Live Wire

chapter 1

Nine months later

Alpine, Texas


“She’s been located. Hagerstown, Maryland, identity Teylor Johnson, age thirty. Current owner, Landscape Dreams. Someone’s tracked her and a team’s been sent to the area.”

Jordan stared at the horizon while the sun set behind the family cemetery as Travis “Black Jack” Caine finished the unexpected report.

Jordan could feel a sensation akin to a fist in the pit of his stomach as instinct warned him more was coming. Behind him, he could feel his nephew Rory’s gaze suddenly trained on him, sharp, suspicious.

“Who?” Who did he need to kill to protect her?

A heavy breath of frustration came over the line. “Ira Arthurs and Mark Tenneyson, former Sorrel associates. They received a message Sorrel’s daughter did not die in that explosion in Afghanistan. No word yet on origination of the message. She was identified as Tehya Fitzhugh, daughter to Joseph Fitzhugh, formerly known as Sorrel. A team is being dispatched from France tonight to verify the information, and her location.”

“What tipped them off?”

“I can’t get that information,” the former agent answered. “All I have is someone sent the message from the U.S. An interested party aware of the interest in the truth of her death and-or her location. And supposedly neither can the two men sent to check the report that the explosion was a setup. I have men trying to track the origination of the message, but they’re not certain it can be done.”

The explosion the Elite Ops had set up had been staged to appear as though Tehya Fitzhugh had been eliminated by several of her father’s associates, who were dead now as well.

“Did you verify her location?” Jordan finally asked as the sun dipped farther behind the marble gravestone that marked his mother’s grave.

“The location is correct,” Travis reported. “I checked it out myself. She’s there, living quietly, making no waves. She bought a small landscaping design and construction company just after arriving there. The report I have says a team is being prepped to head out tonight to verify as well as acquire her for an ‘interested party.’ Details are sketchy, but there’s no doubt she’s at risk.”

“Why?” Jordan bit out. “Sorrel’s dead and his organization disbanded. Why the f*ck does anyone care?”

“More information I can’t uncover,” Travis informed him with a frustrated bite to his tone. “I’ve been working on this twenty-four hours straight, and I can’t find out anything more from any of my sources. I’ve tried contacting her, but her phone goes straight to voice mail and she doesn’t return the calls. I tried tracking the sat phone, but for some reason it’s not turning up a location and she doesn’t have a landline or another cell phone in operation that I’ve been able to discover. Do you want Bailey and me to head to Hagerstown ourselves?”

Jordan wiped his hand over his face slowly. “I have a team,” he finally told him. “I want to get out there first and access, but contact Heat Seeker and the others. You’re on call. If her identity is in question, then we could be up the creek here.”

It was more than their asses going into the fire, though. It was Tehya. He’d promised her the fear of the past was over, and that no one would know who she was, or where she was.

“That was my thought as well,” Travis answered. “I’ll put the call out.”

Jordan disconnected before turning slowly and staring at the nephew that had somehow grown harder over the years. Rory, named for Jordan’s father, Riordan Malone Sr. At thirty-two Rory had finally grown into himself. His body had matured, his blue eyes hardened, his face acquired strong, lean lines. Hell, he was almost a replica of Noah before the reconstruction to his face.

He’d been working with the Elite Ops backup team in conjunction with a group of army Rangers whose commander Jordan had worked with several times.

Ethan Cooper and his team of Rangers had been deemed unfit for service because of various physical injuries. They were a highly fit fighting force, though, and often worked as “assets” to various agencies until Jordan had picked them up to work with the Elite Ops backup team.

Rory had somehow managed to insert himself into that team, despite Jordan’s objections.

Rory straightened from his position against the post, his blue eyes narrowed as he glanced around, nearly causing Jordan to smile.

They all did that. Him, Rory, and Noah Blake. They were checking to be certain their grandpop was nowhere close, listening.

“He’s at Dad’s,” Jordan informed his nephew.

Rory’s lips quirked for a second before his expression once more became all business. “They found Tey?”

