Katya kicked the coat away and grabbed her feet, squealing in glee as she looked at Jack. He seemed disconcerted for a moment. Then he opened his pack and pulled out his med kit. “Babies like shiny things, right, Eva?” he said over his shoulder. “Do you think she’d like to play with my scissors?”
She bolted across the room and reached past Jack’s shoulder to place her hand between him and Katya. “You can’t possibly mean to give scissors to…” She stopped when she saw his face. “I should have known you weren’t serious.”
“It got you over here, didn’t it?” He caught her wrist and tugged her down to sit on the blanket beside the baby. Branches crackled beneath her, releasing the scent of pine needles. “Take off your coat,” he said. “I’m going to look at that wound.”
“But we’ll be evacuated in a matter of hours.”
“Sure, if everything goes according to plan. Murphy hasn’t been too kind to us lately.”
“Murphy?”
“More jargon. Anything that can go wrong, will.”
“You’re making a fuss over nothing. I told you it’s fine.”
He rose to his knees and pushed her coat off her shoulders. Then he sat back on his heels and took her hands in his. “Don’t argue with me about this, Eva. I’ve seen scratches turn septic in the field, and what you got was a lot more than a scratch.”
“Jack—”
“Humor me, okay?” He squeezed her knuckles. “I’m worried about you.”
She looked down at their hands. Her resistance to his examination had nothing to do with her injury. She didn’t want him to touch her. At the same time, she wanted more than anything to feel his hands on her body. Simply the sensation of his fingers against hers was making her pulse speed. The thought of having him stroke the more delicate skin along her side…
What was wrong with her? He was a medic. This wasn’t personal. She shifted so that her wounded side faced him and drew her sweater over her head. Her hair crackled and clung to her cheeks. She brushed it out of her eyes. Before she could reconsider, she undid the lower buttons of her blouse until she was able to draw the blood-stained fabric clear of the bandage. “Go ahead.”
He cleansed his hands with an alcohol gel as he had before, leaned closer and gently peeled up the tape.
Cool air wafted across the wound, making her shudder. The numbing cream he’d put on the day before had worn off long ago. Though overall the area was nowhere near as painful as it had been when she’d first been injured, the exposed torn skin did sting. She focused on Katya and tried to ignore her discomfort. “Well?” she asked.
“It looks good so far, but it’s hard to know for sure in this light.”
She started to lower her blouse but he stopped her.
“Hang on,” he murmured. He slid his fingertips along her rib cage above the wound and then did the same beneath it.
Eva bit her lip. Oh, his touch felt even better than it had the first time. The contact of his fingers seemed to take away the sting. The warmth that spread across her skin wasn’t painful. It was stimulating.
He cleared his throat. “There doesn’t seem to be any swelling. The area isn’t hot.”
“That means it’s all right?”
Instead of replying, he leaned over to bring his face close to her side. He inhaled slowly.
She shuddered again, only it wasn’t from the cold. Though he wasn’t touching her now, she could sense his nearness more acutely than before. “What are you doing?”
“Smelling it. It’s a low-tech way to check for infection.”
“And?”
“All I can smell are pine needles.” He leaned closer and inhaled more deeply.
How many times had she reminded herself that his actions weren’t personal? It was hard to remember that when his face was less than an inch from her breast. She looked at his hair, imagining how it would curl around her fingers. Would it be soft? Or stubborn and wiry? His shoulders were so broad. She’d already felt how strong his arms were. One of his sleeves had pulled tight when he’d leaned over, and she could see the contour of his biceps beneath his sweater. Her palm tingled with the urge to stroke it….
She clenched her hands into fists. “Jack?”
He sat back on his heels. He didn’t speak again until he had smoothed a fresh bandage into place. “You were right.” His voice was rough. “There’s no sign of infection. Looks like your symptoms are from plain old fatigue.”
She buttoned her blouse and pulled on her sweater. “I hope you’re satisfied.”
He rubbed his face hard, and then he reached past her for her coat. Rather than handing it to her, he regarded the side where the bullet had passed through the wool fabric. “It’s my duty to see to your needs, Eva,” he said. “My own satisfaction, or lack of it, has no bearing on this mission.”
“I understand that. It was just an expression.”
He fitted his little finger into one of the holes in her coat. “You smell like honey.”
“What?”
“The scent of your skin. It’s sweet.”
“Jack…”
“No, not exactly like honey. I’d have to taste it to know for sure.”
The image sprang instantly to her mind. Jack’s cheek resting on her stomach, her fingers tangled in his hair, her skin moist and tingling from his kisses. She’d already felt his lips on her forehead. That kiss had been too brief. What would it be like to feel his lips on her mouth? Or on her thighs?
“But you’re under my protection, Eva, so my curiosity is only one of the things that won’t get satisfied….” His voice trailed off. He poked his finger farther into the hole in her coat. “What’s this?”
She was still immersed in the image of Jack tasting her. It took her a while to focus on what he was looking at. When she did, it brought her back to reality as effectively as a slap. She snatched her coat from him and got to her feet.
“Eva?”
She thrust her arms into her sleeves.
