Authors: Allie K. Adams
When Dan went to the front door and stepped out into the hall, JT snapped out of her lust-induced trance. "Where are you going?"
"
We
are getting the hell out of here. Now."
"Dan, I can barely walk."
He turned back to her. "I'll carry you if I have to."
Yeah, right. Like he was in any better shape than she was. "Why are you so hell bent on leaving?"
His eyes traced the inside of her apartment. Yes, it was a disaster. She didn't even want to see her bedroom. Her heart stopped. No doubt her underwear drawer had been strung all over her bedroom. Did he see all her lacy unmentionables?
The way he studied her right now told her he did. His eyes slowly moved from her face down to her breasts, where they again puckered at the mental contact. After he'd taken his time memorizing her chest, his eyes continued down until he seemed to stare at her toes. She wiggled them. "Get some shoes on this time."
JT cursed her body's reaction to him. Might as well plaster her attraction to this man across her forehead. "You still haven't answered my question."
He looked around her apartment again. "In case you haven't noticed, Turner, your apartment has been ransacked."
The fire hit her cheeks. She wasn't a complete idiot, despite what he may think. Jerk. "I noticed. But that doesn't mean we have to leave."
"Come again?"
"They were obviously looking for the disc. Now that they have it, they won't be back." The realization of her failure smacked her across the face. In her eagerness to prove her worth, she'd successfully stolen the world's most lethal weapon and personally handed it over to the enemy.
Talk about a failed mission.
The color splashing across her cheeks brought the green out in her sexy eyes. She tossed her pistol at him. "Watch the door."
Dan grabbed the pistol and shoved it into the back of his pants. He didn't want to watch the door. He wanted to watch her. He tried his damnedest to block out how she might look in some of the lacy things now strung all over her bedroom. The deep red and sexy-as-hell lacy thong he'd spotted hanging on the corner of her bed had him hard just thinking about her tight ass in it. And then out of it. Ah, hell. Why fight this?
He wanted her. She was female. He was male. Nothing more to it. Right? Right.
No doubt she was naked on the other side of that bedroom door. The curves of her body fit perfectly in his when he helped her up the stairs. Although she'd been through Hell before jumping into
He heard water running and figured she must have jumped in the shower. Good. She looked like she'd been shot and thrown into salt water. And yet she still looked damn tempting. Mouth-watering. Delicious.
The thought of JT without a stitch of clothing on made his pants excruciatingly tight. He tried to adjust himself, but it did absolutely nothing to relieve the pressure. Only one thing would.
JT Turner.
Dan threw that idea out. This morning he thought she was the mole. He was ready to turn her over to the firing squad. Hell, he was ready to shoot her himself.
But then he'd met her, actually talked to her. He'd never met anyone like her. Most women he knew used their gender to their advantage. Not JT. She expected to be treated equally. When he offered to help her up the stairs, he braced himself for her to push him down them.
But those damn noises she made drove him crazy! They were heart-wrenching, gut-stirring, body-tensing. He wondered if she made those same noises when she made love. And then all he could think about was how much he wanted to be the reason she made those noises.
He'd done the first thing he could think of before he took her right there on the stairs. Carrying her up seemed like the quickest way to shut her up. And it gave him an excuse to touch her again.
Dan had to give himself credit. Any other red-blooded male would have given in to her feline temptations by now. He noticed the way she lifted her chin to grant him access to those soft, very delicious-looking lips. He almost gave into the pleasures of the flesh. Twice. But as he drew her close to him, looked deep into those pretty eyes, another set of pretty eyes flashed across his memory.
He ran his fingers over the scar on his chest. His permanent reminder of what happens when a man drops his guard, all for the love of a woman. The first woman he'd ever loved. Truly loved. Head over heels loved.
Raven.
Of course, he knew it wasn't her real name. He never bothered to learn her real name. He didn't care. She was intoxicating. Her dark eyes, dark hair, incredible body. He fell for it all.
And it almost got him killed.
He still couldn't remember everything from that night. After she stabbed him in the chest, he'd blacked out. But not before she saw him charge his best friend and drop him by slicing his throat.
