to break the connection, but she wanted him to continue touching her even more.
She decided to make a joke to break the weirdness. “I promise not to flatten you on your back again.”
He grinned. “But I thought it was kind of hot, especially the part where you grabbed my crotch.”
She flushed and glanced away. “Yeah, that was… I didn’t mean to touch you like that. It’s just how I was taught. Self-defense is usually needed against sexual aggression.”
He chuckled. “I get that. I’m just glad you stopped yourself before squeezing my balls in a death grip.”
She pursed her lips. She honestly couldn’t believe she’d grabbed his… privates like that. It had been ingrained in her, part of the fluid motion. She’d felt ridiculous when she’d realized what she’d done.
On top of that, his manhood had grown stiff under her palm before she’d had the sense to release him. Good grief. She’d never get that image out of her head. Especially if he brought it up over and over.
“Sorry. I won’t mention it again. I’ve embarrassed you.”
She shook her head, a bit too defiantly. “No. It’s okay.” She forced a smile. “It was kind of funny.”
“My cock, or the fact that you grabbed it without thinking?”
Cock. She could barely think that word without blushing. Yep. She could turn a deeper shade of red. She felt the heat climb higher up her skin. That was when she realized what she was wearing and pulled her hand gently out of his to cross her arms.
She had on a thin tank top and shorts. Both white. He could surely see the outline of her breasts and probably her nipples. She hadn’t grabbed a robe when she tiptoed into the bathroom. It had never been her intention to leave the door open between their rooms, nor for either man to see her half-naked like this.
“Do you think you can get back to sleep? I bet we’re going to need all the sleep we can get before we meet up with whoever the hell we’re getting our intel from tomorrow.”
“You’re right.” She shuffled past him, glad for the suggestion. At least this way she could slide back between the sheets and cover herself.
As she sat on the edge of the bed and swung her legs up, he followed her. The man even pulled the covers over her and then stroked another lock of her hair. “Sleep,” he murmured in a rough voice before turning and padding out of her room.
He didn’t touch the door this time either, and she stared at the open doorway for a while, her heart racing. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to go back to sleep after that strange encounter. Ajax Cassman was a duplicitous man. Or maybe she was wrong. Maybe the first Ajax she’d met hadn’t been the real him. Maybe he was the nice guy she’d just chatted with in the middle of the night in the dim light.
She turned onto her side and pulled her knees up, chewing on her lip as she thought about his pecs and the way his arms didn’t fully hang straight down at his sides because his biceps were too large. She thought about his cleanly shaved face and short-cropped hair.
When she was done thinking of that side of Ajax, she thought about his beard and the longer locks he’d had the first time she saw him. She’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit he took her breath away that day. She’d done her best to ignore him and hide her reaction, but she’d known.
She’d been leery about this trip ever since, concerned about her attraction. By the time they’d found her at the airport yesterday, she’d talked herself out of any ridiculous attraction. She’d even gone so far as to give herself a pep talk after they found their seats on the plane. See. Not a mountain man at all. The gruff figure you’ve been lusting over was an apparition.
Who had she been kidding with that self-chat? The new version of Ajax was even sexier and far more like the sort of man she was ordinarily attracted to. If she even had an ordinary attraction to anyone. That was a bit of a stretch. Her attractions were few and far between, and the number of times she’d acted on them were even fewer.
She needed to shake the odd obsession. She was not in Ethiopia to stare at a perfectly chiseled male body. She was here to help this