Lie Close to Me

by Cynthia Eden

  He advanced.

  “Stop!” The yell emerged from her throat, sounding raw and desperate. She felt raw and desperate, so the sound made sense.

  And he…stopped. Froze at her command.

  “Stay away from me.” Again, desperation sharpened her words, making them high and shrill.

  He shook his dark head. “Not possible.”

  What? He’d better make it possible.

  “I came here for you,” he continued in the deep voice that made her goosebumps worse. “Followed your trail.” His gaze swept over her. “Even when you cut out the tracker.”

  She didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “Enough games, Luna. You know you can count on me.” He lifted his hand toward her.

  But she—Luna, I’m Luna—shook her head. “I don’t know you at all. Why would I ever count on you?”

  He blinked. His bright green gaze immediately became shuttered.

  And a new, terrible thought occurred to her. “Did you…do this to me?”

  He just stared at her.

  He must have done this. No one else was there. Just the two of them. The guy was in the creepy hospital with her. So he had to be responsible for her insane situation. “Did you roofie me or something?”

  I know what a roofie is, but I don’t know who I am! Maybe that was a side effect of whatever drug she’d been given? Maybe everything would come back to her the longer she stayed conscious?

  “I didn’t roofie you.” His voice…there was something about his voice that she…liked. And how weird was that? The guy was scary, dangerous, and she should not find anything about him sexy. She was in the middle of a breakdown, and she shouldn’t be noticing that his voice was way too deep and rumbling.

  “Why don’t I know my name?” She took another step back.

  His shoulders tensed. His heart was beating so fast and hard and—

  Luna gasped. “How can I hear your heart beating?” That wasn’t normal. She was sure it wasn’t normal.

  “You have enhanced senses. You can hear far better than an average human. Just like you see better.” He exhaled on a long sigh and then—

  Then he charged at her. Only he moved way, way too fast. Luna let out a quick scream, and she turned to run. But it was too late. She’d reacted too slowly. He grabbed her, his hard, too-big hands locking around her body, and they both crashed to the floor.

  Except he turned his body, moving so that he cushioned her, and he took the brunt of the impact when they hit the tile.

  “You’re faster, too,” he grunted, “normally. You’re not moving at top speed right now.” His eyes narrowed. “Why the hell not?”

  Wait, he was asking her? And had he really just flown down that long corridor in barely a second’s time? Maybe two seconds, or three, max, but—

  “How did you get here, Luna?” His hands were around her waist, trapping her there. Her legs were between his, and the hospital gown had definitely ridden up. She was pretty sure her ass was totally exposed.

  She felt heat blast her cheeks. “Let me go.”

  If anything, his hold tightened. “Why would I do that? I spent the last week tracking you.”

  He had?

  Her hands were pressed to his chest. The guy was huge and crazy fast, and he knew her. He’d been tracking her.

  A shiver slid over her body.

  “You’re cold. Fuck.”

  In a blink, he had her on her feet once more. She started to run—seemed like a good plan—but he snagged her wrist. His fingers curled all the way around it, and Luna felt manacled to him as he bit off a single word, “Don’t.”

  She stared up at him. She had to tip back her head to meet his gaze. He was way too big, and he scared the ever-loving hell out of her.

  Then he shrugged out of his battered coat. He let her wrist go long enough for him to shove her arms into the coat’s sleeves. The coat absolutely swallowed her, but it was warm. She’d just realized that she was ice cold. Now the warmth from his coat—his warmth—was pressing against her. The coat smelled of him. A rich, masculine scent that she found oddly appealing.

  She inhaled, savoring that scent a little, and then Luna looked up. His face had gone rock hard, and he stared at her with a fixed intensity.

  “How did you get here, Luna? Who helped you get out of the Lazarus facility?”

  Her lips parted, but she didn’t know what to say.

  His gaze swept down her body. A furrow appeared between his brows. “No shoes. And is that just a paper gown? I mean, shit, we don’t react to the cold the way most people do, but it’s fifteen degrees outside. And this place has been shut down for years. The windows have more holes than glass in them. You’ve got to be shivering that sweet ass off.”

