He shrugged, making the gash start bleeding again. “You’ve pretty much seen the majority of what I can do.” He paused as she tossed one bloody towel in the trash and grabbed a fresh one. “Beyond all the enhanced senses, I’m faster than a normal person, both in speed and reflexes. I’m stronger than someone twice my size, and I can take a lot more punishment as well as heal faster. Within a couple of hours, this”—he pointed at the wound—“will be closed up completely, and in a few days, it’ll look like it’s months old. It won’t be long before you’ll have to know it was there to even find it.”
“That must come in handy,” she said, wishing like hell her teammates in the CIA had been shifters. Maybe some of them would still be alive.
“I won’t lie and say my healing ability hasn’t saved my ass a time or two,” he admitted. “But I try to use my coyote instincts to keep from getting into screwed-up situations in the first place. Trust me, I’d much prefer to be clever and tricky and not get shot at all.”
“I’m all for that,” she agreed.
Thankfully, the gash had stopped bleeding for the most part. It was still painful looking, but she breathed a sigh of relief knowing he was going to be okay.
“So what happened tonight?” She tossed the second towel in the trash and picked up a third to clean off the dried blood from the rest of his torso. “Why didn’t your coyote instincts for trouble keep you from getting hit?”
“I don’t know. I guess I was a little distracted.”
Trevor didn’t elaborate. Then again, he didn’t need to. Alina was well aware of the fact that he’d taken a bullet because he’d been worried about one hitting her. She’d seen him jump to take out that big guard as the man had been about to shoot her.
“Thanks for covering my back,” she said softly. “I know you got hit because you were more worried about me than yourself, so…thanks.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. We’re partners.”
Trevor might have been making light of what he’d done, but Alina appreciated it more than she could put into words. She hadn’t had a real partner since Turkey, and it wasn’t until now that she realized the biggest thing she’d missed was knowing she had someone who’d watch her back.
Tears suddenly filled her eyes, and she forced herself to finish cleaning off the dried blood on Trevor’s stomach. It was while she was absorbed in the meticulous task of wiping down every square inch of exposed skin that she became aware of the fact that he was an extremely fit man. It was hard to miss when her face was only inches from his very well-defined abs.
Well, she’d been looking for something else to focus on so she wouldn’t start crying, and Trevor was definitely a distraction. Her partner had the body of a Roman god, with shoulders, pecs, and arm muscles that made it obvious he worked out a lot. But he also had that lean, ripped look to him that make her think more of Tarzan than a weightlifter. And the way those rippling abs disappeared into his beltline, showing off just the sexiest hint of happy trail was definitely interesting.
As she lightly traced the wet towel back and forth across his lower abs and that absolutely mouthwatering trail of manliness, it dawned on her that she was in a somewhat compromising position. Seated in front of Trevor, her hand inches from his belt buckle and the very obvious bulge in his dress pants, thoughts of tending to his wound suddenly took a backseat to the memories of what it had been like kissing him tonight. And the stuff she was remembering weren’t the kind of thoughts she should have been having about her partner.
Alina knew it was supposed to have been a fake kiss as part of their cover, but if it had been fake, then her real sex life clearly sucked, because she’d never been that turned on from a kiss in her life. She’d actually gotten excited from a thirty-second make-out session in the middle of a crowded club, which was completely crazy. She wasn’t a teenager. She wasn’t supposed to get all tingly from a simple kiss. If they hadn’t been on a mission, she could only wonder how far she would have been willing to take things.
Crap, she was getting tingly all over again, simply thinking about Trevor’s lips on her. Not to mention the feel of his strong, muscular body under her fingers.
Strong, muscular body under her fingers. Say what?
Alina gave herself a shake and discovered that at some point, she’d tossed the last washcloth in the trash and was running her hands back and forth across Trevor’s drum-tight abs, getting damn close to the danger zone around his belt buckle.
“I’m pretty sure you’ve gotten all the blood off,” Trevor said from above her.
She jerked her hands away as if he were on fire. Which, she guessed, he kind of was. Because she was definitely going to get burned if she kept playing this game. And he definitely hadn’t missed her unprofessional grope fest.
She didn’t dare look up at him as she took out a handful of sterile pads and a roll of gauze bandage from her first aid kit. Knowing she was probably blushing furiously, she kept her head down and focused on wrapping the stretchy gauze tightly around his ribs. But focusing was harder to do than she imagined, because she was getting turned on as hell. She was more aroused than she’d been in a really really long time.
What the hell was wrong with her?
She’d never been the kind of woman to go all gaga over a guy, no matter how hot his abs happened to be. Yet here she was in front of her partner, telling herself it wasn’t okay to hump his leg or yank open his belt buckle.
She determinedly forced her hormones back under control. Thankfully, Trevor had no idea what he was doing to her. She would have been mortified if he’d known how turned on she was.
Alina finished the wrap, then added some surgical tape to keep everything in place. Whether she wanted to or not, it was time to stand up and look her partner in the eye.
“I think we’re good here,” she said softly as she rose to her feet.
Trevor stood there, barely a foot of space between them, his naked chest and shoulders so close that it was hard not reaching out and touching them. His dark eyes were thoughtful, and Alina waited for him to say something snarky…or teasing.
He didn’t do either of those things. Instead, he stepped a little closer so all those spectacular chest muscles were mere millimeters away from her breasts.
“We certainly are good here, aren’t we?” he said, his voice warm and smooth, like melted chocolate, almost making her melt in return.
Alina’s breath hitched. Trevor was going to kiss her. Just like he had back in that club in Baltimore. Except this time, there wasn’t anything to interrupt them.