Jordan gave a short nod. “I need to follow up with a few sources before I go to her. I want you to contact Turk and the two of you meet up in Hagerstown asap. I’ll have Travis forward the information to you. Watch her, nothing else. Don’t take your eyes off her, Rory. If she’s taken, then just follow until the team can get there. You’re my only link to her if her father’s enemies snatch her before I can get there.”

“I’m calling in Iron and Casy,” Rory decided. “They can back us up if needed. Two men on this may not be enough. I want two sets of eyes at all times and we can relieve each other that way.”

Damn, Rory was turning into a hell of a covert operative for a team of men who weren’t even supposed to be in service any longer.

“Head out.” Jordan gave him a sharp nod as he mentally began going over the checklist of preparations needed. “I’ll call this evening with an update on my arrival. I should be only hours behind you.” He paused, and almost grimaced before his lips parted with words he had no idea how to speak. He couldn’t find the words to tell Rory how important this was.

His lips clamped shut again.

“No fears, Jordan.” Rory took pity on him. “I understand. She’s like Sabella, right? Priority.”

That was what Sabella had been when word had come through that her first husband, Nathan Malone, was dead. Jordan had known better, but he couldn’t tell Rory that at the time. He’d simply told the boy that Sabella was priority. They were protecting her for Nathan, because that was where Nathan’s heart survived.

Jordan wasn’t going to look into the fact that Rory had picked up on something where Tehya was concerned. He sure as hell wasn’t going to search that mishmash of f*cking emotions he couldn’t seem to get a handle on in his own soul.

All he knew was that nothing could happen to Tehya. He hadn’t had a chance to figure out what he felt yet. He hadn’t had a chance to decide the pros and cons of a decision he knew he’d been making for the past nine months. He hadn’t had a chance to see her smile again, laugh again, or piss her off again. He hadn’t had the chance to make love to her again.

And he’d be damned if he’d allow anyone to take those chances from him.

Especially not a past that should have been dead and buried eight years before at the same time her father, Sorrel, had died.

Hagerstown, Maryland

The back of her neck was itching.

Tehya rubbed at her nape, her fingers pushing beneath the heavy fall of rich red-gold curls as they cascaded down her back. As she glanced around the narrow confines of Friendly’s Bar, her lips thinned in irritation.

Nine months away from the Elite Ops wasn’t nearly enough, it seemed. The paranoia that had been part of the life she had lived before Jordan had taken her into the group had returned now.

She had officially been free for nine months. It felt like yesterday.

“Your turn there, Tey.” Voice slurred, body weaving, the customer she was shooting pool with called her attention back to the game.

“Got it, Casey,” she murmured, the music from the jukebox covering her response as she sank the eight ball and shot him a teasing smile before snapping up the wager they had on the game.

“ ’Nother game,” Casey announced, glaring at the table as though it were the table’s fault rather than his own that he’d lost the small wager.

“Not tonight, Casey.” She gave a quick shake of her head as she glanced around the room once again. “Sober up first.”

She swore she could feel eyes watching her, someone stalking her. She’d felt that way for weeks now. No matter where she went or what she did, she had that feeling of impending danger stalking her.

There couldn’t be any danger, though. She was as careful, as cautious, here as she had been most of her life. She never caught anyone tailing her or managed to glimpse anyone tracking her. No one seemed unusually interested in her, and no one appeared to be lingering where they shouldn’t.

The security systems attached to her car as well as surrounding her home never caught anyone sitting in surveillance. No one attempted to break in, nor did they attempt to slip onto her property.

The back of her neck was still itching like hell, though. That primal survival instinct was in high gear, making her restless and ill at ease.

Crossing the small, empty dance floor, she headed back to the bar and ordered another beer as she laid several dollars on the scarred wood slab.

Kyle, the bartender, slid the cold bottle across the bar to her. Gripping it, she lifted it to her lips as she gave the area another quick glance.

There were few people in the bar at this time of night. All were regulars, all had been coming in far longer than she had, and all had passed the background check she had done on them. Well, except Casey. He’d shown up the night before, but her initial check on him hadn’t blipped her radar.

So why the hell was her neck itching?

