Alpha One (Shadow Agents #1)(6)
Author: Cynthia Eden

But she touched him. Her hand wrapped around his arm and every muscle in Logan’s body tightened. “Why did you come for me? Why you, Logan?”

He glanced down at her hand. Touching him was dangerous. She should have remembered that. He’d always enjoyed the feel of her flesh against his far too much.

With Juliana, only with her, he’d never been able to hold back.

Maybe that was one of the reasons he’d run so far. He knew just how dangerous he could be to her.

“The senator came to our unit.” Yes, that was his voice already hardening with desire—just from her touch. “He wanted you brought to safety.”

“Your unit?” Her fingers tightened on him.

He gave a brief nod. “We’re not exactly on the books.” As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the EOD, or Elite Operations Division, didn’t exist. The group, a hybrid formed of recruited navy SEALs, Rangers and intelligence officers from the FBI and CIA, was sent in for the most covert missions. Hostage retrieval. Extreme and unconventional warfare. They were the ones to take lethal, direct attacks…because some targets had to be taken out, no matter the cost.

“Does your unit—your team—have a name?”

Not an official one. “We’re called the Shadow Agents.” Their code name because their goal was to move as softly as a shadow. To stalk their prey and complete the mission with a minimum amount of exposure.

They always got the job done.

“My father really came to you? How did he even know you were—” Her hand fell away, and he missed her touch. Close enough to kiss, but never close enough to take.

It was the story of his life.

“He didn’t come to me for help.” The senator had nearly doubled over when he’d seen Logan sitting across the desk from him. “He came to my division, the EOD—the Elite Ops Division.” Because the FBI had sent him there. The senator still had power and pull in D.C., enough connections to get an appointment with the EOD.

Juliana shook her head. “I didn’t think he’d try to get me back.” A whisper of the lost girl she’d been, so many years ago, trembled in her words. Lost…but not clueless.

She knew her father too well. The mission to Mexico hadn’t just been about her. And if Juliana knew the full truth about the trade-off that had been made in that quiet D.C. office, she’d realize that she’d been betrayed by them both, again.

As if the first betrayal hadn’t been hard enough for him to stomach. For years, he’d woken to find himself reaching for her and realizing that she’d forever be out of his hands.

But she’s not out of reach right now.

He turned fully toward her, almost helpless, and caught her chin in his fingers. “I was getting you back.” Logan recognized his mistake. He was letting this case get personal, and that was the last thing he should be doing.

Hands off. Get her on the plane. Deliver her home.

Walk away.

But it had been so long since he’d held her. Even longer since he’d kissed her. One moment of weakness…would it really hurt? Would it really—

She rose onto her toes and kissed him.

Yes.

Logan let his control go. For that moment with her, he just let go. Logan’s arms closed around her as he pulled her against him. Her br**sts pushed against his chest, and he could feel the tight points of her ni**les. She had perfect br**sts. He remembered them so well. Pretty and pink and just right for his mouth.

And her mouth…nothing was better than her mouth. At twenty, she’d tasted of innocence. Now she tasted of need.

Seduction, at that moment, from her, wasn’t what he’d expected. But it sure was what he wanted. His hands tightened around her, and he held her as close as he could. His tongue thrust against hers. The moan, low in her throat, was a sound he’d never forgotten. Arousal hardened his body as her hands slid under his shirt and her nails raked across his flesh.

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.”