CHAPTER 3
Stashing her at base would have been a hell of a lot easier on his nerves, Jordan thought the next morning as he watched Tehya move around the kitchen preparing coffee. To fight this battle effectively, he needed to know she was safe, needed to know there was no chance of her being taken. That there was no chance of his hunger getting the best of him and distracting him. As she was now.
Frayed denim cutoffs barely covered the rounded curves of her ass, the threads caressing lightly tanned lush, toned flesh. It was evident she had kept her training up from the appearance of firm feminine muscle beneath her flesh. The snug toffee-colored top she wore molded her full breasts, and thin straps running from her shoulders crisscrossed at her back. She looked even more fragile, more delicate than ever in the skimpy summer clothing. Almost too delicate for the lustful, erotic hungers raging through him.
She didn’t wear a bra and the hardened tips of her nipples pressed against the thin material, drawing his gaze and causing his mouth to water. He remembered the heated, sweet taste of them, as well as their sensitivity in her response to his hungry mouth sucking them.
For the moment, he simply watched her as she poured their coffee then slid his mug across the counter to him. The narrow-eyed resentment in her expression was almost amusing, except he hated seeing her this upset
“You bought the house,” he stated as he gazed around the neat open area and he searched for a topic that would ease her anger.
He’d been on the computer before she came out of the bedroom. She hadn’t just bought the house, either, she’d also bought a small landscaping company that had gone from near bankruptcy to healthy profitability in the six months she had had it.
“I bought the house,” she agreed.
She surprised him doing so. He hadn’t expected Tehya to put down roots without being forced.
“Why, Tehya? Why did you buy a house rather than renting?” Leaning forward, Jordan was careful to keep his tone even, his expression merely curious. He didn’t want to antagonize her this morning. Too many plans had to be made now that plan A was out the window. But also needed to learn more about this side of Tehya that he hadn’t expected.
Leaning against the island, she stared back at him with a serene confidence that only made his dick harder. “Why wouldn’t I want to buy a house, Jordan?” she asked him. “I thought I was safe from my past. If I had known the truth, perhaps I would have done things differently.”
“Then you would have made that decision in Texas,” he said quietly. There was just something about the tone of her voice that warned him that buying this house, buying the business, was something Tehya had hungered for only after leaving Texas. After she had felt she had lost her family there. “Buying a house isn’t something you do on a whim.”
She shrugged negligently and looked around. For a moment, her face softened. For the barest second Jordan glimpsed dreams he had never known Tehya held inside herself. Damn, how had he managed to miss the fact that his Tehya had hungered to put down roots?
“Maybe,” she finally murmured.
Maybe. It was a definite. Just as his certainty in the fact that she was in danger.
“Tehya, I’m working on a safe house for you…”
“Then you’re wasting your time,” she assured him, and he knew she wasn’t joking. “A safe house is only a delay, Jordan. Changing my identity, moving me, hiding me. It’s never worked in the past, it won’t work now.” Acceptance, bitter and filled with regret, tightened her expression.
Jordan wiped his hand over his face and fought to come up with a new plan on the spur of the moment.
“You know, Jordan,” she said as she stared around the house again. “I’ve been on the run, one way or the other, since I was five years old. I never attended a normal school, I didn’t have playmates, and I never had a home.” Her gaze met his as her eyes flashed with pain. “Changing my hair, my looks, my name, my fingerprints, or my location never helped. They always found me eventually and they always will. Delaying the inevitable will only give them the chance to surprise me. What you should do is take your men and just leave. Let me face my past and deal with it for good. I know what I’m facing and I know how to deal with them.”
Hell.
Leaning back against the barstool, he regarded her silently. Tehya was putting down roots and now she was determined to stand and fight for those roots. He had to admit, he hadn’t expected that of her but perhaps he should have expected.
Tehya had never been predictable.
“If I were in danger, Tehya, would you just walk away?” he asked then knowing the answer, just as she should realize he could never walk away either.
“That’s different,” she answered softly. “As you suspected, I care more for you than I should.”
Damn her, she had the ability to slip past his defenses in ways he could never have expected and never failed to surprise him.
“Do you believe I don’t care for you?” How the hell had she managed to come to that conclusion?
“Observation,” she snorted. “So, did you discuss my phone with Commander Reece?” Pushing away from the center island, she moved to stand across from him. Her brows lifted inquisitively as he fought to find a way to deal with her last comment as well as her abrupt change of subject and the memory of Killian’s betrayal.
Jordan felt the familiar anger rising inside him at the thought of what his former friend had done. “Your ability to call the team wasn’t affected,” he informed her. “There was a tracker pin attached to the programming. He swears the default kicked in and kept calls from sensitive numbers from coming in which is possible, but doesn’t change the fact he did it.”
Her lips parted, her tongue touching the tip of her upper lip for a second in a gesture unique to Tehya. Mocking disbelief and an edge of hurt.
“Killian definitely believes blood will tell, I guess,” she said impassively. “Are we shocked?”