Page 2 of Hot Intent

He smiled and the warmth reached all the way to his eyes. “I’ve missed that little squirt.”

She leaned back in his embrace to gaze up at him fondly. Hah. Alex hadn’t changed a bit. What was Fortinay so worried about? She commented, “She’s not so little anymore. Were you able to see the pictures I sent you of her?”

His gaze went black as a stormy, starless night, and all the warmth melted from him, leaving a furious, sharp-edged stranger tensed in her arms.

Whoa. Note to self: don’t ask Alex about the last year just yet. Don’t even bring it up.She shivered at the icy chill abruptly emanating from him.Shouldshe be afraid of him?

She couldn’t believe that, when they’d first met, she’d been so naïve she hadn’t clocked just how dangerous a man he was, how deadly his world was, and how much peril she’d strolled right into.

Keeping her plastered almost painfully tight against his side, he strode across the sleek living room of his penthouse and down the hall to the nursery where their adopted daughter, Dawn, recently turned one, slept.

He cracked the door open and a wedge of light lit the crib. “My God, she’s grown so much,” he breathed. “I don’t even recognize the newborn we rescued from Zaghastan.”

“I thought they taught you in medical school that growing is what babies do.”

He snorted without taking his gaze off the sleeping baby. “She’s gorgeous.”

“Did you ever get a good look at her birth mother before she died? The girl was stunning. Our Dawn’s going to keep you hopping in about thirteen years when the boys start sniffing around.”

“There will be no sniffing,” he said firmly.

She laughed under her breath. “Good luck with that.”

He backed out of the doorway and retraced his steps to the bar in the corner of the living room. He poured himself a shot of ridiculously expensive Russian vodka and tossed it down with a groan of appreciation.

“Missed the good stuff?” she asked.

“You have no idea.”

“How bad was it?” she asked softly. In spite of her reservations about making him turn to ice again, Alex would think something weird was up if she didn’t display at least a little curiosity.

His eyes shuttered instantly and completely. “Rough.” And that was obviously all he planned to say about it. Great. He was back to one-word sentences punctuated by long silences.

“Fair enough. Glad to be home?”

He looked around the condo, his sharp gaze probing the corners carefully. “Thanks for house-sitting.”

She laughed. “It was a real hardship, living in all this luxury for free.” She added more seriously, “Actually, it helped me feel closer to you while you were gone. I missed you.”

She waited for him to say he’d missed her…but nothing. She sighed. “Any chance I could convince you to give me a teensy hint as to how you’re feeling right now? André said not to ask you any questions and let you dictate the pace of your return to real life. But I don’t know what to say or do. I can’t read you.”

He poured himself another shot of vodka but sipped at this one. He grimaced and finally bit out grimly, “I missed you.”

She knew him well enough not to take personally how supremely unhappy he sounded about that development. He’d been raised by his spymaster father to believe all human emotions were weaknesses in need of expunging from his heart and mind.

“André said you might want some time by yourself to decompress after your training. I’ve talked with my parents, and they’ve invited me and Dawn for a visit to give you some space.”

“No,” he replied sharply. “Stay.”

“Are you sure?”

“You’re safest here.”

He wasn’t kidding. She’d spent the much of the past year learning all the many, daunting security features of his fortress-like home. This place was elegant and gorgeous on the inside, hard and impenetrable on the outside. Rather like him.

“You haven’t lived with a toddler before. Dawn will totally destroy your grand solitude. Chaos is the normal state of affairs around here,” she warned him in all seriousness.

Not to mention, she was concerned about his reflexive responses to a baby. Who knew what knee-jerk reactions had been hard-wired into him this year? Were she and Dawn even safe around him? After seeing the hard detachment in his eyes, she wasn’t entirely sure.

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