Page 10

He murmured, his voice low and charged, “You know I can break them, right?”

“Yes,” she replied warily.

“Then there’s no need to prove it, is there?”

A tiny, unwilling smile of flitted across her face while shock roiled through her gut that she’d escaped that giant mistake unscathed. Her father would never have let her off the hook like that. “You’re a cool customer.”

He shrugged, his mesmerizing stare never breaking contact with hers.

Okay, so maybe cool wasn’t the right adjective for him. Icy came closer. She took another step back, seeking escape from his overpowering magnetism. But he followed her, stalking her until she bumped into a wall at her back.

He planted his hand son the wall on either side of her head. Her hands itched to touch him again. To rub all over those glorious muscles. To grab his ass. Pull him closer for another round of?—

She swore mentally.

He leaned in closer, abruptly dead serious. “Here’s the deal. I’m not going to turn you over to El Noor. I think you’re working for an American agency of some kind. Which puts us on the same side out here. So give me a straight answer. What could possibly have persuaded a young, attractive woman like you to come play in Hell?”

His husky voice slid across her skin like whisky, smooth but with a sexy bite. “Is that where we are? Hell?” She gazed around his place over his shoulder. “This isn’t so bad after all. I pictured a more brimstone-and-torment decor.”

He grunted with scant humor. “I give you two weeks in Khartoum to change your mind. This place’ll make a cynic out of even a Pollyanna like you.”

“I’m no Pollyanna.”

“I’d say you’re damned optimistic to think you can come here alone and walk out alive.”

She glared at him indignantly, and he smirked back. His head bent down until their lips were about three inches apart. Close enough to taste the sweetness of dates on his breath. To remember all the unrestrained lust from before. To crave more of it.

He muttered, “Why are you here, Piper?”

“I already told you. Why won’t you believe me?”

“Because I can smell a lie at twenty paces.”

“Oh yeah? What do I smell like?” she asked breathlessly. Her entire body felt electrified. Energized.

“Cinnamon,” he murmured. “And peaches. Spicy and warm. Like slow sex in the summertime.”

Oh. My. God.

“You can trust me,” he murmured, his words a caress against her lips. Another inch or two and they’d be kissing each other’s lights out. Sucking tonsils and tearing off clothes and going at each other like horny beasts. Again. It would beepic.

She struggled to recall what he’d just said. Oh, right. Trust. “It’s not about trust. It’s about what I am and am not allowed to talk about.”

His head lifted enough for his sharply intelligent gaze read her eyes astutely. “Allowed, huh?” he breathed. “’Nuff said.”

Dammit. She’d revealed more than she’d wanted to. Using the word, ‘allowed’ implied a boss. Classified information. An agency whose name could be reduced to several alphabet letters.

He stepped back abruptly, leaving her feeling cold and deprived. Goosebumps covered both of her forearms. Whoa, the effect that man had on her was unnerving.

He shrugged casually as if she hadn’t had the slightest effect on him. “Maybe you will make it a full month out here, then. Hard to tell. You were reasonably agile on that staircase where I tackled you.”

Memory of his hard body slamming into hers, pressing her against the ground flashed through her mind. Crap, this guy did weird things to her head. “Gee, thanks. Was that actually a compliment from you?”

“Nah. If I wanted to compliment you I’d tell you that, cleaned up, girlied up, and out of those combat boots, you might not look half-bad.”

She scooped up her sniper rig and slung the nylon strap over her shoulder. “Go to hell, McCloud.”

He chuckled and raised his water bottle to her in a mock toast. “Already there, darlin’.”