Once we completed the circuit twice, double-checking that nothing and no one was near the house, he led me back toward the exterior wall on the east side.
“All I feel is annoyance,” he quipped wryly as he pushed me up against the wall. Caging me in with my back touching the moist wood, he set his hand up by my head and stared me down.
“I swear, I felt like someone was watching me.” I furrowed my brow, hating that it looked like it was a false alarm. I didn’t want to be wrong and then be caught unaware by a surprise. Nor did I want him to think I was trying to trick him into letting me go.
“We scoped the area,” he argued.
“I know, but?—”
He stepped closer, invading my space.
“Instead of imagining someone else being near, feelthis, little agent,” he growled in a husky whisper.
Closing the distance between us, he pinned me to the wall. His hot lips brushed over mine possessively, lighting a fire of yearning and need at the initial contact. The taboo touch. The sinister seal of his mouth over mine. The warm burn from the friction of his facial hair on my cheek.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
I wasn’t supposed to feel so alive with him kissing me.
I sure as hell wasn’t supposed to kiss my kidnapper right back.
Under his mouth, I gasped and parted my lips, needing so much more. Desire snaked through me. Lust boiled in my blood.
A feral growl rumbled from his chest as he pinned me to the wall, trapping me in this deliriously thrilling kiss. As I canted my head to the side, guided by the harsh push of him against me, I wanted to sink in the wicked heat of his mouth stealing my breath.
“Fuck.” He pulled back, sucking in much-needed air. Those dark-blue eyes glittered with rabid lust as he licked his lips and threaded his fingers through my hair at the back of my head. “You want to talk about feelings, little agent?” he taunted in a raspy growl. “Then feel some more of this.”
As he lowered to kiss me again, making my heart race, I blinked and reached up to kiss him back.
But before I could dive in for more of what I had no business wanting, I caught the barest glimpse of a light.
Red.
A thready, thin ray of red light through this jungle thick with greenery.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t plan.
Because I was right.
Someone was here.
And they had their rifle sights aimed on the back of his head.
“No!” I whispered, reaching up to loop my rope over his neck. With my hands on his shoulders, I pushed him down to the ground as gunfire blasted through the wet woods.
11
EMIL
Finally kissing Sadie was the rush I wanted to ride. The high of feeling her clutch me closer was the only cue I needed.
But when she lifted her hands to haul me against her and slam us to the ground, I snapped into focus.
I caught her in my arms, rolling so I wouldn’t crush her on the slippery ground. In the drop, the roar of gunfire reached my ears. The thunder of ammunition flying our way yanked me out of any idea of desire. It chased away the excitement of this one woman kissing me back. Sober in a flash, I moved with the momentum of her pushing me out of the way.
Everything smeared through time as it always did at hectic moments of peril. In a blur, we were down. Gunfire pelted out as we both crouched down and tensed behind thick fronds of bushes and vines.
