Free Jaguar Pride by Terry Spear

for her to have a place to stay until she could get one of her own. She’d been strictly a partner with him on missions, and yet this felt different.
    Maybe because they were both free this time. Or because they’d been fighting the attraction since their first mission together. Or it was the dancing, the Singapore sling she’d had, and then the wine they’d drunk. But it didn’t feel right to be with him in bed and do nothing more.
    â€œOkay,” she said.
    He looked over at her. “Hmm?”
    Maybe he didn’t want anything more to happen between them. Maybe she was just imagining that he might want to, well, kiss her. Maybe he would be shocked at her admission that she wanted to kiss him.
    â€œWe…might as well get it over with. Don’t you think?” she asked.
    He smiled. “If you’re…asking what I think you’re asking…”
    â€œI…find you…attractive,” she said quickly.
    â€œThe feeling’s mutual.”
    â€œI don’t want you to think anything more will come of this. We have to work together on missions. I don’t want to ruin that for us. I like working with you. You’re fun to be with. And I don’t want the whole agency to know about this.”
    â€œI’ll be perfectly discreet.”
    Then she worried. What if he thought she meant she wanted to have sex with him? She felt her face flush with heat. “We’d better get our sleep.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œYeah.” She didn’t know why she was having such a time with this. Maybe because she was so afraid of what others in the branch might think about them. Out with the old, in with the new. And she really wasn’t this…impulsive. If anyone else had offered to let her stay for a few nights—like his sister or someone not as hot, someone she didn’t like and admire so much and who didn’t seem to feel the same way about her but was also available—she wouldn’t have had any problem with it.
    â€œMelissa?”
    â€œHmm?”
    â€œWhat are you thinking?”
    Way too much. “That I should be sleeping. That…we should be sleeping.”
    She looked over at him. He was smiling. “But?” he asked. His gaze drifted to her mouth.
    â€œWe shouldn’t,” she said.
    â€œWe shouldn’t,” he agreed, yet his eyes stole to her lips again.
    â€œWe don’t really want this,” she said, as if reassuring herself that was the right thing to say and the right way to feel.
    â€œWe don’t.” Only he said it as more of a question. And then he unlocked his arms from behind his head, and she knew she was in trouble. She should have turned away from him and pretended to sleep.
    He turned to face her and ran his hand over her hair. She was too far away. Unless he moved closer, or she did… And she knew she shouldn’t move any closer.
    Melissa was cute. Huntley wasn’t really sure what she was thinking. How could he be? He was a guy and what he was thinking was how much he’d like to make love to her. Not just because she was convenient. But because he’d thought about it on and off since he’d first seen her and then worked with her. He didn’t think she really was ready to go to sleep. Not the way she was mulling over the situation between them.
    He could understand her reluctance to get involved with him—especially so soon after both their breakups. Yet he felt they were so much more compatible than they’d been with their recent others. Melissa needed someone who could enjoy the wilderness with her like Huntley did and who understood what she went through on missions. He needed someone he could decompress with, who didn’t shut him out when he wanted to talk about the last mission he’d been on, and who enjoyed working with him on missions.
    â€œYou want to talk?” He didn’t want the same thing he had with Genista,