Dan thought about the woman on the other side of the door. She wasn't Raven. She wasn't the mole. She was all woman, flesh and blood. And he wanted her, needed her. He needed the touch of woman again to prove not all of them were evil, cold-blooded killers. Except that JT
was
a trained killer, trained by the same organization that trained him.
The water stopped, which meant she would only have a towel covering her moist skin. The little water droplets would be cascading down the curves of her breasts, dripping off her nipples, taking the path his mouth longed to take. The coarse curls covering her mound would be glistening with wetness, and knew it wouldn't only be from the water. He saw the way she responded to him. Hell, she practically jumped him in the kitchen. She definitely started laying him with her eyes. Why, again, did he turn her down? He couldn't quite remember his reasoning behind that decision.
Jesus, he needed a cold shower, and maybe another dip in
He looked down at his damp clothes. At least they were almost dry. But a nice hot shower sounded awfully tempting. "My turn in the shower."
The door flew open and her head poked out, her eyes wide. Her wet hair clung to her cheeks, dripped on the floor. "What did you say?"
He blinked at her reaction. Did she have something against showering? If she wanted to conserve water, they could always shower together. It didn't matter that she'd already had one. For what he wanted to do, they wouldn't be in the shower too long before finding their way to the bed to lick every drip of moisture from her tantalizing flesh.
He growled low in the back of his throat.
That's the way to get over your urges, Weber. Keep thinking like that and you'll be lifting cars for the rest of the night.
"Shower?"
"My shower is only big enough for one."
Her comment threw him. Was she inviting him? Telling him no? He couldn't figure this woman out. Before he could stop himself, he jumped right in with both feet. "Perfect. For what I have in mind we'll only need the corner."
She appeared shocked, but only for a moment. Then she arched her brow. "And what did you have in mind?"
"I want you."
"Really? Well, it's good to want things."
"And you want me, too."
"Maybe so. But you've made it perfectly clear, Weber. I'm not an idiot."
"I never said you were."
"You had your chance and you turned me down flat. I don't need rejection twice in the same night, thank you very much."
Did she ever take a breath? "Turner."
"Can it. If you want a shower that bad, make it a cold shower, Spyman. Because this fish ain't biting." Her gaze drifted down to his groin, making him swell and push against the restraint of his pants. Then she made a whimpering sound again.
Goddamn if that noise didn't cause his insides to spin, him to grow to an unbelievably painful hardness.
"JT."
"No."
Dan didn't know if she said it aloud to convince him. Or her. She bent over and wrapped her hair up in the towel, tucked the end in the back. "It's obvious we're attracted to each other."
She kept her head down, hiding her expression behind the towel turban. "We don't need to act on it."
His lip curled into a grin. But he
did
want to act on it. He wanted to explore her with his hands, his mouth, inch by inch, until she writhed and whimpered. Only then would he take her ripe clit into his mouth and tease her until she cried out. But he wouldn't stop at just one. No, he'd want her to come for him. Over and over. Until they both passed out.
Which, judging by the day thus far, wouldn't take long.
He folded his arms and leaned up against the wall. "We're both adults."
She straightened and stepped out into the room. She'd changed into a dark long-sleeved shirt and jeans. Her nipples stood taut against the tight material, and he knew they had to be aching for his touch.
He knew he ached to touch them, to taste them.
Get a hold of yourself, Weber
. They couldn't act on their attraction. Not only was it a bad idea, neither one were in any shape to take on anything physical. And oh how we wanted to get physical with her.
"How's the shoulder?"
JT glanced at it as if she'd be able to see the wound through her sleeve. With a slight shrug, she brought her attention back to him. "I'll live. I planned to use a couple butterfly bandages to close it up, but it's too late. It's already started to scab over, so I just slapped a bandage over it."
Good. Keep her talking about something other than them together. He needed to keep his mind off of his undeniable need for her. "Do you want me to take a look at it?"
That would require her to remove her shirt. He'd start with examining her wound, then move on to other things.