  She was shivering, but it was mostly from fear. “You…know me.”

  “Hell, yes, I know you.”

  “I’m…Luna.” The more she said her name, the more—oddly—right it felt.

  His stare hardened even more. “You don’t remember.”

  No, she didn’t, so Luna shook her head.

  He swore. Long and viciously.

  She started to back up—

  He snagged her wrist once more. “Oh, hell, no. You won’t be running from me again.”

  Yes, oh, hell, yes, she would. Luna knew she just had to wait for the right moment. This wasn’t that moment. She could tell.

  “You died.” If anything, his face became even harder. Even more intense. “Sonofabitch, you died.”

  Okay, now, she was worrying that he might be straight up crazy. She’d been willing to buy the super senses thing he’d talked about before—um, she could hear his heart beating when she focused and that was weird—but she was obviously not dead.

  He yanked her closer to him. Glared down at her. “You’re not like the others. Everything goes away when you die, dammit. You forget me.”

  Her hand lifted. Her fingers were shaking. Those shaking fingers slid over the dark stubble on his jaw, moving up his cheek, trailing over his skin.

  His body hardened against her. “Luna, what are you doing?’

  He felt real. Not like some figment of her imagination. Not part of a nightmare, but—

  She pinched him.

  He just blinked at her. Didn’t cry out in pain. Didn’t change his expression. “Luna?”

  “You’re real.”

  He nodded.

  “Who…are you?”

  “Maddox.”

  The name didn’t mean anything to her. He stared at her, waiting, as if she was supposed to have some sort of reaction to his name. She didn’t.

  He growled. The sound rumbled from deep in his chest. “Maddox Kane. I’m the leader of our team.”

  She was still touching his cheek. Still wearing his coat. Still trying to figure out how to get away from him.

  His nostrils flared. He had a nice nose. Long, straight.

  “Blood,” he bit out. “Your blood.”

  She wasn’t bleeding. She’d notice if she were, right?

  He whirled and bounded down the hall, moving scarily fast again and dragging her with him. Her feet stumbled at first, but then, amazingly, she was actually able to keep up with him. They moved so fast that the rooms passed in a blur. He rushed through an open doorway that led into a stairwell, and then they were barreling down those stairs. It was dark all around them, but she found she could see perfectly. His hold on her wrist was unbreakable as they burst out of the stairwell and onto another floor of the abandoned hospital.

  And as they entered that new floor, a coppery scent hit her. Blood.

  She stopped.

  So did he.

  Luna swiped her tongue over her lower lip. “You smelled the blood…upstairs?”

  His gaze raked her. “My sense of smell has always been stronger than yours.”

  How about stronger than even Superman’s must be? Her eyes squeezed shut. “I know Superman. I mean, I know who he is.” The words tumbled from her. “But I don’
t know who I am. How I got to be in this place, wearing a paper gown and a hospital bracelet.”

  His fingers slid under her chin. Tipped her head back.

  She didn’t open her eyes. If anything, she squeezed them shut tighter.

  “It’s only the personal memories that you lose.” His voice was soft. Almost tender. “You keep all of your procedural memories—the skills, the memories of how to do things like riding a bike, tying shoes, or firing a gun.”

  Now her eyes popped open. “Do I fire a lot of guns?”

  He nodded. “You keep your instincts. Our primal instincts are the strongest motivators for Lazarus subjects.”

  It sounded like he was talking in some kind of code to her.

  “Our lives before Lazarus are gone. That’s a side effect of the serum we’re given. We keep facts—general fucking trivia—but we lose who we were.” His jaw hardened. “Small price to pay for cheating death, right?”

  She didn’t understand him. Or anything that the guy was saying to her. What in the world was Lazarus?

  But he’d already turned away. He was pulling her with him, toward the scent of blood. There were two swinging doors up ahead, and an old sign above them read OPERATING ROOM. He shoved open the doors to the OR.

