Derek reached over, took her left hand. “It was the thought of you being Jimmy’s sister that got me on the plane, not your father’s threats. If I’d had a sister, I know Jimmy would have done anything for her. I don’t want to leave here without you, Jenna, not because of any threat your father made against Cobra, but because I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to Jimmy’s little sister.”
Jenna’s heart melted. “My father made you feel guilty about James, didn’t he?”
She could see the answer in Derek’s eyes.
Oh, the bastard!
“My father is a manipulative jerk. It’s not your fault James died, and it won’t be your fault if anything happens to me.”
Derek nodded. “But that doesn’t mean I can just walk away.”
Still reeling from their kiss and from what Derek had told her, Jenna found herself at a loss for words. “I should go back inside. We’ve got two laboring moms and our two recovering C-sections. I just wish…”
“What?”
“I wish there was somewhere we could talk that was more private, where I could take off this headscarf and just be myself.”
Liar.
What she really wanted was to kiss him again—without risking their lives. But that wasn’t going to happen.
“Hey, you don’t like my big, armored Land Cruiser?” Derek grinned, gave her hand a squeeze, released it. “I’ll see what I can do.”
* * *
During his years in combat,Derek had learned to fall asleep fast. He could sleep anywhere—in a foxhole, in a barracks surrounded by sweaty, snoring soldiers, lying on bare ground. But it was well past midnight, and he hadn’t slept at all, his body alive with unspent sexual energy.
Jenna.
He’d been a damned idiot to kiss her—not that it had been much of a kiss. He’d gotten only a taste of her before his self-control had kicked in. But now he couldn’t get her off his mind. Every time he closed his eyes, she filled his head—the auburn silk of her hair, her green eyes, the soft curve of her cheek, the minty taste of her lips, her sweet, floral scent.
He wanted to kiss her—hard. He wanted to peel off those layers one by one and taste everything beneath them. He wanted to get her on her back and—
She’s Jimmy’s little sister. She’s your job. She is out of bounds.
Yeah, well, someone needed to remind his dick.
He’d broken a fistful of rules today, and now he was paying for it with lost sleep and frustration. Normally, he’d jack off and be done with it. But he couldn’t do that here with a dozen other men in the room. He couldn’t wank in the shower either, given that someone was always around. And his Land Cruiser? The damned thing had windows, and, thanks to him, there were cameras everywhere.
Live with it, dumbass. It’s your own fault.
And what about the shit he’d said?
He’d seen in her eyes that his words had had an emotional impact on her, and he’d tried to tell himself that he’d only been doing his job, trying to get under her skin and bend her will so that it aligned with his mission. But the strange thing was that he’d meant everything he’d said. He hadn’t been trying to manipulate her. It was as if his mouth had opened up, and what he truly felt had come out.
I will back you up to my last breath no matter what for as long as I’m here.
Yeah, he’d meant that. He wasn’t afraid to die. Hell, he owed Jimmy his life.
It was the thought of you being Jimmy’s sister that got me on the plane, not your father’s threats.
He’d meant that, too. Nothing Senator Hamilton could have said would have made him budge if Jenna hadn’t been Jimmy’s sister.
I don’t want to leave here without you, Jenna, not because of any threat your father made against Cobra, but because I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to Jimmy’s little sister.
He’d meant every word of that. When he’d arrived, he’d told her he would stay for a week. The week was up, but he couldn’t leave her—not yet. There was still a chance that what she’d done would blow up in her face. Also, the package he’d asked Corbray to ship to Mazar-e-Sharif hadn’t yet arrived.
Yeah, whatever. It was all a bunch of excuses. The truth was that he wanted to be close to her. What the hell was the matter with him?