real sense that Gabe was not a guy many people got away from easily.
Her gaze wandered down his chest to the bulge at the front of his jeans. “You think we’re going to sit up here, have sex and wait for bad guys to come snooping around?”
The corner of his mouth kicked up, not in a full smile but close. “You seem obsessed with sex.”
“I wonder why.” She rubbed her hands over her arms as her teeth started to tap together.
His gaze fell to her lips then traveled back to her eyes. “Let’s make a deal.”
“No.” The knee-jerk response came out before she could stop it.
“So prickly.”
“Do you blame me?” She’d been run out of her job and made the fall guy for a rogue CIA operation that eventually uncovered a spy within the agency. Never mind that she resolved everything or that her team pushed through, with some of them losing their lives, and found the mole despite claims from agency higher-ups that none existed.
He nodded. “You’ve had more than a fair share of bullshit thrown your way.”
“Understatement.” Her crime had been simple in the eyes of her superiors. She’d exposed blind spots in the agency. She’d refused to take no for an answer when she knew she was right. She’d stuck up for the sole surviving members of her team and made a deal to spare their lives in exchange for her leaving her job and not exposing systematic flaws within the agency. In return, she got manhandled, drugged, and now had to hide just in case someone at the CIA decided she might not keep her mouth shut and needed to be eliminated.
Gabe exhaled. “I can’t fix what you’ve been through, but I can give you some peace of mind.”
For some reason that made her more skeptical, not less. “If you say so.”
“I won’t touch you without your permission.” He lowered his head until he leveled that intense stare right at her eyes. “Ever.”
“You’re touching me now.”
He held up his hands. “My job is to protect you. Nothing else will happen.”
“Damn right.”
“Kick me in the balls if I try.” He stood up, pretty much jumped to his feet without making a sound, and held out a hand, letting it hover in front of her face. “You hold the power over what happens between us.”
“I agree.”
“Us, not how I protect you.”
He still didn’t get the churning inside her, that drive to run and not depend on someone else. She’d been trained for this, damn it. The idea of having a full-time bodyguard made her twitchy. Made it more likely that she’d end up looking to protect him than to keep herself safe. “I need to leave.”
He exhaled as he shot her one of those you’re-working-on-my-nerves frowns he excelled at throwing her way. “And go where?”
Seeing no reason to play the martyr, she grabbed his hand and struggled to her feet as numbness threatened to overtake her. “Hell if I know.”
This time he did smile. Shot her a wide and sexy grin. “That’s what I like about you, Natalie.”
That look had her spinning. Whatever was dancing around in her stomach better be the flu. “What?”
“You’re not stupid.”
Smart of him to notice. “I guess that’s a good thing.”
“And sexy as hell.”
Now that was a problem. If she let her mind wander for one second she thought about climbing all over him. The need pounding through her could not be mutual. She could fight off her own attraction, but not his as well. Sex on the run, in the midst of gunfire and danger, sounded dumb. Like a one-way ticket to checking out of this world for good.
“Imagine me shooting you. That should kill the mood.” She glanced around, trying to believe she lost touch with her weapon for even a second, or that she only had one.
He slipped the gun out of where he had it tucked into his belt and handed it to her. “You’d think, but no.”
“You’re a sick man.” And by that she meant hot enough to have her common sense blinking out.
“Probably.” He nodded toward the cabin. “Let’s go.”
Her defenses rose. “That sounds like an order.”
He shifted his weight and leaned in closer. “You can either get in there, strip off your wet clothes and shower, or I’ll do it for you.”
Something hard clunked to a halt inside her. Her heart . . . lungs. Likely something she needed to keep moving. But she couldn’t deny the shocking cold or how her mind moved a click