“Tey, you need to get a life.” Journey Taite, one of the few young women there that night, grinned back at her from where she sat at one of the high tables against the wall. “It’s one o’clock on a Saturday morning, shouldn’t you be, like, sharing time with a lover or something at your advanced age?” There was a teasing snicker on the younger girl’s face, amusement gleaming in her green eyes.

It broke her heart every time she looked at the other girl, just as it had the day Teyha had hired her. Journey Taite, her second cousin. Tehya had come to Hagerstown to watch over her, never imagining she would have the chance to get to know her.

“At my advanced age?” Tehya’s brow arched as she fought back the regret that seared her because she could never reveal her identity to the other girl. “It’s called experience, young’un, and learning the value of sleeping alone.”

Journey lifted her beer with a light laugh, her gaze more open now than it had been the day she first came to work for the company just after Tehya had bought it.

“Hell, a man would take his life in his own hands sleeping with either one of you,” Casey grunted, his expression drunkenly amused. “I’d be scared.”

“Naw, Casey, you’d just be drunk. You’d never remember,” Journey teased as she pushed back the shoulder-length, ribbon-straight strands of sunlit red and gold hair. Both the red as well as the streaks of gold were natural, blending and mingling to a color that was unique to the Taite women. Tehya had darkened her own hair when she left the ops, simply because of that unusual trait.

The red of her hair was darker, the highlights less natural and applied in her bathroom.

It was attractive, close enough to a natural blend of sunlit and red-gold hues, but closer to a strawberry blond than that of Journey.

Tehya tipped her beer to the younger girl as she held back her laughter due to the little pout on Casey’s face.

He was her age, perhaps a few years older. He was cute, built like a damned tank but acting more like a gentle giant.

He was one of the newer customers at the bar and a recent employee at the lumberyard next door to the landscaping company Tehya had bought six months before.

He’d been coming in for the past few nights, since moving to the area from Florida. A former army Ranger, he’d been discharged for medical reasons, though it was hard to imagine the heavily muscled left arm had the pins and rods in it she knew it had. Her investigation of him had been perhaps more in-depth than others simply because of his military background.

“Wicked women,” Casey grunted as he rubbed at his cheek before sliding onto a barstool next to Journey. “Ya just wanna make a grown man cry is all.” Chocolate-brown eyes blinked back at her as he gave her a drunkenly charming rogue’s smile.

Tehya rolled her eyes and Journey nearly snorted the sip of beer she had taken as laughter choked her.

“And on that note, it’s time for me to say good night.” Tehya rose from the barstool, the sensation at her neck becoming a constant irritant.

Casey sighed lustily. “She’s desertin’ me, Journ. My heart’s abreakin’.”

“Your heart’s drowning in booze, Casey,” Journey accused him with a laugh. “Come on, I’ll cheat you at a game of pool before I head on home myself.”

Casey’s eyes widened in pleasure as he staggered to his feet.

“You’re on.” His grin was slightly lopsided as Tehya turned to leave, her gaze moving around the bar again, touching on faces, searching for anything, anyone, out of the ordinary, and finding nothing.

“Later, Teylor,” the bartender called out as she moved to the door, causing her to almost pause, to betray herself with her unfamiliarity with her own name, even after nine months.

Teylor. She still wasn’t used to the name. It wasn’t familiar, and it didn’t feel like her. But it was the name Jordan had picked out, the identity he had wanted her to have, so she had gone with it.

“Later.” Lifting her hand, she called out a farewell as she left by the back entrance, entering a small Laundromat before stepping out into the parking lot.

The parking area was small, barely large enough for a dozen vehicles. She didn’t dare park the Viper there, she was terrified a customer would leave a little too inebriated and swipe the expensive little car.

It was her pride and joy. The only thing she had that Jordan had seemed to care about. And all she had left to remember her time with him.

A damned car. How sad was that? Even sadder was the fact that having it gave her some small measure of comfort.

Loping across the street, she moved quickly to the shadowed area where she had parked the car as she held the large key she carried for safety between her fingers.

