The pressure of her soft breasts and intoxicating scent lit a fire in his belly. He hadn’t felt this way in a long time, if ever. Tempest had tried to steal those memories from him, as well, and had mostly succeeded. Had he ever loved a woman? Did he even know how?
Was it fair to use Ava as his guinea pig?
He pulled away and dropped a kiss on her forehead, her cheek and her nose, ignoring the stab of guilt that twisted in his gut at her confused expression. “We’d better go trade that SUV for something legal.”
“Good idea.”
He turned and she grabbed his hand. “Max?”
“Yeah?” Her deep green eyes drew his gaze like a magnet.
“I don’t regret that kiss. Do you?”
“No.”
With that single word, her face brightened and he left it at that. She didn’t need to know about the confusing emotions warring in his brain right now.
Ava was a big girl and had been making her own choices for years. He couldn’t help it if they’d all been bad.
* * *
AVA LEANED AGAINST the headrest of the compact car as Max drove it off the used-car lot. That had been easier than she expected, but then, Max did have a boatload of cash and a few alternate identities.
He should just use one of those to get out of the country—after she injected him with some T-101 antidote. Maybe he could get an extra ID for her, and they could ride off into the sunset together.
She bit the inside of her cheek, trying hard not to draw blood. What would she do once she got Max stabilized? He was a man who flew solo. He’d let her help him, and then he’d let her go. She could tell by the way he kept fighting his attraction to her.
And he was attracted to her, just as she was to him. All she could do right now was help. She owed him that.
“Drives like a dream.” He tapped the steering wheel.
“A three-thousand-dollar dream with ninety thousand miles on it?” She rolled her eyes. “Let’s just hope it can get us up to Salt Lake without incident.”
He tapped the GPS that the dealer had thrown in with the deal. “Once we get the name and address of the resort where Cody’s working, we can enter it and be on our way. Are you sure you don’t want to use my phone to call him?”
“I’ll wait until I get one of my own. Cody’s not going anywhere. The ski season hasn’t officially started yet.”
He handed her the GPS. “Do you want to find the next midsize town? Someplace with a decent electronics store for the power cord? You can pick up a throwaway phone anywhere.”
“Like I said, I’m in no hurry.” She patted her gurgling tummy. “I’m more interested in finding some food.”
“You should’ve had one of those bagels. How about a quick drive-through so we can get on the road?”
“Find me a breakfast burrito and I’ll be happy.”
“There are usually a few fast-food places around the freeway, so I’ll keep going that way.”
One block before the freeway on-ramp, Ava tapped the window. “That’ll do.”
Max pulled into the drive-through, ordered a burrito for her and a couple of coffees, and they were on the freeway five minutes later.
After Ava polished off her breakfast, she reached for the laptop in the backseat. “Do you think the battery’s dead?”
“Not sure. What are you going to look for?”
She opened the computer and tried to power it on, but the battery had died. “I just wanted to check out the formula again. We should probably buy a thumb drive so we can copy the formula and print it out somewhere. If something happens to this computer, we’ll be lost.”
“Who knows? Tempest may even have a kill switch to Arnoff’s laptop. If it leaves his possession, they may be able to shut it down remotely.”
“They can do that?” Her fingers curled around the sides of the computer, her palms suddenly sweaty.
“Tempest employs top-notch people. You said it yourself—Dr. Arnoff was brilliant.”
“He was. Too bad he used that brilliance for a terrible cause.”
“He paid for it.”
She rubbed the goose bumps on her arms. “As did everyone in the lab, whether they knew about the true purpose of T-101 or not.”