Page 44 of Heart of Danger
He couldn’t.
It wasn’t just that it was probably lost in the mists of time, or not just that. It was that he had problems remembering anything about other women while looking at Catherine. It seemed impossible to him that he could ever have wanted another woman because the most desirable woman in the world was right in front of him, sleeping, her hand in his.
Every other woman in the world just slid right out of his head, never to return.
Catherine’s eyes moved under her lids, back and forth, as if she were reading something. Her hand gripped his and she opened her eyes.
He moved his hand so that his thumb rested on the inside of her wrist.
“Hi,” he said softly. He’d regained consciousness from concussions enough to know that she’d be disoriented. “You fainted. Probably from exhaustion. But your pulse is normal and—” he leaned forward, catching a faint scent of something fresh and spring-like— “your pupils aren’t dilated. You should be okay. I brought you here so you could rest.”
Her eyebrows pulled together as she slowly looked around the room then brought her gaze back to his face. “I’m in your room?”
Quarters was more like it, but he nodded. “Yeah.” He held up the hand that wasn’t gripping hers. “But don’t worry. You’re in no danger from me. I’m not going to hurt you.” His mouth quirked. “Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, every single person in this community would rush in and beat me up if I touched a hair of your head.”
She’d listened to him carefully, hand gripping his. It was strange, how she wouldn’t let go of him, just hung on tight. Where her hand met his, his skin was warm and it was almost as if there were some kind of glow.
Shit, he really needed to get laid if holding a woman’s hand was making him hot.
She took her time answering, searching for something in his face.
It made him almost—but not quite—uncomfortable. Women’s eyes didn’t linger on his face. Certainly not beautiful women’s eyes. People looked at him briefly then usually focused on a point past his shoulder. Only his men and the people of Haven looked him straight in the face.
And Catherine Young.
After looking at him for a long time, she finally spoke in a soft voice. “No, I’m not afraid you’re going to hurt me. Not at all.” She stopped, bit her lip.
“You have something else to say? Spit it out.”
Her hand moved in his, warm and soft and spreading…something where skin touched skin.
“You’re not going to like it,” she warned.
Hell there were a lot of things he didn’t like. That didn’t mean he couldn’t face them. In the field, you faced what came at you, dodging whatever was incoming if you could, dealing with it head on if you couldn’t.
“I’m a big boy,” Mac answered.
She smiled, her first smile since regaining consciousness. Gentle and sad. There was no happiness there, only pain.
“I know you are, Mac. I knowyou. I know you inside out, whether you want to believe me or not. I know you are a dangerous warrior on the battlefield and that you couldn’t hurt an innocent. Simply couldn’t.”
His hand had jerked but she just tightened her grip. It was ridiculous. His hand was almost twice the size of hers. His grip, like that of all SpecOps soldiers, had been tested on a dynamometer and had clocked in at 200 lbs. Over, in fact, the scale. And yet he couldn’t pull his hand from hers.
Her eyes searched his. “We have a connection, Mac. Whether you like it or not. And I think you can feel it, too.”
He shook his head even as he knew he was lying to himself. He felt it. Some kind of electric thing, a prickling warmth spreading from his hand up his arm…
“Did you somehow drug me?” he blurted out.
Catherine gave a startled laugh. “No, of course not.”
He kept asking that because it was the only thing that made sense. What else could explain this feeling, something warm coursing through his system now. And Catherine—she was glowing from within, whereas before she’d been pale and pinched, now she was slightly flushed and radiant, as if there was a lightbulb inside her.
What was this shit?
His cell gave a soft two note beep. Incoming text. A white beam shot out, moving until it found a dark surface to project on.
Outside the door. Stella
