Page 23 of Poison Evidence

“I’ll know what it is if we find it.”

“We’ll cross that ocean when we come to it.”

She released his hands and rocked against his cock, testing her power. And maybe her own limits. His control broke, and he reached around to cup her ass in both hands.

She peeled his hands from her body. “I said no touching.” She leaned down again, her beautiful face hovered over his. Her sexy scent had a blinding effect. He just wanted to close his eyes and breathe her in.

“Here’s the deal, Dimitri. I can touch you whenever I want, but you can’t touch me at all. Ever.”

“So you get off on torture?” Sure as hell that sounded like she intended to torture him.

“You get off on kidnapping women?”

“No.”

“Well, maybe I get off on not being a victim. Right now, I’m in control. And you will obey, or all deals are off.”

So much for keeping her from knowing how much power she held over him. But she was calmer now. Her breathing was easier. He should have let her pin him to the deck from the get-go. “So I never get to touch you. Not even to go down on you? I hear I’m good at it. I have a five-star review on Yelp.”

She laughed at that, then sat up straight again, but rose to her knees, breaking contact between his erection and her hot center. “Ahh, dammit. Why did you have to go and ruin this by not being Jack?” Her voice was weary, pained. “I liked Jack. He was fun.”

“But I was never Jack. If I’d stayed Jack, I’d be lying to you right now. Would you prefer that? Ignorance of who you’re dealing with?”

“I’d prefer if you’d never lied to me to begin with.” She stood and brushed off her lightweight hiking pants. “Is there a real Jack Keaton? I can’t imagine he’s thrilled you stole his identity.”

He pushed to his feet. “I didn’t steal his financial ID, just his name and military background.”

“Still, he’s going to be surprised when the FBI shows up at his door.”

“There’s no door for them to show up at. I was told he’s sailing around the world. Out of touch. By the time the truth is discovered, this could all be over.” He itched to smooth the lines of worry from her brow, to promise again that he’d protect her from the real threat. But she’d established the rules, and he had to follow them. “Until then, can we call a truce?”

She sighed. “This isn’t a truce, but it also isn’t war.”

“An alliance, then?”

“I doubt it. I don’t trust you. We’re going to have to take this one hour at a time, but if you don’t restrain me, and never threaten me again—”

“I never threatened you.”

“Really? ‘I will drop you on an uninhabited island in Malaysia’ isn’t a threat?”

He frowned, then inclined his head. “Okay, I threatened you.”

“Yeah. You did. If you can avoid threatening me for the next hour, I won’t initiate lockdown on CAM. Yet.”

He gave her a sharp nod. That was the best he could hope for. Well, that and that she’d torture him a bit. “Email your boss. She’s got to be antsy because she hasn’t heard from you yet.”

“I will, but first I need bacon.”

She delayed the email just long enough, operating on the hope that a Navy team would come to her rescue simply due to the long silence. It would have been a win/win scenario. No CAM lockdown. No uninhabited-island stranding. Just rescue and Death Valley in custody.

“Quit stalling, Ivy, and email your boss. We need to warn Ulai.”

With his promise not to threaten her, she was testing his limits, but those words brought her up short. If anything happened to Ulai, it was her fault for not having warned him.

Not surprisingly, when she logged into the closed email system, which was as bare-bones as an old DOS terminal, there were several emails from Mara, all with pleas to know Ivy’s status.

Oh, Mara, if only I could tell you…