Page 47 of Agent Zero
What?“Sure you can.”So tired, even his hair hurt a bit.I made it safe for you.Safe as possible, at least, and that jackass will never bother another woman again.Probably made the freeways a little safer, too.“Brush your teeth and lie down.Sorry about the fast food, but I thought you wouldn’t want to get out of the car.”You didn’t eat much, anyway.
“No.”She turned, and there was a glint in her beautiful smoky eyes he didn’t like the look of.“Reese, I’m sorry, but I can’t do this.”
“Just lie down.Sleep will?—”
“I don’t want to.”She picked up the backpack, and he heaved an internal sigh.Of course the situation would pick now to get difficult.“I want to go home.”
He reached for patience with every mental hand he possessed, and all the feet too.“That’s not a good?—”
“I don’t care what they do to me.I don’t care what happens.”She skirted the bed, and yes, friends and neighbors, she was heading for the door, hitching the backpack onto her shoulder.Did she have a plan?Not likely.“I just want to go home.”
“That’s rabbit-talk, Holly.”His nerves pulled taut as guitar strings, Reese took a deep breath and stayed where he was, next to the tiny mass-produced table.There was no way she was getting out of this room, but if he could avoid upsetting her, if he could just defuse her verbally, maybe?—
“I don’t care.I’m going home.”
“You think you can just hop on a bus and go back to working at the diner?They’ll nab you before you cross the state line, Holly, and then?—”
She just shook her head, a tendril of black hair falling free, and was almost in the critical zone, passing the door to the bathroom.
Stop it, he pleaded silently.Don’t make me do this.
“I won’t tell them anything, Reese.Just?—”
Moving, sliding past her faster than a normal human being could see.The thing about using that kind of speed was how it made the rest of the world seem so goddamn clumsy-slow—and the friction could erase skin, if you weren’t careful.
Holly gasped, staring at him; Reese now stood with his back to the door, his hands loose and easy.The look of frank openmouthed surprise might have even been funny in another situation.“How did youdothat?”
“Weren’t you listening?”Another deep breath, struggling to bring his pulse down.“I can do a lot of things, babe.You are not leaving this room.”
“You can’t watch me all the time.”Scowling now, a line between her eyebrows, and with her mouth puckered up that way all he could think of was getting his hands on her and?—
She flinched, because he’d moved again.Her backpack slid; he caught it, snapping her hand down neatly as she grabbed.They ended up nose to nose, Reese holding the goddamn pack and mirroring her stumbling steps as she backed up.
“Try me,” he answered, very softly.Her smell wrapped around him, delicious and warm and comforting.“I am not going to let you do anything stupid.You’re with me now, and it’s going to stay that way.”
Those big, depthless blue eyes, now full of crystalline tears.The faint lines beginning at the corners of her eyes—even her wrinkles were pretty, goddamn it all, and she was shivering again.Not with cold; he’d turned the heat on in here.
Probably with fear.
“I’m going to have to teach you to trust me,” he continued, searching for the right thing to say.“I’m sorry I left you alone in there, but I won’t do it again.I have never...”
What was he trying to express?
I have never really had anything in my entire life.Maybe he could say that.Or, They made me.I was a lump of meat and they turned me into this.I’m not even human.He could follow it up with,The only time I feel like a human being at all is when I look at you, for Christ’s sake.Because you’re so goddamn naive and sweet, and you’re more than worth fighting for.More than worth protecting.
How would she take that?The words balled up inside his chest, all the things he wanted to say, and he lost his chance when she shut her eyes and inhaled as if to scream.
The backpack hit the floor, he clapped his hand over her mouth, and her frantic backward motion to escape him turned into him pushing just enough to tip her balance.
They landed on the bed, Holly suddenly struggling, and it ended with both her wrists pinned overhead, his other hand still over her mouth.His knees on either side of her thighs, and her thrashing softness underneath him threatened to blow every circuit in the jumbled mess his head had become.
How in the hell did I get here?Reese went still, simply letting her strain against his hold and greater weight.That smell all over, bathing him, and the physical contact had its effect as well.An iron bar with its roots sunk into the lowest part of his belly, everything that could make him a man instead of a killing machine narrowing to a single still point—she was sweating now, and the urge to lean down, flick his tongue against her throat to taste it, almost drowned him.
“Calm down,” he whispered.Please.I don’t want to hurt you.Ever.
That was the problem, though.He probably would before this was over.
God knew he already had, just by existing near her.
