Page 9 of Hot Zone

But the damage was done. She’d loosed a terrible craving in him. For more. More of her velvet softness. More of that sizzling electricity between them.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

He intoned in a deep voice from someplace subconscious within him, “I am your destiny.”

Tessa stared up at the intruder for a moment in complete disbelief. These Persian alpha males were awfully darned sure of themselves.

She couldn’t help it. She laughed. “That’s the dumbest line I’ve ever heard,” she chuckled.

Thunder gathered on the big man’s brow.

Whoops.She wasn’t a modern woman anymore. This was the ancient world, where women were treated little better than cattle, and valued less.

She reined in her mirth and did her best to assume a contrite tone. “My apologies. But I do not know you at all. It’s hard to credit such a declaration from a complete stranger.”

His brow smoothed out, but lightning continued to flash in his black gaze.

“What do you want from me?” she asked.

“How is it you did not see my trick?”

Ahh. The shape-shifting thing. “I have no idea. I just…didn’t see it. Maybe I’m too skeptical for such things to work on me.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“Honestly, I have no explanation. I actually would have liked to see what the others saw. They seemed tremendously impressed.”

He appeared slightly mollified by that confession. They stared at each other in silence for several seconds.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, this is my bedchamber,” she said gently, “and you’re in it. I was trying to sleep when you barged in.”

“Are you throwing me out?”

Was that amusement or disbelief in his voice?

“I’m afraid so.”

“You still haven’t answered my question. What brings you here?”

She shrugged. “I have been shipwrecked. I am far from home.”

“Far indeed,” he echoed significantly.

Tessa lurched. It almost sounded as if he knew….

Impossible! Even the idea of time travel would be too far-fetched for the ancient mind to conceive of, let alone believe in.

“We enter into the game, then,” he murmured.

Alarm exploded within her. She asked quickly, “What game?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “The dance between a man and woman as they circle closer to one another….” His voice was husky and low, sandpaper on her skin, sending shivers through her. “Letting the suspense build until they give in to mutual attraction and indulge in their forbidden desires and fantasies with one another.”

Forbidden desires and—

Whoa.

Military mission. Seek lost medallion piece. Bring it back to Arizona. Save the world….

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