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Excerpt

Iris passes me a bag of firewood from the storage bunker by shoving it into my chest.

“Do we really need this much?”

“We’ll stock up outside.” Then he cocks his head. “You’re exhausted, aren’t you?”

“Very.”

“All right. Maybe we go back out there and say Trav’s stocks were low and we couldn’t find any.”

“And who will believe that?” I point behind him where there’s enough firewood to last a few months of constant burning.

“Okay, so we’ll take the wood but tell them I’m going to bed to jerk off, and unless they all want to listen in, they should go back inside.”

“That’s an image I do not need in my head.”

“I won’t actually do it. I can get very loud. Even if it’s only my own hand doing it.”

I groan, and my eyes flutter closed. “You need to stop.”

“Oh, come on, I was at least expecting an ‘Of course you’d find yourself so sexy you have to moan your own name while rubbing one out.’”

That would’ve been the better response, but I all I can think about is Iris’s fist wrapped around his cock, his abs tightening as he jerks himself off until he comes all over his skin.

He’s only saying this to get a rise out of me, and the annoying thing is, it’s working. I’m actually hard.

“You’re killing me here,” I whisper.

“Mmm, you like that idea, don’t you?” He glances down at my crotch, but I’m covering my wood with … well, actual wood.

“More than I should,” I admit and then curse myself. “I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Iris laughs. “Man, if I’d known ten years ago about you, we would’ve been fucking in every secret hiding spot at the base.”

“What makes you think I would’ve been so easy back then? I really disliked you. I have a competency kink, and you weren’t competent at anything back then other than getting in trouble.”

Iris steps forward, so I take a step back. His dark eyes peer up at me. “Oh, I’m sure if I’d offered up my ass or my mouth … hell, even my hand, you would’ve jumped at the chance.”

“You’re not that irresistible, you know.” Only, he really is that irresistible.

“Why don’t you drop that bag and prove it?”

“Iris …” I warn.

“I think we owe it to ourselves. Just once. I wanted you the first day I met you even though I thought you were arrogant and straight.” He’s still taunting. He has to be. We can’t do this.

Yet I still find myself admitting, “I wanted you even though you were a brat.”

“News flash, I’m still a brat. You might need to fuck that out of me.”

I scoff. “That simple, huh? What about the rules?”

“I know you’re a stickler for them.” He licks his lips and pauses, and it’s like I can see that tiny part of him, way deep down, that has a conscience. That voice telling him he shouldn’t break the rules with me. But then it’s as if a lightbulb goes off in that brain of his. “What if it’s not us now but the us from ten years ago?” He steps closer again, and somehow we’ve ended up with my back against the metal door.

“Got a time machine on you? I left mine in my other pants.”

Iris smiles. “You’re funnier than I remember.”

“And you’re more tempting than I remember.”

He boxes me in completely, and I let go of the bag. It falls on our feet, but with our combat boots on, neither of us feels it.

The second his hard body presses against mine, I’m completely helpless to stop anything. One, because I don’t want to, and two, because after a day at the range and an evening by the fire, Iris smells like gun grease and smoke.

It’s enough to bring me to my knees.

The anticipation of his mouth on mine, the feel of his hard cock pressed against me … even though I need to say no, I can’t.

The words won’t pass my lips.

His dark eyes pierce me. They’re so expressive, so full of lust and need.

“Can I—”

Yes, I want to say. You can do whatever you want to me. But he’s cut off by the sound of the outer door opening and closing.

Iris moves swiftly, jumping away from me quicker than I can blink. He picks up the bag of firewood, gently nudges me aside, and then slides open the big steel door.

Iris smiles easily. “Hey. I was just showing Saint around. You know, emergency protocol and shit if we’re ever stuck out here.” He’s his breezy, casual self, and I have no idea who he’s talking to, but if it’s Trav, he should kill me here and now.

There’s no way I can hide this raging hard-on. I look up at the exposed ceiling and think unsexy thoughts. Losing my entire squad. Almost dying. A body that feels broken compared to how it used to be.

Okay, now I’m good.

Atlas sticks his head through the door. “I thought Iris might’ve locked you down here to be a dick. I came to check.”

I walk past Iris on my way out but say to Atlas, “I was worried about him doing that myself. But he was a good little boy.”

Mostly.

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