Cynthia Eden - Alpha One

She was hot. Wild.

But this was wrong .

So why wasn’t he stopping? Why was he putting his hands on her curving hips and urging her up against the flesh that ached for her? Why was he pushing her back against the wall so that he could trap her there with his body?

Because I need her .

The addiction was just as strong as ever, just as dangerous to them both.

He jerked his head up and stared down at her. Juliana’s breath panted out. Her lips were red, swollen from his mouth. He wanted to kiss her again. One hot minute wasn’t close to making up for the past ten years.

A taste, when he was starving for the full course.

Get her naked. Take her .

She’d been through hell. She didn’t need this. Him.

He sucked in a sharp breath and tasted her. “This can’t happen,” Logan said, voice growling.

At his words, the hunger, the passion that had been on her face and in her eyes cooled almost instantly.

“Julie—”

But she shoved against him. “Sorry.”

He wasn’t. Not for the kiss, anyway. For being a jerk and turning away? Yes.

But making love then, with his teammates in the next room? He wouldn’t do that to her.

“I don’t even know what I’m doing.” She walked away from him and didn’t look back. “I don’t want this. I don’t want—”

She broke off, but Logan stiffened because he could too easily finish her sentence.

You .

Adrenaline. The afterburn. He understood it, had been through enough battles and enough desperate hours after them to know what it was like when the spike of adrenaline filled your blood and then burned away.

He headed for the door and kept his shoulders straight, like the good soldier he was supposed to be. “You should try to get some more sleep.”

They weren’t out of the woods yet. Until they were back in the United States, until death wasn’t hanging over her head, he would be her shadow.

That was his job.

Since they’d been forced together, he figured she deserved the warning he’d give her, and he’d tell her only once. “If I get you in my arms again like that …” His hand closed around the old doorknob, tightened, almost broke it off. Logan forced himself to exhale. If I get you in my arms again … He glanced back and found her wide, dark eyes on his. “I won’t stop. I played the gentleman this time.”

Right. Gentleman. Because he knew so much about that bit.

Her eyes said the same.

His jaw clenched. “I’ll be damned if I do it again. You offer,” he warned, “and I’ll take.”

Not the smooth words a woman needed to hear after her ordeal in captivity, but there wasn’t much more he could say. So he left. While he still could.

And of course, Jasper was waiting for him in the other room. The guy lifted a blond brow. His face, one of those pretty-boy faces that always fooled the enemy, hinted at his amusement. “Now I get it,” he drawled.

Angry, aroused, close to desperate, Logan barely bit back the crude retort that rose to his lips. But Jasper was a friend, a teammate.

“You’re always looking for the blondes with dark eyes,” Jasper teased as he tapped his chin. “Wherever we go, you usually seem to hook up with one.”

He was right.

Jasper smirked. “Now I know why.” The briefest pause as he studied Logan. “How do they all compare with the original model?”

Logan glared at his friend. There is no comparison . Instead of responding to Jasper, Logan stalked off to trade out for his guard shift.

SENATOR AARON JAMES stared down at the gun in his hands. Things weren’t supposed to end this way. Not for him. He’d had such big plans.

Easy money. The perfect life. So much power.

And everything was falling apart, slipping away.

The phone on his desk rang. His private line. Jaw clenching, he reached for the receiver. “J-James.” He hated the tremble in his voice. He wasn’t supposed to be afraid. Everyone else was supposed to fear him.

Once, they had.

Until he’d met Diego Guerrero. Then he’d learned a whole new meaning of fear.

“She’s dead.” The voice was low, taunting. No accent. Just cold. Deadly.

Diego.

Aaron’s hand clenched around the receiver. “Juliana wasn’t part of this.”

“You made her part of it.”

His gaze dropped to the gun. “She’s not dead.” He’d gotten the intel, knew that Juliana had been rescued. The price for that rescue had been so high.

His life.

“You think this will stop me?” Laughter. “I’ll hunt her down. I’ll get what I want.”

Diego and his men never stopped. Never. They’d once burned a whole village to the ground in order to send a message to rivals. And I thought I could control him? Perspiration slicked Aaron’s palms. “I made the deals for you. The weapons were transferred. We’re clear.”

More laughter. “No, we’re not. But we will be, once I get back the evidence you’ve been stashing.”

Aaron’s heart stopped.

“Did you think I didn’t know about that? How else would you have gotten the agents to come for her? You made a trade, didn’t you, James?”

“She’s my daughter.” He hadn’t been able to let her just die. Once, she’d run to him, smiling, with her arms open. I love you, Daddy . So long ago. He’d wrecked their life together. Thrown it all away but …

I wasn’t letting her die .

“I want the evidence.”

He’d tried to be so careful. He’d written down the names, the dates of all the deals. He’d gotten recordings and created a safety net for himself.

But now he was realizing that he’d never be safe. Not from Guerrero.

“I’ll get the evidence.” A deadly promise from his caller. “I’ll get you, and I’ll kill her.”

The phone line went dead.

Aaron swallowed once, twice, trying to relieve the dryness in his throat. Things had been going fine with Guerrero until … I got greedy .

So he’d taken a little extra money, just twenty million dollars. It had seemed so easy. Sneak a little money away from each deal. Aaron had considered the cash to be a … finder’s fee, of sorts.

He’d found the ones who wanted the weapons. He’d set up the deals.

Didn’t he deserve a bit of a bonus payment for his work? He’d thought so. But then Guerrero had found out. Guerrero had wanted the money back. When Guerrero started making his demands, Aaron had threatened to use the evidence he had against the arms dealer …

My mistake . Aaron now realized what a fool he’d been. You couldn’t bluff against the man called El Diablo. The devil would never back down.

Instead of backing down, Guerrero had taken Juliana.

His eyes squeezed shut. Juliana was safe now, but how long would that safety last?

I’ll get you , Guerrero had said. This nightmare wasn’t going to end quietly. The press would find out about what he’d done. Everything he’d built —gone .

I’ll kill her .

Juliana was his regret. He’d pulled her into this war, and she didn’t even realize it.

Now she’d die, too.

No one ever really escaped Diego. No matter what promises Logan Quinn had made. You didn’t get to cheat the devil and walk away.

The receiver began to hum. Fumbling, Aaron shoved the phone aside. Stared down the dark barrel of the gun.

He wouldn’t lose everything, wouldn’t be made a mockery on every late-night television show. And even when the public turned on him, Aaron knew he’d still be hunted by Guerrero.

There wasn’t a choice. No way out. When Guerrero caught him, El Diablo would torture him. He’d make Aaron suffer for hours, days.