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I glanced sideways at her. She was listening intently and, now that the focus was off her, the flirty armor seemed to be dropping away. “Sometimes, I was hauling drunk grunts out of bars. Sometimes, it was moving prisoners around the country. And sometimes…” I gave a long sigh. “Sometimes, I’d have to arrest someone who’d done some bad shit. I mean, war crimes level stuff. Executing civilians. Torture. Worse.” I shook my head. “You see too much of that stuff, it gets in your head and won’t come out, you know?”
Tanya met my eyes, the fake flirtiness gone completely, now. She knew.
“So anyway, I got out, came home, didn’t know what to do with myself. Wound up bounty hunting. Then some Irishman came along and offered me a job doing this.”
She studied me. “Out of all the things you could have chosen, you became a bounty hunter. You believe in justice.” It wasn’t a question.
I shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I’ve just seen enough to know there’s too many of them and not enough of us, so somebody better do something.”
“Who’s them?”
“Bad guys.”
She blinked. “Bad guys? You still think there are bad guys and good guys?”
“You think that’s dumb?”
She stared at me sadly for a moment. Then she turned away, gazing off into the trees. “No. I’m just envious.”
What happened to this woman? I felt this ache, inside, as I studied her profile. It wasn’t just that she was so damaged, it was that I could see glimpses of the person she used to be, before, and it was fucking heartbreaking. But I didn’t know what to say, or how to help, if she’d even let me. I wished Gabriel was there, or Danny. Or Bethany, Bethany’s good at talking to people. I felt like a big dumb animal trying to repair some intricate, multi-layered puzzle box, one that was loaded with razor blades and poison needles.
I sighed. “We better get some sleep. That means I gotta tie you up again.”
She turned and looked at me, her expression revealing nothing. Goddamn, she was good at that, like a freaking sphinx. Then she held her wrists out submissively in front of her.
I got some rope and bound her wrists together. Then I tied her ankles, too. “Okay,” I told her. “Lie down. By the fire, so you stay warm.”
She obediently lay down on her side facing the fire. I lay down too, but with my back facing the fire so I could see her. I didn’t want to block all the heat, so I stretched out so we were end-to-end, but with our heads overlapping. That left me looking into her eyes upside down. We probably looked like one of those romance book covers where the dude and the girl are lying on a bed. “Well, goodnight,” I muttered, and closed my eyes.
I lay there listening to the crackle of the fire and her soft breathing. Then I heard a rustle of clothing. She’s trying to escape! My eyes flew open and I tensed, ready to grab her—
She was just lying there, eyes open, staring back at me.
I closed my eyes again. Close to a minute went by. Then there was a soft crunch of grass as her body moved. I opened my eyes again—
I was staring straight into that cold blue again. She raised one eyebrow.
“This ain’t working,” I growled.
“Well, what do you suggest?” she asked coldly.
I sat up. “I need to keep hold of you while we sleep. To make sure you don’t run away.”
“So you expect me to...what? Let you spoon me? Like we are…”—she paused for effect—“lovers?”
I looked at the trees. The fire. Anywhere but her face. “It ain’t like that,” I said, and rubbed at my beard. “I just gotta make sure you don’t escape.”
“And to do this, you must lie snug against me so your khuy—your cock,” she clarified, “—is pressed up against my ass?”
She sounded as coldly imperious as a captured Tsarina, as if having me touch her would be the worst fate she could possibly imagine. I knew she was trying to make me squirm and it was working. “Yes,” I grated.
“And if I say no?”
“Well, then I guess I’ll think of something else,” I told her. “Maybe tie us together or something.”
She drew in a breath, then let it out with a sigh of resignation. “Fine. You may hold me.”
I walked around behind her and lay down, then prepared to scooch closer. It should have been an easy enough job but suddenly, the blood was thundering in my ears. Even in the oversized clothes I’d given her, the silhouette of her body against the fire was enough to make me catch my breath. The curve where her body narrowed at the waist, the flare outwards to that ripe, perfect ass…
“Are you coming?” she asked without turning around. “Or are you going to lie there staring at me?” Her voice still slashed the air like a knife made of ice. But was that a tremor of excitement in her voice? Or was I imagining it?
