The Survivor - Cristin Harber Page 0,26
murmured, “But are you with me?”
His fingers fell away. “Want to tell me what you mean?”
“Never mind.” She wouldn’t look him in the eye.
He eased back and took a deep breath. He smelled her light perfume, recalling it from before. Hagan had never paid attention to those kind of details until now, and he hadn’t known it was possible to smell like sunshine and goodness. “What’s your name?”
She stiffened and reached for her ponytail. Her fingers knotted into the dark strands. “Does it matter?”
What an answer! He reached for the hand that played with her hair. After a beat, Hagan let his touch drift to her shoulder, then elbow, then fall away. “What’s in a name? You tell me.”
“Nothing’s in a name. It doesn’t matter.”
“Anything to keep the conversation anonymous, huh?”
She shrugged.
He grinned. “That doesn’t bode well for taking you out to dinner.”
“What?”
“How about you tell me. What do you want?”
She faltered. “What are you talking about?”
Seemed like a simple question to him. “What do you want from me?”
Her hand pressed to her throat. “That’s pretty blunt.”
“Nah, babe. Blunt would be if I asked if you wanted to go to bed for a nameless fuck.” He grinned. “But I think we have too much chemistry to waste on a one-night stand.”
Her breath jumped. “That’s more than blunt.”
“It’s the truth, though.”
“It’s—” She blinked hard and edged back. “I should check on the cameras.”
At least he’d learned that she worked with Titan and wasn’t a client. A sense of déjà vu or a touch of familiarity squeezed at the back of his neck. He rubbed at it and shook his head. “I still can’t shake the feeling that we’ve worked together before.”
Hesitation settled over her like a sober blanket. She squared her shoulders. “No.”
Hell. “I didn’t say that to upset you.” He struggled with what to say next that wouldn’t sound like a cheesy line. “All I meant was—hell, I don’t know. Different company, same time frame? Joint ops, somewhere, sometime ago? You work with LIDAR and—”
She pressed her back to the wall. “Stop talking.”
“Damn it.” Jared and Parker already wanted to jump his shit over this woman. But he wanted to know what was wrong. “I’m trying to explain—”
Like he’d lit a firework under her feet, she sprinted away. A simple question about the past—their past?—had sent her running again. What the hell was he missing?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Amanda bolted up the flight of stairs, swiped her access badge, and threw the door open. She couldn’t see straight, couldn’t breathe. She’d tried to control that awful feeling but couldn’t. For every second she’d stood there, hot water had risen. From her feet to her knees to her chest—it squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.
She gasped for another breath, angry her throat had twisted and knotted the air from her lungs. Her eyes closed, and she wanted to believe she wasn’t dying, that this was a simple, stupid panic attack. But the heat?
Rubbing her temples, reminding herself that this was a mind game, she forced her eyes to open. Amanda blinked. Her brain processed. The heat…was the baking sun. There were no fires, no explosions, no places where she couldn’t breathe. None of that was real. At least, it wasn’t right now.
The water tower loomed overhead, and she let its shade draw her closer until she propped herself against a cool cinderblock wall and took in her surroundings. The city. The sky. This was what she needed to see. What she could control.
Her chin dropped. The adrenaline faded, and she laughed. At least she hadn’t kicked him in the crotch. Embarrassed, she massaged her temples again. “What the hell am I doing?” She watched a bird soar above her, then muttered, “Why did I even try?”
A thud echoed from across the roof. A flock of birds took off and then re-landed. The man had come back to the roof. Why did he keep trying?
Amanda didn’t know how to explain her triggers without triggering herself again. And that was assuming she wanted to give him far too much information—which, maybe, she did. This was so embarrassing. She couldn’t let him find her like this.
Before he could pinpoint her location, she crept from the tower and checked to make sure the coast was clear. She didn’t see anyone, and jogged across the helipad, feeling like a hunted deer in an open field.
She took cover by the massive generator units. Their hum would mask her racing breath and footsteps.
“Hey, lady.” The man’s voice carried in the windless sky