a cabin. It was nestled in the woods on the edge of Prince William Forest Park. The road leading to it was feathered with Ys leading off to other parts of acres-wide woodlands. If someone didn’t know where they were going, they would never find this cabin in the maze of trails.
Benedict knew where he was going. He’d been there many times before. In fact, he’d taken his survival training there. It wasn’t fancy, just a one room cottage, but it had a fireplace and a bed and a ratty old sofa. They’d be warm and dry and safe until Titanium could mount an extraction.
He pulled into the overhang next to the cabin and tugged down the tarp so the truck wouldn’t be visible, and then he took Michelle inside. He lit the fire in the hearth and a couple lamps so they could see, and then he went back to the truck to bring in the groceries.
“Can you unload these while I go scout the area?” he asked as he dropped the bags on the counter.
Her eyes flared. “You’re leaving?”
“Just to scout the area. I won’t be long. I promise.”
Still, she put out a lip.
It was a tantalizing lip. She should never put it out. Never offer it to him like that. They were here, in an isolated cabin. Alone. It occurred to him what a challenge this would be, keeping his hands to himself. “I’ll be back,” he said gruffly—too gruffly—as an inconvenient longing snaked through him.
“Fine,” she snapped, although he didn’t wait for her response. He was out the door before he even heard it.
It didn’t take long for him to reconnoiter and determine they were alone up here. It took even less time for him to set the trip wires that would warn them of any unwanted visitors.
As he headed back to the cabin, to her, he gave himself a stern lecture—about how important it was for him to keep his mind on the mission, how important it was for him to keep his distance. But he wasn’t really listening.
It annoyed him that, right in the middle of it, he found himself thinking about kissing her. It was a stupid thought and he ejected it.
For one thing, it wouldn’t do for him to become distracted. He needed to be on point in case he’d missed something. In case their enemies had some unknowable way to track them here.
For another, well, he was Lithium. A hard-hearted machine who didn’t need anyone or anything. His power stemmed from his ability to disconnect from the world, to focus, unerringly on the mission. To do whatever it took.
Attraction was a distraction.
Passion was a weakness.
He was hardly a monk. He’d had many women in his lifetime, but he couldn’t bring one face to mind.
He suspected, with a curl of horror, that hers was a face he would never forget. She was a woman he would not be able to expunge from his mind. Somehow she’d wriggled in past all his carefully constructed defenses to make him care.
That made her dangerous.
Dangerous to his to concentration, to his oaths, to his very identity.
He needed to resist her. Needed to keep her at arm’s length until help arrived.
It shouldn’t be difficult.
He was a man of legendary determination after all.
Chapter Four
Michelle did not obey George’s command, not right away, because it bothered her OCD to see the naked mattress. There was a clean set of sheets in the cupboard—thank God—and a blanket, so she quickly made the bed, hospital corners and all. She would have tested her work by bouncing a quarter on the bed, but he’d taken away her purse.
When that was finished, she headed for the kitchenette. She muttered to herself and she pulled the items Lithium had purchased from the bags, arranging them on the counter. Damn, but he was an annoying man.
Sexy too.
Yeah. Sexy. She sighed and visualized his profile, the quirk of his lips in a rare smile, the glimmer of his eyes. Damn. Of all the men she’d been with in her life—though there had not been many—he eclipsed them all. There was just something about him. His energy, his humming tension…chemistry.
She had to grin. Chemistry.
Lithium.
His codename was stupid. George was better, though, if she were being honest, he did not look like a George.
Even George Clooney paled in comparison.
She shivered as she remembered how hard his body had been when he’d pressed against her in the stairwell. How hard his cock had been. She allowed herself a moment