by Paige Tyler
Hanging out with his partner certainly wasn’t a problem. They’d been working like a well-oiled machine ever since that hostage rescue in Mexico City a few weeks earlier. Any time he spent alone with Danica was in the category of quality time as far as he was concerned. The problem was that it was the middle of winter in upstate New York, and only place the DCO could find that had a view of the Chinese diplomat’s house was a fancy home in foreclosure across the street. They had no lights, no power, and no heat.
If they’d been stuck there only a day or two, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but a whole week? It was shitty, even for Clayne, and the cold weather didn’t bother him. They had food and water, as well as plenty of blankets and cold-weather gear. But you could only pile on so much clothing. Danica looked like she was about to turn blue. And it was supposed to get colder tonight than it had since they’d holed up there.
Clayne peered through the nightscope at the house across the street again. The place was completely dark inside. “This is stupid,” he muttered. “No one’s coming tonight. And even if someone does, I can handle it. Go back to the hotel where it’s warm. You’re going to freeze to death if you spend another night out here.”
He looked at Danica—or what he could see of her. She was sitting on their sleeping bags buried under a pile of blankets, shivering.
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
Right. Her teeth were freaking chattering.
He swore under his breath. Danica was just being stubborn now. But there wasn’t much he could do about it. He wasn’t going to drag her out of the house against her will, and he couldn’t find another blanket or scrap of clothing to pile on her. Hell, he’d already given her his coat.
With a growl, he got to his feet and went over to her. Dropping to one knee, he yanked off the blankets, leaving her exposed to the subfreezing temperature in the room.
Danica clutched at it like her life depended on it. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to keep you from freezing to death.”
“By taking all the stuff that’s keeping me warm?”
Clayne sat down behind her and rearranged the blankets around both of them. “By doing this.”
Danica hugged herself. “I think this kind of thing only works in the movies.”
He pulled her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her. “Stop talking and keep your eyes on the house next door. You’re the one who wanted to stay here, so you watch for a while.”
Danica might be slender, but she wasn’t petite compared to most women. She fit nicely between his legs all the same, and he pulled his knees up so she was completely enveloped in his body heat. She muttered something under her breath again about this never going to work, but he noticed she stopped shivering. He opened his mouth to point it out to her, but had to clamp it shut to avoid letting out a groan as she wiggled against him. His cock took notice despite the room’s arctic chill.
“Why didn’t you volunteer to do this four days ago?” she asked as she grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders like a shawl. “You’re like a freaking muscle-bound electric blanket.”
Why the hell hadn’t he thought of it four days ago? “I didn’t think you’d appreciate it as much then as you do now.”
That was probably true. Just because they’d gotten a little hot and heavy in Mexico didn’t mean she wanted him putting his paws on her. He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to understanding women, but he knew that.
“Shows what you know,” she muttered.
He chuckled. Okay, so maybe he didn’t know anything about women.
She looked over her shoulder at him. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I was just imagining you trying to shoot me if I had tried this on Tuesday.”
She considered that, but then she nodded. The movement made her hair brush against his jaw. It felt nice. And smelled seriously delicious. “Maybe you’re right about that.”
Clayne shifted slightly, easing his increasingly hardening cock away from her perfect ass. He’d finally found a partner he clicked with. He wasn’t going to mess it up by letting his mind—and other parts of his anatomy—wander where it shouldn’t.
But it was tough. Sitting with her like this, he couldn’t help but notice Danica had all kinds of curves in all kinds of places he hadn’t really noticed before. Okay, that wasn’t true. He had noticed. But a man noticed curves in a whole new light when they were pressed up against him. Especially when Danica wiggled around and pushed those curves back even more in search of the warmest spot to snuggle into.
He closed his eyes and bit back another groan. When she did that, it was hard not to think about what had happened between them in Mexico City. Sure, the kiss had only been a ploy to keep their cover intact, but it had also been hot, especially when she’d started kissing him back. It’d damn near been enough to make him forget about the two innocent maids or that the next people who came out very well could have been the drug lord’s goons. It hadn’t been his fault. He was a man, after all. And Danica was the type of woman who could bring him to his knees if she wanted to.
His dick stiffened to new and painful proportions at that. He quickly turned his attention to the house across the street. Maybe keeping his mind occupied would make him stop thinking about the very warm, very soft body he was cuddling up with. This close together, Danica was going to notice that he had a hard-on.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.
Clayne tipped his head to one side to look at her face. Her cheek was resting against his forearm. It was the first time he realized her complexion was so much lighter than his, almost creamy in comparison to his naturally tanned skin.
“About what?”
“I should have told you earlier that I was having an issue with the cold,” she said. “I was being stupid and stubborn. If the contact had shown up, I probably would have been too cold to be of much use to you.”
Clayne doubted it. “I don’t know about that. You feeling better now?”
