Page 4 of Under Pressure

“You need to listen to me.”

Turning away but quivering inside, she protectively shot at him, “To whom?”

“Look… I think we got off wrong.”

“When? Today or last time?” she barked out.

He fell silent, his dark gaze following her.

She leaned forward, unable to believe his audacity. “You show up here—to my workplace—after not so much as trying to call. And what’s the real reason? Did I miss your application to LAPD?” She’d transformed her tone to accusatory, insinuating the worst. “You know, it’s not uncommon for predators to revisit their crime scenes and admire their own work…”

“Predators, huh?” Fire flashed in his dark eyes. “I think you are overlooking who the predator is here.”

“Get the hell out of here. Isn’t there some mortal combat you can sign up for?” She dismissed him. “I’m busy. Find someone else who’s interested in your misplaced heroics.”

Only infuriating her further, he didn’t move one sculpted muscle, which she should have expected would be the case. She gritted her teeth together as anger flushed up her body, nearly turning her vision as black as his soul. Why the hell was he standing before her? The unconscionable arrogance that it would take to show up then and there was astounding. Turning and marching away from him, inhaling to catch her rattling breath, Kendra hated the agony she was in—all because of him.

She pleaded with God that he would just go away, stop existing, but her prayers were unanswered. Heavy footsteps edging around the blood splatters on the concrete told her what she didn’t want to know.

He’s not leaving.

“What happened here?” Delta pushed her, trying to take back control of the conversation. She recognized his tactic.

“What makes you think I’d answer that?” Kendra whipped her head back to sneer at him. She watched him carefully, reading every movement. “You think I trust you?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

A tougher woman wouldn’t have responded, but she snapped up her head, taking his bait and narrowing her eyes on his stupidly sexy face. She replied, “For reasons you should know.”

“Tell me,” he continued, unrelenting.

“No,” she replied, a little surprised. Was it just her, or was his approach lacking his typical charm?

Analyzing him, she had to avert her gaze quickly again. Unfortunately, his just-returned-from-war roughness only made her want to feel his impossibly muscular body on top of hers once again. That locked-away part of her mind wandered to the feel of his thick cock in her…

Breathless, she looked up and witnessed him staring right back at her. His mouth twisted into a sly grin, as if knowing she was just melting inside. No doubt that was exactly what he wanted. If there was one thing she knew about Delta—he always wanted something.

“Okay, hotshot, you didn’t come here to spray luminol for me,” she snapped at him. “So, what are you after?”

“You,” Delta offered up fast. Too fast. “It’s that fucking simple.”

“Why? After all this time?” Kendra shook her head. “After you couldn’t even be bothered to—”

Call. She finished the sentence silently, forcing her mouth shut. That hot feeling rising, she admitted to herself that she was letting him get under her skin. And now her words were slipping from sharp to vulnerable. Showing her true feelings wasn’t something she was prepared to do. He didn’t deserve to know how he’d left her.

She turned her full attention back to the warehouse floor, trying to ignore the wall of masculine heat that was stalking her. Wild, unwelcome thoughts flooded her mind as his presence loomed just out of reach. Instinctively, she flitted her gaze back up to his tall form, only to see him much closer than she expected, looking down his long, perfectly straight nose at her.

“Enough of the games.” Delta drove it home, clear and authoritative. “I saw what Hunter almost did to you. We can’t let that slide.”

Absorbing his words, she took an unstable step backward, her thighs vibrating slightly from the intensity of his sharp gaze. Her heel clicked on the concrete floor as she stumbled, the sound echoing throughout the room.

“We can’t let that slide?” Kendra whispered into the dusty air. “There’s no ‘we’.”

“He’s dangerous,” Delta growled, that familiar fire in his eyes driving warning alarms in her. “Don’t trust him.”

“I don’t know what you think you saw, but Hunter would never hurt me.” As she slid backward, everything in her body screamed for help.

Without explanation, Delta trailed in her wake, his eyes locked on her. There was no getting away. It was one thing to be warned, another to be warned by a man who made her feel patently unsafe. She flashed her gaze to the entrance, hearing the distant voices of her colleagues outside the building. Any second, someone could come in. She begged for that to happen.

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