staring after him with eyes that were flat and resigned. She’d expected him to leave her like that. And he’d just reaffirmed every one of her beliefs about him.
He hit the brakes at the end of the block, gripped the cold steering wheel with both hands and dropped his head.
Fuuuuuuck.
If he’d seen hurt or even disbelief on her face he could have sped off without a second thought. But not with that look of…cold indifference etched into her features.
Muttering curses at her, at himself, at the whole situation in general, he circled the block and slammed on the brakes in front of the market’s empty lot. Kat was still standing in the same place, watching him with impassiveness.
He leaned over the seat and popped the passenger door. “Get in.”
She stared at him for a long moment, then turned and rummaged in the truck. When she reemerged seconds later, she was carrying a backpack he hadn’t noticed before and a small white box.
She climbed in next to him and shut the door without a word.
“What’s that for?” He nodded toward the first-aid kit.
“You’re bleeding,” she said without looking his way.
He eased around to get a good look, pulled the worn sweatshirt out at his back but couldn’t see anything more than a few red smears on the gray cotton.
She still wasn’t looking at him. And if he expected to see gratefulness that he’d come back for her or concern for his well-being on her all-too-familiar face, he was barking up the wrong tree. She looked like she could give a rat’s ass about him or the car or anything besides herself right now.
“We should go before we’re spotted.”
Her voice was dull, her eyes anywhere but on him. As he stared at her determined, perfect profile, he couldn’t help wondering what had happened to the sweet and sensuous woman he’d changed his whole life for.
“She died.”
He hadn’t realized he’d spoken out loud until he heard her voice. He looked back up to her eyes, but her expression hadn’t changed. If anything, it was even more resolute.
Yeah, the woman he’d known had died. This one was a stranger.
Pete put the car in gear and eased his foot off the brake, slowing as they reached the end of town. “Which way?”
Kat hesitated just long enough to make the hair on the back of his neck tingle. “Straight. Toward Wellsboro.”
Which would then take them toward Philadelphia. Not back to New York.
Dammit, he wasn’t the ass she thought he was. He didn’t know why he felt the urge to prove to her he had a decent bone left in his body, but he did.
Before he could change his mind, he punched the gas. “I’ll take you to Philly, but from there on out you’re on your own.”
“Fair enough,” she said quietly as they sped down the road. “Thank you.”
Pete frowned. Screw fair. And he didn’t need her thanks.
It hit him then, the irony of the situation, as a memory of the first time he’d left her flashed in his head. At one point he’d have done just about anything to be locked anywhere with her, but now? Now all he could think about was getting as far away from her as possible.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he muttered. “We still have to get there first.”
Six-and-a-half years earlier
Cairo
“I think I left a mark.”
“Hm?” Pete sat on the side of Kat’s bed, tying the laces of his boots. “Where?”
Still tucked into the covers and looking deliciously rumpled, Kat eased up and ran her finger just underneath the collar of his blue button-down. A tingle raced over his skin where she touched him, and a shot of renewed lust kicked him in the stomach as he watched the strap from her camisole slide over her bare shoulder. “Right here. I don’t think I’ve ever actually given anyone a hickey before.”
His stomach tightened at the memory of her mouth on his skin, licking, kissing, sliding lower. He smiled and rose, then proceeded to load the last of his things in his travel case. “I’m glad I could be your first at something.”
She settled back into the pillows on a sigh, her dark hair fanning out around her. With her heavy-lidded eyes focused solely on him, it was all he could do to keep packing instead of diving back under the covers for a repeat of the way he’d awoken her from the inside out only an hour ago.
Man, he couldn’t get enough of her. Loved being beside her, inside her, loved