Edge of Danger (10 page)

 
She should be running for her life, but her shoes seemed glued in place. And she would run, as soon as she could move, as soon as she could think coherently. Light-headed and dry-mouthed, she just stood there staring at him.

 
She was a sensible woman. But, God. He was
gorgeous.
Even if it was far from sensible to notice his hard, lean, muscled body, or the way he watched her with an intensity that was unnerving. Tightly leashed power hummed around him.

 
He was an intruder. And by the look of him, a dangerous one at that. So why was her body drawing her toward him, instead of away?

 
Dark blue eyes, mocking and enigmatic, watched her with the focus of an animal on its prey. His slightly shaggy, midnight dark hair was a little too long, hanging almost to his shoulders, and the angle of his head made the dark strands cast a sinister half shadow across his face.

 
He was casually dressed in worn, nicely fitting—
really
nicely fitting—faded blue jeans, and a navy T-shirt. The jeans loved his hips and long legs, the T-shirt showed off an impressive chest and the muscles in his tanned arms.

 
Oddly, he was barefoot. He gave her the unnerving feeling that he was crowding her space, but he was a good fifteen feet away and hadn’t moved.

 
Eden, all five feet seven sturdy inches of her, suddenly felt petite and more
female
than she’d ever felt in her life. Dear God, who
was
he?

 
For God’s sake, she gave herself a mental shake,
one
of them should say something. “Who are you?” she said, taking control of the situation. “Where did you come fr—”

 
His silence, his uncanny stillness, was more unnerving than if he’d physically, or even verbally, threatened her.
Fine, buddy. Go ahead and look your fill. Twenty seconds after I press the emergency buzzer, this lab will be filled with security people. I’ll stand right here staringback at you as long as it takes me to get to that buzzer. Then you’ll be toast.

 
The lab seemed to fade away. Her entire focus and awareness were on this man watching her. She could hear her own pulse in her ears, feel the frantic rush of blood through her veins. She was ultra aware of her hair tickling her neck, and the press of her breasts against the inside of her bra. She even felt the brush of her eyelashes against her too-long bangs.

 
She was shaken to the core by her own powerful, all-consuming reaction to this man. This stranger. It was as if she knew him on some deep primitive level she’d never experienced before. She was aware of danger. Of longing. Of need and of fear. Fear, not of him, which was insane, but of the power of her own reaction to him.

 
She’d never felt such a visceral response to a man in her life. She wanted to run into his arms and bury her head against his broad chest.

 
Involuntarily, she took a small backward step as he pushed himself off the edge of her desk and silently started walking toward her on large, bare feet. Feeling stalked, panic welled up inside her.

 
Run, for God’s sake. Run!

 
If she’d found his disconcerting stillness unsettling, she was even more panicky as he approached. Her heart thumped harder and harder. All the little hairs on her body stood to attention as if electrified.

 
“Close your mouth, Dr. Cahill,” he said mildly enough, but his nostrils flared like a stallion scenting a mare as he came closer and closer. His voice resonated inside her like a tuning fork. Incapable of dragging her gaze from his mouth, she thought vaguely,
I know that voice…
Then she pulled herself up short.
Get a grip here, Eden,
she warned herself, forcing her attention away from his mouth. But seeing the strange intensity in his narrowed eyes was almost as unnerving.

 
His gaze fell, drifting like a physical touch, over her shirt, down her jean-clad legs, lingering on her bare toes in the strappy red sandals, then just as slowly, meandered back to her face.

 
Her eyes widened at the warmth suffusing her body. The sexual chemistry between them startled the hell out of her. It was so hot, so fast, so unexpected, it stole her breath.

 
Horrified, she felt her nipples peak and her body throb as though she were being touched. Snapping her mouth shut, Eden narrowed her eyes right back at him. Tension stretched between them, heavy and thick.

 
The only way he could possibly have come in was to have passed Jason as he exited. He hadn’t.

 
“How the
hell
did you get in here?” And that was only one of many questions that demanded answers. Damn him. Was he performing some sort of hypnosis? She couldn’t figure out how, or why, she was suddenly feeling aroused. It was as inappropriate as it was unlikely. And the second time today.

 
Stop that,
she told her body.
Just damn well stop that.
The rise of her jeans caused a friction she didn’t need, and she wasn’t moving so much as an eyelash. Her heart rate was so elevated she was scared she’d pass out at any minute. Her core temperature seemed to rise the closer he came.

 
She shot him a suspicious glare.

 
His lips twitched. His predatory smile was that of a male intensely physically aware of a female. Or a jungle cat about to have lunch. “If you think that smile will allay my fears,” she told him coolly, “it doesn’t.”

 
Over two thousand people worked in the building. The computer lab right next door held several hundred of them. Just a—soundproof, damn it—wall away. Not only that, but even after several weeks, the building was crawling with Jason’s security people, uniformed officers, detectives, FBI, and a fruit salad of other agencies.

