He hoped it hadn’t softened her too much to fight to survive.
“Because you’re out of here,” he told her quietly. “It’s time to move you, Tehya.”
“No!”
For the briefest second, Jordan had to admit he was shocked. Damn, it had been more years than he cared to admit since a woman had managed to shock him. Hell, since anyone had managed to shock him. And he had to admit he hadn’t planned for this.
He always had a plan to cover every contingency. Now found himself at a loss.
He was so damned surprise he couldn’t think for the briefest second.
Which explained how she managed to jump to her feet before he could stop her and flip on the low lamp sitting on the table next to the bed. So much for the order to stay low and keep the lights out.
She was naked from the waist up, her breasts swollen and flushed, her nipples hard and such a sweet candy pink his mouth started watering for the taste of them again. Hell, she nearly derailed all thoughts for safety as his cock throbbed hard and painfully.
Rather than wrestling her back down to the floor, though, he rose to his feet, watching as she pulled a black T-shirt from the dresser and jerked it over her head.
Slender, small boned, fragile. She looked as delicate as a china doll with all those strawberry and gold curls tumbling down her back and those wide green eyes glaring back at him. The black T-shirt, black leather pants, and four-inch-heeled black leather boots suited her, though if she were trying for a dangerous look, she was failing. She looked like dynamite. A sexual goddess ready to rumble. Or ready for a sexual tumble. She sure as hell didn’t look like a threat to anything but a man’s libido and his piece of mind.
Running his fingers through his hair, he fought to drag his mind away from the scenario where he was fucking the hell out of her, and back to the subject at hand. Keeping her alive until he figured out who had known she was alive and where to find her.
“Someone may be watching you, Tey, that’s why I didn’t want the lights on,” he said, “you’ve had a tail on you for nearly a week now, and they have orders to grab you as soon as possible.”
He watched as she glanced quickly away before her lashes drifted down for a second in weary resignation.
“I had a feeling I was being watched. Stalked.” The acceptance in her voice only shocked him further. Hell, she was setting records tonight.
Surely she hadn’t continued to hang around without contacting him when she knew her identity was compromised? The very thought of it had his entire body tensing in amazed anger.
“You know you’re being watched and you’re still here?” A slow, burning anger began to simmer inside him. It was no longer a suspicion she was being watched, she was confirming it. “You didn’t contact me, or head to one of the safe houses. Why?”
He believed in contingencies in all things. There were six safe houses set up across the nation, and in each of them were hidden weapons, cash, vehicles, and the ability to create new identities until they could contact other members of the team.
But had Tehya taken advantage of them? Had she even tried to cover that very delectable ass of hers?
Her eyes widened in mock surprise. It was a look that made his hands itch to paddle that delectable ass. “Why, Jordan? Because I’m not running anymore. If I had called you or gone to a safe house then I’d be running the rest of my life. I’m tired of it.” The last was said with such exhaustion that Jordan felt his throat tighten. She shook her head then rubbed her hand at the side of her face in a gesture of aching vulnerability. “I’m just tired of it, Jordan. I want it to end, one way or the other.”
His arms seemed to ache with the need to pull her into them then, to comfort her. How the hell was he supposed to handle this? How was he supposed to make sure she was safe when keeping emotions in check was suddenly so much harder to do than it had been before?
Damn her, she made him feel things, made emotion surge through him as he fought to keep his shields intact. She was the only person, man or woman, who could touch his soul.
“Pack a bag.” He wasn’t arguing with her now. Her life was too important to him. He would have to figure the rest out later. “We’ll argue over what you will or won’t do later, once we’ve stashed you somewhere safe. But you are leaving, Tehya. Either willingly or slung over my shoulder, tied and gagged. Make your choice now.”
CHAPTER 2
“Stash me somewhere safe? Don’t I feel important?” she said as she turned away from him, and the lost-sounding loneliness that echoed in her voice had his fingers curling with the need to pull her to him.
For a moment, her delicate face reflected an inner sorrow he didn’t know how to deal with. But as quickly it was gone, and she was turning to face him fully, her expression filled with feminine determination.
“I guess you better tie and gag me then, Jordan, because you’re not stashing me anywhere.”
Son of a bitch, he hadn’t expected such stubbornness from her. He knew she could be stubborn, just not with him.
“Do you know who’s watching you?” he asked. Wondering if she suspected and if it would even make a difference to her, or if she suspected and her stubborness stemmed from that.
Her lips tightened, her dark green eyes shadowed. “I assume it’s one of Sorrel’s associates or one of his former enemies.” She surprised him once again with her answer. “Strange, isn’t it? The bastard’s dead and he’s still haunting me.”
“We didn’t expect this, but we were prepared for it,” he reminded her somberly, hating the dark pain reflected in her eyes now. “That was the reason we staged the deaths, hoping it would put an end to the occasional searches Sorrel’s enemies have arranged over the years. Somehow, someone figured it out and contacted one of Sorrel’s former associates, Ira Arthur with a message that your death was staged. Someone managed to track you down and is in the process of proving your identity as Tehya Fitzhugh. You know how dangerous that could be.”