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Sometimes, Chaya reasoned, a woman just knew when she had too much man on her hands. Too much lust, too much strength, too much hunger. And all that described Natches only too well.
“You’ve been watching me,” she finally stated. “Why?”
He removed the glasses from his eyes slowly. How he managed to drive wearing the dark shades she hadn’t figured out. But when he looked at her, it happened again. The same thing that happened every time she stared into the perfect forest green of his eyes.
The breath seemed to rush from her lungs, nerve endings heated, and between her thighs she felt a flood of liquid warmth she couldn’t control.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” he finally said as he turned and took a side road that led to his garage. “You should have resigned from DHS like I heard you had and gotten the hell away from Cranston. ”
“What does that
have to do with you watching me here? You knew there would be further questioning conducted in Somerset, Natches. Did you think it was really over? It won’t be for Timothy until he finds the money and Johnny’s coconspirator. ”
“You’re so certain he had one?” He shook his head at that. “Johnny didn’t share that easily, Chaya. ”
“Unlike the Nauti Boys,” she murmured.
She knew the rumors that the cousins shared their lovers and wondered at that, because Rowdy and Dawg seemed more than possessive over their women.
“Long ago and far away,” he muttered.
There was something in his voice that had her gaze sharpening on him. An ache of loss, of regret. Something that assured her he was right. Whatever sharing may have gone on in the past, it was over now. Her question, though, was how much he regretted it.
Silence descended then. Chaya watched as the darkened scenery sped by and they drew closer to the garage and the apartment over it.
“Here we are. ” He pulled in behind the garage and parked the jeep beneath the wooden steps that led up to the second floor.
The light on the overhead porch threw a glimmer of golden rays below to add to the subtle landscaping lights behind the shrubs that grew close to the building beneath the porch.
Chaya moved from the jeep and watched warily as he waited for her at the front of the vehicle.
“Have you had dinner?” he asked, placing his hand at the small of her back and giving her a firm push to the steps.
“Sheriff Mayes and I ate after the last interview,” she told him, feeling his hand tense at her back.
She swung her head around to try to see him in the dim light. She could have sworn he growled something not quite complimentary where the sheriff was concerned.
“Keep going, Chay. ” He crowded her, pushing her up the stairs, his larger, broader body making her feel too feminine, too weak.
She was a trained agent, or she was supposed to be, but every time she was around Natches the agent became overwhelmed by the woman.
He was her weakness; she had figured that out at a time when she hadn’t needed to know it. And the certainty of it had only grown.
She stepped onto the landing and stood aside as he unlocked the door, stepped in, and looked around before turning back to her.
“Come on in. ”
Her heart nearly strangled her as it raced in her chest and jumped to her throat. She stepped inside, staring around the starkly masculine area as she felt her palms dampen.
Here, she was in his territory, completely surrounded by Natches. She stepped farther into the room, then paused at the mantel over the gas fireplace. A smile tipped her lips. There was a picture of Faisal, the young goatherd who had managed to contact Natches on a shortwave radio channel to inform him that a female agent was being held and tortured in the desert.
He was her savior as well that day. Faisal had covered Natches while he pulled her out of that dark, hellish cell. She knew the extraction team that had picked them up had made certain Faisal made it back to his goats.
“I talked to him a few months ago,” he told her. “He said you were still sending messages and money. ”
She nodded slowly. She couldn’t protect him; all she could do was try to make things easier.
“He makes a monthly trip past one of the bases in the area. I make certain he has something waiting for him there. ”
