Page 21 of Hunted

Until he turned, and caught her looking. He seemed to pale a little bit, but before he could make some lewd comment, she turned toward the bed that was still made up. “Guess I’ll try to get some sleep like you said.”

He didn’t reply, so she crawled under the covers, clothes and all, curled up with her back toward him, and closed her eyes.

She was, she realized, sexually attracted to Romano. A man who had basically abducted her and who was determined to destroy the life’s work of her father. It was kind of sickening to admit it, but she’d never been one to indulge in denial. It was what it was. She’d just have to deal with it.

Chapter Six

His bandages came loose in the shower and the wound burned like a hot brand. His injury was the least of his worries, but he’d have to take care of it all the same.

Lexi Stoltz was too smart for her own good, and too beautiful for his peace of mind. She’d seen the photograph he carried everywhere he went. When he was alone, he set it up beside his bed or sleeping bag or wherever he slept. He liked it to be the last thing he saw before sleep and the first thing he saw when he woke. So he would never forget.

Pain helped him remember. It was his pain, his private pain. Lexi had no business poking around in it. He didn’t want or need to share his grief or his guilt. Especially not with her. She’d invaded his most private place when she’d reached into that pain to put her hand on his shoulder.

An offer of comfort, sure, but he didn’t want her damned comfort. When she’d almost touched the photo of Wendy and the boys …

It was wrong to let anyone touch it. Especially the first woman to stir a healthy lust in him since he’d lost them. And that was wrong, too. He had to keep her away from that sacred memory, that sacred pain.

He bit his lip against the swelling in his throat and the burning in his eyes. His little boys had been his world, and Wendy had been a big part of that world.

This job, this mission was for them. He was going to avenge their deaths. And Lexi Stoltz posed a threat to that. Somehow, he knew she could prevent him from exacting vengeance and bringing down the elusive Mr. White. It didn’t make sense to think that, but he trusted his gut. He couldn’t let her to come between him and his goal.

He stepped out of the bathroom, wearing his shorts and nothing else. Let her be shocked. Let her throw a prissy little fit and he could despise her for being pretentious and phony.

But she didn’t. She lay on the bed, curled up on one side with her back to him. Her long dark hair covered her shoulder, a few wavy tendrils reaching out over the pillow like vines in search of something to twist around. It sure as hell wasn’t going to be him.

She didn’t move so he figured she’d managed to fall asleep after all. Good. About time.

He fished his medical kit out of the bag and taped up his shoulder. Doing it one-handed was on the edge of impossible, but he did what he could. When she didn’t offer to help, he was sure she was sleeping. She was too softhearted to let him struggle.

He ate. But the whole time, the image of her, lying there in the bed wearing his T-shirt now, with her hair spread around her like dark chocolate satin, haunted his mind. She hadn’t eaten. She should’ve. She’d need her energy for the trip ahead. Either she was too fussy to settle for the MREs in his pack or she seriously wasn’t hungry. Probably the latter.

He ought to wake her up and make her eat.

He didn’t.

And when he’d cleaned his guns and loaded them and run out of things to do, he sat there on his own bed and looked at her.

Why did he have to end up saddled with a woman who could make a saint have impure thoughts? He far preferred the usual risks, bullets flying past his head, that sort of thing Why her?

Romano hadn’t had sex with a woman since Wendy had died. And, frankly, he hadn’t wanted to. That part of him had died with his family. He hadn’t been aroused since the night when his life had gone up in smoke, and that was fine by him. He’d planned to just throw himself, body and soul, into the job, until one of these times, the bad guys got the best of him and put an end to this joke that passed for a life.

But work hadn’t made him forget. And with a cloud of suspicion still hanging over him at the Bureau, and Stryker always watching his every move, it had become impossible to stay on the job. His former partner was convinced of his guilt in the bombing that had killed his family. Stryker had never been able to back up his suspicions, but he’d never stopped trying. Eventually, work had become impossible.

Hell, he couldn’t even blame Stryker. He’d been in love with Wendy himself. But a drunken night between Romano and Wendy had led to an unplanned pregnancy and they’d decided to get married. If that hadn’t happened, she probably would have ended up married to Stryker.

And maybe she’d still be alive.

Though he never said it out loud, Stryker was a constant reminder of that fact. So Romano had chosen retirement. But that hadn’t worked out, either.

He’d entered stage three now, he supposed. He was living for vengeance. That was all he cared about. There was no room for sympathy or even lust.

So what was it about Lexi that had him feeling … desire? The longer he looked at her, the more he felt it, even after almost a year without a sign of life from his libido.

Made no sense whatsoever. But he could resist temptation. If he could dodge bullets and battle terrorists, he could fight off a little coup attempt by his reborn sex drive. He wasn’t going to be unfaithful to Wendy’s memory. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to get involved with Lexi. That would interfere with the job he had to do.

So he sat there arguing with his body until an hour before dawn. That was when she muttered something in her sleep and rolled over, bending one long leg, causing the T-shirt to bunch up around her waist. And he saw the little white cotton panties she wore, and he wanted to go over there and slide them off her.

He was undeniably turned on and disgusted with himself for it. Fresh air might help. He pulled on his jeans and T-shirt and headed out the door, paced in the parking lot, stared up at the fading night sky. But it didn’t give him any answers and did little to erase this sudden hunger for a woman he barely knew.

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