Finding Dani (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 3) by Kori David Page B

sniffed.
    “Shush. You have yourself a good cry.”
    Dani hadn’t lifted her head from his shoulder, so he couldn’t see her face, but he could feel her start to shake. With laughter. He pulled back so he could see her expression. It was tear-stained, and her cheeks were almost as red as her hair. But those big green eyes are what held him.
    “I think I needed that.” She ducked her head and continued to smile. “But now I’m feeling really stupid for being curled up in your lap like a little girl.”
    He grinned. Very glad she was getting her spunk back. “Got my shirt all wet too.”
    “That’s what you get for being all macho and sweet.” She was wiping away the moisture around her eyes, which was beginning to dry up, with the sleeve of her shirt.
    Damon couldn’t help but turn serious. He’d heard what Travis said and he wasn’t wrong. Dani was a healer, and he’d taken more lives than he could even talk about. But she wasn’t looking at him like he was some kind of pariah.
    “I have taken lives, Dani. Travis isn’t wrong about me. It was my job. Still is.”
    Her eyes widened and then she reached up to smooth the hair from his forehead. It was a tender gesture. One he hadn’t expected, but it felt nice.
    “You protected the men on your team, Damon. That’s what you do.” She frowned as she looked at the door. “What Travis said was—”
    She shifted in his lap and froze. There was no mistaking what was rapidly happening in his pants. He’d been able to control himself while she’d been upset and crying it out. But now, the smell of her hair and the feel of her curvy, warm body was bringing out his baser instincts. She wasn’t even wearing any expensive perfume, just plain soap and her own unique fragrance. It was a heady combination.
    “Maybe I should move,” she said. Her eyebrow was arched and her frown had turned a tad mischievous.
    Damon stifled a groan. “If you move any more, this situation is going to change your perception of me from caring knight-in-shining-armor to something a lot less complimentary, given recent events.”

    ***

    Dani didn’t want to move, and yet she did. The safe feeling she had in his arms was quickly turning into something else. Something much more complicated.
    Damon’s light topaz eyes had turned dark and serious. And the rigid length of him was snug against her bottom, making her heart thud in her chest. A heart that until this moment, she thought might be encased in ice.
    “Finish what you were going to say about Travis,” he said. And if his voice was husky now, she tried to ignore it.
    “He’s just wrong. You aren’t a killer.” She reached up and cupped his cheek, knowing he needed to hear this. Because it was obvious that he believed the same thing Travis did. She had to make him understand that what he’d done was necessary and even noble.
    “You made hard choices and served your country with honor. Screw what Travis said and anyone else who thinks that way.”
    She stared into his eyes, willing him to believe her. But then his eyes moved down to her lips and she realized that both of her hands were around his neck and her face was mere inches from his. If she moved any closer, she’d be plastered up against him.
    “I warned you,” he rasped.
    Then his lips touched hers. And it surprised her so much that she gasped and he slipped his tongue inside and took over. He was a conquering warrior and she was a prize fought for and won.
    Dani melted.
    His arms were around her in a second and she was taken. Her breasts pressed against his muscled chest, tingling and tightening in an almost painfully sweet sensation. Dani’s fingers tunneled into his long hair as his found her own.
    The kiss was a warm and wet explosion of taste. It was as if she’d been seeing in black and white her whole life and suddenly could see in color. Her body lit up, feelings she thought long dead rising eagerly to the surface.
    The sounds she made in the back of her