Page 76 of Hunter

“The bastard!” she hissed. “He knows that raising men in laboratory tanks in order to send them off on dangerous assignments is morally wrong. He’s frightened by the consequences of what he’s done. So, he’s shifting the blame to the victims.”

“Yes, I come from his laboratory, and I’m not a human being,” Hunter said.

She cupped her hands over his naked shoulders, feeling the flesh and muscle and bone. “You’re a better human being than Dr. Swinton,” she said with conviction. “When you saw me standing on the dock, and you knew Reid was going to set off the explosives, you could have moved out of danger. Instead, you came running toward me.”

He swallowed. “Yes.”

“So why did you do it?”

“I—” His features took on a look of remembered pain. “I saw you standing there, and I—I couldn’t let him kill you. What happened to me didn’t matter. I had to save you if I could.”

She folded back his hand and brought it to her mouth, stroking his flesh with her lips. “You put my welfare before your own. If you had no soul, you wouldn’t have done that,” she said with conviction.

He raised his face toward hers, his expression achingly hopeful, and she knew that he wanted to believe her.

“Swinton may be an expert at doing illegal biological experiments,” she said. “But I have a lot more experience with people. I’ve worked with all kinds. Good and bad. Moral and amoral. I know what kind of man you are. You are good. Moral. Honest. Intelligent. Giving. All the things I value.”

“That can’t be true.”

“It is. Or I wouldn’t have wanted to make love with you.” She kissed his fingertips.

He sat staring into an unseen distance, and she wasn’t sure she had convinced him. All she could do was scoot closer to him and lay her head on his shoulder.

Emerson and his men had done their best to damage Hunter. Yet there was a deep well of strength—of resilience within him. She knew it was true, or they wouldn’t be sitting here talking so intimately.

“Who do you believe?” she asked softly. “Swinton or me?”

After a long time, he answered, “I want to believe you. More than anything. But—”

She lifted her face to his, found his mouth. At first, he held himself like a man turned to stone. Then, with a strangled sound of wanting, he began to respond. She gave him a long, desperate kiss, her hands moving over his naked chest and shoulders

“Hunter, never doubt yourself. Never doubt that you are a good man. A normal man, and an extraordinary man, too. Very few people could have survived what they did to you. But you have. And from now on, everything will be better for you—for us.”

There was still uncertainty in the depths of his dark eyes.

She pulled his mouth back to hers, and her hands began to move urgently over him again, trying to show him the truth of her words. Trying to show him how much she cared.

A sigh of gratification went through her when she felt him surrender to his need for her.

“Yes. Make love with me,” she murmured.

This time, there was no way either of them could go slowly. This time was hot and sharp and full of the desperation of two people caught in a trap that might destroy them both.

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A rumbling vibration made her raise her head and look anxiously around.

Beside her, Hunter sat up, his gaze fixing on the door.

“What is it?” she asked. “What’s happening?”

“One of the alarms I set out while you were sleeping. We must leave here—quickly.” He pulled the cover from a screen that sat on a low shelf and stared at what looked like a round green target—with a series of concentric circles. At the bottom left, several small blips moved toward the central area.

“Four men,” he said, watching the screen. “They are heading straight in our direction. Maybe somebody dug into the old records and found out about this place.”

She felt a shiver go through her. After they’d made love again, Hunter had urged her to get ready to leave. She was dressed, except for her shoes, which weren’t quite dry. Now, she pulled them on.

“We must assume they are looking for us,” he said as he checked the packs of supplies he’d gathered earlier.

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