He certainly didn’t trust this one, although she did have all his senses firing up to full alert and his body primed and reacting. Especially when he’d frisked her.
Oh yeah, his male instincts kicked in big-time while patting her down for weapons. Her soft, seductive curves beneath his calloused fingertips as he brushed areas where she might conceal a weapon had him groaning to himself and his cock hardening in appreciation. Everything about her blew him away, and nothing ever blew him away. At least not since he’d been a teenager.
Whenever she spoke, her voice melted over him in delicious waves like the chocolate icing his brother’s woman Laurie poured on the chocolate cake he and his brothers loved so much. Red sounded whispery, bedroom smoky, and she possessed a very strong, determined voice, but then she had to in order to be the leader of the Resistance.
He couldn’t inhale her sweet, sexy female fragrance enough. Her scent was a combination of delicate flowers, soap and prime female. The sight of her flesh affected him, too. When he’d yanked up her jacket, her top had edged up, allowing him a visual of her creamy smooth flesh, not to mention her ringed bellybutton. That sight was the beginning of the end for him. He tensed in awareness every time she so much as shifted.
She sat on a downed log, staring angrily into the crackling fire, her wrists cuffed, ankles shackled, snowflakes lacing the sweet tumble of fluffy, shoulder-length, red hair that peeked from beneath a black wool toque.
This was the first time he’d gotten this close after months of tracking her. He was surprised she’d let him follow her so easily today. She seemed to not have a care in the world. He’d overheard Laurie whispering about Red to Tyler a few mornings ago. They thought Cade was still asleep, but he’d been awake, sneaking around and eavesdropping on their conversation, hoping to learn tidbits about Red. Laurie had said Red was taking a break and would probably end up going to her grandfather’s cabin in the woods.
A few discreet inquiries regarding Reena Wilde, and he’d discovered the name of her late grandparents and where they had a cabin. Hell, if it been this easy for him to find her, he wouldn’t be surprised if there were more bounty hunters on her ass. It was why he should be getting her to the government—pronto—instead of cozying up to her by a campfire in the middle of a snowstorm.
But he was bone weary after barely any sleep over the last few days—in anticipation of capturing her. He could have gone in and gotten her any time since discovering the cabin. But she could have had the place booby trapped or worse, so he’d waited patiently for her to come out into the open and far away from that cabin.
From the way she’d taken off, her reflexes were in top-notch working order and, thankfully, so were his.
Being this close to her had his hormones sizzling like a son of a bitch. Her pictures certainly didn’t do her justice. She was pretty as hell in person, and thinking of wrapping his hands into that flaming red hair and kissing her luscious mouth made his cock scream with need. She had big hazel eyes framed by long lashes and a gentle spattering of freckles over high, rosy cheekbones. Yes, a looker, and past experience proved he needed to beware of these types as they were deceiving.
Instincts told him if he permitted his emotions—make that his hormones—to get the better of him and he let down his guard, she wouldn’t hesitate killing him in order to escape. It had happened once before with another woman during the Terrorist Wars. He’d let down his guard and had the knife scars to prove it.
“The food will be done in a few minutes,” he said. His gaze was jolted back to her when she licked her pouty lips while she stared at the frying bacon and eggs. He always celebrated a capture with bacon and eggs. Besides, he was starving.
“I’m not hungry.” Her soft reply spiked his heart rate.
“That’s fine. It’ll leave more for me.”
She grunted in annoyance. Even that sound was sexy.
After a moment of silence, she asked, “Who hired you?”
“I was wondering when curiosity would get the better of you.” He chuckled and she threw him a fierce scowl. He laughed again, enjoying the sweet way his gut clenched as she scrunched her forehead in her pissed off state. Maybe he should let her suffer a little while longer with curiosity. Or maybe he should get this conversation rolling so he could lay all the cards on the table. He opted for the latter.
“I’ve been hired by the United States Government,” he stated. He wasn’t surprised when she laughed first then followed that by cursing him up one side of his body and down the other, telling him what a stupid idiot he was. When she finished cursing, she laughed again and he got the feeling she knew something he didn’t.
“Obviously you find this amusing,” he said as he turned the several strips of bacon with a fork. The bacon was done. Way over done, but with her reaction, he’d lost his appetite.
“I findyouamusing. What do your brothers think about you working for the United States Government?” She spat the last three words at him as if they were dirt.
He certainly understood her hatred for the dictatorship, especially when they so actively endorsed removing women’s rights, making rape legal. “My brothers don’t have a problem with how money comes in to pay the bills.”
“Blood money,” she grumbled, her lips twisting in disgust.
“As I said earlier, no one’s going to die.”
She shook her head. “Do you think you can just walk me in without any blood being shed? I’ve got an entourage a mile long waiting to hear back from me, and if I don’t check in by sundown they’ll be on your ass so fast you’ll wish you’d gone through that ice out there and drowned.”
“And here I thought you liked me.”
“You’re an asshole.” She rolled her man-killing eyes at him and set her jaw in a firm pout. He’d irritated her with his remark and she stared at him, either trying to gauge if her words had scared him or trying to figure out another avenue of attack.
“You don’t scare easy, do you?” she finally said.
“Nothing to be scared about. Now have yourself some bacon and eggs.”
He forked two strips of bacon and two eggs onto the small aluminum plate he carried with him whenever tracking a bounty.
He was surprised when she lifted her cuffed hands and accepted the plate. He was equally surprised when she turned it, allowing the bacon and eggs to slide off onto the ground between her shackled legs.
