didn’t need your help.” She opened the door. “Good night, Novak.”
“Jill.”
She looked over her shoulder.
He was standing there, lean, muscular, infinitely male. “I just wanted to tell you that you’ve convinced me.” His smile was both intimate and knowing. “After careful observation, I can see you’re no victim and definitely not walking wounded. What a relief.” He turned away. “Let the games begin…”
Games? Jill’s pulse was pounding, and her breath was uneven as she closed the door behind her. This wasn’t any game she wanted to play. No, that was a lie. It was obviously one that she wanted passionately to play in every single physical way possible. She just couldn’t permit it to happen.
If she could stop it. Because Novak had decided that wasn’t the way he wanted it. Screw it. It was only sex, dammit. Why didn’t she just go back outside to him and find somewhere to make it happen?
Because it was never only sex to her, and she couldn’t risk its being anything more to her with Novak.
I wanted to go to bed with you three minutes after I met you.
That had been an exaggeration. He’d been too angry with her during those first three minutes on that mountain in Botzan. And she’d only been concerned with persuading him to get out of her way so that she could get to that bandit, Abdi Zolak, and keep him from getting killed…
* * *
Botzan Mountains
Eleven Months Ago
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jed Novak was skidding down the hill toward Jill. His blue eyes were glittering with fury in his taut face as he pulled her down behind a banyan tree. “Do you want to get killed? There’s a band of roving bandits camped up on that hill. I gave orders that this area was to be cleared.”
“I know you did, Novak,” Jill said impatiently. “You didn’t make any secret about it in any of the villages I had to go through to get here.” She jerked her arm away from him. “You wanted to send a message to Zolak that the big, bad CIA were on their way and that he’d better not throw in his lot with those Botzan mercenaries. He was just to meekly give up his weapons and let you take him down.” Her eyes went back to the top of the hill. No movement. But there probably wasn’t much time before Zolak would get edgy that she hadn’t shown up yet. “Only he won’t do that, and you’re stupid if you think he will. He’s too scared of not dying a brave death that will make his sons proud of him.” But Jill knew that Novak’s reputation was that he was far from stupid. She had only seen him from a distance since he’d arrived in Maldara, but she’d made it her business to research him. He was superintelligent, and the word was that he’d been sent here to Maldara by Langley to try to find a way to stop this hideous war. So reason with him. Persuade him. It was her only hope to get Abdi Zolak home to his village. Her gaze shifted back to Novak’s face. “He’ll fight you. He has fifty-two men in this band he’s gathered. There would be deaths on both sides.” She leaned forward, her voice urgent. “But I can keep that from happening, Novak. The only reason he’s here at all is that he agreed to come down from his hideout and meet with me. Wouldn’t it be better to let me go up there and talk to him?” She wasn’t getting a response. Okay, try harder. “Look, I’m Jill Cassidy, and I’m a reporter, not some missionary out to save Zolak’s soul. I know he’s been a thief and a bandit most of his adult life. But he’s always taken care of his family and his village. And he’s not a murderer…yet. But if he joins those mercenaries, he’ll become what they want him to be. Here in Maldara, that means butchery. And the only people who can stop him are his wife and family. He cares about them. I might be able to talk him into going back to them so they’ll have a chance to do it.”
“I know exactly who you are, Jill Cassidy.” Novak’s eyes were fixed on her face. “I had reports on you from my men watching that village down the road. I’m used to handling reporters getting in my way, but I didn’t think I’d have