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But it didn’t happen. He scowled down at me. “Why’d you stab Cal?”
I blinked. I could see the molten amber in those hard, brown eyes. He wanted me, but the lust was contained, an animal trapped behind thick steel bars. “So you wouldn’t have time to come after me,” I heard myself say.
His scowl deepened and I saw his shoulders tense. He was mad, but not at me. At himself, because I’d gotten free and hurt that guy. And instead of exploiting that guilt like I normally would, I said, “Your friend will be fine.”
“Oh, you’re sure of that?” he snarled.
“I went up, not in. I didn’t hit anything vital. He’ll bleed, but it won’t kill him.”
His eyes narrowed and then his shoulders fell in relief. He believed me. Maybe he could sense that I was telling the truth, for once. And weirdly, I felt relieved, too. It bothered me that he’d been beating himself up. What’s the matter with me?
“You learn that in spy school?” he growled.
I mentally shook myself and got myself back under control. “Yes,” I said coldly. “Very useful in interrogations. You make them think they’re going to die and they’ll tell you anything.”
He stared into my eyes and I saw all the things I’d seen before, when a soldier meets a spy. He was appalled. Disgusted. And—
I quickly looked away, staring furiously off into the trees. No. Screw you. I didn’t want his pity.
For a moment, we lay there in silence. I could feel him studying me but his gaze wasn’t focused on my boobs, even though my vest top had a V neck that was stretched down a little, after all the struggling. His eyes seemed to be trapped on my face, tracing the line of my jaw, the shape of my lips.
There was an unexpected flutter in my chest, stupid and girlish, pink ribbons in the breeze. I scowled and studied a nearby tree stump in great detail, refusing to meet his eyes.
I thought I heard him sigh. Then he flipped me face-down and pulled my hands behind my back. “Handcuffs don’t work so good on you,” he mused. “Figure you had a handcuff key or something hidden on you, and maybe you still got it. So how about we go back to basics?”
I felt the bristly scratch of rope looping around one wrist and the rasp and jerk as knots formed and pulled tight. Then the other wrist, and suddenly my hands were snugly trapped behind my back. I pulled, testing the rope. God, he was good at that: I could barely move my hands at all, but it didn’t feel like it was cutting off my circulation. “What are you, a boy scout?” I spat.
He didn’t answer. I felt him get up, then he took hold of the rope that bound my wrists and hauled me up onto my feet, so fast and effortlessly that it made me gasp. I tottered and cursed. When I regained my balance and glared at him, I found him staring at me.
That lust again. God, his gaze was like a flame licking over my skin. With my arms behind my back, my chest was thrust out and, this time, he wasn’t able to stop his eyes dipping to my breasts. That shouldn’t have turned me on, but it did. Then he dragged his gaze back to my face, looking sweetly embarrassed.
“Now you can be a good girl and walk,” he told me. “Or I can throw you over my shoulder and carry your ass. Which is it gonna be?”
He wouldn’t really, right? He wouldn’t just tie me and toss me over his shoulder like some sort of caveman. I stared up at him…
And realized that yes, he absolutely would. And could.
Another tremor ran down through my body and this time, at last, I understood what it was about him, why he triggered this crazy, infuriating need.
He was strong enough to overpower me but he was man enough that he didn’t need to take me by force. He’d wrestle me to the ground, pin me, tie me...but he wouldn’t fuck me. Not unless I begged him to. And that made me melt completely.
A lock of my hair was hanging down in front of my face. I blew it out of the way. “Walk,” I told him, trying to keep my voice level.
He gestured to a path and we set off.
12
COLTON
I stayed two paces behind her. Far enough away that she couldn’t mule-kick me but close enough that I could grab her if she tried to run. Between the trees and the clouds, almost no moonlight made it down to us and it was dark and disorienting as a funfair haunted house, with tree branches that came out of nowhere to hit you in the face and pools of blackness that you thought were just shadows until you stepped into the hole. She’d already shown how slippery she was: if she got away from me even for a second and hid, I’d have a hell of a job finding her. So I made sure I kept my eyes glued to her.
