CROSSFIRE by Jenna Mills Read Free Book Online Page A

comfortable."
    Across the room the baseball announcer signaled a grand slam, but neither of them looked. Elizabeth just stared at him, no doubt considering a comeback. She'd be more comfortable if Zhukov was still behind bars and this nightmare had never started. She'd be more comfortable if Aaron or Jagger had been sent to bring her home.
    She'd be more comfortable if the bullet that had ripped into his shoulder four months before had landed a few inches lower.
    "Look, Hawk," she said. "We're adults. Can't we just—"
    "Pretend that night didn't happen?" That's what would make her more comfortable, he realized. If he'd never touched her. Never made her sigh.
    Never made her come unglued.
    "No," he answered before she could. "I can't do that. I don't pretend." That was the coward's way out.
    She frowned. "I made a mistake, Wesley. Nothing less, nothing more."
    Nothing.
    Less.
    Nothing.
    More.
    The seven most incredible hours of his life.
    Nothing less, nothing more.
    The burn started deep, spread fast. "If that was a mistake," he said slowly, pointedly, "it wasn't just one."
    Her eyes flared wide, and the memory flickered, burned hot. Color rose to her cheeks, much like the flush that had consumed her chest after they'd first made love.
    "You don't have to throw it in my face," she said quietly, and if Hawk didn't know better, he would have sworn her voice sounded more than a little breathless.
    "Throw it in your face?" He aimed the remote at the television and killed the power. "We're not talking about some heinous crime, Elizabeth ." But to her, he knew that they were. "We're talking about you, and me, and why you're scared to be in the same room with me."
    And why that room suddenly felt incredibly hot.
    "Wesley, please." She pushed the damp hair back from her face. "Let it go. I have."
    He looked into her eyes, searched deep. "Have you, Ellie? Have you really?"
    The room was excruciatingly quiet now, the television no longer blaring. If he listened carefully, he would have sworn he heard her heart pounding.
    Or maybe that was his own.
    "Yes," she said, not with the clip he'd come to expect, but with a complete lack of emotion that burned even deeper.
    "I suppose that's why you kissed me tonight like you never wanted to let me go?"
    Something odd flickered in her gaze, a light that vanished more quickly than the shooting star they'd seen one hot summer night two years before. "Don't confuse adrenaline with desire," she said softly. "There's a difference."
    A hard sound broke from his throat. "You think so?" For a minute, he thought about telling how in explicit detail just how wrong she was, but he knew she wouldn't listen. So instead he slammed his fist against the pathetic excuse for a pillow, then stretched out on the mattress. He didn't pull the covers over him, though. The room was too damn hot.
    "Get some sleep, Ellie," he said, reaching over to flick off the bedside lamp. "I'm here if you need me."
    * * *
    The heater rattled relentlessly, interrupted only by the occasional airplane taking to the skies. The curtains blocked most of the light from the parking lot, but a sliver cut through, casting the man with the gun in shadow. She watched him standing there, alert and ready, still wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants. His shoulders rose and fell with each deep, rhythmic breath he drew. The sound thrummed through her, and before she realized it, she'd matched his cadence.
    Frowning, she was tempted to turn away, to face the sallow wall instead of the man who stood rigidly by the window, but knew better than to turn her back on Hawk Monroe.
    If that was a mistake, it wasn't just one.
    Even now, hours later, the words made her shift uncomfortably, acutely aware that she was naked beneath his shirt. The blunt statement had caught her completely off guard, even though she knew Hawk Monroe wasn't a man to mince words. She'd never known anyone with such a complete disregard for propriety.
    I'm here if you need