 
“How did I get in? Magic.” His gravelly baritone was ironic.

 
That voice again. The one she’d heard in her erotic dream. The one that had haunted her since.

 
Which was, of course, ridiculous. The room was flooded with sunlight, yet to Eden it felt as though it were filled with shadows. This man’s presence seemed larger than life. She could ponder his method of gaining entrance later. The fact that he was ten feet away from her, that she was alone with him behind three locked high-security doors, that somehow he was raising her body temperature and heartbeat without touching her, all bothered her a great deal.

 
She had to lick her lips before she could push the words out. “You’re wasting your time.” Her voice was steady, but she stuffed her shaking fingers into the front pockets of her jeans so neither of them would know just how damn scared she really was. He didn’t move, but his heated gaze was on her mouth as she spoke. Slowly he lifted his eyes to meet hers. The nonphysical contact jolted Eden right to her bones.

 
Oh, God. She
had
to get to that buzzer. Theo had been shot. Did this guy have a gun secreted somewhere on him? Probably.

 
Her little gun was in her purse, which unfortunately was directly behind him in her desk drawer. Her only hope was hitting that silent alarm. And the odds of her doing that before he reached her were slim to none.

 
“You’ll get no more from me than you got from Theo. How could you kill a defenseless, harmless old man?”

 
“Who said I did?”

 
Eden rolled her eyes. “Well, it defies logic to think more than one person has managed to break the Verdine security system in such a short window of time. It’s called deductive reasoning. If you’re here now, you must have killed Theo. But this stealthy little visit is a waste of your time.”

 
“Why is that?” he asked softly.

 
He stood between her and the emergency security button under her desk. But Theo’s desk was about five feet to her right. She held his gaze as she took a casual step closer to the desk. “Because you’ve already killed Dr. Kirchner and taken everything of value. Killing
me
would be—redundant.”

 
“Is that right?”

 
When she didn’t respond he asked softly, “Stupid or brave, Doctor?”

 
She met his eyes. They weren’t black, but a dark, fathomless, deep blue. “If you’re referring to me not running like hell—
neither.
I’m paralyzed with terror.”

 
His expression darkened. “Are you always this honest?”

 
“No. Yes.”

 
“Which is it?”

 
“What difference does it make?”

 
“Close your eyes, Dr. Cahill.”

 
With him scowling at her like that? Not a freaking chance. “Don’t be ridiculous. I want to see what you’re doing.” Marshall would be back soon, she thought with rising panic. But soon enough to prevent her death?

 
“Are you going to scream?”

 
Hell, yes. She could feel it building deep in her diaphragm as he approached as silently as a large, predatory cat. “What’s the point? This is a soundproof room.”

 
He frowned. “That is a dumb-ass thing to tell a man you believe is a killer.”

 
“I’m not going to waste oxygen screaming.” No matter how logical that response might be, the tightness in her chest ratcheted up another notch as the scream gathered inside her.

 
“Close your eyes.”

 
“Go to hell.”

 
The sudden flash of blinding white light seemed to pierce her brain. Eden screamed, and kept on screaming as she fell through space.

 
The moment they arrived in the castle’s vast dining room Gabriel waited for her screams to peter out.

 
“Jesus. Fuck. What the hell did you do to her?” Sebastian demanded.

 
Gabriel leaned against the long, carved mahogany sideboard, arms crossed. Dr. Eden Cahill, she of the curly dark hair and snapping brown eyes, was curled in a tight little ball on the Aubusson carpet in his dining room. At least she’d stopped screaming. The scent of tuberose, warm female skin, and obstinacy filled his senses.

 
He’d been too close to her for those few seconds before they’d teleported, and his heart was still racing and sweat dampened his forehead. Even his goddamned
skin
felt too tight. He dragged in a deep breath, held it, let it out slowly, but his self-control didn’t extend to his thoughts.

 
Sebastian snapped his fingers to get his attention. “Yo. Up here.”

 
He dragged his attention away from Dr. Cahill to glance at Sebastian. “She refused to close her eyes.” Plucking a lemon from the filled blue-and-gold Murano glass bowl beside him, Gabriel brought the fruit to his nose. His pulse was throbbing through his veins like a freight train, but he made sure neither his impassive expression nor his posture betrayed his thoughts to his friend.

 
Desire, sharp and strong, continued surging through his body. The hunger clawing at him was invasive, blinding. Dangerous as hell because the temptation to put his hands on her was almost overwhelming and damned hard to resist.

 
He wasn’t sure how he knew that by
touching
Eden Cahill he’d be lost. He just—
knew.

 
How fast could he do this?

 
Right now she was disoriented, weak, vulnerable. Desperately he tried again. A quick hard push at her mind.