Free Books by Maggie Shayne by Maggie Shayne Page A

even lust for Alexandra Holt. No room at all.
    So what was it about her that had him feeling ,. desire? The longer he looked at her, the more he felt it. All he' done was sit on his bed and look at her, and he was hard. Just like that, after almost a year without a sign of life down there. And it se~med to him that all these months of absti, hence were screaming to end. Right now, right here.
    With her.
    Made no sense whatsoever. And he had no intention of heeding their cries. If he could dodge bullets and battle terrorists, he could certainly resist a little uprising of his libido. He Wasn't going to be unfaithful to Marcy's memory. Beyond that, he most certainly wasn't going to let himself care about Alexandra Holt. Not in the least.
    Because it would interfere with the job he'd come here to do.
    It would distract him, and it would mess up his objectivity, dull his instincts. He knew the drill. She was one of the targets of this investigation, and an operative didn t screw around with a target.
    Besides, he'd pretty much given up on caring about people at all. It hurt too much to lose them. Torch knew damned well he wasn't up for dealing with any more pain. '~ So he sat there arguing with his body's demands, until an hour before dawn. That was when she muttered something in her sleep and rolled over, bending one long leg slightly, causing the T-shirt to bunch up around her waist. And he saw the little white cotton parities she wore, and he wanted to go over there and slide them off her.
    He was undeniably aroused, and disgusted with himself for it. Fresh air might help. He pulled on his jeans and T-shirt and headed out the door, paced in the parking lot, stared up at the fading night sky.
    But it gave him no answers and did little to erase this sudden hunger for a woman he barely knew.
    It was only when he heard the soft purr of a vehicle and turned to see the sleek black minivan moving slowly through the lot that he forgot all about his aching need.
    Torch ducked into the. shadows, pressing his back to the motel's brick wall and moving sideways until he could see the van again.
    There had been two vans at Alexandra's house. He'd blown one to hell, but not the other. And to believe this was just some family looking for a good parking spot was a fool's errand. It was Scorpion, or more of his henchmen. It had to be, and they were cruising the lot looking for Torch and Alexandra Holt.
    How the hell had they followed him here? Had they seen his car? Did they know what to look for?
    Didn't matter. He'd left two alive back there, two who could describe him and Alex to a fault. All they'd have to do would be to question the desk clerk.
    But how the hell had they found them here?
    The van came to a stop out front, and one of them headed toward the office.
    Torch duck rid back into the room, closed the door quietly and flicked off the lights. He ran to the bed where Alexandra lay sleeping, her face illuminated only by the flickering orange glow of the damaged neon vacancy sign outside. He leaned over her, gripped her shoulders.
    "Alex, wake up!"
      Her eyes flew open. Sleepy and wide and brown. She stared up at him, and he knew what she was thinking. He knew, read it on her face as easily as boldface type. She thought his reasons for coming to her bed were anything but what they were.
    She shook her head slowly, side to side.
    "I ... I don't even know your real name," she blurted.
    Not "get your filthy hands off me, you beast." Not "make another move and I'll scream this place down around your ears." Just that she didn't know his name. Was he supposed to take that to mean that not knowing his name was her only objection to a little game of one-on-one?
    He swallowed hard, told himself this wasn't the time or place for those kinds of questions.
    "We have to leave. They're here."
    He saw the fear, the panic in her eyes. She lunged out of the bed and was yanking on her jeans, stuffing her feet into her sneakers even before he added,