"Because that beautiful body isn't all I want, baby," he answered cryptically. "Not by a long shot. I want everything. Think about that before you push the wrong buttons and tempt something you have no chance of controlling. "
Chapter Seven
Megan moved down the staircase that evening after her shower. Everything felt off balance. Her emotions were in chaos, her physical responses confusing. Her reactions to Braden Arness had thrown her so off kilter that she wasn't certain what to feel at the moment.
After the Academy, and the disastrous results of training exercises, she had shut herself off, retreated to the desert and put aside the dream of making a difference within the world.
She had spent five years training to work in law enforcement, the first two in pre-Selection where candidates were put through rigorous classes involving legal code. The last three had been spent in the Academy after the selection process, the final year in real-situation training exercises.
The last training mission had been a hostage situation. The emotions
pouring from the young woman being held by her drug-dealer husband had nearly incapacitated her, and caused an officer to be wounded. Her inability to focus on the perpetrator and his victim, rather than the emotions and the pain pouring through her, had nearly been fatal.
The Empathic abilities had shown up in her late teens. Her inability to form the barriers that others began building as children had been her downfall. She had stubbornly refused to give up her dream though. Forcing herself through pre-Selection and the Academy, right to the very moment that she knew without a doubt that the dream was over.
Megan moved into the kitchen, heading for the coffeepot despite the lateness of the hour, and tried to ignore Braden as he sat at the table with his laptop. He had been working there for hours, low growls coming from his chest as his irritation seemed to build.
The arousal was only growing as well. Unfortunately, finding release on her own was something she wasn't ready to tempt. Braden had been tenser since their confrontation in the Raider earlier; edgier, more aroused. That hunger was something she wasn't quite ready to confront.
"About time you came back down," he muttered as his fingers moved over the keyboard. "It's time we get to work. "
She turned away from him, lifting a cup from the cabinet before pouring the dark coffee into it.
"What do you call what we were doing all day?" Every muscle in her body was protesting the workout. She could have sworn that rock climbing and cavern investigating was work. But hell, what did she know?
"Come here and sit down. " He moved from the chair, making room for her as she moved around the table. "I pulled up the Breed database. Every Breed the Lab had information on, and some they didn't, is listed here. I have Mark and Aimee's files pulled along with their pictures. Go over them, see if you recognize them, or if you can recall any point that you may have been in contact with them. "
She sat down in his chair hesitantly, her gaze flickering to the file pulled up on the screen.
"These pictures were taken while Mark and Aimee were still in the Labs," she whispered, seeing the nudity of Aimee's upper-body shot, as well as her disinterest in herself and her surroundings. "I've seen a few of the Breed files at the Academy. They didn't allow them to wear clothing. "
She looked up, watching as Braden pulled sandwiches from the refrigerator and poured himself another cup of coffee.
"We weren't human, so why did we need clothing," he grunted as he moved around the kitchen, fixing more coffee as he snacked on the food.
He ate a lot; dinner had been finished an hour before and she was sure he had eaten enough for three grown men.
She turned her attention back to the laptop and the two files he had pulled up for her.
Breathing out wearily, she pushed her hair back from her face, wishing now that she had taken the time to braid it before coming down from her shower. The thick mass never failed to slip over her shoulder. It also had the effect of making her feel softer, more feminine, when it was loose and unbound. It was a weakness she couldn't afford right now. The attraction burning between them wasn't dimming; it was only growing stronger. She needed something to douse it, not strengthen her inability to run from it.
"Mark and Aimee were created in France. " He sat across from her. "To the best of my knowledge, they had never been in the States until a year ago, when they were rescued and relocated to the Breed Compound in Virginia.
There are no records of any overseas missions. Just as there are no records of any trips you could have made out of the States. "
There was a definite question in his voice.
Megan lifted her gaze from the computer screen and met his evenly.
"I've never been out of the States, Braden. " She let a smile of amusement tug at her lips. It was obviously not the answer he wanted to hear. "And to my knowledge, I've never met these Breeds. "
But they were familiar.
She turned back to the photos, wanting to frown at the odd prickling of recognition, but aware of how closely he was watching her.
"Why did you come back here after training at the Academy?"
"Didn't we go over this earlier?" she protested, swallowing past the lump of nervousness in her throat.