When she stepped to the curb she hit the ignition switch to the Viper remote. Lights came on, the motor revved. Rounding the back of the vehicle, she pressed the door locks and within seconds was sitting securely in the driver’s seat.

Before sliding the car into gear, she programmed the security device attached to the vehicle and waited for a notification of any potential devices that could have been attached to the undercarriage.

A tracker or explosives. Either would have been all she needed to tell her that itch at the back of her neck was right.

There was no notification. “System Clear.” The words flashed against the digital screen, assuring her the car was secure.

She had lived too long in the shadows, spent too many years hiding and worrying before Jordan had taken her into the Elite Ops. That had to be the reason for her growing paranoia now. She simply wasn’t used to any sense of freedom.

Accelerating out of the parking lot and pulling onto the street, Tehya tried to tell herself those years were just catching up on her. She didn’t know how to relax and live rather than fight and run. She simply didn’t know how to be free. Even driving home, the roads nearly deserted, and still, she was searching for shadows.

The drive back to her small house was quick, the lack of traffic on the streets assuring her she wasn’t followed. But her neck was still aching, her senses still on alert.

At any other time in the past, she would have left the area once this feeling hit. She would have packed up and run. Hell, this was the longest she had ever lived anywhere other than the suite at the Elite Ops base, anyway. She had lived there for six years. For a while, she had had something resembling a family and a home. She hadn’t realized how thin that resemblance had really been, though, until it was over.

Once the team had broken up there had been no contact. Everyone had gone their separate ways, and although she still had the secure satellite phone, the secure number she had been given, there hadn’t been a call. They had forgotten her.

Mocking amusement flitted through her mind. Had she really expected anything more? She was the daughter of the man who had ordered the torture of one of their own. Who had aided in the kidnapping of a young woman who had become the wife of one of their own. The man who had murdered the parents of one of their own.

There were days she had been amazed they had even allowed her to live. Of course, killing her own father might have contributed to the tolerance they had given her in the breathing area, but they hadn’t needed to allow her to become part of the team.

They had protected her. They had given her a secure life for the time she had been there. She had to admit, she hadn’t expected them to desert her once it was over, though. She had thought she would receive a call at least from Kira, perhaps Bailey. She hadn’t expected to be forgotten.

Running wasn’t an option, she realized. She had grown tired of running even before she had joined the Ops. She had finally put down roots, and until now, she hadn’t realized how deep, how firmly entrenched, those roots had grown until now. Until she had begun to sense danger and decided to try to face it rather than running.

As she pulled into the small driveway of her home, the garage door slid open, allowing her to drive smoothly inside. As the doors closed behind the car and the security display once again flashed the words “system clear,” Tehya turned off the ignition and set the parking brake.

There hadn’t been so much as a Girl Scout selling cookies at her door. Her neighbors didn’t visit often, but they did wave when they saw her. Sometimes, when she was cutting grass or pruning her flowers, they would stop to chat. Once, a nice young couple at the end of the lane had invited her to a party they had thrown. Tehya hadn’t gone to the party; instead, she had watched from a hidden, shadowed area at the edge of the yard, both amused at and envious of the innocent hilarity that had often erupted. On the outside looking in, she’d thought at the time

It had been everything she could do to hold herself back, to remain in those shadows. Past lessons were too ingrained, though: to stay hidden, to keep everyone at a distance, to protect those that an enemy might strike at if they couldn’t strike at her.

It was best not to have friends, but she had neighbors, and she enjoyed that. She saw the same people everyday and the routine was treasured.

The block she lived on was peaceful. It was quiet and serene. In the six months since she had moved into the house she thought she may have felt a part of her soul healing.

So what the hell had her senses on high alert?

Sliding from the car, she closed the door softly before moving to the entrance leading into the kitchen through a connecting door.

The security wired into the house had dim lighting flipping on as she opened the door. She hated coming into a dark house. She hated coming into an empty house.

Maybe it was time to get a cat. Or better yet, one of those little toy dogs she had always wanted. Because if this was paranoia, then she was going to end up driving herself insane.

Locking the door, she reset the security alarm before turning and staring around the open kitchen, dining, and living area of the neat little ranch she had bought.

