Page 32 of Close Protection

"Strangers don't know the sounds each other makes when they orgasm.” The words landed like a physical blow, cracking the air between them. "Strangers don't know which touches make each other gasp."

Julia finally turned fully toward her, color rising in her cheeks. "Stop."

"Why? Because it makes you uncomfortable? Because it reminds you that you're human beneath all that control?" Ivy stepped closer still, close enough to catch the scent of Julia's skin beneath the cabin's woodsmoke. "Or because it reminds you how quickly thatcontrol vanished when your fingers were inside me?"

Julia's breath caught audibly. Her hands flexed at her sides, a small tell that sent a rush of satisfaction through Ivy. Finally, a reaction.

"This isn't appropriate," Julia managed.

"No," Ivy agreed, "it isn't. Neither was taking me to bed when you didn't even know my name. But you did it anyway." She tilted her head, studying Julia's face. "What made you break your own rules that night, Detective Scott? What made me different?"

"Nothing made you different," Julia said, the words coming too quickly. "It was just?—"

"Just what?"

"Just a mistake."

The word shouldn't have hurt. Ivy had gone to the hotel bar seeking exactly what had happened: anonymous connection, temporary escape, no complications. But hearing Julia dismiss it so cleanly still felt like a slap.

"If it was just a mistake," she said, her voice dropping lower, "why can't you look at me without remembering? I see it every time you force yourself to meet my eyes. You'rereliving it. Wondering if it would be the same. Wondering if I taste the same."

Julia stepped back, physically retreating from Ivy's advance. It was the first time Ivy had seen her surrender ground.

"This won't help our situation," Julia said, her voice tight with restraint.

"What situation? The one where we're trapped by a storm, or the one where we're pretending that night never happened?"

"Both." Julia's shoulders stiffened. "I have a job to do, Dr. Monroe?—"

"And there it is. 'Dr. Monroe.' So formal, so proper. Erasing our history with a title." Ivy gave a sharp laugh that held no humor. "You weren't calling me 'Doctor' when you had your mouth on my?—"

"Enough!" Julia's fist came down on the windowsill with enough force to rattle a nearby mug. The outburst shocked them both into momentary silence.

Thunder crashed outside, perfectly timed punctuation to Julia's rare display of emotion. The storm had begun to match their internal turbulence, wind howling around the cabin's corners as rain lashed against the windows with renewed ferocity.

"You want to know why I'm maintaining distance?" Julia finally asked, her voice low and dangerous. "Because attachment is a liability in this situation. Because emotional complications get people killed. Because the moment I start thinking about you as anything other than a witness who needs protection is the moment I compromise your safety."

"That's very noble, but it's also bullshit." Ivy crossed her arms. "You're not keeping your distance to protect me. You're doing it to protect yourself."

"You don't know anything about me."

"I know more than you think. I know you fight to maintain control because you're terrified of what happens when you lose it. I know you hide behind protocol because it's safer than genuine connection. I know?—"

"You don't know me," Julia cut her off, stepping forward now, closing the distance Ivy had been trying to eliminate. Her eyes were dark with something beyond anger. "You spent one night with a woman you deliberately didn't ask the name of. You don't get to claim insight into who I am or why I do what I do."

"Then tell me," Ivy challenged. "Tell me why you're so afraid of acknowledging what happened between us."

"Because it can't happen again!" The words burst from Julia with unexpected force, raw and unfiltered. "Because every time I look at you, I remember, and I want—" She cut herself off abruptly, jaw clenching as she visibly fought to restore her composure.

The admission hung in the air between them, electric and unstable. Ivy felt her pulse quicken, victory and awareness tangling in her chest. She'd finally broken through Julia's careful facade, exposing the wanting beneath.

"You want what?" she pressed, unwilling to let Julia retreat.

Julia's eyes met hers, stripped of their professional distance for the first time since they'd recognized each other in the safe house. "It doesn't matter what I want. My job is to keep you alive, not complicate an already dangerous situation with…distractions."

"Is that what I am to you? A distraction?"

"You know you're more than that," Julia admitted, so quietly Ivy almost missed itbeneath the storm's constant roar. "That's the problem."

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