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“Were you?”
Her jaw flexed, as if she were clenching her teeth. “My appearance, my sex and my physical condition are irrelevant. I am an officer in the United States Army. I am not a spy.”
“You’re not regular Army, you’re Delta Force. From what I’ve heard, you’re all trained in unconventional warfare. Your stealth and secrecy are legendary. You don’t play by the rules.”
“Sir—”
“In addition, you’ve admitted you’re an intelligence specialist. You’re trained to gather information.”
“Call my C.O.,” she said. “Major Redinger will confirm my orders. I am here to protect you.”
“But that’s the problem. Would he be telling me the truth, or only confirming the cover story you agreed on?”
The color in her cheeks deepened. Her knuckles whitened as she balled her hands into fists. “I didn’t risk my life by running through four lanes of traffic for the sake of a cover story, Dr. Lemay. And I didn’t knock you to the ground and add another bruise to my shoulder for show.”
Her struggle to control her temper was so obvious, Hawk found he wanted to discard his logic and believe her. “There’s another possibility. Perhaps you aren’t yet aware of the true nature of your mission.”
“I saved your life today, sir. That should be enough truth for both of us.”
“Who wants to kill me?”
“We don’t yet know.”
“What evidence do you have the threat is real?”
“I can’t give you details, but Delta’s intelligence-gathering network is extensive. Our informants let us know when Americans abroad are in jeopardy.”
“In other words, you have no hard proof, do you?”
“The only way I can prove beyond a doubt that I’m right is to let you be killed.” She reached behind her for her gun, glared at him for an instant, then turned and ran lightly to the door.
Someone was knocking, Hawk realized belatedly. He’d been so focused on this woman he hadn’t even noticed.
She pressed herself to the wall beside the door and called out in Swedish. A male voice replied. She took a long look through the peephole before opening the door as far as the security chain would allow. After a brief conversation, she replaced her gun at the small of her back, unhooked the chain and swung the door wide.
A thin blond teenager in the hotel’s blue-and-gold bellhop uniform wheeled a folding cot over the threshold. He smiled shyly at the captain, pocketed the tip she gave him and left.
Silence descended on the suite. Hawk looked from the cot to the black-clad woman who stood by the door. The flush in her cheeks slowly subsided. Her breathing steadied. She walked around the cot, inspecting it as carefully as she’d inspected everything else in the suite. By the time she had finished, she appeared to have her temper under control once again.
Hawk wondered whether she ever allowed herself to lose control completely. Then he found himself wondering what it would be like if she did.
She returned to where he stood, clasped her hands behind her back and braced her feet shoulder-width apart military fashion. She focused on a point somewhere behind him. “I will endeavor not to let your doubts about my honor or my integrity interfere with my duty, Dr. Lemay.”
Hawk raked his hands through his hair. She had turned his argument around. He tried to tell himself his skepticism about the death threat business had a logical basis, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like a jerk. “I didn’t mean to question your honor, Captain Fox. I was questioning your orders.” But even as he said the words, they sounded lame. “I apologize.”
“No apology is necessary, sir. Regardless of what you believe, I intend to perform my duty until I am officially relieved.”
“Captain—”
“This is nothing personal. If you object to the presence of a woman in your suite, I will station myself in the corridor outside your door.”
He’d been wrong. Her control wasn’t as total as he’d thought. Her pulse beat rapidly against the side of her neck. Her pupils had contracted to reveal flashes of gold in her green eyes. The elusive spice of her perfume mixed with the scent of hot skin.
Yet she’d been wrong, too. What was happening between them was definitely personal. It had been from the moment she had been willing to offer her life in order to save his.
Or had she?
He should send her away. Put an end to this charade here and now.
But what if he was wrong?
The question still couldn’t be answered with any certainty. And if he did send her away, what avenue would the government try next? Wouldn’t it be wiser to keep Captain Sarah Fox close until he learned what was really going on?
Hawk hated lies. His entire purpose as a scientist was to seek truth. So, not for one second did he believe the lie he’d just tried to tell himself.
His real reason for not sending this woman away had nothing to do with his work or his principles or whatever conspiracy might be playing out here. It was far more basic than that.
He didn’t want her to leave. Right now what he really wanted was to lean over and place his lips on that delicate, vulnerable spot where her pulse beat at the side of her neck and draw her taste into his mouth the same way he was drawing her scent into his lungs. He wanted to slip his arms around her rigidly held body and press her close until she softened against him, until he saw pleasure instead of pain from his touch, until he discovered what other passions she keep reined beneath her impressive control…
“Dr. Lemay?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets and straightened up. “You can stay.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“And I’d prefer it if you call me Hawk.”
“Sir?”
“Because I intend to call you Sarah.”
Her bare sole brushed lightly across the carpet as Sarah slid her left foot back and made a quarter turn. She shifted her weight, bringing her right arm forward in a smooth arc. She concentrated on her breathing, trying to focus her energy on the ritual slow-motion movements of tai chi. She often used the exercises to relieve stress, but so far she was finding no ease for the tautness in her muscles.
She had thought Hawkins Lemay was gallant. A gentle intellectual. A man of high principles. She had been impressed by the accomplishments she’d discovered when she’d studied his background. She had been determined to keep him safe, not only because she’d been ordered to but because she had honestly admired him.
Yes, she’d admired him. Who wouldn’t?
She hadn’t guessed that within a few hours of meeting him she would want to do him bodily harm herself.
How dare he question her integrity? If she hadn’t been on duty, if he hadn’t been the subject of her mission, if she hadn’t had the concept of personal honor drummed into her from the time she’d learned to talk, she would have…
What? Hauled back and slugged him?
That would have been dangerous. Not because he might strike back. He wouldn’t. She had recognized the way he’d been looking at her, and it hadn’t been violence that had been on his mind. Or hers, either, if she wanted to be truthful with herself. A large source of the tension that had sparked between them had been from something else entirely.
It had been sex.
Sarah wasn’t naive, nor was she a prude. During the course of her missions with Major Redinger’s team from Eagle Squadron, she regularly worked