Page 27

Why the hitch in her voice? He opened his mouth to ask, but a knock on his door announced the arrival of the pizza guy.

He got up to carry the flat cardboard boxes to his coffee table.

In bachelor fashion, he tore the top off the first box and used it as a makeshift plate.

He dragged several sloppy slices of pizza onto it.

Piper ate more daintily, taking one of the napkins that had come with the boxes and cradling a slice of pizza in that.

He picked up the narrative. “Okay. So Joseph’s wife leaves. The crazy switch flips on in his head, and he moves out to Idaho to start his little group. Where’d his followers come from?”

“Not followers,” she corrected dryly. “Fellow patriots.”

Was that a hint of bitterness in her voice? What in the hell was going on with her? “Do you not like these guys or something?”

“Or something. I think they’re the worst kind of ingrates.

They’ve got this great country to live in that was built on the blood, sweat, and tears of generations of actually patriotic Americans, and they want to throw all that progress and innovation away.

I think that’s insane. I don’t want to go back to one in three women dying in childbirth and its complications.

And I like having all my teeth. I like phones and cars and electricity.

Heck, I like air conditioning and the Internet! ”

He grinned as he picked up another slice of pizza. “You don’t have to convince me. I’d be lost without ESPN and my truck. And a refrigerator for my beer.”

She smiled reluctantly. He let her eat pizza for a few minutes until her shoulders came down from around her ears and a more open expression filled her face.

“How much money do these PHP guys have?” he asked casually. That seemed like an innocuous enough question.

“Hard to tell. They spend practically nothing on their lifestyle.

Some of them came to the compound with assets that have probably been sitting in banks and compounding for a while.

They also sell a self-published guide on how to live off the grid.

For all I know, they could be making good money from that.

“Enough money to have purchased a helicopter and paid to train someone to fly it?” he asked lightly.

“I’ve never seen any evidence that they have that kind of capital.”

“Let’s assume they don’t have that kind of cash lying around. Where would they get it? They don’t strike me as the types to get a loan from a bank.”

She snorted. “What bank in its right mind would give them a loan?”

“Good point.”

She stared off into space for a while before announcing, “I’m stumped.”

“Has someone new joined the group? Radicalized it in some way? Brought significant cash resources to the PHP?”

“Possible,” she answered slowly. “I’d have to get eyes on the compound. See if there are any new faces I don’t recognize.”

“Let’s do it, then. While we wait for Alex and his hackers to trace the money trail for that helicopter, let’s go to Idaho and check out these guys.”

“It’ll be dangerous,” she warned.

He shrugged, unconcerned. “Then we’ll be careful.” After all, how dangerous could Podunksville, Idaho be compared to Khartoum? And it wasn’t like he was an amateur at this stuff.

She nodded, but that shadow was back in her eyes. His internal warning antennae wiggled in response. He silently told his instincts that they were duly noted and to pipe down. In the meantime, he suggested, “You ready to turn in? The next few days could be long ones.”

She looked around the apartment wildly for a second. “Here? You want me to crash here?”

“Someone broke into your place and trashed it. Whoever did that knows where you live and obviously has serious beef against you. I’m not letting you out of my sight tonight, and don’t even try to argue with me.”

“But—“

He cut her off. “You’re just going to have to deal with my Neanderthal tendencies to protect you, like it or not.”

Her gaze snapped to his, and all of a sudden, thick sexual tension vibrated tautly in the air between them. “Ahh, darlin’,” he sighed. “you shouldn’t have looked at me like that.”

He stood up, lifted the empty beer bottle out of her fingers and took her hands, pulling her easily to her feet. He wasn’t used to such conflict raging on the faces of his women, but the sleepy lust hazing over her blue eyes was definitely familiar. That, he knew what to do with.

“I’ve missed you, too,” he murmured as he took a step closer to her lithe body.

She made a tiny sound of protest even as her eyelids got heavier and desire poured off her as thick as molasses. She mumbled, “I’m still mad at you for stealing my evidence.”

His left hand slid up to cup the back of her head under her silky hair, and his right hand slid around her slender waist. He murmured, “I gave you full credit for having collected it. Everyone was very impressed with the information you brought back.”

“And I’m still mad at you for leaving me behind in Africa.”

He slid his hand slid lower to the curve of her rear end, which fit perfectly in his hand. He murmured lower, “You were on a secure American facility, and you’re smart as hell. I knew you wouldn’t have any trouble getting home. And you seemed interested in demonstrating your independence.”

“But…” her breath hitched as his palm tightened on her behind, “…you left me.”

His voice was a bare thread of sound against her temple. “Ahh, sweet Piper. Is that what’s got you so fired up?”

Gently, so as not to spook her, he drew her hips close to his. Let her feel his desire for her. Tilted his head down to let his breath mingle with hers.

Nothing fast. No aggressive moves that would make her more tense than she already was. He even caught himself making soothing noises in the back of his throat as he let his breath wash over her temple. Her cheek. Her ear.

“I’m…very…sorry…I…left…you.” He punctuated each word with a light kiss on her face. Her cheek. Her brow. Her nose. Her chin.

She pulled in a shaky breath and let it out on a gust of surrender as she finally leaned into him, her arms snaking around his neck. Thank God. His restraint was good, but not invincible.

He whispered, “I promise I won’t leave you again.

” Her lips tilted up toward his, slightly parted, and he took the invitation, his mouth closing on hers and finding the perfect angle and fit between them.

She tasted spicy like pepperoni, and sweet like the mint hard candies that had come with the pizza.

That was Piper—hot and cold. Fire and ice.

An intriguing mystery he had yet to solve.

Lord, he’d missed her. Missed this with her. Missed the way the long tendons in her throat tensed as she threw her head back. He loved the tiny gasping moans that escaped her, the way her teeth captured her lower lip, the way her entire body pulsed as if she couldn’t get enough of him.

Throw pillows went flying. A lamp crashed to the floor. At this rate, his place was going to be as trashed as hers before they were done. Not that he gave a flying flip. This woman was sex incarnate.

If he thought their sex in Khartoum had been great, tonight blew all of that away. He wasn’t listening with half an ear for violence outside and completely lost himself in Piper, and she seemed to do the same with him and went all in on enjoying herself.

When he could actually stand, walk, and form coherent thoughts again, he was going to classify that as the best sex he’d ever had. By a mile. And then he was going to do it again. A lot.

“We can’t ever do that again,” Piper panted.

A single thought blasted across his mind, and he gave voice to it incredulously. “Are you fucking kidding me?”