Son-of-a-bitch. So much for keeping his mind free.
"No need. I'm a big girl. I know how to apply a bandage."
Oh, you are so much more than a big girl. You, JT Turner, are all woman.
Clearing his throat, he brought his gaze down to the floor and blew out a deep breath. They were treading in dangerous waters. After what happened today, and until he could get to the bottom of how JT had gotten tangled up with Jason Peck, he needed to keep his mind clear.
His mission hadn't changed, only the players. He was told to bring in the mole. Jason Peck was the mole, just as Dan had suspected. In his book, that gave him NASSD's blessing to find the little prick and bring him in. Or snap his neck. Whatever.
Keeping his mind on anything other than JT was impossible with her around. He needed to go at this alone. If they crossed that line now, she'd never understand. Hell, he didn't know if
he
understood.
It couldn't happen. It shouldn't happen. They were both NASSD. They were on assignment. Sort of. And consorting with coworkers never worked out.
She had somehow made her way over to him without his knowledge. Dan cursed inwardly. He was too busy thinking about her, and about them together, to notice. A mistake like that could get them both killed.
Which proved his point. He'd contact Donovan in the morning and have him take JT off his hands while he went after Peck. The farther apart they were, the more he could concentrate on finding Jason Peck and ripping out his spine. If
he actually had one.
Now what to do until the morning? He stole a glance toward her bedroom. Whoever ransacked her apartment left the mattress on the bed. It would be morning before Peck realized they didn't die jumping off the pier. They could stay here tonight and get a good night's sleep.
Riiight
. Sleep.
He kept his eyes on her as she stopped in front of him. Careful to keep his gaze above the neck, he studied her face before resting it on one of her ears.
They were pierced.
If he needed any more convincing, that did it. The woman in the surveillance photo didn't have pierced ears. JT did. And thank God she did. It could be the one thing to save her should Donovan bring her up on charges for going AWOL.
"Dan?" Her sultry voice pulled his attention back to her eyes. With her good arm, she lifted her hand and touched his cheek. It sent jolts of energy straight through this heart.
Dan tightened his arms in front of him in response. He'd just made up his mind, damn it. They weren't going to cohabitate. Period. Nothing she could—why was she
looking
at him like that again?
No. Not going to happen. Her touch didn't feel warm, it didn't feel like a million gallons of emotions washing over the dam surrounding his heart. The look in her eyes didn't make him want to pull her into his arms, to taste the recesses of her mouth. The smell of her skin didn't make him hard in response, his want for her driving away any other rational thought.
Her thumb moved slightly, brushing across his cheek, her eyes never leaving his. His jaw clenched. He swallowed. She took another step toward him, stopping when his crossed arms in front of him kept her from closing in.
Gently, she took her hand and placed it on his forearm, easily moving his arms down to his side. She took another step so that her breasts pushed up against his chest. Ah, Jesus. He could feel her nipples poking him.
"Are you going to turn me down again?" Licking her lips, she wrapped her arms around his neck. Although she tried to hide it, he could see the motion hurt.
Tell me about it.
He shifted to try and ease the uncomfortable pressure in his groin.
"I told you I wanted you." Dan responded by throwing out all reason and bringing his hands around her waist, resting them on the small of her back. He pulled her to him, holding her close. She smelled great. The apple blossoms were in full bloom.
She lifted her chin to ready her lips for the taking. "You know, some say near death experiences send surges of pheromones through the human body."
"You don't say." He closed in, barely brushing his lips across hers. He could smell her breath. Toothpaste. She'd brushed her teeth. He licked his teeth, wishing he'd had the chance to at least wash the taste of Elliot Bay out of his mouth.
"And this issue of you wanting me could be because we were almost killed tonight." Her lips tickled his as she spoke, watching her plump lips move as she talked. It was too much for him to resist.
"Hmm." He lowered his lips to hers and tasted her. Incredible. She tasted better than she smelled. Honey. No,
sweeter
than honey. It made his entire body surge in his want, his need for her. After exploring the edge of her mouth with the tip of his tongue, he parted her lips and really kissed her.