  When she went inside, fear slid through her, coiling like a snake in her gut. There was an exam table in the middle of the room, and it…

  He let her go.

  She stared at the exam table, transfixed. Broken straps hung from the table. She counted six straps. They appeared to have been torn in half. Blood soaked the table. Blood dripped on the floor. It smeared across the old tile, heading toward the door.

  But there had been no blood in the hallway. Or on the stairs. All of the blood was in this one room.

  “It’s your fucking blood.” Anger hardened Maddox’s words.

  Luna flinched. “H-how can you tell?” She didn’t have any cuts on her body. She didn’t feel hurt anywhere.

  “The smell.” He advanced toward the table.

  Um, okay.

  Maddox stopped near an instrument tray, one that had been upended and tossed onto the floor. A bloody scalpel was on the tile, along with tweezers, a long syringe, and a few items that Luna really didn’t want to know what they were.

  Her legs were rooted to the spot. Had she really been strapped to that table? “I’m not bleeding.”

  “No.” He’d crouched near the discarded tray. Maddox picked up the syringe, sniffed it. “Tranq.” A low snarl. “At least they had you knocked out so you didn’t feel the pain.” He dropped the syringe. “Doesn’t make me want to fucking destroy them any less.” Maddox surged back to his feet.

  She hurried toward him. “I’m not bleeding,” Luna said again. “There is no blood on me. I couldn’t have been in this room.” I don’t want to be in this room any longer. I need to get out. I’m having a hard time breathing. “You’re wrong.”

  He stared at her. “You heal faster than any Lazarus subject I’ve ever seen. One of your gifts. Whoever had you in this room—they hurt you. But you healed. You got away from them. You ran—” He pointed to the trail of blood on the floor. “You got upstairs. You were trying to get out, but—”

  “There’s no blood on me,” Luna repeated.

  “Because someone must have cleaned you up. Put you in that gown.”

  And what? Just left her, unconscious? “I woke up in one of the rooms upstairs.” His coat was the only thing keeping her warm. She felt absolutely ice cold. “And you are the only person in this building with me.”

  So if she’d been hurt, it didn’t take a genius to put together the puzzle pieces in order to figure out who’d been the one making her life a living hell.

  His shoulders straightened. “Luna, no.”

  She backed up a step. “You scare me.”

  A furrow appeared between his dark brows.

  “I don’t know who I am. How I got here. But I took one look at you, and I was afraid. You know what that tells me? Some part of me recognizes you. Some part of me knows you’re a threat to me.”

  His lips thinned. “You don’t understand.”

  No, she didn’t. And that was part of the problem.

  “I’m taking you back, Luna,” Maddox told her. “You need to be examined. We have to find out what happened here.”

  Her heart was racing again. She needed some kind of weapon to fight him, but there was nothing in the room to help her because she was not picking up a bloody scalpel. And being in that place was making her chest feel too tight. “Where,” she managed, “is ‘back’ exactly?”

  He stalked toward her. “I’m not picking up any other scents here. Maybe your blood is just too strong, and it’s messing up my head.”

  That made no sense to her.

  He kept advancing. “But we’re getting out of here. I’ll come back with the rest of the team, and we’ll tear this place apart.”

  He still hadn’t told her where ‘back’ was. But since she was only too happy to get out of that particular room, Luna didn’t argue as they hurried up the stairs. He led the way, keeping a hand curled around her wrist. She wished like hell that she could find a weapon, but there was nothing in the stairwell or the hallway. And the guy was big.

  He took her out via a broken window, making sure that she didn’t cut her skin on the jagged glass. When she eased away from the shadows of the building, the sunlight was almost blinding. Too bright. Bright, but it was still cold out there. A small puff of fog formed near her mouth.

  Luna glanced back at the building. Dead vines slid up the sides of the hospital. It looked like an old, forgotten grave. Sagging into the ground, falling back into the woods. And the woods were everywhere—thick trees surrounded the place. She didn’t see any other nearby buildings. Maddox led her down an overgrown path, and she found herself in the remains of a broken parking lot. A gleaming motorcycle—a big, beast of a bike—waited there.

