LITMIR.BIZ

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said you needed me,” she reminded him.

      “Gabby, just don’t tempt me, all right?”

      “Do what?” she asked blankly, looking up at him with dazed eyes.

      “Damn!” he growled and then sighed. “Gabby, what I’m trying to say is, let’s not get emotional.”

      “You’re the one who’s cursing, counselor, not me,” she reminded him coldly. “And I didn’t start kissing you!”

      “You helped,” he reminded her, his eyes narrow. “You’d be a joy to initiate.”

      “I am not sleeping with you!”

      His knuckles brushed her mouth, silencing her. “I was teasing. I won’t do anything to you that you’ll regret, Gabby, that’s a promise. No sex.”

      She swallowed. “You scare me.”

      “Why?”

      “Because of the way you make me feel,” she confessed. “I didn’t expect it.”

      “Neither did I. You’re a heady wine, honey. One I don’t dare drink much of.” He lifted his hand to her hair. “You could be habit-forming to a man like me, who’s been alone too long.”

      “Maybe I’d better resign when we get back…” she began, shaken as much by what she was feeling as by what he was telling her.

      “No!” he said curtly. His fingers caught the nape of her neck and held on. “No. This is all just a moment out of time, Gabby. It’s no reason to start getting panicky. Besides,” he added heavily, “there’s still Martina. And God only knows how this will turn out.”

      She went icy cold. “Jacob, please don’t go with the others.”

      “I have to,” he said simply.

      “You could get killed,” she said.

      He nodded. “That could happen. But Martina is all I have in the world, the only person I’ve ever loved. I can’t turn my back on her, not now. I could never call myself a man again.”

      What could she say to that? He touched her cheek lightly and left her alone in the room. She watched the door close with a sense of utter disaster. It didn’t help that she was beginning to understand why she trembled so violently at his touch.

      J.D. had always disturbed her, from the very first. But she’d assumed that it was because of the kind of man he was. Now, she didn’t know. Just looking at him made her ache. And he’d kissed her…how he’d kissed her! As if he were hungry for her, for her alone.

      She shook herself. Probably he just needed a woman and she was handy. He’d said not to get herself involved, and she wasn’t going to. Just because she was all excited at the prospect of being part of a covert operation, that was no reason to go overboard for J.D.

      She wondered at the way he’d reacted when she’d asked if he had been one of the group before. Didn’t he remember that he’d told her he’d served in the Special Forces?

      It was fifteen minutes before she rejoined the men, wearing jeans and a loose pullover top and boots. J.D. studied her long and hard, his eyes clearly approving the modest gear.

      She stared back at him. He seemed like a different man, sitting there in jungle fatigues and holding some small weapon in his big hands.

      “The Uzi,” he told her when she approached and stared at the miniature machine gun curiously.

      “And what’s that?” she asked, nodding toward a nasty-looking oversize rifle with a long torpedo-like thing on a stick near it.

      “An RPG rocket launcher.”

      “Is that Gabby?” a short black man asked, grinning at her.

      “That’s Gabby.” J.D. chuckled. “Honey, this is Drago, one of the best explosives men this side of nuclear war. And over in the corner, being antisocial, is Apollo. He’s the scrounger. What we need, he gets.”

      She nodded toward the corner, where a second black man stood. That one was tall and slender, whereas Drago was chunky.

      “Hey, Gabby,” Apollo said without looking up.

      “Does everybody know my name?” she burst out, exasperated.

      “Afraid so,” First Shirt volunteered, laughing. “Didn’t you know Archer was a blabbermouth?”

      She stared at her boss. “Well, I sure do now,” she exclaimed.

      “Come here, Gabby, and let me show you how to work the radio,” Laremos offered, starting to rise.

      “My job,” J.D. said in a tone of voice that made Laremos sit back down.

      “But of course.” Laremos grinned, not offended at all.

      Gabby followed the big man out of the room to the communications room, where Laremos had a computer and several radios.

      “J.D….” she began.

      He closed the door and glared down at her. “He hurt a woman once. Badly. Can you read between the lines, or are you naïve enough that I have to spell it out in words of one syllable?”

      She drew in a steadying breath. “I’m sorry, J.D. You’ll just have to make allowances for my stupidity. I’m a small-town Texas girl. Where I come from, men are different.”

      “Yes, I know. You aren’t used to this kind of group.”

      She looked up. “No. But they seem to be nice people. J.D., it just dawned on me that you must trust me a lot to bring me here,” she murmured.

      “There isn’t anyone I trust more,” he said in a deep, rough tone. “Didn’t you know?”

      He stared into her eyes until she felt the trembling come back, and something wild darkened his own before he turned away and got it under control.

      “We’d better get to it,” he said tautly. “And when we go back out there, for God’s sake, don’t say or do anything to encourage Laremos, you understand? He’s a friend of mine, but I’d kill him in a second if he touched you.”

      The violence in him made her eyes widen with shock. He glanced at her, his face hard, and she knew she was seeing the man without the mask for the first time. He looked as ruthless as any one of those men in the other room and she realized with a start that he was.

      “I’m territorial,” he said gruffly. “What I have, I hold, and for the duration of this trip, you belong to me. Enough said?”

      “Enough said, Jacob,” she replied, her voice unconsciously soft.

      His face tautened. “I’d like to hear you say my name in bed, Gabby,” he breathed, moving close. “I’d like to hear you scream it…”

      “Jacob!” she gasped as he bent and took her mouth.

      She moaned helplessly as he folded her into his tall, powerful form, letting her feel for the first time the involuntary rigidity of his body in desire.

      He lifted his lips from hers and looked into her wide eyes, and he nodded. “Yes, it happens to me just as it happens to other men,” he said in a rough tone. “Are you shocked? Haven’t you ever been this close to a hungry man?”

      “No, Jacob, I haven’t,” she managed unsteadily.

      That seemed to calm him a little, but his eyes were still stormy. He let her move away, just enough to satisfy her modesty.

      “Are you frightened?” he asked.

      “You’re very strong,” she said, searching his face. “I know you wouldn’t force me, but what if…?”

      “I’ve had a lot of practice at curbing my appetites, Gabby,” he murmured. He brushed the hair away from her cheeks. “I won’t

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