ysical condition. The dangerous part of it was that the thought of lying in the darkness with her and simply holding her was at least as attractive as the thought of taking her.
He leaned in the doorway and watched as she efficiently finished cleaning the dishes. There was a brisk, economical grace to her movements, even while she was doing such a mundane task. Everything was organized and logical. She wasn’t a fussy woman. Even her clothing was plain and unadorned, though her beige shorts and simple blue cotton shirt didn’t need any adornment other than the soft feminine curves beneath them. Again he was aware of the tantalizing image of those curves, just as if he knew how she looked naked, had already had his hands on her.
“Why are you staring?” she asked without looking at him. She had been as aware of his gaze as she would have been of his touch.
“Sorry.” He didn’t explain, but, then, he doubted that she would really want to know. “I’m going back to bed. Will you help me with the shirt?”
“Of course.” She wiped her hands on a towel and went ahead of him to the bedroom. “Let me change the sheets first.”
Fatigue pulled at him as he leaned against the dresser to ease the strain of his weight on his left leg. His shoulder and leg throbbed, but the pain was to be expected, so he ignored it. The real problem was his lack of strength; he wouldn’t be able to protect Rachel or himself if anything happened. Did he dare remain here while he healed? His brooding gaze remained fixed on her as she put fresh linens on the bed, his available options running through his mind. Those options were severely limited. He had no money, no identification, and he didn’t dare call to be picked up, because he had no idea of the extent to which the agency had been compromised, or who he could trust. He wasn’t in any shape to do anything anyway; he had to recuperate, so it might as well be here. The small house had its advantages: the dog outside was a damned good defense; the locks were strong; he had food and medical care.
There was also Rachel.
Looking at her was easy; it could become an uncontrollable habit. She was slim and healthy-looking, with a honeyed tan that made her skin look luscious. Her hair was thick and straight and shiny, a dark ash-brown so completely lacking in any warm highlights that it almost had a silvery sheen. It went well with her wide, clear, lake-gray eyes. She wasn’t tall, less than medium height, but she carried herself so straight that she gave the impression of being a tall woman. And she was soft, with rounded breasts that nestled into his palms….
Damn! The image was so real, so strong, that it kept creeping back. If it was only a fever-induced dream, it was the most realistic he had ever known. But if it had really happened, when and how? He had been unconscious most of the time, and out of his head with fever even when he’d been awake. Yet he kept reliving the sensation of her hands on him, stroking gently, with the open intimacy of lovers, and he had either had his hands on her or his imagination had lurched into overdrive.
She plumped the pillows and turned to him. “Do you want to sleep in your shorts?”
For an answer he unsnapped the cutoffs and let them drop, then sat down on the bed so she could work the shirt off his shoulder. The warm, faintly floral scent of her enveloped him as she leaned close, and he instinctively turned his head toward it, his mouth and nose pressing into her shoulder. She hesitated, then quickly freed him from the shirt and moved away from his touch. The moist warmth of his breath had heated her skin through the fabric of her shirt and played havoc with the even rhythm of her heartbeat. Trying not to let him see how his nearness had affected her, she neatly folded the shirt and placed it on a chair, then picked up his cutoffs and placed them on top of the shirt. When she looked at him again he was lying on his back, his right leg bent at the knee and raised, his right arm resting across his stomach. His white briefs contrasted sharply with his bronzed skin, reminding her that he didn’t have any tan lines on his body. She groaned inwardly. Why did she have to think about that now?
“Do you want the sheet over you?”
“No, the fan feels good.” He lifted his right hand from his stomach and held it out to her. “Sit here for a minute.”
Her mind told her that it wasn’t a good idea. She sat down, anyway, just as she had done so many times since he’d been in her bed, her body angled to face him and her hip against his side. He draped his arm over her thighs, his hand cradling the curve of her hip as if to keep her nestled against him. His fingers, curving around to her buttock, began to move caressingly, and her heart started pounding again. She looked up to meet his eyes and was unable to look away, caught by the mesmerizing black fire.
“I can’t give you all the answers you want,” he murmured. “I don’t know them myself. Even if I tell you I’m a good guy, you’d still only have my word for it, and why would I cut my own throat by telling you anything else?”
“Don’t play devil’s advocate,” she said sharply, wishing she could find the will to break away from the seductive power of his gaze and touch. “Let’s deal in facts. You were shot. Who shot you?”
“I was ambushed, set up by one of my own men—Tod Ellis.”
“Bogus-FBI-agent Ellis?”
“The same, from the description you gave.”
“Then make a call and turn him in.”
“It isn’t as simple as that. I’m on a month’s vacation from the agency. Only two men knew my location, both of them my superiors.”
Rachel sat very still. “One of them betrayed you, but you don’t know which one.”
“Perhaps both of them.”
“Can’t you contact someone higher up?”
Something cold and furious flashed in his eyes. “Sweetheart, you can’t get much higher. I’m not even certain I can get through. Either one of them has the power to declare me an outlaw, and calling from here would endanger you.”
Rachel felt the icy power of his rage and shivered inside, thankful that she wasn’t the one who had crossed him. The look in his eyes was in direct contrast to the touch of his fingertips on her hip. How could his touch remain so gentle, while the wrath of hell glittered in his eyes?
“What are you going to do?”
His fingers trailed down her hip to her thigh and rubbed across the hem of her shorts, then gently glided beneath it. “Recuperate. I can’t do a damned thing right now, including dress myself. The problem is that I’m putting you in danger just by being here.”
She couldn’t control her breathing, or her pulse rate. Heat was building inside her, destroying her ability to think and leaving her to operate purely on her senses. She knew she should move his hand, but the rasp of his rough fingertips on her thigh was so pleasurable that all she could do was sit there, quivering slightly like a leaf in a soft spring breeze. Did he normally treat women as if they were his to touch as he wished, or had he picked up on her uncontrollable responses to him? She thought she had disguised them well, kept them to herself, but perhaps his job had made his senses and intuitions more acute. Desperately she made herself move, putting her hand on top of his to prevent it from moving any higher.
“You didn’t put me in danger,” she said, her voice a little hoarse. “I made the decision without your help.”