Free Hunter's Need by Shiloh Walker Page B

deep breath, taking in her scent. Female. A little heavier on the perfume than he liked. Still, soft . . . warm . . . definitely female. He caught the trace of another scent on her, though—a guy’s. It had a feel to it, a settled-in feel. Somebody she came in contact with regularly. Close contact.
    He smirked and glanced down at the hand on his leg. Her left hand. There wasn’t a ring there now, but there had been. Recently. He could see the paler strip of skin where the band had rested. Chances were, it was tucked somewhere inside her purse or something
    “Very considerate of you . . . sure your husband won’t mind?”
    Then he caught her wrist and guided it back to her own lap. Ignoring the look of disbelief on her face, he folded his arms over his chest, closed his eyes and feigned sleep.
    He wasn’t about to sleep, though.
    The woman was right about one thing, though—he did need to find something else to think about, something else to focus on. Like the fact that shortly after he landed, he was going to have to track down Ana and apologize for being an ass. And he was going to have to find some way to work with her for a little while.
    Close contact with Ana Morell—something he’d avoided like the plague for five years.
    Shit, the last time he’d been in close contact with her, he’d been just a breath away from being about as close to a woman as a man could get. So fucking close the scent of her wet pussy had flooded his head, so close her tight nipples had pressed into his chest as he arched her head back and kissed her. With her skirt shoved to her waist, the only thing that had separated them had been a pair of panties and his jeans. Too many times, he’d found himself dreaming of that night, but the pathetic part was that only half of the dreams were nightmares.
    The rest of them were the sort of dream that brought him awake on the knife’s edge of desire, his cock aching and his balls burning. Too many dreams where he wished he’d at least had the chance to bury his dick inside that soft, pale body before she sold him down the river.
    She might have sold you down the river, but if it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t have gotten out of that hellhole alive .
    It was a familiar voice, one that had whispered the same thing in his mind over and over. The voice of his conscience? Or the voice of his libido? Duke didn’t know, didn’t care, wished it would just shut the hell up.
    One thing was certain, he wasn’t ever going to get that damned close to Ana ever again. She’d betrayed him, humiliated him, hurt —
    No.
    One hand closed into a fist. She hadn’t hurt him.
    He’d have to care about her in order for to hurt him on any level other than physical. And he didn’t care about her.
    She might have caused him physical pain, might have been behind some of the most hellacious moments of his life, but it was all physical. All of it. She couldn’t hurt him on a deeper level because he didn’t care about her.
    He didn’t.

CHAPTER 5
     
     
     
     
    L ATE Sunday night, with her checking account a few hundred dollars lighter, Ana returned the rental and caught the bus back to Hillside. Nothing. She’d accomplished exactly nothing, other than wasting money. She was careful with finances and she hadn’t spent anything she couldn’t afford to lose, but there was no way she could keep this up. She’d be completely broke in a couple of months and she could just say adios to the idea of trying to buy a car in the spring.
    You’ll make it work. She wanted to give herself a better mental pep talk, but she was too damned tired and even on the best of days, Ana was not an optimist. Stubborn, yes. Optimistic, no.
    The ride across town took too long. When the bus finally arrived at her stop, she was the only one to exit and she breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped out into the cool night air. Riding the bus was cheaper on the wallet and better on the environment, but she hated being closed in with a