  She shivered.

  He pulled her closer. “Should have brought the SUV,” he muttered. “But I thought this place was another dead end so I scouted out with the bike.”

  His body felt like a furnace to her.

  “Luna.”

  She looked up at him. His eyes were bright again. So focused on her. And once more, she thought…You scare me.

  But there was something else happening, too. An awareness was sliding beneath her skin. When he looked at her that way, when he held her so close…

  Desire.

  A desire as dangerous as the fear she felt for him.

  “First order of business is getting the hell out of here.” He lifted her up, moving as if she weighed nothing, and he put her on the motorcycle’s seat. Her bare legs sprawled on either side of the beast, and another shiver slid over her because the paper gown had seriously hiked up again.

  His gaze locked on her legs. Lingered.

  Uh, oh.

  His face hardened. Sharpened. He licked his lips.

  Then his gaze slid to her face.

  He wants me.

  Could she use that? Maybe. It was the only weapon she had. So…Luna lifted her hand. Put her palm on his chest, right over his heart. It was racing so fast and hard beneath her touch. And as her hand lingered against him, the beat became even faster. “Are we lovers?” Luna asked.

  His pupils widened, the darkness swallowing the green of his gaze.

  Before he could answer, she pushed, voice husky, “Do you want to be my lover?”

  He moved even closer to her. She was still straddling the bike, and he was pretty much dominating her with his massive size.

  She caught his hand, brought it to her thigh. His hold immediately tightened.

  “Luna.”

  “Will you kiss me?”

  His stare was on her mouth. “What in the hell is happening? This isn’t you.”

  It wasn’t? She had no clue. But a desperate woman had to use whatever weapons she had. “Maybe I can remember, if you kiss me.” She eased out a quick br
eath. “I know you. I feel it inside.”

  His hand was burning her thigh.

  “Kiss me,” she said again because she needed him closer. Just a little closer.

  He moved closer. Her hand slid over his chest. Down to his side.

  “I couldn’t find you.” His words were a rough rasp. “You were gone.” Then his mouth crashed down on hers. He kissed her with a wild need. A frantic desire that caught her off guard—and one that stirred a matching need inside of her.

  Desire erupted, stunning her with its force. Her nipples ached, tightening into peaks, and she leaned toward him, opening her mouth more, wanting his kiss, loving his taste, wanting so much—

  Keys. You want the keys.

  Her fingers closed around them. She’d slid her hand into the front right pocket of his jeans, and Luna snatched the keys out in a blink. But she was still kissing him when she should have been pulling away. When she should have been figuring out a way to distract him so she could haul ass away on that bike.

  How do I want him so much? From one kiss?

  She wasn’t cold any longer. She was absolutely burning hot.

  “No!” He jerked back from her. Stared at her with a possessive lust. Then he spun on his heel. Stalked away. He seemed to want distance between them. “I just found you. I don’t know what in the hell is happening, but I won’t screw this up!”

  She cranked the motorcycle. Revved the engine.

  Maddox whirled back to her. “Luna?”

  He was only a few feet away. The guy moved fast. But she moved fast, too. So did the bike. She shot that baby forward.

  “Luna!”

  She didn’t stop. The wind bit into her face. Her hands clamped around the handle bars like talons, and she drove the motorcycle with a single-minded intensity.

  Escape. She had to get away from Maddox Kane.

  He terrified her. He was dangerous. He was scary strong.

  And he was way too sexy.

  She didn’t trust him, not for a moment, and there was no way she’d let that man get close to her again.

  No way in hell.

  ***

  “Sonofabitch,” Maddox Kane muttered as he watched the motorcycle race away.

  She’d tricked him. Kissed him, turned him the fuck on, and then fled the instant he’d turned his back. Of course, turning his back had been an amateur move. Especially with a woman like Luna. But he’d had to step away—