Free Edge of Danger by Cherry Adair

unnerving feeling that he was crowding her space, but he was a good fifteen feet away and hadn’t moved.
     
      Eden, all five feet seven sturdy inches of her, suddenly felt petite and more female than she’d ever felt in her life. Dear God, who was he?
     
      For God’s sake, she gave herself a mental shake, one of them should say something. “Who are you?” she said, taking control of the situation. “Where did you come fr—”
     
      His silence, his uncanny stillness, was more unnerving than if he’d physically, or even verbally, threatened her. Fine, buddy. Go ahead and look your fill. Twenty seconds after I press the emergency buzzer, this lab will be filled with security people. I’ll stand right here staringback at you as long as it takes me to get to that buzzer. Then you’ll be toast.
     
      The lab seemed to fade away. Her entire focus and awareness were on this man watching her. She could hear her own pulse in her ears, feel the frantic rush of blood through her veins. She was ultra aware of her hair tickling her neck, and the press of her breasts against the inside of her bra. She even felt the brush of her eyelashes against her too-long bangs.
     
      She was shaken to the core by her own powerful, all-consuming reaction to this man. This stranger. It was as if she knew him on some deep primitive level she’d never experienced before. She was aware of danger. Of longing. Of need and of fear. Fear, not of him, which was insane, but of the power of her own reaction to him.
     
      She’d never felt such a visceral response to a man in her life. She wanted to run into his arms and bury her head against his broad chest.
     
      Involuntarily, she took a small backward step as he pushed himself off the edge of her desk and silently started walking toward her on large, bare feet. Feeling stalked, panic welled up inside her.
     
      Run, for God’s sake. Run!
     
      If she’d found his disconcerting stillness unsettling, she was even more panicky as he approached. Her heart thumped harder and harder. All the little hairs on her body stood to attention as if electrified.
     
      “Close your mouth, Dr. Cahill,” he said mildly enough, but his nostrils flared like a stallion scenting a mare as he came closer and closer. His voice resonated inside her like a tuning fork. Incapable of dragging her gaze from his mouth, she thought vaguely, I know that voice… Then she pulled herself up short. Get a grip here, Eden, she warned herself, forcing her attention away from his mouth. But seeing the strange intensity in his narrowed eyes was almost as unnerving.
     
      His gaze fell, drifting like a physical touch, over her shirt, down her jean-clad legs, lingering on her bare toes in the strappy red sandals, then just as slowly, meandered back to her face.
     
      Her eyes widened at the warmth suffusing her body. The sexual chemistry between them startled the hell out of her. It was so hot, so fast, so unexpected, it stole her breath.
     
      Horrified, she felt her nipples peak and her body throb as though she were being touched. Snapping her mouth shut, Eden narrowed her eyes right back at him. Tension stretched between them, heavy and thick.
     
      The only way he could possibly have come in was to have passed Jason as he exited. He hadn’t.
     
      “How the hell did you get in here?” And that was only one of many questions that demanded answers. Damn him. Was he performing some sort of hypnosis? She couldn’t figure out how, or why, she was suddenly feeling aroused. It was as inappropriate as it was unlikely. And the second time today.
     
      Stop that, she told her body. Just damn well stop that. The rise of her jeans caused a friction she didn’t need, and she wasn’t moving so much as an eyelash. Her heart rate was so elevated she was scared she’d pass out at any minute. Her core temperature seemed to rise the closer he came.
     
      She shot him a suspicious glare.
     
      His lips