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CHAPTER TEN
“WELL, YOU SHOULD be scared,” Julie yelled at the phone. “Because when Aaron finds you, he’s going to…shoot you in the head, you…bastard!”
“All right, that’s it.” Aaron pushed the End button and slammed the phone down on the table. “What the hell?” He rounded on her.
“Sorry,” she apologized. The adrenaline was already draining from her body. What had she been thinking? “I was just so mad. I wanted to… Well, I wanted him dead.” The admission shocked her. Up until now, she’d thought that with enough time and patience, this guy would just give up and go away. That he wasn’t really a problem. But he was a problem, and her whole life was now in limbo because of him. This had gone on long enough. This was all so unfair. She’d give anything if she could just be happy again. Her knees began to tremble.
“I don’t really want him dead,” she said in a small voice. An incomparable weight seemed to settle in her chest. It made it hard to breathe.
“I know you don’t.” Aaron’s tone was surprisingly gentle. Why was he suddenly being so kind? She looked up to study his beautiful eyes, to see if she could fathom his change of mood, and a tear ran down her cheek. Where had that come from? She dashed it away, but another one took its place.
Big arms came up to enfold her. His chest was so broad and warm…and solid. Her tears ran faster. This was the second time in nearly as many days that she’d cried. What was wrong with her? A hand came up to cradle the back of her head, and she dropped her forehead into the crook of his shoulder and gave in to the tears. Inside his arms, she felt shielded from the cruel man and the troubled world waiting right outside for her. As if she was in a bubble. My wings are like a shield of steel. It was a stupid catchphrase from some dumb kids’ cartoon Julie remembered from her childhood. But those words suddenly rang true. Being held in Aaron’s arms made her feel as if she were almost invincible.
She shouldn’t feel this way.
He was her sworn enemy. Okay, enemy was a strong word, but he was definitely an untrustworthy pig when it came to her heart.
Her tears began to slow, but he continued to cradle her, not saying anything, just letting her cry. But as her weeping subsided, she became aware of the bands of muscle wrapped around her back. Then she noticed that her breasts were pushed up against the solid wall of his chest. Her nipples tingled at the idea. She became acutely aware of every single place on her body that was touching his. The top of her thighs, the way his hands nestled in the small of her back, his thumb rubbing tiny circles on her spine, his biceps wrapped around her shoulders. A thrill of desire ran through her. The old chemistry was still there. If anything, it’d increased, not faded. She couldn’t help it, she breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of his masculinity. He smelled clean and pure, like soap, overlaid with a much deeper musky scent. Then she caught the faint hint of something metallic. His gun. It was that thought which finally lifted the spell. She raised her head and tried to push away from him, but he resisted, strong arms like a vise around her.
She tensed, but he didn’t seem to notice, his gaze was fixed on her face. It took her a moment to understand he was watching a last tear run down her cheek.
“Julie?”
His thumb came up and gently wiped away the droplet, searing her skin as it went. She wanted to flinch away, but she couldn’t, snared by the heat flaring in his eyes.
“Julie?” he said her name again, as if it were a question. A question she didn’t know how to answer.
He lowered his head, slowly but surely. She’d forgotten how tall he was. Or was that how short she was? She couldn’t remember. All she knew was that his mouth was coming closer and closer. Then his lips crashed into hers.
The short stubble around his mouth tickled her lips, rasped at her skin, but God, she wanted more. She went up on her toes and pressed her hands to his chest and kissed him back. His teeth nipped at her lower lip and then his tongue was in her mouth, and it felt like he was delving the depths of her soul. Her fingers ran over his firm pecs. Jesus, he was hard in all the right places. Not that he hadn’t been hard before, but now he was big, and solid and so much more…powerful.
She moaned, a husky sound that surprised her, the hunger clearly evident in her sigh.
Somewhere in the distance, a ringtone sounded.
“Ignore it,” she mumbled into his mouth.
“It’s Lance,” he mumbled back, then tore his mouth from hers. “I need to answer it.”
With one hand, he reached around and retrieved his phone from his pocket, but he didn’t let her go completely, for which she was quietly grateful. As it was, she suddenly felt unsteady on her feet, as if the earth had just moved beneath her.
After a few seconds, she felt strong enough to take a step back, out of the shelter of his arms. With one final glance in her direction—was that regret in his eyes?—he brought the phone to his ear. “Tell me you got him, Lance.”
Julie knew this call was important, but she couldn’t seem to concentrate on what Aaron was saying.
Jeezes. What had she been thinking? Anyone could’ve walked in on them. How would she have explained that? And besides, she wasn’t supposed to kiss Aaron. Wasn’t supposed to want him. Bastard. How dare he still have such an effect on her?
She wandered over to the window, wanting to look out over the billabong, the view always helped to calm her mind. But she’d forgotten the curtains were drawn and cursed silently.
Aaron stopped talking, and she turned to see him grimace. It didn’t look like good news.
“What did he say?”
“He said that we should’ve kept him talking longer,” Aaron growled, taking a dig at her lack of self-control. Then he held up a hand as she began to protest. “But he also said it wouldn’t have done us much good, even if we’d kept him on the line for half an hour. The guy was using a burner. It can’t be easily traced. And if he’s as smart as I’m starting to think he is, even if we do trace it, he’ll probably have already ditched it.”
“Wow.” Julie wasn’t sure what to say. It seemed they were no closer to catching this guy, or even finding out who he was. “What are we going to do now?”
“We have a private detective on retainer. Nicolay is good at what he does, and I’ve already got him looking into identifying this guy. He’s talking to that group you saw outside the clinic, to see if they know who he is.” Aaron took two steps toward her and slung an arm around her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll catch him. Soon.”
