Zach spun away, spitting out a curse. His whole damned world was crashing down around his ears at once. "I'll take you home before I head out to find her."
He just prayed he could track Shelby before she threw away her life.
Julia tucked around him in front of the door. "You're never going to get it, are you?"
Impatience pumped through him. "Later, Julia, and I do mean later. Now isn't the time for us to finish this."
"Stop and listen." Tender comforter long gone, Julia jabbed a finger in the middle of his chest. "I'm not the wilting flower type. I don't need you to protect me. I don't want you to shove me behind you when things go—"
Her teeth gritted back a frustrated shout. "Forget it. You're right. This isn't the time.>'What an insensitive ass' and throw me out of your life so you wouldn't have to face whatever the hell it is we have between us."
"That's not true at all." Or was it?
"When have you ever stopped searching for reasons to shut me down?"
Julia started to apologize again, then paused. How had he sidetracked her? Maybe he'd been right to hold back initially, but later he should have told her. "When have you ever stopped trying to control everything around you?"
He stopped in his tracks. "Run that one by me one more time."
His totally clueless look stirred the embers of her anger. How could he understand so little about her and still expect her stay with him? "If you want me to call you something besides Colonel, then quit treating me like one of your troops."
His eyes heated from brown to molten gold as they swept over her. "Believe me, Julia, I've never wanted to do to anyone under my command the things I want to do with you under me."
The fire within her combusted into a blaze.
Julia trembled from the effort to hold herself back. Although she would gladly trade the confusing swirl of emotions for something she understood perfectly.
Lust.
Zach advanced a step, the hungry wolf aura returning. All those memories rose from the sofa and taunted her with everything she was giving up by pushing him away. She backed from the couch until her legs bumped the edge of his desk, all the while knowing she was lying to herself. She wanted Zach Dawson any way she could have him.
And right now she wanted him in at least fifteen different ways.
He closed the last inches between them, flattening his palms to the desk until his arms bracketed her. One lean, muscled thigh insinuated between her legs, his face only inches away. "What the hell do you want from me, Julia?'
"Everything," she blurted the truth she couldn't hide from herself any more than from him. "I want a man who's honest with me even when it hurts. I need a man who'll give me everything of himself and expect the same from me."
But for now, she would settle for what she could have.
Julia grabbed the front of his flight suit and jerked him to her. Not that he needed much coercion. Apparently his intention to hold out for an invitation to her bed had combusted in the moment. His mouth sealed over hers, open and needy, tongue thrusting while his hands slid low to cup her bottom, lifting, molding her against him.
No gentle meeting or mating, she gripped at his shoulders, crushed herself to him. She explored the moist heat of his mouth with her tongue, battling for dominance with a man who never relinquished control.
She couldn't win. She understood that all too well. The best she could hope for was some kind of equality here in this moment, a victory in knowing he became as mindless as she whenever this desperate craving between them ignited.
Control spiraled elusively away, and Julia grappled for some stronghold to steady her long enough to drag Zach into abandon with her. She skimmed down his broad shoulders, over the muscles rippling along his back. Sliding a hand between them, Julia scored a nail down his chest, along the links of the zipper on his flight suit, a zipper perfectly designed for her intents since it opened from the bottom as well as the top.
No slow sensual glide, she yanked it halfway up his chest and dipped her hand into his boxers, finding him hard and hot and so ready for her.
Groaning, he stumbled. Not much, just a slight lurch before he braced a hand on the desk.
A thrill of feminine victory trilled through her.
Then he scooped and lifted her to the edge of the desk and she lost serious ground in the battle for control. Zach burrowed a hand under her sweater, palming her breast, his thumb stroking, tantalizing until she groaned into his mouth. Without raising his lips from hers, Zach swept open her wrap-around jean skirt, tore her panties down and off.
His chest heaving against hers, he paused to kiss her eyes, her ear. "If this isn't what you want, you'd better say something now."
"I only want you to finish what you've started." How could he even talk? Forming words or coherent thoughts proved almost impossible. "I just want..."