Nothing else mattered in that instant. Desire twisted through her; a want that couldn’t be denied. Her breasts ached, her legs shifted restlessly. She needed to be closer to him.
Needed...him. Her short nails dug into his arms.
His mouth pulled from hers. Just a whisper of a space separated their lips as he growled, “Stay with me.” He began to kiss her neck.
Her breath was fast, it was—
He stilled. “Are you okay? What am I doing?”
And, just like that, he’d done the one thing she’d feared. He’d discovered that she was weak.
So now he was treating her as if she’d shatter too easily.
He stepped back, a hurried, almost clumsy move for a man who usually moved with such grace.
“Tina? Tina, answer me. Are you all right?”
She’d been more than all right a few seconds ago. Unfortunately reality was back. “Kissing me doesn’t kill me.” She’d had other men who treated her as though she was some kind of broken china doll once they’d seen her attack.
His eyes narrowed. “I
didn’t...” His hands fisted and he backed up another step. “I don’t mean to be so rough with you.”
She didn’t want him to back away. “I don’t need you to treat me like I’m...I’m going to shatter.”
He stared back at her. Drew seemed to absorb what she said as his eyes narrowed and swept over her face. “I won’t make the mistake again.”
She jumped off the bed. She could taste him on her lips. Desire still pulsed through her blood. A desire that seemed to burn too hot and fast whenever they touched. Was it from the adrenaline? The danger? Something else? “What is happening between us?” Then Tina forced herself to say the painful truth. “You didn’t even notice me before that group took me prisoner—”
He caught her hand. His head moved in a hard, negative shake. “That’s bull. I noticed you every moment.”
He sure hadn’t seemed to see her. Only when he’d been in the lab with her for his checkups, and then he’d been gruff. All business. Never lingering to chat or—
One dark brow rose. “Calling me a liar?” His head tilted to the right as he studied her. “Doc, I’ve wanted you in my bed from the first moment I saw you. I came into your office, expecting some kind of quick clearance check from a stuffy M.D., and the next thing I knew...you were in every dream I had.”
She sure hadn’t expected that. He’d treated her with the same icy indifference that he seemed to show everyone at the EOD.
“Yeah, I noticed you,” he continued, his voice seeming to deepen with memories. “But I knew that you were afraid of me, so I stood back.”
She didn’t deny her fear. What would have been the point? He was a dangerous man. A man who could kill as easily as most men could kiss. There were shadows that clung to him—and always would.
“You’re still afraid,” he charged, “but I’m done with stepping back. You’re not going to get away from me now.”
She hadn’t been the one stepping back a few moments ago. She’d been the one digging her nails into him. Drew had put the brakes on things. Before she could speak, someone was rapping at the door.
Tina’s gaze jumped to the door. It swung open and Dylan, looking at little singed and blistered, came striding inside.
“That perfect timing again,” Drew muttered. “Work on it, man. Work. On. It.”
Tina frowned at him.
Dylan lifted a plastic bag and seemed to focus just on Tina. “I’ve got new clothes for you. The doctors here said they’d give you medicine to take with us. They wanted you to stay but—”
“It’s too dangerous,” Tina finished. She understood. The longer she stayed, the easier it would be for her location to be compromised. It was too hard to keep secrets in a place as public as a hospital. “Does that man—Anton Devast—think I’m dead?”
If he thought she’d died in the explosion, then she’d be free. Wouldn’t she? His men wouldn’t look for her any longer, and she wouldn’t have to be worried about waking up in the night to discover a gun pressed to her head.
But Dylan’s tense expression shot down those hopes. “He’s not going to believe that, not if he had a man on the scene. And a guy like Devast...he doesn’t take chances. He would have wanted to see you die.”