Regret slithered through her like a snake. She didn’t like the idea of Cade being dead. She liked his brother Tyler and didn’t want harm to come to Cade, even if he was a lowly bounty hunter. Besides, her attraction for him when he’d first caught her on the ice wasn’t totally the virus. It was feminine instinct. She sensed he wouldn’t hurt her. No matter how bitter the Terrorist Wars had made him.
When he first caught her, she had been pissed, but there had also been an attraction similar to what she’d experienced with only one other man. The man she knew as Will Blade. He was raw lust and powerful arousal rolled into one hot explosion.
Just as she thought of Will, his image drifted out of the darkness like a ghost. For a moment, she could do nothing but blink in shock and wonder if perhaps she was experiencing a fantasy of him. But when he threw her an amused smirk, emotions sizzled inside her. Happiness, confusion, need, want. Arousal.
What in the world was he doing here?
Behind him, Cade appeared. Concern ripped through her over how Cade held a rifle pointed at Blade’s back.
Cade’s mouth was twisted in anger and his eyes were narrowed with suspicion. In contrast, Blade seemed calm as a cucumber. Except for the smirk on his face when he gazed at her, he appeared as cool as the night she’d approached him in his bedroom.
Immediately she knew why he was acting so composed. The attraction between them still existed. The need of wanting him hit her like a searing arrow the instant his familiar pine-and-mild-soap scent whispered against her nostrils.
A man wouldn’t look at her coolly, dispassionately, yet his eyes so full of fire unless he was trying to run from his attraction to her. Or hide from it, which—on the surface—he appeared to do quite well. Yet beneath the surface, he was doing a piss-poor job. He held himself tensely, awareness flaring in his eyes as he studied her like she was the untamed mate that had gotten away.
“Sit down on that stump. I don’t need you snapping her neck,” Cade instructed.
Snap her neck? What in the world?
She drew her attention to Cade. His fierce gaze was fixed on Will as he sat down a good six feet away from her. Cade warily eyed Will as if he were her mortal enemy. Boy was he ever wrong.
Blade’s scent increased in intensity as the wind whipped against her, making her body tighten in hyper awareness. Making her breasts ache with a need to be held in his large hands. To have both men licking her body. Touching her. Kissing her. Making love to her.
Reena tried hard not to moan at the sudden burst of submissive need welcoming her into its embrace. But shedidmoan. It was a sultry sexy sound that made Cade and Will Blade snap their gazes to her in full-awareness mode. Reena closed her eyes and broke the erotic-magnetic connection.
Both men remained silent, except for their breaths lashing the air.
Cade—harsh and erratic.
Blade—coolly even. Forced. Too even.
They were both fighting their reactions to her. Just as she was fighting them.
God only knew how long she could hold out.
* * * * *
Secrets. They zipped between Red and Blade like sparks of electricity. Cade saw their awareness of each other in the way their eyes sparkled with lust amidst the violent swirls of snowflakes. The storm was picking up intensity. Somewhere, far off in the distance, the wind roared. Once it hit them, it would be a damned cold night.
Unless…
He shook away the visions of naked feminine skin and concentrated on remaining professional.
“I can see SKULL wants Red dead,” Cade said. He may as well let Red in on what was happening. That Blade was an assassin. Here to kill her.
Reena’s sharp inhalation and Blade’s eyes narrowing in anger encouraged Cade to continue. If there was something between these two, an erotic connection or whatever the hell it was, he’d squash it right now. No woman would want a man who had been sent to kill her.
“It beats what you seem intent on doing to her. Taking her back to them alive. They’ll torture her until they get the information they want. And they will succeed. You should know that more than anyone, especially with your background.”
Cade grimaced at the taunt about his past. He wasn’t proud of what he’d done during the Wars, but his acts had been a necessary evil. He’d extracted plenty of good intelligence to help fight the terrorists.
“Besides,” Blade said. “My way will save her a whole lot of unnecessary pain. Unless she’s into pain,” he whispered.
“You…you’ve been sent to kill me?” she asked, but the hostility and anger Cade wanted to see didn’t accumulate in her eyes. She seemed stunned and maybe even a bit fascinated at having Blade here.
Blade nodded and she frowned in disappointment. Yes, something was going on between them. Hell, what had she expected with Blade showing up? That she would free him and then her and Blade could have a frolicking good time in the snowstorm? Streaks of jealousy and anger slammed through him like battering rams.
“Okay, so you two know each other. Maybe you should let me in on how well?” Cade snapped as he kept the rifle on Blade and tossed a piece of driftwood onto the fire. He wasn’t worried about the sparks showering into the swirl of snow. The group of hunters Blade suggested were out there wouldn’t see anything through the storm.
