Page 31 of Close Pursuit

“I figured I’d see what I find about it and decide what to do from there.”

“Found anything so far?”

“Only that someone’s unerringly following me to the places they send me.”

“Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with D.U. Maybe it’s coincidence that the fighting has flared up in the places you’ve been. After all, the organization does send its people to the most remote and war-torn places on the planet.”

He snorted. “I can calculate odds out to nine figures in my head in under a minute. And you don’t want to know how many zeros line up after the probability of it being random chance that I get shot at everywhere I go.”

She put her coat down on the rough bed and tucked Dawn back into her nest. Alex used two pieces of wood to scoop up the now hot rocks from the edge of the fire and place them around the baby to keep her warm.

That taken care of, they returned to the fire and each ate an energy bar. She gazed at Alex in the dancing firelight. “What are we going to do, now?”

“We’re going to get some rest and wait for dark before we do anything. There’s a place not too far from here…can you hike twenty miles or so over rough terrain if we break it up into a couple of days?”

“Depends on the terrain, but I guess so. It’s not like I have much choice, anyway.”

He leaned back against the cave wall and held his arm out. “Share some body heat with me?”

She stared, shocked. He was inviting her to cuddle with him? He so wasn’t a cuddly kind of guy! He was a torrid sex, love ‘em and leave ‘em, kind of guy.

Stunned, she scooted around the fire to his side and tentatively rested her head on his shoulder. His arm went lightly around her waist and she hesitantly draped her arm across his middle.

“What do you do to work out?” she murmured.

“Vigorous sex. You?”

She giggled in spite of herself. “Zumba. Which is a lot like pole dancing without the pole.”

“Show me sometime?”

“Not on your life.”

She felt his smile without having to look up to see it. Silence fell between them and she savored the slow, steady beat of his heart against her ear.

The warmth of the fire and the flames’ mesmerizing dance had lulled her mostly to sleep when he murmured under his breath, “I’m a devil you can’t handle, Angel. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay far, far away from me.”

5

Alex savored the way Katie’s body melted against his, fantasizing about how it would feel beneath his in the throes of sex. Gradually, she slid down in her sleep until her head ended up resting on his lap. That brought a whole new wave of forbidden fantasies springing to mind.

The sight of her mostly naked body danced in his mind’s eye, burned on it indelibly. Lord, the things he wanted to do to her. And the sight of her breast with Dawn’s head nuzzling it…he knew that wasn’t supposed to be a sexy thing, but it had turned him on so bad he could hardly stand it. Someday, he wanted to be the one sucking at her breast, bringing that flush of pleasure to her cheeks.

He snorted at himself. Must be some misplaced, infantile need to replace his mother. He always had been a breast man…

…although the sight of Katie’s backside with that strand of lace nestled between her cheeks was enough to make an ass man out of him in no time. Purely depraved fantasies came to mind about what he’d like to do to that part of her anatomy.

Sleep. He needed sleep before tonight. But with his body rock hard and her face inches from his erection, there was no way he was getting any rest. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander deep into the dark world of possibilities if Katie McCloud ever decided she wanted to climb down off her good girl pedestal.

He spent the day spent dozing, helping feed and care for Dawn, and speculating on who had planted both the primary burr in his coat and the smaller, secondary one in Katie’s hiking boot. He hadn’t told her about either one. No need to panic her when their tracker was undoubtedly someone from his checkered past. The list of people who might wish him ill was long and distinguished.

As dusk fell, he broke out more bottles of water and mountain climbers’ energy bars. He and Katie ate quickly, and she topped off Baby Dawn with more of the IV fluid. The baby’s birth weight had been excellent, he estimated somewhere around eight pounds, but the infant would need real food soon.

He waited, until full dark had fallen outside and then asked Katie, “Ready to head out?”

She murmured an affirmative and he heard her coat zip. They had fashioned a cloth sling for Dawn that held the baby securely across Katie’s torso and should make her more mobile. He hoped she wouldn’t need that mobility for tonight’s hike. He knew the general direction and GPS coordinates of where he was going, but he had no idea what the terrain between here and there would be like. He was not optimistic.

The night was ominously dark and silent as they set out. Either the battle was finished in the Karshan valley, or had yet to begin. He feared it was the former, which would mean whoever was tracking him was free to come after him.

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