A loud crack of lightning seemed to explode outside the motel room.
The room—the whole motel from the look of things—was immediately plunged into darkness.
“Drew?”
Even in the dark, he saw her form easily. Drew had always been gifted with excellent night vision. He stalked toward her. “Told you,” he said softly, “the storms come in and cause chaos in the town.” The lights might come back on in a few minutes or it could be a few hours before the electricity was restored. She’ll be long gone by then.
His fingers lifted and curled around her shoulder. Her bare shoulder. Her skin was like hot silk beneath his callused fingers.
In that one moment, before the lights had flashed off, he’d seen her standing in that doorway. She’d just been wearing a towel.
Desire, need for her, pulsed beneath his skin. He’d be sent back into the field. If not on this case, then out on another one. How long would it be before he saw her again?
Now that she was compromised, now that the crazies with HAVOC mistakenly thought that she was Mercer’s daughter, what would happen to her? She wouldn’t be able to go back to her old life.
Not with that threat hanging over her.
>
I’ll eliminate that threat.
“My clothes had blood on them,” she whispered. “I just... I hated to put them right back on, but I didn’t have anything else to wear.”
He motioned toward the bed. It was just a big, dark shadow. She probably didn’t even see his hand moving. “Sarah brought you some jeans and a fresh shirt.”
She didn’t move to get those clothes.
“I have a confession,” Tina told him softly. “I’ve...watched you.” Her voice was husky in the dark. “At the EOD offices.”
He’d watched her plenty, too.
Intrigued now, he waited.
“I know I’m not your usual type of...of date—”
“Oh?” He was even more curious now. “You think I don’t go for the smart and sexy women?” Because Tina was most definitely his type. His sleepless nights could attest to that.
“You live on the edge. You love danger and action. And I hide in the background.”
No, she tried to hide in the background. She failed at that job. A woman like her could never just disappear.
“I don’t want to hide from you,” Tina told him. Her hands rose and her fingers settled around his shoulders. She was so small, seemingly fragile in front of him. “I want to be with you.”
He stiffened as desire sharpened within him. “You should be very careful what you say.” Especially to a man like him. A man who’d lived for too long wanting things that he couldn’t have.
One of those things was right in front of him.
“It’s just us,” she said, and her voice was pure temptation. “No gunshots. Not even any lights. Just us. Alone in the dark.” She rose onto her tiptoes.
His fingers locked around her waist. “I warned you before about what would happen if I kissed you again.” Naked. Pleasure...
“I don’t want a warning. I told you, I just want you.” Then she kissed him.
The need, the raw lust that he felt for her, shot through him and electrified his whole body. Her kiss was tentative, and he needed more than that. So much more. He lifted her into his arms, holding her easily despite his wound.
Tina was right. They were alone. He’d been imaging her spread out in that big bed and, with the lights off, with the dark around them...
I’ll make her mine.