Chapter Seventeen #2
HELEN TOOK IN A DEEP breath. The chilly air helped clear her head.
She took a long look at the lone figure standing at the edge of the cliff, the magnificent scenery of the morning sunlight dappling the wintry mountainside and the ice-tipped lake emphasizing his dangerous aloofness.
He had his back to her, seemingly absorbed in the view, but she knew better.
He was certainly as aware of her presence here as he had been back at the monastery.
He looked terribly alone, like an ancient conqueror surveying his land.
A ridiculous thought, since Jed McNeil was in faded jeans and battered jacket.
But that was beside the point, wasn’t it, Hell?
Jed McNeil in any kind of clothing, speaking in that emotionless tone of voice, was the scariest thing she’d seen and heard in a long time.
He turned. And gestured imperiously. Helen approached cautiously. One did that at the sight of a hungry predator.
He stood as still as the waters below as she studied him. It dawned on her that he was waiting for her to make the first move, to show her reaction.
After all, he’d looked directly at her in the darkened monastery, a piercing stare that had jolted her out of the mesmerizing sight of Number Nine in action.
As usual, her foolhardiness took over. “Should I curtsey? Your Lordship commanded my presence at Lake Matka a day early and here I am.”
The corner of his lips lifted. His silver eyes, though, still held that disquieting menace. “You didn’t come at the specified time.”
Helen canted her brows. “No pleasing Your Lordship, is there?” She thumbed toward the trail from which she’d just came.
“Back there, you complained about a man being late, and here, you aren’t happy that I’m early.
” When he didn’t say anything, just stood there looking at her, she sighed, and added, “Okay, you said noon. Perhaps you didn’t want me around when you were doing your job, but I didn’t know you had an assignment this early.
I would have sat in there waiting for noon but seeing that you knew I was already hiding in there, I figured you wouldn’t mind me interrupting your morning walk. ”
She hadn’t actually come out immediately. A man on the verge of violence was better left alone for as long as possible. But damn, it was cold sitting in that monastery, not doing anything.
Jed turned from her again. The view appeared more interesting to him than her presence.
Her instincts were telling her this man was literally at the very edge, that if she wasn’t careful, he might turn and devour her.
Yet, she didn’t feel afraid of him at all.
She took the last few steps so she could stand beside him.
“Tell me, Number Nine,” she began casually, trying to push away the image of herself putting her head inside a lion’s mouth, “why didn’t you finish the job?”
He slanted a glance in her direction, the lightness in his eyes catching the sunlight—a flash of silver heat—and then he looked away again.
“I know what your job entails,” Helen continued, ignoring another mental image of herself offering honey to a hungry bear.
What could she say? She was curious. “Back there, I know what you were going to do. Yet you didn’t.
You looked straight up where I was and I felt you changing your mind.
You gave that man a reprieve, something I’d bet my entire hat collection that you seldom, if ever, do. Why, Jed?”
There. If he turned and growled at her, she would retreat and leave him alone. The silence went on for so long, she began to wonder whether he was just going to ignore her until noon.
“I didn’t want to start our day with your seeing me take a life.” He turned and met her shocked eyes. “I didn’t want our first date to begin with death.”
Helen put her hand on her chest. The world just stopped spinning. “Our. First. Date?”
“Yes, our first date,” Jed reiterated calmly. “It was supposed to start here at noon. Not at the monastery where you were hiding, spying on me. You were thinking of catching a glimpse of the real me. Are you sure you did?”
“Our first date?” Helen asked again, ignoring the rest of what he said. “I thought I was here to be part of the team casing the summit.”
“In Skopje,” Jed affirmed. “You’re here at Lake Matka to be with me.”
“You didn’t ask, so it isn’t a date,” she declared.
Jed laughed. She stood there in amazement as she watched him throw back his head and real, teeth-baring, amusement-filled male laughter echoed around her.
It was a low, attractive sound, the kind that made a woman feel all glowy and appreciated inside.
That murderous glint in his eyes had disappeared, replaced by an intent that was pretty blatant in its meaning, at least, from where she was standing.
She realized he had dropped that mantle of aloofness behind which he always hid.
“Would you like to spend today with me?” he asked, with a smile that made her toes curl in her boots and made her notice the deep dimple in his chin.
Her gaze moved up and was captured by the look in his eyes—so very arrogantly sure.
“It’s just you and me. No virtual reality, Elena.
No simulated scenery. No one monitoring our vitals.
We won’t be in the ether or playing mind games today.
If you like, our date starts right here, right now. ”
Dammit. How could a girl refuse that? He had deliberately engineered a free day in his busy schedule to be with her. He had backed away from doing his job because he didn’t want to start their date with a death. He had, once again, managed to take her by surprise.
“Okay,” she said, and put her hand in his. “But only because you asked so nicely, instead of ordering me around.”
She knew that the commandos were trained seducers. Lord, if he used that smile as part of his seduction repertoire, the women had no hope.
“So now we’ll start it right,” he said, pulling her into the circle of his arms.
His dark head descended and his lips parted hers. He kissed with a thoroughness that had her clinging to him, pulling his head lower. His heat took away all the chill in the air.
He had kissed her before, but not like this.
His tongue danced across hers, a possessive entanglement that he controlled, pulling away and making her mindlessly chase after, wanting more, needing more.
He tilted her head back for better access, his thumb stroking her quickening pulse, as his tongue lazily invaded and explored.
She was heady with his scent, a delicious mix of man, cologne and lust. She felt his hand under her jacket, seeking and pulling at her sweater, and then she was lost in the feel of his hand cupping her breast.
When he lifted his lips from her, she gave a soft mewl of protest. Not yet. She wanted more.
“Was that real enough for you?” he asked.
As if her ragged breathing wasn’t indicative enough? She closed her eyes as teasing fingers massaged and caressed sensitive flesh. “It seems real,” she said, feigning a nonchalance that was betrayed by a moan. “But then, you can turn me on without VR, remember?”