Hunting Eve

Come to him.

Her entire body was tinglingly alive and coming, surging, to him.

“Shh, not that, not yet.” His tongue touched the flesh of her shoulder. “Just give your body what it needs to heal. A few more minutes, and the heat will cause everything to blur, and the need will be gone for a while.”

She didn’t believe him. The need was too intense, too hot, the feel of him was too good. She instinctively moved closer.

“No. Later, anything you want. Not now.” His cheek rubbed back and forth against her breasts. “Feel your heart beat? It’s bringing the blood to every part of your upper body. But particularly where the wound is causing all that shock and trauma.” She shuddered as he licked delicately at her nipple. “Burning? Stomach muscles clenching? It’s all good, Jane.”

She drew a deep breath. “The hell it is.”

“It will have a good result.” His cheek was once more on her shoulder. “But the blur is coming. You can relax now.”

The blur.

The heat.

Dizziness and swirling intensity.

Relaxed …

The sexual need was still there, but it was like low-burning embers.

Everything was visible only through a red heat haze.

Blood haze?

It didn’t matter …

All she wanted to do was lie there with Caleb and let the haze surround her. But should she—

“Shh, it’s okay. Let go. I’ll bring you back when you’ve had enough…”

CHAPTER

11

JANE’S EYES FLEW OPEN, startled.

“Don’t be afraid,” Caleb whispered. “It’s just time for you to start stirring. They’re starting to serve the meds. You don’t want any nurses bustling in here.”

“No.” Not with Caleb half-dressed and in bed with her. “How long was—”

“Long enough for you.” He sat up and carefully rebandaged her wound. “And not nearly long enough for me. Button your shirt. I’d do it, but I’m afraid you’ve been jarred out of intimacy.” He swung his feet to the floor, and his fingers began buttoning his shirt. “But it was quite an intimacy, wasn’t it?”

“Intimacy? I don’t know what it was,” Jane said as she hurriedly buttoned her shirt. “I’ve never felt anything like that before. I think you must have hypnotized me or something.”

“You said yes, Jane.”

“I know I did. I thought—I believed you when you said—” She looked at him. “Should I have believed you, Caleb?”

“Ask yourself that question. How do you feel, Jane?”

She thought about it. “Good, I think.” Her eyes widened. “No, very good. Normal.”

“High energy?”

“Yes.”

“Any pain in your shoulder?”

She moved her shoulder in a half shrug. “No pain at all.”

“Why don’t you take a look at the wound.”

She slowly pulled her shirt off her shoulder and shifted the bandage. “It’s still there. No miracle recovery, Caleb.”

“The doctors will think it’s one. We accomplished three weeks’ worth of healing in the last three hours.” He headed for the door. “Now go wash your face while I go round up a doctor or two to give you the once-over.”

“Do you think it really worked, Caleb?”

“It worked. Once you get on your feet and start moving, you’ll know that it did.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “And you may feel a little strange for a while, but you’ll get used to it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your blood has become … accustomed to responding to me. It may continue to have a residual effect on your body responses. We were together for a long time. Action and reaction.”

“You didn’t say there would be any long-term effects.”

“I didn’t, did I? I wasn’t really sure, but there was always that possibility. We’ll have to work through it ourselves.” He smiled slyly. “I wouldn’t mention that to Trevor. It might make him feel a little … excluded.”

She stared at him in astonishment, then understood. He hadn’t liked it one bit when she had told him that Trevor had reminded her of Cira’s lover, Anthony. It somehow made her closer to Trevor in his eyes. This was a little payback.

She said softly, “Why, you bastard.”

She heard him laugh as he walked out the door.

Southern Colorado

“IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU answered your phone,” Venable said sourly.

“How was I supposed to know it was you until you unblocked your caller ID.” Kendra glanced over at Margaret, who was asleep in the passenger seat. They had passed construction sites and several wailing sirens on their trip down to southern Colorado, but she hadn’t stirred. A simple phone conversation was unlikely to wake her. “I don’t pick up for just anyone.”

“I’m honored,” he said sarcastically. “But I believe you might have suspected I’d be calling. And I know that Jane MacGuire must have been trying to reach you. She was very upset when she heard about what was happening at Goldfork.”

“Then you shouldn’t have told her, dammit.”

“And I’ll bet you haven’t answered her calls, either.”

He was right. Kendra had wanted to put off talking to anyone until she absolutely had to do it. She had to sift through the events of the past hours and decide what she could reveal. She hated lies, and deceit was just that in her eyes. “How was I to know that you’d bring Jane into this? Qui

“Disturbed? We have a lot of questions about what went down in Goldfork. A lot of people are upset that you decided to flee the scene, especially since you left behind a dead cop in the driveway.”

“A man tried to kill us up there in Goldfork. Excuse me for not wanting to stick around.”

“Who?”

“Blick.”

“Are you sure?”

“Margaret is sure.”

“Margaret Douglas is with you? We had reports of a woman of her description in the neighborhood but no confirmation.”

“She got to Goldfork even before I did. She recognized Blick from the photo in the dossier you gave to Qui

“No sign of him. When did you last see him?”

“At Doane’s house.”

“Could he be following you?”

“Yes, but I’m fairly sure he’s not.”

“Okay, putting aside that bit of news … What in the hell was Blick doing back in Goldfork? It looks like he tried to destroy the house with that gas explosion.”

This was a bit awkward. “Actually, that was sort of my handiwork.”

Venable muttered a curse. “I suppose I should have known.”

“Why should you have known? It was purely in self-defense.” She paused. “Is there anything left of the house?”

“Yeah. Most of it is fine. Just a couple rooms upstairs were damaged. Evidence teams are there now. They really want to talk to you.”

“Later.” Kendra drove in silence for a moment. It would probably have been better for her if the place had burned to the ground. She had an idea what his next question was going to be. She wasn’t surprised when it came.

“So what did you find in that staircase, Kendra?”

“The staircase?”

“I received pictures. A panel on the landing was destroyed. More of your handiwork?”

“Yes.”

“So what did you find?”

She braced herself. She hated this. “Nothing. We were still fishing around in there when Blick showed up. I was just going to suggest that your people give it a closer look. Doane went to a lot of trouble to make that secret compartment.”

A long moment of silence. “We searched and came up with zilch. Are you positive you didn’t find the disk?”

“No disk.”

“Or anything else?”

Damn, she hated to lie. “I’m positive.”

Another pause. He didn’t believe her.

Tit for Tat. She wasn’t sure she believed anything he’d told her about that disk either.

She looked down at the tattered notebook on the console beside her. Not yet, Venable.

“Okay,” he finally said.

“Have the forensics guys pulled anything else from Doane’s car?”

“Not a lot. That was gold dust in the trunk, but it wasn’t especially pure.”

“Unprocessed?”