“There was something hard in there,” he said.
“Maybe it was the bullet.”
“Couldn’t be. There were two holes. It would have passed through.” He rose to stand in front of her. “It’s the disk, isn’t it?”
She stepped past him and bent over to reach for Katya.
He hooked his arm in front of her waist to pull her back up. “She’s fine.”
It was obvious that he was right. Eva knew the pine-bough pallet was soft, and it was warm enough to keep away the chill of the floor. Katya was still playing with her feet and in no distress. “Don’t tell me how to handle my child.”
“Then don’t use her to change the subject.” He turned her to face him and placed his hand directly over the place where she’d sewn the computer disk into the lining of her coat.
The gesture knocked her breathless. Not because he’d found the disk that she’d hoped to keep concealed but because his thumb was pressing the underside of her breast. If he moved his hand just a fraction of an inch, he would be cupping it.
“This isn’t a good spot. It could have been damaged when you were hit.”
Heaven help her. She wanted to lean into his touch. If she did, would it turn into a caress? She wanted to feel his hand on her naked skin again. She was sorry she’d put her coat back on….
What was wrong with her? She stepped back, breaking the contact. “Stop touching me. You’re always touching me.”
“I only touch you when it’s necessary.”
“As it was now? I should have realized this was a ruse.”
“What are you talking about?”
She backed away. “You didn’t really want to check my wound, did you? You wanted a chance to search my coat.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You’ve been trying to get that disk from the time we met, haven’t you? Those were your real orders, weren’t they?”
“No, that’s not true.”
“You probably searched Katya’s belongings before y
ou put them in your pack.”
“Eva—”
“Was that the real reason you insisted on carrying my baby? So you could make sure the disk wasn’t in her carrier? Did you search her, too?”
He closed the distance she’d put between them and took her by the shoulders. “I already told you what my orders were.”
“All this consideration you’ve been showing me, all this kindness, it was just to make me drop my guard.”
“You’re wrong, Eva.”
“And like a fool I believed you cared. I should have known better. You’re a soldier. You’ve told me yourself that all you care about is the mission.”
“All I should care about is the mission.”
“The information on this disk is my ticket to a new life. I’ll hand it over to your government only when my daughter and I are safe.”
“So you said yesterday. That’s fine by me.”
“Good. Let go of me, Sergeant Norton.”
“Not until we get this straightened out. And my name’s Jack.”
“Not to me. You’ve found the disk. You don’t have to pretend to be my friend anymore.”
“I wasn’t pretending anything.”
“You can stop now. You got what you wanted.”
He gave her a light shake. “Think, Eva. If I really had wanted to get that disk, I wouldn’t have needed to play games. I would have searched you while you slept. Or I could have overpowered you and forced you to hand it over whenever I chose to. So why didn’t I?”
Her throat felt too thick for her to formulate a reply. What he’d said was true. He was a head taller than her and likely outweighed her by at least sixty pounds. He was all lean muscle, moved like an athlete and was never unarmed. He indeed could have overpowered her with ease. At any time. Whether she’d been asleep or not.
The reminder should have frightened her. It didn’t. Instead, it started to calm her.
“And tell me, Eva. Do you honestly believe it would have made a damn bit of difference if you’d handed over that disk when we met? Do you think I would have done anything differently? That I wouldn’t have protected you? Or wouldn’t have helped you?”
“I don’t—”
He brought his face to hers before she could finish. “And regardless of my orders, do you really believe I’m enough of a bastard that I’d desert a woman and a helpless infant in the middle of hostile territory just because some pencil-pushing bureaucrat decided they were expendable?”
She had hurt him. She could see it in his eyes. That, more than his words, was what finally got through to her. She inhaled hard, straining for breath. Her senses filled with the scent of his body. Soap, wool and warm male skin. It was the same scent that had enveloped her each time he’d held her, each time he’d been willing to give his life to protect hers.
He didn’t deserve her suspicions. He’d already proved himself to be an honorable man.
She shook her head. “Everything’s happened so fast. Information was the only bargaining chip that I had. I’ve been afraid to trust anyone.”
“I understand that you’re scared.” He eased his grip, rubbing his thumbs along the top of her shoulders. “You have every reason to be because you’re running for your life. But I’m not your enemy.”
She nodded. “I know, but—”
“And I’m sure as hell not Burian.”
“Burian? This has nothing to do with him.”
“Yes, it does. He’s warped your view of all men. You trusted him, and he betrayed you. He turned the work you loved into a lie. He messed with your head so much that you assume the only thing he could want from you is your scientific expertise.”
“I already told you that he would realize I would no longer cooperate.”
“You’re missing the point. You’re a passionate, courageous, beautiful woman. A man doesn’t need an ulterior motive to want to touch you.”
“Jack…”
“And just for the record, I do care about you, Eva.” He slid his hands to her face and cradled her cheeks in his palms. “But it would be a hell of a lot simpler if I didn’t.”
She could have moved away then. Or turned her face aside when he lowered his head. She did neither. She stood rooted to the floor and let him kiss her.