He felt pretty damn good, that was for sure. He especially liked the part where his arm draped across her soft breasts. Which, now that he thought about it, was a dangerous place for his arm to be. He tried to relocate it to a safer spot, but she wasn’t having any of it. If anything, she pulled him even tighter.
“Much better,” she said in answer to his question. “I wish I knew your body was this warm before. I would have cuddled up with you every night.” She stiffened suddenly, as if realizing what she’d just said. “Um, that didn’t quite come out the way I intended it. I just meant…”
“Forget about it,” he said softly. “I know what you meant. It’s completely understandable that you’d want to cuddle up with me. I’m pretty irresistible.”
Danica laughed, relaxing against him again. “Yeah, right. You’re just a big, strong guy with a soft, gooey center.”
His mouth twitched. “Exactly.”
“Then tell me something. If you’re so soft and gooey, why is there something hard poking me in the butt?”
It would have been Clayne’s turn to stiffen, but he wasn’t sure he could get any harder without exploding. But hell, it’d been a long time since he’d been this close to a woman this beautiful and sexy. Check that. He’d never been this close to a woman this beautiful and sexy—ever.
“Um…sorry.”
He was so embarrassed he could barely get the word out. He would have backed away some, but Danica still had a firm grip on his arm and didn’t seem inclined to let him go.
“Forget about it.” She tilted her head to look at him, her dark eyes half hidden beneath her lashes. “It’s completely understandable that cuddling up with me would do that to you. I’m pretty irresistible.”
When she said it, the words weren’t nearly as outrageous as when he’d said them because they were true. She was damn hard to resist. Especially the way she was looking at him right now. It was all he could do not to cup her chin in his han
d and taste that mouth of hers again. The thought only got him more turned on and he swore.
Shit.
She’d said that to make light of the whole thing so he wouldn’t feel more uncomfortable than he was, not because she was trying to come on to him.
As the silence stretched on, he fumbled for something to say that wouldn’t make him sound like an idiot. Or like he was trying to get in her pants. While he’d never been any good with words, he’d never been shy around women. But this was different. He had no idea what the hell was happening between them or where this was going. If it was going anywhere. But if it did go somewhere, he was damn sure going to enjoy the ride.
“You’re right,” he agreed. “About being irresistible, I mean.”
Danica smiled up at him and wiggled closer. “Good answer.”
Clayne inhaled sharply. Was she trying to kill him? If she thought there’d been something hard poking her in the ass before, she was about to get a big surprise now. He was like a freaking fence post.
God, this was torture. It was one thing to look at a woman’s ass and imagine how firm and delicious it would feel. It was a completely different thing to have that ass in your lap, moving around in the most tempting way. He had to put some distance between them before he lost his mind.
He pulled his arm from around her shoulders so he could get a good grip on her hips, but once he had a hold on her, he hesitated. He’d intended to lift her off his lap, but what he really wanted to do was yank her down even harder. Preferably while he buried himself inside her.
Danica turned to look at him over her shoulder again. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I just, um, thought you might still be cold.”
Which explained why he was holding on to her hips like this. What was he going to do next—ask what she thought about the weather they were having this time of year?
She gave him a sexy smile. “I’m not cold at all.”
He could attest to that. And his body’s response to the scorching heat she was putting off was immediate and all consuming. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, this is where the two of them had been heading for weeks now. From the moment he’d kissed her in Mexico City, he had wanted it to go here. Hoped it would go here. Prayed it would go here.
Clayne gazed into Danica’s big, dark eyes, knowing he had a decision to make. If he let this go where he thought it was heading, things between them would never be the same. If he didn’t, he knew he’d miss a chance at something his gut told him only came along once in a lifetime.
It wasn’t an easy choice. If he went down this path, he’d be risking their partnership. Was he willing to give up what he had for what was behind door number two?
He tightened his hold on her hips and lifted her off his lap, but instead of setting her down on the sleeping bags like he should have, he spun her around and settled her back down on his lap so that she was facing him. Then he reached down and pulled the blanket around her shoulders again.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m much warmer now.”
He leaned closer, letting her sweet scent fill him. It was exhilarating. Like HALO jumping from twenty-five thousand feet. But even the high-altitude-low-opening jump wasn’t this much of a rush.
“Let’s make sure you stay that way.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” she whispered.
He’d been wrong. She was coming on to him.
The small gap between them closed by mutual consent, then Clayne’s mouth was on hers. Danica sighed, the sound soft and sexy, and a growl vibrated deep in his throat before he could stop it. Another woman might be frightened by the animal lurking beneath the surface, but not Danica. She was the one woman he didn’t have to hide the wolf from.
He deepened the kiss, his tongue going in search of hers. He slid his hands up her sides to cup her breasts, lingering there a moment before reaching for the zipper of her coat. He’d intended to unzip it slowly, but he was too impatient for that. He yanked. Metal flew. Cloth tore.
Danica pulled back, her eyes wide with shock.
Shit. He’d blown it. Damn his animal side.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t mean to—”
She pressed a finger to his lips, silencing him. “Don’t be sorry. You surprised me, that’s all.”
