Will Emma and Ryan Have to Abort Their Mission in This Wildly Sexy Series?

In At the Edge, Emma Wright's government plane goes down over the Philippine jungle, and she's forced to survive alone until an ultra-elite SEAL team goes in after her. As the leader of Alpha Crew, Ryan Owen is no stranger to challenges, but he's never tackled anything quite like this sexy, smart, and resourceful woman. The mission is to get Emma home safely, but danger is everywhere, and Ryan's unexpected desire for Emma could be a deadly distraction.

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"You should sleep, Emma."

"I don't want to sleep. I'm just... cold."

"Come here." Before he could really think it through, he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. She was cold — shivering in fact, despite the mild temperatures. Her clothes were damp from the rain.

"You don't have to —"

"Here." He grabbed his pack and slipped it between his chest and her back, giving her something to lean on, like a pillow. It also spared him the agony of having her sweet ass nestled right on top of his c*ck.

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms to get rid of the chill, and it didn't take her long to lean back against him.

"I'm going to make your legs sore."

His legs? No. "I'm fine," he said.

She actually relaxed, sliding lower on his body and folding her hands in her lap. She rested her head against his pack and breathed deeply.

He continued to rub her, even though the friction was doing more than staving off the chill. She had smooth, feminine arms that felt delicate under his fingers, and he hoped he wasn't hurting her. But she seemed to like it.

"How much longer?" she whispered.

"Until they're back?"

"Until we go to the meet point."

"We need to be there at 0200. Plenty of time for you to sleep."

No way on earth would she be able to sleep with those hands moving over her. She bit her lip, grateful for once that it was absolutely pitch dark and he couldn't see her. Emma's skin tingled. Her cheeks felt flushed. And the tips of her breasts were suddenly tight and achy.

She closed her eyes and focused on the rain. She tried to imagine them somewhere other than the jungle. She imagined him in her old apartment in Seattle, with a winter drizzle thrumming outside. She imagined him in her bed, keeping the cold away with his big, warm hands. She'd never had a man like Ryan in her bed before. Her ex-fiancé was an accountant, for heaven's sake. She'd never even been near a man like Ryan — not close enough to touch, anyway.

And he was definitely touching her. His hands were spreading heat through her, sending her mind careening in dangerous directions.

She had to stop. She was making it worse. Now not only her cheeks felt flushed, but her whole body.

His hands moved up. And down. And up. And down... Molding gently over her arms and wrists as he massaged away the chill. His thighs under her bottom felt solid and powerful, and she remembered the way he'd cut through the forest, carrying her so effortlessly, as though she weighed nothing at all.

Good God. She couldn't seriously be having fantasies about the SEAL they'd sent to rescue her.

But she could. She was. And if he kept touching her with those strong, capable hands, she was going to melt into a puddle right here on his lap. Or flip herself over and attack him. She should tell him to stop.

Thanks, I'm fine now. No more chill! I'm about to burst into flames, actually, so you can stop —

He stopped.

"Better?"

"Yeah." Her voice sounded hoarse, and she got another warm flush.

His fingers rested on her forearms, and she felt a tug of disappointment. Just the stroke of his palms had given her a warm buzz that made her feel intoxicated.

Maybe it was fatigue or hunger or dehydration.

But it wasn't any of those things, she knew. Even in her shocked and disheveled state she understood that he was doing this to her. From the moment he'd crouched in front of her by the stream and pinned her with those intense green eyes, she'd felt this overload of hormones rushing through her body. She was in survival mode, running on instincts. And her instincts were telling her to get close to this man, as close as humanly possible.

Emma's heart lurched as he picked her up. Her legs clenched around him and yet again he was carrying her, only this time their mouths were fused together. She'd thought he'd take her to the bedroom, but he went for the sofa instead, lowering her onto it and then dropping down on top of her. Her breath whooshed out. He pinned her with his hips, and the steely pressure of his erection sent hot tingles through her body as his thumb scraped over her nipple.

She pulled her sweatshirt over her head. Without missing a beat, he reached around and unclasped her bra, and when it was gone she felt a sudden chill over her skin. She drew her arms over her breasts, but he took her wrists.

"No."

He pinned her hands beside her head. He dipped his head down and took her nipple in his mouth, and the searing heat went straight to her core. The stubble on his chin rasped against her sensitive skin, sending delicious little shivers through her as he lavished attention on her breasts. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, unable to believe this was happening, that she was taking her clothes off with a man she barely knew.

But the thing was, she did know him. They'd skipped right over all the phony small talk. She'd told him embarrassing things, silly things, important things. She'd told him what to tell her father if she died — the last words she'd wanted anyone on earth to know she'd entrusted to him, and that was mere seconds before he'd sprinted her through gunfire and saved her life. And he'd saved it again tonight.

It was truly bizarre how he kept showing up in the right place at the right time. Maybe it was fate.

Or maybe she was using all of it as a rationalization to cave into temptation, temptation in the form of this huge, beautiful man who could make her do anything in the world if only he'd keep kissing her like that, pulling and suckling and teasing her until need expanded inside her until she thought she'd burst. She combed her fingers into his hair and gazed down at him, and he slid up to take her mouth again, even more fiercely than before, and Emma's insides started to throb.

They were doing this. It seemed so unlikely, but the hard pressure of him between her legs was amazingly real. He wanted her, and this was happening now, finally, after all her fantasizing.

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