Cavanaugh on Duty - By Marie Ferrarella Page 0,10

before he knew it, this raging desire threatened to take possession of him entirely.

Esteban was staring at her as if he hadn’t seen her before, she thought, as she tried to understand what was happening. Was that the alcohol at work, or was he just trying to intimidate her into leaving?

It’s not that simple, partner. You can’t get rid of me that easily.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he barked at her.

“You already said that. Have we run out of conversation so soon, throwing us into some kind of verbal reruns?” she asked wryly.

He had no idea what the hell she was talking about. He just wanted her out of here. Now.

“No, you really shouldn’t be here,” he told her. But even as he said it, he drew closer, like an imminent danger from which there was no escape.

He was so close now that when he uttered his warning, she could literally feel his words on her skin, words that were wrapped up in his warm breath.

The lethal combination made her heart quicken. Had she been completely sober, and not slightly tipsy as she was right now, a red flag would have shot up for her instantly.

As it was, the flag did go up, but it went up in what felt like slow motion—and once it was up, it seemed to wave in a rather happy, lackadaisical manner.

Truth be told, she was far more fixated on the sensations erupting between them in the wake of this moment of unexpected physical closeness. “And why shouldn’t I be here?” she asked him, raising her chin a bit to defiantly punctuate her question.

Or maybe, she silently reconsidered, she wasn’t being defiant. Perhaps she was merely flirting with him.

Or at least the bourbon was, she amended.

Esteban realized in frustration that the words needed to explain why it was imperative that she go now seemed to have escaped him. But then, he’d always been a man of action rather than words anyway.

Even back when his world had been incredibly sheltered in comparison to his life now, he was more prone to doing than talking.

So rather than search for words that wouldn’t come, and an explanation that refused to present itself, Esteban showed her why she needed to leave.

More roughly than he’d intended, he took hold of her cheek with one hand, keeping her in place as he brought down his mouth on hers.

This kiss was meant to scare her away.

Instead, what he actually managed to accomplish was to scare himself away—but not before he took the so-called “warning” he was issuing to its full conclusion, devouring her the way a starving man devoured his first meal in countless days. Except that for Esteban, it had been countless months, not days. Countless months that had stumbled their way into years without his complete recollection of that empty journey.

Pleasures of the flesh hadn’t been important to him at the time.

Now, though, something seemed to be stirring within him....

This uninvited woman he found himself saddled with tasted of all the good things that he had consciously left behind the day he’d found his brother Julio dead on the bedroom floor. She tasted of forbidden fruit, the fruit a man like him had knowingly sworn off in exchange for the life he’d dedicated himself to leading.

A life that, if conducted correctly, would allow him to get rid of at least a few scum of the earth before he himself was terminated. That the last part was inevitable, he was well aware of. But he didn’t care as long as he took as many of them with him when it happened—if not before.

* * *

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.

This time she had gotten more than she had bargained for. Maybe even more than she could possibly handle, Kari realized.

It felt as if her very soul was being sucked into a heated vortex.

The smart thing, she knew, was to push this man away and run for her life. But that presupposed that her knees and legs were still working—which they weren’t. Both had turned to mush of varying consistencies.

Besides, she didn’t really feel all that compelled to do the smart thing anyway. Not when it involved pulling away from what was the surprisingly delicious feast of his mouth.

Yes, the man, even in his scruffy state, was sexy and attractive to a fault, but who knew this lay beneath it all?

Her reluctant partner’s kiss left her feeling a hell of a lot more intoxicated than the amber liquid she had brought with her.