Free Traitorous Attraction by C. J. Miller

him.
    Kate dropped her arm, pressing it over her chest and drawing his attention to that spot. “My heart is racing. I thought Sphere had found us.” She retreated to her sleeping area on the floor.
    Kate’s touch had riled his heart rate more than the unexpected and unknown visitor had. He dragged in air and diverted his thoughts to something other than Kate’s smell, her soft skin and her bedroom voice. “You didn’t need to get involved,” Connor said. The feel of Kate’s hand on his stomach echoed through his senses.
    “I owed you after the incident in the bar with the Snake Man. I figured it would be faster to get rid of her this way instead of arguing. Who knows what else she would have shown you or said to convince you to pay her.”
    “I might have paid her to go away,” Connor said.
    Kate let out a small laugh. “Then I saved you some cash.”
    Connor lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. He took several more slow, deep breaths to calm his body to return to sleep. Connor thought again of the dress and pictured it on Kate. “Have you ever shown up at a man’s door looking for sex?” The question was out of line, but his thoughts had obsessed over it, he’d asked it and it was too late to take it back. Maybe Kate would admit more about her relationship with his brother. That would deep-freeze his body’s excited reaction for sure.
    “At a stranger’s house? No. A man I was dating? Sure.”
    Her admission heated his body and blood rushed between his legs. She was involved with Aiden in some manner and that alone should put the chill on his libido. It didn’t. He wanted her and very little would change that.
    Aiden and Connor had never been competitive with each other. The world they’d grown up in was brutal enough without adding brotherly conflicts to it. Knowing it wasn’t right to think about her in a sexual way, knowing she was off-limits, made Connor desire Kate more. How juvenile could he be?
    Being alone with Kate was a test of his loyalty to his brother. Kate deserved his respect in deference to Aiden. Thinking of her in an inappropriate manner would only make it awkward when Aiden and Kate were reunited.
    If they were reunited. Connor hadn’t given up on finding his brother, but he wouldn’t pin his hopes on it either. Too easy to destroy them. That was a lesson he had learned at a young age from his father.
    “What about you? I don’t see you as the long-term, monogamous relationship type. Do you like to have a woman in every port?” Kate asked.
    Connor had never gotten involved with a local woman while he was overseas on a mission, even if that woman had nothing to do with his tasks. When he had been home, he had attempted to have relationships with women, but they’d ended because he was away for too long. Working for Sphere meant he couldn’t talk about his work, which created difficulties. How could he tell a woman he was dating that even though he had been gone for the past three months, he couldn’t talk about what he had been doing or tell her anything about his work? When he returned from a mission, he was out of the loop on what was happening in her life. It had become more and more challenging to find conversation to fill the silences. “I rarely returned to the same region after I completed my missions, and I avoid getting involved with a woman while I’m working even if she’s only peripherally involved in my missions.”
    “Did you leave someone waiting for you at home?” she asked.
    “Left someone? Yes. Left her waiting? No. It never worked, and after a few failures, I stopped trying. I’m better off alone.” It was easier for him to focus when he didn’t have anyone’s expectations on him. He could live his life how he wanted, come and go when he pleased, and never have to explain himself.
    “You’re really into the whole solitary thing, aren’t you?” Kate asked.
    Was that pity in her voice? He did not care for that in the least. “It’s not that