“Have I done something to upset you?”
“No,” he replied. “But I need you to get to your cabin so I can go back to doing my job.”
“Oh.” Had I been reading him wrong? “Wait a minute. You told me to leave at dinner, which is probably going to piss Giovanni off. You want to hurry back to that?”
“Maybe I like pissing him off.”
“If that’s true, then spending another minute out here won’t hurt.”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “Do I need to remind you that I have a gun?”
His hollow threat was borderline cute. “Oh, so you do have a sense of humor.”
“What makes you think I’m joking?” He gave me a sharp, intimidating look.
With the jacket off, I could see the full, thick biceps and toned form he had hidden beneath his t-shirt. He was totally lying. All his gaze did was send indecent thoughts flying into my brain faster than a jet engine. Damn, what was this man doing to me?
“You can’t threaten me after you gave me your jacket and manhandled Giovanni when he tried to cop a feel.”
“That was—” He stopped himself, looked like he wanted to try again, maybe a different angle. “I can’t afford to waste time on distractions.”
“Excuse me?”
“I find you incredibly distracting.” He said it like the words burned his mouth.
He’d just accused me of doing something, but I didn’t understand what. “Why?”
The muscles in his face tensed. “You’re a smart girl, figure it out.”
He blinked, and the mask on his face drained away.Holy shit.There was unadulterated lust painted on his face.
But abruptly, he reined in the emotion, pivoted, and took off, forcing me to follow. His stride was long, and I had totake two steps for every one of his. I wasn’t completely out of breath, but when we reached the side of the cabin, he shoved me aggressively against a wall, my back slamming into it.
“Be quiet,” Nathan hissed in my ear. “Giovanni and the other translator are heading this way.”
His large hands were gone from my body, but he was much too close. I could feel his warm breath on my face, and his gaze was locked on mine. There was nothing to do but be still and quiet.
And wait.
I wanted to point out that he, once again, was trying to save me from Giovanni’s advances, which was sweet—but unnecessary. I could handle whiny, sleazy Giovanni.
Nathan’s head turned to the sound of knocking on the door, and I didn’t like that I was no longer his focus. I liked the way he looked at me, even when he was pissed off ordistracted.
There were Italian words around the corner that I didn’t concern myself with. The man in front of me was a threatening presence, sure, but he was also a man with a hard body and shocking face that I was drawn to.
Because I liked flirting with danger, and maybe because I liked seeing him off-balance, I put a hand on his warm chest and felt his steady heartbeat through the thin fabric of his shirt. No reaction.
The idea of keeping my personal life separate from business died, burned up in the fire of my lust. I gripped his chin, pulling his face to me, rose onto my toes, and claimed his mouth with mine.
He did nothing.
He didn’t turn his head away to stop my kiss, but his focus was only on the men around the corner.
It made me more aggressive. I slid a hand up to curl around his neck and bend his head down to deepen our kiss, which he allowed but didn’t respond to. My mouth drifted to his neck, tracing a line across the stubble of his jaw. Everysecond I continued to kiss him, and he ignored me, made me angrier. When I cupped his face with both hands, he caught me by the wrists and forced me to stop.
His whisper was frustrated. “I’ll give you what you want, just wait a second.”
Footsteps gradually grew quiet around the corner, signaling the men were gone.
