So Zach didn’t sleep with every woman who threw herself at him. That was good to hear. “Are you married?”
He shook his head. “No.”
Natalie couldn’t seem to stop herself. “Divorced?”
“No!”
“Gay?”
He came face-to-face with her in one smooth motion, so close that she could see flecks of gold in the gray of his irises, the spicy-clean scent of his skin filling her lungs. “Oh, angel, I think you know the answer to that one, but if you need proof . . .”
A big hand slid into her hair, cradling the back of her skull, angling her face upward. Pulse tripping, she found herself looking into his eyes, wondering if he was really going to do it, if he was really going to kiss her.
And then hedidkiss her.
Slowly.
He brushed his lips over hers, the mere whisper of a touch sending shudders through her, making her breath catch. Then he slipped his other arm around her and drew her against his bare chest, the hard feel of his body making her go weak. But still he didn’t kiss her full on, teasing her mouth with his, nipping her lips, tracing their outline with his tongue, until her lips tingled and ached and she was trembling.
She shouldn’t let him do this. Zach was a dangerous man, a killer. She knew next to nothing about him, not even his last name. All she had was his promise that he wasn’t a criminal. But it had been so long since a man had touched her, so long since she’dwanteda man to touch her.
She slid her arms around his neck, arched into him, desperate for more.
He groaned, and the hand in her hair became a fist. And in a heartbeat the kiss transformed, his lips pressing hard and hot against hers, his tongue thrusting deep.
Oh, my stars!
Heat lanced through her, striking deep in her belly. With a whimper, she kissed him back, welcoming his tongue with her own, breathing in the male scent of him, her insides going liquid as his hand moved slowly down her spine.
And then it was over.
He drew back, his gaze meeting hers, his brows furrowed. He was breathing as hard as she was, his lips wet, his eyes dark. “I’m . . . I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
He’s sorry.
Natalie tried to still her body’s trembling, tried to catch her breath, fighting to understand how he could mean what he’d just said. He’d been the one to start it. “So . . . you . . . you didn’t actually mean to kiss me?”
She didn’t believe that.
“Ah, hell.” He stood, took a few steps back, ran a hand through his hair. “Of course, I did. You’re a beautiful woman, Natalie, but this isn’t the time or place for . . . I can’t afford to get distracted.”
“Oh.” Natalie hugged her arms around herself, feeling rejected despite his attempt at a compliment, her body still thrumming.
He sat down in the chair again and leaned forward. “Here’s the bottom line. You need to trust me. We need to be able to trust each other. If we’re going to get home safely, we need to work as a team, just like we did yesterday. I need to know that you’ll do what I tell you to do, and you need to believe that I’m acting in your best interests. I may not have time to explain everything, but I won’t tell you to do something if it isn’t very important.”
“Why is it important that I not call my friends? I trust them with my life.”
“We’re still deep in the state of Chihuahua. All it would take is one wiretap, one intercepted e-mail, one weak link in the chain of communication to bring the Zetas crashing through that door.” He pointed, his words leaching the heat from her blood. “It’s better for your friends and family to worry about you for a few extra days than it is for them to hear you’re okay, only to have you killed on the way home.”
She hadn’t realized they were still so vulnerable—or that the Zetas were so connected. “What is your plan for getting us home again?”
“We can’t go to the consulate. I’m sure they’ve staked those out. We’d probably get ambushed and shot trying to walk in. Same thing with the police stations. We can’t just drive across the border—his men are probably watching the highways up to the ports of entry, too. Traffic comes to a stop there, making it very easy to close in on a vehicle and carry out a hit. So we’re going to do the last thing Cárdenas expects us to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“We’re going to head northwest to a little town called Altar. We’re going to buy supplies there, and then we’re going to sneak across the border on foot. By the time Cárdenas has any clue what has happened, you’ll already be back in Denver.”
ARTURO KNELT IN his private chapel, blood rushing to his head at the news. “What do you mean they got away?”