Temporal Shift (Entangled Select Otherworld) by Nina Croft

Now, she had to hold herself still so she didn’t back away.
    “Could you open it for me?” she asked.
    “Maybe not just yet.”
    She swallowed. “I really should go find Thorne. He’ll worry.”
    “In a little while.”
    “Why?”
    “Why what?”
    “Why do you want me to stay? You were pretty eager to get rid of me a while back.”
    He shoved his hands into his pockets and took a step closer. “I was in the shower, and I was giving myself a hand job—”
    “A what?”
    His smile turned wicked and he took one hand out of his pocket and slipped it down the front of his pants. “A wank, darling. Giving myself a little relief, when it occurred to me that I was being an idiot.”
    “You were?”
    “Yeah. I had a beautiful woman in my bedroom.” His gaze slid over her body, and the muscles tightened low down in her belly. She squirmed. “A beautiful woman who has made it perfectly clear that she wants to have sex with me. Who am I to deny us a little fun?”
    He took the last step, which brought him close enough to touch, except her hands were gripped tightly behind her back.
    “Now, I might not believe all that crap you’re spouting about the time travel stuff, but while your mind might be a little deranged, your body looks just about perfect.”
    He thought her perfect? Warmth rolled over her. Then she processed the rest of his words. Deranged? Who was he calling deranged?
    He leaned in closer, so close she could smell his scent, faintly feral with an underlying muskiness that clawed at her senses. His warm breath feathered across her throat as he reached out and toyed with the fastener of her jumpsuit.
    She peeked down as his long fingers tugged on the tab and it unraveled, the material parting to reveal her breasts. His breath hitched and she glanced up to find his attention fixed on the swell of her flesh framed by the fabric.
    “I especially like these.” He dropped a slow kiss on the slope of her breasts and she almost went up in flames.
    Raising his head, he caught her gaze. “So do you want to fuck, Saffira?”
    He crowded her back against the wall, his expression intent and focused. Her adrenaline spiked, sending her heartbeat into overdrive. She didn’t know this man. He wasn’t the same lover as in her dreams. There, he’d never asked her to “fuck.”
    She wanted that man with an ache in her middle and a painful twist to her heart. She didn’t want to settle for less. But maybe this was the way to get through to Devlin, to find her dream-lover. The only way for him to feel anything softer than the emotions that drove him.
    She didn’t know.
    “Lost your nerve?” he murmured. “You want me to convince you?” One hand slid inside her jumpsuit to cup her breast. At the touch, a bolt of sensation shot from her nipple to her groin. His lips came down on hers and he kissed her. His body pressed into hers, trapping her against the wall as the hard bulge of his maleness nudged against her belly.
    Her breathing was too rapid, and her heart was beating so fast it might explode out of her ribcage. She spoke a calming mantra in her head and her panic receded. No, she couldn’t be so wrong. She relaxed and the pressure eased. Now his lips were coaxing rather than forcing and the hand at her breast rubbed circles over her tightening nipple, shooting more of those little darts to her sex.
    What should she do? How should she respond? She tried to remember her visions, what she had done, but her mind remained stubbornly blank. Open her mouth, that’s what she needed to do. She was just about to when he went still and drew away, and she had to fist her hands at her sides to stop herself from dragging him back.
    “Shit.” He took another step away, raised his wrist, and spoke into the machine strapped around it. “Yeah?”
    She recognized Rico’s voice. “Hey, dream-lover—”
    “Piss off,” Devlin snapped.
    Rico chuckled. “Your presence is requested in the conference room.”
    He sighed.