothing but truth.”
    What, like he’d spent the past fifteen minutes spinning some fairy tale for her? His flaws were not fabrications. He sat up because that sounded an awful lot like a line being drawn in the sand. “Are you calling me a liar?”
    “Did I?” she asked with raised eyebrows that he had a feeling she meant to be as provoking as they were. “I don’t recall that. I’m pretty sure I just laid down a ground rule for how the next few minutes are going to go.”
    His mind scrambled to replay her exact words and okay, yeah. She’d actually given him permission to lie once they left the island. Which he would not need because he’d lied plenty to God and everyone when he’d claimed no more alcohol for the forty-seventh time. Now that he was sober, it was a strict rule that he kept his word under all circumstances.
    “Lawyer double-talk is not sexy,” he growled.
    “What is?”
    No lies . The trap closed so neatly around him that he very nearly applauded because he hadn’t seen it coming. But he’d outsmarted the wiliest of terrorists on more than one occasion. Save the one that had put him in the hospital.
    “Fishing, Rachel?” He stuck one leg out in front of him, right behind her head, and leaned on his knee. “Silence is sexy. I like a woman who knows how to close her mouth.”
    Instead of whacking him for being a smart ass or calling him on what she’d surely claim was a lie, she sat up and leaned forward, pushing into his space. The coconut scent of her shampoo slammed through his senses, coupling with the tang of the ocean and earthy sand.
    His groin stirred hungrily, and he ached to press against that soft spot near her belly button that he’d found the other day in the kitchen.
    “That’s what you’re going with? A mousy, quiet little woman who sits in the corner and never speaks to you? That might be what you’d prefer, but it’s not what you need,” she countered and traced a fingertip across her lower lip as she contemplated him.
    “That’s not what I said.”
    “It is! You practically ordered that off the menu. Silence is sexy,” she mimicked with a cartoon voice. “If you hung around with a mute, that would make everything all better, wouldn’t it? Maybe you should join a mime dating service—”
    “Rachel.”
    He could not take it one moment longer, and all at once his hands snaked into place around her shoulders practically before he’d registered moving, and he yanked her closer, within an inch of his body, startling her into blessed speechlessness as he caught her in his gaze.
    “Close your mouth,” he repeated. “So I can do this.”
    His lips settled on hers, and the world froze in place.
    For an eternity he held the kiss, eyes shut, until heat flared where their flesh connected, spurring him to take more. Tilting his head, he changed the angle, nipping harder as his pulse throbbed.
    Rachel opened under him, blooming instantly, her hands warm against his back. She was so responsive, meeting him with equal fervor, with little cries that made him so hard he’d burst a blood vessel if he didn’t come inside her very quickly. Groaning, he released her arms and embraced her greedily, hot to have her body flush against his. That’s when her tongue darted out to mate with his and fire arced between their mouths, sensitizing him to the point of pain.
    No lies. It was the hottest kiss in his memory. The first sober kiss he’d experienced in ages, and it soared through him, more potent than a shot of whiskey downed in one swallow.
    Lithe fingers toyed at the hem of his shirt, then danced across his bare back,