Page 24 of Trapped With the Secret Agent

“Doing what’s right despite being terrified.”

Isn’t that what she just said?

Her silence must have told him she didn’t understand because he continued with, “Courage is a choice. Courageous people make that choice over and over again.”

“Oh.”

Neither said anything for a while, giving her time to find some calm.

“Did I scare you when I lost my shit?” he asked, his voice rough.

“You? No.” Dare she say why? She considered his question again, how he asked it—tentative and filled with regret. Maybe he needed her to explain. “You make...made me feel...safe.”

She waited for him to respond to that, but after a couple of uncomfortable seconds, she ploughed on with, “Weird, huh?”

“No, it’s not weird.” His voice sounded deeper than before, less strained. Male fingers stroked across her cheek and came to rest on her lips. Startled, Georgia opened her mouth to question him, but froze when his lips replaced his curious fingers. His mouth demanded no response, simply rested, warm skin against warm skin. Sweet. Almost passive. Yet, she could sense the passion simmering below the gentle, light contact.

Suddenly, she was having trouble breathing again, but for an entirely different reason than before.

His tongue skimmed the seam of her lips and she opened them automatically to his tender, questing touch.

He pulled away. How long had they been kissing? A few seconds or minutes?

“I’m sorry,” he said as his arms fell away. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Georgia took a deep breath. “It’s ok.”

“No, it isn’t. After what happened upstairs... No, it isn’t.”

There was something in his voice, a thread of disgust. Did he act out of instinct, to comfort then remembered who’d touched her last?

A cold frost stole over her, and she leaned against the boxes behind her, giving him as much room as she could.

She wanted his touch. He made her feel safe, but she wouldn’t force herself on anyone. She’d survive without him.

“Upstairs, you were acting when you said you wanted me to be put with the other hostages, weren’t you?”

“I need to get you out of here, but that’ll happen only if they put us in here together. So, I told him to put you with the others, figuring he would do the opposite.”

“He could have just as easily shot me.”

“No. You’re still useful to him.”

That didn’t sound like something she wanted. “What...what do you mean?”

“He knows he can use you to get Mitchell and I to do what he wants. He might be a sick bastard, but he’s not stupid.”

She wiped her face, clearing away the last of her tears. “So, now what do we do?”

“We escape.”

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