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“No, that’s true, Dr. Seismologist, you’re as brave as hell. I was scared out of my mind, and when a man has a deep affection for a woman, making them scared results in anger,” he growled. “I’m so pissed off and so blown away by your courage.”
Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. “Oh…well…okay. Thank you. I should get some credit…for being a…a…sex kitten ninja.”
His scoff was filled with reluctant humor. This damn woman. “You’re killing me, Maddy.” For the record, he noted that what happened next wasn’t her fault. It was all him. Whatever defenses he’d had left with this woman crumbled into dust. He leaned in, wanting to hold every breath of her inside himself, to savor every intimate moment until he was satisfied that she was solid and here.
He opened his mouth wider, took more of her, slid his arm around her waist, and pulled her to him, and she made a soft sound, and pressed herself against him, sliding her tongue in along his and galvanizing him from his brain to his balls.
“Well, I guess that answers that question,” his CO’s amused voice came out of nowhere.
He broke the kiss and turned to look at his boss. “Sir,” he said.
Bondo walked in and smirked. “Romeo, Romeo, where art thou, Romeo.”
“I understand you’re writing poetry,” Dagger said as the rest of the guys showed up. “It’s about your eyes, Maddy.”
She looked around the room, at the smiles, and the amusement. “Poem? I want to see it.”
Shark groaned but was cut off from saying anything by the arrival of the ambassador. He went to the front of the room, and said, “Please be seated.” Picking up the remote, he turned on the wide screen bolted to the wall. It was soon filled with Secretary of State Eleanor White.
The ambassador turned toward the room and told everyone what Maddy had told him. “We need to know if he died of natural causes or if it was murder. We’re sending in a small team. Tex, Twister, for his medical skills, and Flash. The rest of the team will be guarding my family at the residence.”
“And if he was murdered?” Twister asked.
“Either way we have a volatile situation on our hands. The loss of Baptiste is devastating to our diplomatic mission for Haiti. We don’t know what the prime minister is up to, but we’re confident that there’s a coup in process. Once we have confirmation, we’ll go through with our plans. We may have to evacuate the embassy and all Americans from Haiti.”
11
The water gurgled out of the tub as Maddy folded the towels and hung them up on the rod, the late-night silence of the house weighing down on her. She straightened the items on the vanity and put the cap on her body lotion, then dropped her brush in the drawer. She felt as if every nerve in her body were stretched to the limit, the knot in her stomach sitting like a rock. She had gone to bed hours ago, and when she didn’t get a visit from Shark, she managed to fall asleep.
A nightmare had brought her sharply awake, her heart pounding, the tentacles of fear leaving her cold and shaking. But it wasn’t the remembered fear that had driven her from her bed. It was the anxiety of not knowing how to handle the situation with Shark. He had, she realized with a pang, made sure she had her feet under her before he’d withdrawn.
But that wasn’t what made her chest tighten and her throat ache. It was recalling how, once they’d gotten back to the house, he had pulled back into himself, and although he had been very careful with her, he had avoided touching her. Now that everyone knew that they were together, she had expected him to be more relaxed, but he seemed even more on edge. He put up some kind of barrier, and she wasn’t sure what it meant.
Then she had caught him watching her when they were eating dinner, and the look in his eyes had done terrible things to her already raw emotions. She’d sensed that she had somehow been responsible for that look, and that had upset her. It still upset her now.
She closed her eyes, her immediate reaction was to immerse herself in something…fun, to distract herself away from this new situation. But she refused to fully return to her habitual way of dealing with any type of fear or anxiety. She didn’t want to avoid her feelings anymore and skim along the surface of life, instead of being more fully open to experiencing a deeper level of her emotions when it came to Shark. He deserved that from her. She deserved to feel like a whole person.
She bit her lip. Could she feel like a whole person without him? Her heart caught, once again realizing that she was really on the dangerous edge of falling for this man. The only thing that was holding her back was her fear of committing and what would happen once she did. There were no guarantees in relationships. She knew that from experience, but whether she could allow herself to go into a relationship without knowing where it was going to end up, scared the hell out of her.
She dropped the lightweight nightgown over her naked body, the white garment soft and flowing. It made her feel feminine and pretty, the lack of underwear, decadent. She needed that right now. She switched off the light after her, went to the sliding glass door and opened it, stepping out into the quiet night, her mood more than a little edgy. God, she ached for him, for his arms around her, for his comfort and warmth.
Sighing, she went back inside and closed the door. Attuned to the stillness in the house, she opened her door. Fear might have woken her up, but it was Shark’s absence and her own sense of unease that were keeping her awake. Pushing open the door, she entered the darkened hallway, starkly aware of the closed door at the very end of the hall. Realizing that all this vacillating was only making things worse and knowing that there was no way she could go back to bed, she rubbed her arms and turned toward the stairs. She needed something to do, something to take her mind off the churning feeling that kept rolling inside her. Something to take her mind off the dark, haunting eyes of Shark. The comfort of facts and data would do the trick. She could analyze the rest of her findings and finish the draft of her paper. Then, she could get started on her poster for the upcoming conference next week.
The thought of her leaving soon sent another rush of anxiety through her.
She started down the stairs, her insides dropping away to nothing when she heard the clinking of metal—a sound coming from the left side of the house. The gym. Pausing on the next to last stair, she gripped the banister, her heart suddenly clamoring. Was that him?
Tex, Twister, and Flash had left for the mission, but the rest of the guys had stayed here for security purposes. Could it be Shark in the gym? Was he having a hard time sleeping too?
Feeling shaky with hope, she took a deep, painful breath, trying to will away the frantic flutter that had climbed into her throat. Now what? What did she do now? Did she confront him? Did she leave him to figure out his own feelings alone?
She remembered how angry he’d been in the conference room, how he had kissed her, when everything had been on the surface—the comfort, the warmth, the need.
She’d wanted that comfort, that warmth. She wanted everything with him. It was frightening how much she wanted that, and it was even more frightening knowing that if she wanted it, she would have to fully put herself out there. She didn’t know what she would do if he didn’t feel the same way.
Trying to quell the uncertain flutter in her heart, she took a deep, steadying breath, her heart climbing higher and higher. Marshaling every ounce of courage she possessed, she started for the gym.
When she reached the open doorway, she was happy, relieved, and even more charged that it was Shark, and he was alone. He was hanging from a bar, his back to her, pulling himself up over and over again, shirtless, with nothing but a pair of gray cotton shorts on. His biceps, forearms, and shoulders bunched and flexed, and she watched the play of thick muscles across his broad, defined back. His skin glistened in the light, the fine sheen of perspiration on his upper body slick from his exertions. The ends of his brown hair curled damply around the nape of his neck. He was so solid, so sexy, and completely immersed in his element.