He caught her hand, gently pulling it away. “Danica, are you sure about this? Really sure?”
When he had sex with a woman, he’d always been careful to keep the wolf in check, but he wasn’t certain he could do that with Danica. There was something about her that made him think he might very well lose control.
She leaned forward to kiss him long and slow on the mouth before trailing her lips across his jaw to whisper in his ear.
“I’m absolutely sure.”
* * *
“You still like chili on your burger, right?” Danica asked from the front seat.
Clayne nodded, not sure what he’d just agreed to. But then he looked around and realized they were sitting at the drive-through window of the fast-food restaurant. He was still trying to reposition the painful hard-on in his jeans when Danica handed him two chili-smothered cheeseburgers, onion rings, and a Coke. He hoped she didn’t notice the tent he was pitching.
Apparently she hadn’t, because she turned around without a word and settled back in her seat as Tony pulled away from the window and parked in the first available space.
Clayne covered up the evidence of his excitement with the wrapper from the first burger. He was still so lost in the pleasant—and painful—memory of making love to Danica for the first time that he barely tasted the food. They’d lain in that pile of blankets and sleeping bags the whole night and most of the next day, making love like they needed it to survive. The contact who was supposed to meet the Chinese diplomat never showed, and he and Danica couldn’t have cared less. Once they’d gotten past the thing that had been holding them back, it was like a dam bursting. They hadn’t been able to get enough of each other.
For Clayne, it had been… Well, a moving experience was probably the best way to put it. He’d felt things that night he’d never felt before. He’d had sex with other women—okay, plenty of other women—before her, but what’d happened that night with Danica made all the others nothing more than a vague and distant memory.
Which was why before they had left that cold, dark, beautiful stakeout location, Clayne had opened up and shared things with Danica that he hadn’t told anyone. Not John, not Dick—nobody. And she had listened to him talk, never once unsettled about the things he told her and the life he’d led, about the man he used to be. She’d held his soul in the palm of her hand, and he knew without a doubt he’d found the thing that had been missing from his life.
Clayne shoved a few more onion rings in his mouth and chewed them along with a big bite of burger. In the front seat, Tony was saying his wife would kill him if she knew he was eating this stuff. Clayne sipped his Coke as he watched Danica eat. Damn, she even made eating a cheeseburger a sensual experience.
He shook his head and focused on his own meal. That night had been the first of many nights—and days—that convinced him that he and Danica would be together forever. But that wasn’t the way it had worked out. Danica had dumped him. Not simply dumped him, but just about cut his heart out and fed it to him.
That’s what a man like him got for being stupid enough to think soul mates really existed.
He’d lain awake countless nights since she’d walked out, wondering what he’d done to mess things up with her and drive her away. If he asked her now, would she tell him? Probably not. What would be the point anyway? He and Danica couldn’t pick up where they left off and expect everything to go back to the way it’d been.
* * *
After eating, they talked to a few more people on their list—or tried to anyway—then did as Carhart had ordered and picked up yet another suspect. This time it was a guy who’d been arrested a few years earlier for hunting deer out
of season up in the mountains. Danica guessed that qualified him as an extreme hunter or something, but it seemed like a big leap from there to being a serial killer. They brought him in for questioning anyway, even though it was a complete waste of time.
Thankfully, there weren’t any more suspects left to pick up by the time they got back to the field office. After dropping off their guy, they headed to the main conference room to see if anyone was around. If they were lucky, someone on the task force had learned something that might be useful. If not, they’d probably be pulling another all-nighter poring over the files, looking for anything they might have missed. Beyond waiting for the killer to strike again, there wasn’t much else to do.
She glanced over her shoulder at Clayne. He hadn’t said more than two words since they’d stopped to get something to eat, but she knew he was frustrated. She was frustrated, too. But she couldn’t let it show. She might not work for the DCO anymore, but she still considered it her responsibility to keep Clayne calm and focused on the case. It was the only way they were going to catch this killer.
Unfortunately, Clayne’d never dealt well with obstacles. When he got exasperated, he usually ended up punching someone. Her ability to keep those violent tendencies in check—until it was the right time to release them—was one of the things that had made them such a good team. In fact, John had told her that was the main reason he’d recruited her. She never figured out how the DCO had known they’d work so well together, but they’d been right. She and Clayne had developed an almost instinctive understanding for how the other person operated. He recognized her need to plan and think everything out, and she respected his need to kick down doors rather than knock on them.
It wasn’t surprising Clayne had developed his attack-first-and-ask-questions-later approach to solving problems. He’d had a rough life before the DCO recruited him. Clayne had been abandoned by his mother when he was five. She’d taken him into a church and just left him there. Clayne had never had much use for churches after that—or mothers. As someone who’d grown up with loving parents and three protective older brothers in the suburbs, Danica couldn’t even begin to understand what he’d gone through living in foster care, shuffled from one place to the next.