ad vanished, replaced by a raw intensity that made the air crackle. The silence stretched,

sofa, her movements a little too stiff as she gripped her purse. Her finge

was silent, but she felt his presence as a physical

but didn't

quiet room. "How much?" she asked, her voice brittle. She kep

kbook down against the sofa cushion. His fingers were long

anger flaring. "Tak

g obeyed. But it had no effect on him. He didn't move. He just

ce low and rough, a dangerous rumble. "A transac

, but it was like trying to move stone. Frustration

d it. It sailed across the room, landing silently on the thick rug, a

about the glass coffee table behind her. The edge of it hit the back of h

rward. She stumbled into him, her hands landing flat against the hard wall of his chest.

t of his heart under her hand, a stark contrast to her own frantic pulse.

her ear. His breath was hot against he

m it. What remained was something harder to name-something that sounded almost like a confession. "

eath c

orner of her jaw, light as a question. "You're right not to trust me. You'd be a fool if you did. B

just enough t

u to let that

em-not a demand, not a confession of

an a discharged soldier looking for private security work. The way he had found that camera-fingers moving straight to the vent, no

oyalty that asked for nothi

angerous thing he

. This time, he let her go. She stumbled back, p

ad reached for didn't quite land. Her voice wavered. She tried aga

w now-a reflex, not a conviction. A script she was

st held her gaze, steady and unreadable, as

cold, unyielding wall against her b

he wall next to her head, trapping her. He leaned in, his body ca

," he murmured, his voic

mble. The ghosts of the past, of another man's betrayal, another man's touch, rose up to choke her. And beneath it, c

d to feel small

ce wen

ced her anger-and beneath the terror, something else. Calculation. The look of

. He immediately pulled back, d

, his voice strained

tance between them. He held his hands up, p

was sitting on the floor. She wrapped her arms around her knees, making herself as small as possible. Her

poured a glass of water-not from the chilled bottle, she noticed, but from the room-tem

shed against his as she did, and a jolt, like static electricity,

ce soft but firm, filled with an unshakeable convic

rst time, something shifted. Not trust-not yet. But the recognition that wh

She tucked it away, somewhere she wou

ring of the hotel landline c

ed, startled

s feet and answ

as his shoulders tensed, his entire posture shifting fr

to face her. His expression wa

he said. "He's brought his attorn