Page 23 of Viral Justice

He ended the kiss very, very slowly, waiting for her eyes to open while he stared down into her flushed face.

“I,” she said, opening her eyes to treat him to a heated look, “will never sneak out of your room while you’re sleeping again.”

No regrets, plans for more.Mission accomplished.He released her and went to sit down behind his desk, because if he didn’t, he wouldhaveher on his desk. “Excellent.”

Her relaxed posture went back to military straight. “I will continue to treat you with the respect your rank demands in public, Max.”

“Just now, you treated me like you’d never met me before, when you’ve beaten me up numerous times and have a habit of needling me with it. In public. If you stop, people are going to wonder about that too.”

She nodded. “I overcompensated. I’m sorry. Speaking of hand-to-hand, we need to talk about how well you took me down last night and why you otherwise can’t.”

He froze, ice spreading through his chest like a deep, hard frost. “We’ve already discussed it, and I agreed to continue practicing with you.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She leaned forward, studying his face with eyes he feared saw too much. “You look like a deer caught in headlights. What happened to you?”

Faces flashed through his head. Pain. Shouts. His father’s blood spattered face. He locked the memories down. To give them a voice would be the same as issuing an invitation to anarchy to take over the world. There was only one thing he could do. Tellthelie. One he’d told a hundred times to as many people. He took a deep breath, then looked into Ali’s eyes and told it one more time.

“Nothing.”

Chapter Six

Ali watched Max’s expressionchange from a reflection of old hurts to horror, to a closed book. He wasn’t going to tell her anything.

Stubborn fool.

She was stubborn too, but she’d let it go...for now. That brief expression of horror...worried her. Something had happened and it had been terrible.

Let him think she’d retreated, when all she was doing was holding her advance until the right moment. She’d just found a man who accepted all of her without hesitation. She wanted the chance to explore what was between them.

“Fine.” She sighed. “I’d like to talk about that report Eugene just gave you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What about it?”

“I had no idea you kept track of outbreaks in such a wide area.”

“Wide area? We track them worldwide.”

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