Oh, it shouldn’t feel this good. They had just been arguing. She had been angry with him. She shouldn’t trust him. She couldn’t rely on her judgment when it came to men. She’d been so horribly wrong before.
The familiar refrain played through her head, but it had no effect. His kiss felt real. More than that, it felt natural. Right. Instead of being sensible and pushing him away, she found she had anchored her hands in the front of his sweater and was pulling him closer.
She should tell him it was only due to the circumstances, to their forced proximity, to excitement. The physical attraction was a consequence of chemistry. She still barely knew him. Yet before the thought finished forming, he slipped his tongue into her mouth and her brain simply shut down.
His taste was fresh like the springwater she’d drank from his canteen. It curled through her senses, seducing her as softly as the gentle pressure of his lips. She moaned at the pleasure and slid her hands to his shoulders.
At her response, he braced his feet apart, clasped her hips and pulled her flush to his body. Eva trembled, grateful for his firm hold. She’d felt his body against hers more times than she could count now, but this was different. This time, she allowed herself to enjoy it.
He was so firm, so solid, everywhere they touched. Her own body was responding instinctively. Blood was rushing to places that had rested dormant for months, stirring needs she’d tried to forget about when she’d entered motherhood. She wrapped her arms behind his neck to press her breasts to his chest. Her nipples hardened so swiftly she winced.
Something fluttered overhead. Probably a bird, trying to reclaim its home. Dirt gritted on the stone beneath her boots. Katya’s whimper was fainter than either sound, but it was enough to enable Eva to regain her senses.
She broke off the kiss and gasped for air.
Jack moved his lips along her cheek to her ear. He licked the lobe, then rubbed it gently between his teeth.
“No,” she breathed. “Stop.”
“Eva…”
“This is a mistake, Jack.”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “Yeah, I know.”
His quick agreement surprised her. She had expected—wanted?—him to push her for more.
He sifted a handful of her hair through his fingers. “I should apologize. I took advantage.”
“You didn’t take anything.” She dropped her arms to her sides. “I’m as much at fault.”
“No. I’ve seen this happen before. Being in danger can scramble people’s emotions. It’s the adrenaline. We’ve had psych lectures about this, and I should know better.” He turned his face to her hair and inhaled. Then he released his hold on her and stepped back. “I was way out of line. It won’t happen again.”
She should be pleased. He was being sensible. He’d echoed what she’d already thought. There were so many reasons why she shouldn’t kiss Jack that she couldn’t begin to list them.
Yet she had to cross her arms over her chest so she didn’t reach for him once more.
He went to where he’d left his gun, picked it up and walked to the doorway in silence. He didn’t speak until he was on the threshold. “I’m going to tour the perimeter before the sun sets. You’ll be safe here.”
He was back in full soldier mode, she realized, his movements crisp, his voice firm. He was acting as if the kiss had never happened. She tried to follow his lead. “Take your coat,” she said. “I’ll use the blanket for Katya.”
He laughed without humor. “No, thanks. I could use some cooling off.”
“Jack?”
“This is my job, Eva. It’s the only reason we’re together. It’s my duty to keep you safe, and I’m going to be damned sure that you are.” He paused. “Especially fro
m me.”
Chapter 7
Jack leaned his back against the wall and propped his boot on the edge of the doorway, the familiar weight of his rifle in his hands. This was what he knew. It was what he was good at. It was the life he wanted. He was no different from countless other soldiers who had stood in this same spot over the centuries, their weapons at the ready, while they kept watch over the valley.
The designers of the outpost had chosen the site well. Though the moonlight illuminated the surrounding area, it didn’t penetrate the shadows on this side of the tower. Even without being able to climb to the top and look out the windows, Jack still had the advantage over anyone who approached. So far, apart from the rustling of wildlife among the dried shrubs, and the occasional whisper from the pine grove when a breeze puffed through, the night had been dead quiet. No sign of pursuit. No trace of the evac helicopter yet, either. The only trouble was, the silence outside the tower made it that much harder to ignore the sounds that came from inside. For the past twenty minutes Eva had been nursing the kid.
Jack doubted whether any of the other soldiers who had stood here over the centuries had had a distraction quite like this one. Why was it that his senses were so finely attuned to everything that woman did? He thumped his head against the wall and told himself to ignore her.
It was no use. He could hear the pine branches shift as she changed position, and he tried not to imagine what she was doing on that blanket. Or to picture how the moonlight would filter through the top of the tower to gleam on her naked skin. He heard her murmur something to Katya, her voice taking on the special tenderness she used whenever she spoke to her child. And he tried not to remember the way she’d moaned deep in her throat when he’d given her his tongue.
Damn, he shouldn’t have kissed her. Most of the time, he had no business touching her, either. Didn’t seem to make any difference because he couldn’t seem to stop.
With any luck, by tomorrow it would no longer be an issue. Eva and her cargo should be delivered to whatever government department awaited her. Their welfare would be out of his hands. She would go on to a new life in America. Jack would go on to the next mission. The information on the disk would be processed, the diplomats would do their thing and the world would be a safer place. Everyone would be happy.
Her Baby’s Bodyguard Page 9