Hell, she had bought a house. Teylor Johnson had a mortgage. She couldn’t run. She had a business, with employees and responsibilities. She didn’t want to run. She didn’t want to revisit the time in her life that had been a living hell.

She wanted to live for a change.

It had taken a while to decide the type of home she wanted, where she wanted to live. The minute she had seen this little house with its nice little enclosed patio, she had fallen in love with it.

She had come to Hagerstown because of Journey. Tehya had been keeping an eye on the young woman ever since she had come to Maryland from England to attend college. It was a Taite family tradition to send their sons and daughters to the best colleges in America for additional schooling before they married.

Tehya had watched, she had waited, knowing the girl would be arriving. Journey had arrived in Hagerstown from England just before the Ops had been disbanded, moving into the apartment her family had provided, and unlike other Taite daughters, she had immediately set out to find a part-time job. She’d never had a job, she’d told Tehya, when she applied for the opening after Tehya bought the company.

Journey was family. It was something Tehya had never had. Not that she had expected to ever have a relationship with Journey. She hadn’t so much as entertained the idea of seeking her out. It was Journey who had found her. She had applied for a job the week Tehya had taken the small landscaping company over and Tehya hadn’t been able to resist hiring her. She hadn’t been able to resist getting to know the girl, becoming friends with her, and worrying daily that the friendship could endanger the other girl. She had to admit, Journey was a damned good designer. She and Tehya often drew out the landscaping plans together before Tehya worked up the cost, then supervised the implementation

They made a hell of a team. Tehya hated the thought of losing Journey’s talent, as well as her friendship if her family learned she was working.

She gave a weary sigh. It hadn’t been just Journey that had drawn her here, though. One of the Ops former agents and his wife lived here. Others visited nearby D.C. often. Tehya had wondered if perhaps one of them would contact her. But they hadn’t called. No one had called, and she had too much pride to make the move to call them first.

Breathing out heavily, she moved across the ceramic tile of the kitchen floor, to the gleaming hardwood of the open living room and dining room. The warm colors never failed to welcome her, even on nights such as tonight when it seemed she would never be free of the fear that had followed her most of her life.

The warm autumn colors of the couch, sofa, and recliners went perfectly with the earth tones of the pillows and light throws draped over them. Colorful rugs were scattered over the floors and vibrant drapes pulled closed to ensure prying eyes couldn’t spy on her. It was her home, and losing it might kill her.

Tonight, she didn’t stop to watch television or grab another beer. She didn’t stop at the computer to check her e-mail. A quick glance to the telephone showed no messages or missed calls.

God, what a pitiful life she was living. In the six months she had lived there she hadn’t made many friends or acquired a lover, and every instinct she had was screaming at her to run, even as another, more vital part of her demanded she stay and fight. Tehya just wished she knew what she should be fighting.

Stepping into the bedroom, she began unbuttoning the white silk sleeveless blouse she had worn with the leather pants. Her mind was on a shower and ignoring the hard, almost panicked throbbing of her heart. It was racing so hard she could barely breathe as panic began to edge through her. The almost nightly attacks were beginning to fray her nerves.

She should have heeded the warning.

As she moved into the bedroom the lights suddenly went out, blinding her with darkness as the door slammed closed behind her.

Seconds. She had only seconds to escape, or reach the weapon on the other side of the room.

She was ducking and rolling as hard fingers glanced her shoulder obviously intent on restraining her. Kicking out in the direction the attack came, she was rewarded with a solid thump, but not a fallen body or a groan of pain. Dammit.

Rolling across the room, she came to a crouch, straining to see through the pitch-blackness of the room to catch a shadow of movement, the gleam of a weapon. She wasn’t close enough yet to the nightstand where her own weapon was hidden.

Cold determination replaced panic. There was no fear. She had stopped feeling true fear years ago, long before she had joined the Elite Ops, even before she had put a bullet in her brother’s and her father’s chests. She had always sensed she wasn’t truly free, and this no more than affirmed it.

