Page 28 of Hard Pursuit
“There’s a lot you’re not telling me,” she whispered.
His gaze burned down into hers. “It’s better that way. I’m sorry. I promise we’ll get you out of here as soon as it’s safe.”
“Butyouleft today. The weather can’t be that bad.”
“We weren’t traveling by road.” His jaw flexed once, but he didn’t say more. He just took her hand and turned it over in his, cradling it palm up. “You did great today. Thank you for all your help.”
Her throat constricted for some reason she didn’t understand. Maybe because she’d spent her lifetime feeling useful—until no one needed her anymore, leaving her with a brand-new adult life she didn’t know how to live.
It was nice being in control again, even if it was limited to patching up strangers. It was nice to feel useful, like she had a place here, even for a brief blip in time.
Archer stepped closer, stealing her thought—and her breath.
His lips weren’t that far away…if she went on tiptoe.
“You should eat something,” he roughed out as if his throat felt tight too.
“I’m not that hungry.”
“Then get some rest.”
She drank in the way he held himself, feeling as if nothing in the world would harm her if he was there, and realized this might be the chance she never had. The brief relationships of her past had been mere dates here and there, nothing permanent. No one wanted to be saddled with a young woman and her three siblings.
“Your bed is much more comfortable than mine,” she tested the waters.
A flicker passed his face and was gone as quickly as it appeared. “You can take my room.”
She lifted a brow. “And where will you sleep?”
“I’ll manage.”
She only hesitated a heartbeat before nodding. “Okay.”
She’d climbed a fire tower in a snowstorm chasing a perfect photo and ended up in a hidden base full of men who treated all those injuries like a routine day. At this point, what was one more step into the unknown? If Archer ended up in bed with her, then it was her invitation to make.
Her gaze found his, and something electric passed between them—sharp, hot, and far too tempting to break.
“Too bad you’re injured. You could sleep beside me.” Her voice came out breathless.
Something shifted in the depths of his eyes. A challenge accepted.
Or a battle he couldn’t win.
In the back of her mind, a small voice whispered that maybe, just maybe…
He was choosing her too.
FIVE
Archer should not, under any circumstance, walk into his bedroom and slide into bed with Jolie.
He shouldn’t let himself touch her—shouldn’t think about the way her face softened when she looked at him, or what it might feel like to close that distance and finally find out if her lips were as soft as they looked.
And hedamnsure shouldn’t be thinking about stripping that red sweater off her, about the slow, dangerous slide from control into something he wouldn’t be able to take back.
None of it fit the rules he lived by.
None of it would end well.
