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closer to him. She leaned toward him, lifting on her tiptoes as he lowered his head.
    She inhaled sharply as he brushed his lips over hers. The sweetness of her breath washed over him. She smelled clean and exotic like the flowers that grew in the verdant jungles of South America. And as his lips brushed over hers, he knew this was a big mistake.
    But he didn’t stop. Couldn’t pull back from her.
    Her lips parted, and her hands came up to his shoulders. She clutched at him, drawing him nearer as her tongue tangled with his, thrusting deep to the back of his mouth.
    The kiss was deep and dirty and nothing he’d expected from the ultra-civilized Anna Sterling, yet at the same time it was exactly what he needed from her.
    He wrapped his arms around her body, sent his hands down her back to hold her tightly to him. She canted her hips toward his, her center rubbing over his hard-on. He groaned deep in his throat.
    Yeah, baby , he thought, that’s it. Show me you need me.
    And she rubbed her hips over him. Her breasts brushed against his chest, and he realized Anna really was a firecracker, and he wanted all of her. He wanted to use the passion between them to peel back the layers she used to hide from most of the people in the world.
    And though a mission was the last place he should be thinking about seduction and sex, he knew Anna Sterling was going to be his.
    He lifted his head, and her eyes opened. She was completely bare to him in that moment. There was a freshness to Anna he had never experienced with any woman before.
    He cupped her face in his hands, rubbing his thumbs down her cheekbones and then scraping one thumb over her lower lip. She sucked his thumb into her mouth and looked up at him.
    There was something very flirty in her reaction, and he felt it all the way to the core of his being.
    “Well, that answers my question.”
    She tipped her head to the side. “What question?”
    “If you were the woman I thought you were.”
    She shook her head and backed away from him. “I’m not like that…. I mean, normally I’m not a very passionate person. I think you’re making me…” She wrapped one arm around her waist and took a step back and bumped into her desk. “That’s not true. You aren’t making me do anything, but you do tempt me, Jack Savage.”
    “I do?”
    She punched him in the arm. “Don’t be a smartass.”
    He laughed because despite the dangerous mission they were about to go on, he liked her. He was happy with the thought of spending time with her. Especially in his world—a place to which he’d never taken a woman before. And that scared him a little.
    So he dropped back into the role he wasn’t scared to fill: tactical leader. He’d put them back on the business track and wait until they were alone again to explore this attraction.
    He knew himself well enough to know that nothing would stop him from having her, even the knowledge that Anna wasn’t the type of woman he normally confined himself to. He couldn’t fool himself into thinking he was a great catch, but he knew Anna was the type of woman who wouldn’t give herself lightly to any man.
    “We need to head out. My team will be anxious to get in the air,” Jack said.
    She blinked at him. “Of course. You can wait for me in the inner lobby. I just need to gather my stuff, and I’ll be ready to go.”
    “I’ll wait here,” he said.
    “I’m sorry if that sounded like an optional request, but I need a few minutes alone.”
    “Why?” he asked.
    “Because I do.”
    “I’m not leaving,” he said. “I like being with you.”
    “Then why did you just change the subject to business? Why not spend a few minutes just enjoying each other?” she asked.
    He shrugged. “I’m not really much more than a savage.”
    “You’re a lot more than that, but I think you’ve gotten used to just sticking to that one role.”
     
    The ride to the corporate airport, where the Liberty Investigations jet was kept, was silent. Jack