Beyond the Limits

He closed his eyes for a moment, lifted the bar and set it back in the rack. When he opened his eyes, Izzy had stepped over his body and stood next to the bench. Her shorts hugged the curves of her hips and the tops of her thighs. His fingers tingled—dammit, actually effing tingled—with the need to reach out and touch her. To put his hand on her thigh and draw her back toward him.

Closing his eyes had been a mistake. Instead of clearing his mind, he was assaulted with images of a topless Izzy on his lap on the bench.

He groaned.

“Did you hurt yourself?” she asked. She came closer. The scent of her flowery perfume and natural body musk was stronger now, and when he looked up at her he saw concern in those gray eyes.

Not ice.

“No. Not unless you count lust as a medical condition.”

She bit her lower lip and took a step backward. For the first time it occurred to him that Izzy wasn’t running because she didn’t want him—maybe she wanted him too much.

“Do you?” he asked, swinging his legs toward her and sitting up on the bench. “Is that why you watch me?”

“Do I what?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips, which only served to draw his gaze to her breasts and her tiny waist. “Lust is for people who don’t know what they want.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m not denying there is a certain...attractive quality about you, Playboy, but I know how to control myself around pretty boys.”

He stood up, taking the towel from where he’d draped it next to his bench, wiping his face and putting it around his neck. She watched him and didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t take his eyes from her mouth as he walked toward her. It was full and pert looking, with that little indentation in her top lip and the full lower lip. Her mouth looked lush. The kind of mouth he could spend a long time kissing.

“You keep saying boy but, in your eyes, Isabelle, I can tell that you see me as a man. One that you want,” he said.

“Only someone without discipline would be governed by—”

He stepped closer and put his finger on her lip. That tingle was back, spreading from his fingertip throughout his entire body. Damn.

“I know you aren’t going to say I have no discipline.”

She arched one eyebrow at him and nipped at the tip of his finger—which sent a sexual shock right to his groin—before stepping back.

“I didn’t think it really had to be said. I mean, I’ve been trying to get a good workout in and you seem to be distracted.”

Distracted?

The woman had no idea. All she had to do was walk into the same room as him.

He was about to rise to the bait when he saw the sparkle in her eye. She was teasing. Ah, that explained so much and at the same time made him want her all the more.

“I’m a team player. One of the philosophies of this training facility. You just went over to help me for your own good.”

She shook her head. “Okay, if that’s the way you want to play it.”

“Are we playing?” he asked, but he knew they were. Maybe it was the fact that they were alone. Or even that they had been at the top of the class of candidates during the last training program. Everyone knew the two of them were going to be competing for the top spot. That one spot as payload specialist. Though there were two other spots, there was only room for one payload specialist which meant either Izzy or Antonio.

He took a step toward her and this time, instead of retreating, she closed the gap between them. Put her hand on his chest and held him there. “From the moment we met you’ve been flirting and acting like you were the bomb, and I let you because—”

“Because you knew I was, but you needed to focus on your training and on beating me,” he said.

“Beating you? Playboy, I left you in the dust.”

He leaned in closer, put his mouth next to her ear. “You only call me Playboy when I get too close to the truth.”

She turned her head and he felt the minute exhalation of her breath across his cheek. She smelled like oranges and the first signs of spring, and this close, he saw her eyes were so much warmer than gray. They had blue and green flecks around the irises. Her lashes were thick and dark, and she had the tiniest mole under her left eye.

“What truth? That you’re a man and I’m a woman?” she asked. “I thought you were smarter than that.”

He laughed.

He couldn’t help it. Every time he thought he had her figured out, she surprised him. He wasn’t just drawn to her looks, which always made him catch his breath, but also her wit and her intelligence. She was the kind of person NASA wanted in command because she was the total package.

She made him want to be better. Not to best her but so he could stand shoulder to shoulder with her.

His laugh had surprised her and she turned her head back again so that their foreheads brushed and their noses were touching, and then her eyelids dropped to half-mast—and then he thought to hell with it.

What could one kiss hurt?

But as their lips brushed, that damned tingle moved through his body with all the precision and intensity of lightning on a dry field. He knew that he’d opened Pandora’s box. He pushed aside the warning bells and moved his mouth more completely over hers. Her fingers knotted in his shirt and tugged him closer, and then her lips parted under his. His tongue slid into her mouth, the taste of citrus so strong now.

Lightly he ran his fingers down the side of her neck and wrapped his hand around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him as she deepened the kiss, tilting her head, her grip on his shirt tightening. As if she’d never let go.

As if he’d never want her to let go, he thought. His mind screamed at him, this is Izzy.

Izzy.

Isabelle, who’d been one step ahead of him from the day they’d met. The truth dawned slowly as he realized that kissing her might be the biggest mistake he’d ever made. He’d thought not knowing how she tasted and felt in his arms was torture, but knowing and not being able to kiss her all the time was going to be even worse.

2 (#u140d549f-05e3-533d-a586-8c33e3b87015)

ANTONIO TASTED BETTER than chocolate cake on her birthday. He was forbidden and not good for her but, damn, he knew how to use his mouth. His body moved with the symmetry and precision of a well-oiled machine. She knew it had to be the result of all those hours he spent in the gym and on horseback.

He smelled...like a man. Not only of expensive cologne and whatever high-end retailers thought was masculine. Antonio was the real deal. He didn’t hesitate when he kissed her, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and taking her completely. He gripped her butt, pulling her close, maneuvering his leg between hers until they were pressed together from the waist up. His chest moved against hers as he angled his head and pushed his hands into her hair. He held her head, positioning her for a kiss that left her completely under his spell.

She couldn’t breathe or think. She saw stars as she closed her eyes and her hands went to his waist, clinging to his sides as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, mirroring the movement with his hips, rubbing his growing erection against her center and making her feel hotter than a rocket flying too close to the sun.

His lips were soft and supple as he moved them over hers. He took his time, seducing her, and she had to admit she liked it. Too often the guys she dated were aggressive, thinking they had to be because of her tough exterior. But not Antonio. He held her like he had all the time in the world.

She had to admit that scared her more than the fire burning through her body. Her breasts felt fuller and heavy, her skin sensitive even to her own clothes. She felt sensual, full of desire, and she couldn’t help arching her back and feeling his hand on her backside as he tightened his fingers.

A meteor shower of sensation spread throughout her body and she tangled her tongue with his, sucking his tongue deeper into her mouth as she felt that need, that ache between her legs. She rubbed herself over him, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted more.

She sucked harder on his tongue, trying to take control. Lifting her arms, she held his face, feeling his soft skin even as his stubble abraded her fingers. She rubbed her fingertips over it and then moved her hands slowly to his back, looping them around his neck.

Antonio kissed like he did everything else, with skill and accuracy, mastering her. And she was caught up in the maelstrom. Caught up in Antonio.

Suddenly she pulled back, breaking the kiss. This was the reason she’d stayed away from him. Not because of his reputation or the damage he could do to hers, but because of this. The overwhelming way he consumed her body and—if she wasn’t very careful—her soul.