Page 51 of Witness Security Breach

The dread inside her shot to a higher pitch and her muscles turned to gelatin. Charlie sank down on the bed, trying to piece together what had started it all, how everything had spun out of her control. Her only answer—the kiss they’d shared earlier.

They’d opened Pandora’s box back in the car when their lips had locked, and they’d tasted the passion burning between them.

A sudden realization struck her with such blunt force that it stole her breath. She was in love with Aiden. Not as a sister loved a brother, but as a woman loved a man.

And he was in love with her.

She’d been kidding herself all along that she could control this. What a fool she’d been.

Maybe she should tell him the truth. Why they couldn’t be together. The real reason they’d never work.

A hurricane of conflicting emotions rioted inside her, making her eyes sting.

He’d stirred up a longing for something she couldn’t have, to be someone that she couldn’t—a mother...to be his in every sense of the word.

Her eyes watered, tears burning. She burned...ached for him. For the impossible.

Aiden threw open the bathroom door. He was dressed as he stomped out, not casting a single glance at her. “I need some air. I can’t breathe.”

Before she could utter a word, he was gone.

Chapter Twelve

His hands in fists at his sides, Aiden stormed out of the hotel as desire pounded through him. His straining erection was painful, and his head was a mess.

He was a complete wreck and Charlie was what he needed to fix it. She was like a drug, a habit he couldn’t kick no matter the side effects or warnings or devastation.

Sleeping with her would’ve only made the addiction worse.

Aiden knew this and still he wanted her. Needed her. He was a lost man.

His lungs heaved with a foreign anger. Stalking down the street, he was furious. At himself. Not at her. It wasn’t her fault any more than it was heroin’s or meth’s for a person needing that fix, again and again.

He never should’ve put her in that position back in the hotel room. Never should’ve thrown the job offer in her face that way.

It wasn’t like him to be cruel. Even if she had been cruel first.

You’re my brother. Maybe you should think of me as a sister.

A stab speared through his chest as he recalled her words. Her lies. It made him sick to his stomach.

He punched the air and swore under his breath, his mind, his body, every inch of him humming with the memory of kissing her, stroking her hot wetness between her thighs. How good she’d felt, how receptive she’d been, turned on by him so quickly. How much he’d wanted to slip inside her and bury himself in her heart.

Madness whirled around in his head, a firestorm of pent-up sexual frustration consuming him. He was disgusted with himself for how he’d spoken to her. Touched her. A part of him felt as if he’d violated their friendship. The other part felt like he hadn’t gone far enough.

What was wrong with him?

Aiden scrubbed his hand over his face. The musky scent of Charlie filled his nostrils, inflamed his blood. Stoked the madness swelling in his skull.

He should’ve washed his stupid hands, but he’d been fired up and in such a rush to get out of the hotel room that it was a miracle he’d taken the time to get dressed.

Desperate to shake himself free of this misery, he needed to focus on the trouble they were in, on finding a solution out of it. On anything except the always present chemistry between them. Chemistry that’d sparked the day they met.

A fresh clutch of pain tightened in his chest.

Stopping, he found himself standing in front of another hotel. He went inside and used the bathroom off the lobby, soaping up his hands twice and scrubbing them clean.

He threw away the paper towels and rubbed the outline of the flash drive in his pocket. They had no clue exactly what was on it. Finding out might give him some idea what their next step should be.