Quinn - Iris Johansen [81]
“It was the truth. But Bonnie changed everything. Passion became something else. We both loved Bonnie, and that meant we had to care about each other.” He shook his head. “Oh, nothing like what she had with Quinn. There are all kinds of love and caring. I’ll always feel that bond with Eve.” He smiled faintly. “Even if she did send her favorite ninja after me.”
“She didn’t send me. I owed her, and I knew she couldn’t come here herself.” She added, “If you care about what happens to her, why don’t you let me go? Do you think that she’ll want Joe to come after you? Let it be me.”
“But that’s changed, too. The dynamics are different now, aren’t they? The hunt wouldn’t be the same, and neither would the finale.” He met her gaze. “No, it has to be Quinn.”
She couldn’t breathe. “Let me go.”
He shook his head. “You’ll have to do it yourself.” He began to strip off his clothes. “Because I’m going to take this time for myself.” He waded into the water. “Something is happening between us. You may not like it, but it’s there. I think that we’ll have to ride it out.”
She watched him as he moved in the water. Magnificent.
Tight muscular butt, flat stomach, totally male.
Totally.
And that maleness was having an effect on her own body.
“We’ll have to ride it out.”
The sentence brought to mind an image that was causing her body to ready. Stop it. So he was magnificent physically and fascinating mentally. She couldn’t be drawn into the web that was hovering. Enemy. She had to think of him as the enemy.
He was coming out of the water. She should close her eyes. Not from any sense of embarrassment. That did not exist for them. But every step he took was causing a jolt of feeling, a surge of heat.
She would not close her eyes.
She met his gaze with boldness as he stopped before her.
“Me, too,” he said quietly. “What do we do about it?”
“Ignore it.”
“I’ve never been known for my restraint. I have a tendency to take what I want.” There was a glitter of pure recklessness in his eyes. “And I don’t believe I’ve ever wanted anything as much as I do you, Catherine Ling.”
She could see the crystal drops of water beading on his shoulders and tangling in the thatch of dark hair on his chest. He was close enough for her to feel the heat of his body. She wanted to reach out and touch him.
Dizzy. The intensity was overpowering. She felt like a damn virgin. She had been married and had a child. She’d had occasional one-night stands in the years since her husband had been killed. But she’d never felt anything of this intensity before.
“Catherine?”
He wasn’t forcing, he was asking. She should say yes, and he would cut the ropes. A man was never so vulnerable as when he was engaged in sex. She would be able to go on the attack.
But would she do it?
Dear God, she was afraid that she wouldn’t.
She couldn’t afford to take a chance of that self-betrayal.
She shook her head. “There’s too much baggage. I won’t let you complicate my life, Gallo.”
He stared at her for a moment in which she saw emotion after emotion flickering in his expression. “You mean the way I’ve complicated the lives of everyone else around me? Complicated and destroyed.” His smile was bitter. “You’re right. And I’d do it, too.” He turned away. “Just give me the chance.” He was dressing quickly. “And you can bet that I’d take advantage of any chance you gave me. So keep me away from you.” He grabbed a knife from his knapsack and came back to her and cut the ropes that bound her to the tree. Then he cut the ropes binding her wrists. “Or take off. That would probably be better.”
She stared at him in shock. “You’re releasing me.”
“I’m not stupid enough to let you have any of your weapons back. Though I’m sure that you could be formidable in hand-to-hand.” He looked at her. “But you don’t want to be that close to me, do you? It might turn into something else.”
She shook her head as she rubbed her wrist. “I won’t stop, Gallo. Why did you change your mind?”
“Victims. I’m sick to death of victims. I won’t make you