She was at a disadvantage, though. She was wearing white, and whoever was in the room with her was obviously dressed in black. Fighting an enemy she couldn’t see was a bitch. The only positive note was that evidently they didn’t want her dead, or she would already be bleeding from a gunshot wound.

She could barely glimpse a shadow if it moved. Damn, she hated being played with and whoever was there was obviously enjoying their game.

She inched closer to the nightstand and the weapon hidden beneath.

Her fingers reached a folded towel she kept there, less than inches from the gun, when she saw a shadow moving swiftly toward her. No warning, just a quick, silent attack.

A hard kick against the thick carpet and she launched herself away from the attacker, almost making it. Hard fingers gripped her ankle as she twisted and kicked out, breaking the hold and rolling to the side before a hard, heavy male weight suddenly came over her. She was pinned to the floor nearly immobile as she began to fight for freedom.

Her fingers curled into claws and moved for his face, only to have her wrists caught and jerked over her head as hard, muscular thighs trapped her legs. In that instance, something familar, some sound, scent, or sensation warned her of what was coming.

“You’re wearing white, baby. Didn’t I teach you better than that?”

Jordan.

She froze. For a second, Tehya felt her heart stop just before it began to pound with a hard rush of adrenaline and sexual excitement. The cold, hard determination to survive changed. It rushed through her system, became brilliantly hot, sensitizing her flesh, rushing through her and burning away the chill that had been wrapped around her for the past nine months. As though her body were suddenly jerked from deep freeze and infused with vibrant life, making her feel again. And just that fast, she felt too much. She was too hot. Her flesh was too sensitive. Her hunger for this man was too strong.

Jordan’s fingers tightened on her wrist as she suddenly bucked against him, the urge to survive suddenly morphing into something she didn’t understand. Into a hunger, a need, an anger that terrified her.

“Get off me!” she hissed, uncertain if it was fury or lust suddenly raging through her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

His lips cut the furious words off, covering hers, slanting across them and stealing her anger with the sudden overflow of need that left her helpless to do anything but take the kiss and demand more in return.

Her eyes flared open, then drifted closed. Sensual weakness began to race through her body, surging through her bloodstream with a punch of heat so brilliant it felt blinding. Pleasure wrapped around her and held her in thrall as their tongues met, stroked, then dueled in an erotic dance of delight.

Suddenly, she was starved for the taste and the feel of him. Dying to take back the months she had been so alone, drifting, uncertain what to do or how to feel, because she no longer had his presence to hold onto, or a day filled with at least the sight of him. She arched to him, whimpering need tearing through her, a desperation to get closer to him overwhelming her common sense.

As his hands loosened around her wrists, one hand cupped her face and his tongue possessed her, licking at hers, and a groan vibrated against her lips. She was starved for him, desperate. The world could explode around them and all that would matter would be his kiss.

Tehya arched against him, her legs parting as his hips lifted, and she moved to press against his thighs as he settled between them. The hard ridge of his cock rode against her sensitive cleft, pressing the seam of her leather pants against her * and stroking it sensually.

Nine months of restless nights, tortured fantasies, and the memory of a touch she sometimes believed had branded her soul, had all but destroyed her. And now in one brilliant second she could feel the life pouring back into her.

Heat wrapped around her, a wonderful, building warmth that bloomed through her belly and rushed to wrap around her swollen *.

The instantaneous switch from survival to arousal clashed through her. The abrupt halt of one, the rapid-fire emergence of the other. She was thrown headlong into an inferno of sensation that completely overwhelmed her.

She had dreamed of his touch. She’d awakened some nights crying out for him. Now, Oh God yes, now, just one more time. His body was hard and demanding above her, his cock a thick wedge beneath his pants as he ground his hips between her thighs.

The strokes of the hardened ridge of his shaft over the sensitive bud of her * sent hunger tearing through her. Her tongue stroked against his, her fingers tightened in his hair to hold him to her, and she prayed it wasn’t a dream. She was desperate to implant each sensation into her memory, into each cell of her body, for the day when it would be gone. To remember even the smallest detail, the slightest touch to help warm her when the nights grew cold.

He wouldn’t stay, even she knew that. For whatever reason, though, he was here now. He was holding her, touching her, kissing her with the same desperate hunger that had plagued her for so many nights.

