again. The day had been fraught with tension and worry and attempts to forget that he might not be coming back. That first moment when she had realized he was safe had been dizzy and shocking and put her on an emotional roller coaster. What they had between them was only sex and passion and the strange bond of fascination that had formed these past months, she told herself. Last night, she had been swept away, and today had been so emotional that she couldn’t regain her equilibrium. It was better if she took a step back until she was more cool and able to analyze her responses.
And there was no way that would have been true if she’d been there when he’d walked into the museum tonight. No, she needed to go to see Hajif and Leta, have a light meal, then go to bed.
She would deal with Novak tomorrow.
* * *
Her phone rang three hours later.
She tensed, then rolled over on her sleeping mat and reached for it.
Novak.
Bite the bullet. He wouldn’t stop calling until she answered. “Hello, Novak.”
“Get out of there and come to me. I need to see you.”
“I’m already in bed.”
“I don’t care. Come to me, or I’ll come and get you. You don’t want Hajif and Leta to be upset.” He cut the connection.
No, she didn’t want Hajif to be drawn into this. She rolled off the mat and threw on her clothes. A moment later, she’d stalked out of Hajif’s hut. She saw Novak in the doorway of his hut, framed against the lantern light behind him, and strode toward him. “What do you want, Novak? That was completely rude, and I don’t appreciate you—”
“Shut up.” He pulled her into the hut and jerked her into his arms. “I’m having a very bad day.” He kissed her. “And I didn’t need to have you hiding out and avoiding me at the end of it. Particularly after Gideon was telling me how weird and stiff you were being.” He kissed her again. “That’s not going to happen. If you don’t want to screw me, that’s your decision, but you’re going to be with me. I need you.” He pushed her down on the blankets. “Do you want a drink? I could use one right now. A glass of wine?”
“How polite.” She sat up, trying to get her breath. What had started out as anger was transforming into that same electricity she had felt last night. Her breasts were swelling, her lower body tingling, readying. “And you can’t force me to be here. What’s wrong with you, dammit?”
“Wine,” he answered himself. “You like wine.” He poured a merlot from a bottle into a glass. He poured himself a whiskey and sat down cross-legged in front of her. He handed her the goblet. “No force. I merely made a suggestion.”
“Bullshit.”
He grinned. “Okay, I wanted to catch your attention.”
“I almost decked you.”
“And I wanted a little sympathy after a hard day.”
“Not the way to get it. And since when have you ever come to anyone after something goes wrong? I’ve never seen anyone so self-sufficient.”
“It’s a new era.” He took a sip of his whiskey. “Maybe I’ve never found anyone with whom I wanted to share my very rare failures. Or maybe I just wanted to see you sitting here and know that there was someone I cared about whom Varak hadn’t been able to touch. Anyway, I was frustrated as hell when you weren’t there when I got back to that museum. I needed you.”
He had said that before, and suddenly Jill’s impatience was dwindling before it disappeared entirely. It would take a lot for a self-assured man like Novak to admit to needing anyone. “Gideon said that it was bad out there.” She took a sip of her wine. “A setup for a killing field.” She added with sudden fierceness, “So why did you go back with Quinn and try to get yourself slaughtered? Varak’s killed close to six hundred thousand people in that war, and he clearly built that compound as a trap. You knew it, and you still talked Joe Quinn into staking out that house.”
“I didn’t have to talk very hard. Quinn wanted him as much as I did. I only had to let him control how he got me through that land-mine tangle. Quinn likes control.”
“And you don’t?” She shook her head in frustration. “The two of you together are a complete disaster.”
“Actually, I found we worked very well together today.”