His hands were tearing at the blouse, popping buttons to drag the material from her pants as she jerked at his, baring tight, hard abs. Hard, heated, his palm flattened against her lower stomach before smoothing up to the front closure of her bra distracting her from the need to explore the flesh she had found beneath his shirt.

The bra clasp released smoothly, the sheer cups falling away from the swollen mounds of her breasts. Tehya’s eyes drifted open as Jordan eased back from the kiss. Harsh, labored, the sound of their breathing filled the room as their gazes met in the darkness. Then his head lowered, lips parting, then covering the hard, needy peak of a swollen breast.

Electricity surged from the contact as he drew the stiff flesh of her nipple into his mouth. Sizzling pleasure attacked her womb, her swollen *, drawing her hips upward in a tight, involuntary thrust, as she pressed her p-ssy tighter against the outline of his cock. Pleasure flooded her system, tore through it, burning past her defenses as though they didn’t even exist. Against Jordan, there were no defenses. There was only the searing, addictive pleasure of his kiss, his touch—his possession.

Wicked heat surrounded her nipple as he drew on it, his tongue lashing it with damp fire as he plumped the flesh with his fingers. Sucking with deep pulls of his mouth, each draw sent a rush of electrifying sensation straight to the depths of her cunt.

The feel of him sucking at her, his big body covering her, dominating her, was exquisite. For the first time in nine months, she felt alive. She felt warm and safe. She was a woman again, rather than an automation pushing through the days

“Jordan.” Arching against him, Tehya whispered his name with hungry demand. “Oh, God. Harder. Do it harder.” She needed more. She ached for that fiery edge of pleasure and pain that he had given her before.

Instead he gave a heated kiss against her nipple, his head lifted, the glitter of his blue eyes barely discernible in the darkness of the room.

“Don’t stop,” she pleaded, demanded. “Damn you Jordan, don’t tease me.”

“Witch,” he growled, his voice dark, thick with arousal, and she felt the short growth of a beard as it raked against the curve of her breast.

Arching her neck, lifting closer to him, her eyes closed as need burned hot and rich inside her. She wanted to touch him. She wanted the feel of him against her, his hard body stroking against her softer one. The heavy heat of his cock filling her.

Memories of the one night she had spent with him tormented her, haunted her. She wanted one more night. Just one more night she told herself. One more memory. Surely then she could find a way to live without him.

As she arched, her hands ran over his back, his shoulders. Moving lower, her fingers went to grip his waist, and one hand gripped his weapon instead.

Tehya froze, as Jordan’s quiet curse seemed to echo through her head. Along with it was the knowledge that it wasn’t this Jordan had come for.

Jordan only wore his weapon when on a mission. He didn’t wear it for looks, it wasn’t a personal accessory. It was for protection only.

She felt him go still against her, his lips pressed to the curve of her breast, before he moved slowly, his head lifting, his eyes glittered down at her through the darkness. She stared back at him in weary resignation. She should have known he wasn’t there for her.

She felt it then, that trembling panic that originated in the pit of her stomach. The restless urge to run, to hide, to change her name, her face, her location. That horrifying knowledge that the instinct warning her of danger wasn’t just paranoia.

“Why are you here?” she whispered, hearing the trembling of her voice and hating it. “I think we both know it wasn’t for me.”

Tehya released the weapon when he rolled away from her and sat up next to her on the floor. He sighed, a sound of weary regret.

“I’m here for you,” he denied.

“But not for the little play date we’re having on the floor?” she bit out with angry sarcasm.

“No,” he finally admitted. “That wasn’t what I was here for.”

Gripping her hand, he pulled her up. “Stay low,” he ordered when she would have gotten to her feet. “Get a bag packed, you’re leaving.”

Jordan couldn’t see her face, her eyes, but he didn’t have to. He could feel her tension settling in the air around him and he thanked God he couldn’t see her face. Sometimes, a man just knew when there were certain emotions he couldn’t face.

Seeing the fear flash in her eyes, or watching her expression change would have brought that familiar tightness to his chest, that regret that he didn’t know what to do with or where it originated from. She’d been hurt too damned much already. Adding to her pain, her fear, felt like a f*cking sin.

He didn’t have to see it to feel it. He knew it was there.

“Why do I need a bag?” Vulnerability and fear filled her voice, something he had never heard when she spoke before. As though her time away from the Ops, her time as a regular person had softened her.

He hoped it hadn’t softened her too much to fight to survive.

“Because you’re out of here,” he told her quietly. “It’s time to move you, Tehya.”

“No!”

For the briefest second, Jordan had to admit he was shocked. Damn, it had been more years than he cared to admit since a woman had managed to shock him. Hell, since anyone had managed to shock him. And he had to admit he hadn’t planned for this.

He always had a plan to cover every contingency. Now found himself at a loss.

He was so damned surprise he couldn’t think for the briefest second.

Which explained how she managed to jump to her feet before he could stop her and flip on the low lamp sitting on the table next to the bed. So much for the order to stay low and keep the lights out.

She was naked from the waist up, her breasts swollen and flushed, her nipples hard and such a sweet candy pink his mouth started watering for the taste of them again. Hell, she nearly derailed all thoughts for safety as his cock throbbed hard and painfully.

Rather than wrestling her back down to the floor, though, he rose to his feet, watching as she pulled a black T-shirt from the dresser and jerked it over her head.

Slender, small boned, fragile. She looked as delicate as a china doll with all those strawberry and gold curls tumbling down her back and those wide green eyes glaring back at him. The black T-shirt, black leather pants, and four-inch-heeled black leather boots suited her, though if she were trying for a dangerous look, she was failing. She looked like dynamite. A sexual goddess ready to rumble. Or ready for a sexual tumble. She sure as hell didn’t look like a threat to anything but a man’s libido and his piece of mind.

Running his fingers through his hair, he fought to drag his mind away from the scenario where he was f*cking the hell out of her, and back to the subject at hand. Keeping her alive until he figured out who had known she was alive and where to find her.

“Someone may be watching you, Tey, that’s why I didn’t want the lights on,” he said, “you’ve had a tail on you for nearly a week now, and they have orders to grab you as soon as possible.”

He watched as she glanced quickly away before her lashes drifted down for a second in weary resignation.

“I had a feeling I was being watched. Stalked.” The acceptance in her voice only shocked him further. Hell, she was setting records tonight.

Surely she hadn’t continued to hang around without contacting him when she knew her identity was compromised? The very thought of it had his entire body tensing in amazed anger.

“You know you’re being watched and you’re still here?” A slow, burning anger began to simmer inside him. It was no longer a suspicion she was being watched, she was confirming it. “You didn’t contact me, or head to one of the safe houses. Why?”

He believed in contingencies in all things. There were six safe houses set up across the nation, and in each of them were hidden weapons, cash, vehicles, and the ability to create new identities until they could contact other members of the team.

But had Tehya taken advantage of them? Had she even tried to cover that very delectable ass of hers?

Her eyes widened in mock surprise. It was a look that made his hands itch to paddle that delectable ass. “Why, Jordan? Because I’m not running anymore. If I had called you or gone to a safe house then I’d be running the rest of my life. I’m tired of it.” The last was said with such exhaustion that Jordan felt his throat tighten. She shook her head then rubbed her hand at the side of her face in a gesture of aching vulnerability. “I’m just tired of it, Jordan. I want it to end, one way or the other.”

His arms seemed to ache with the need to pull her into them then, to comfort her. How the hell was he supposed to handle this? How was he supposed to make sure she was safe when keeping emotions in check was suddenly so much harder to do than it had been before?

Damn her, she made him feel things, made emotion surge through him as he fought to keep his shields intact. She was the only person, man or woman, who could touch his soul.

“Pack a bag.” He wasn’t arguing with her now. Her life was too important to him. He would have to figure the rest out later. “We’ll argue over what you will or won’t do later, once we’ve stashed you somewhere safe. But you are leaving, Tehya. Either willingly or slung over my shoulder, tied and gagged. Make your choice now.”