Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

explosions in his mind. His left palm itched so badly he rubbed it along his thigh. He remained where he was, as if his feet had grown roots. His heart pounded and he tasted passion in his mouth, a fruit he’d never known but recognized instantly. Judith. She filled up all the emptiness in him. Somehow in the small space of time he’d spent with her, she’d poured herself into him and brought him something he never imagined: hope. She represented life. Living.
    He was aware of people moving up the walkway to their right, from the direction of the tower. He might be able to use the small crowd as a shield, work his way around to get behind Ivanov. If he could, he would track Ivanov back to his lair and kill him. The disposal of his body would be easy enough and that would give him time to find his brother without fear of exposing him to an exterminator.
    Right now, the most imperative thing in his world was to protect Judith. He kept his body between the sniper and Judith. His mind demanded to know what the hell he was doing, but his body remained firmly in place.
    He doubted if Ivanov would take the shot even if he had it. It was too soon. The assassin wanted Lev. His brother had disappeared here, presumed dead, and Petr Ivanov wasn’t buying it. His plan was to kill both Prakenskii brothers, not just Stefan. So he wouldn’t shoot, but just in case, Stefan’s sense of self-preservation should have forced him to move. It was impossible to though, and the terrible itch on the back of his neck grew.
    Damn the woman. What in the hell was taking so long? “Do you need help?” he offered politely, staying in the role of Thomas Vincent.
    “The lock seems to be stuck.”
    Judith glanced over her shoulder at him, and his heart nearly stopped. There was something incredibly alluring about her face with that fall of silky hair across it. Her gaze drifted over him and for a moment time seemed to stand still. He wasn’t the only one tasting passion in his mouth, it was there, in her eyes. He had caught glimpses of fire in her earlier paintings and he hadn’t been wrong. No matter how cool and controlled she acted, the fire was there seething beneath the surface, ready for the right man to bring out.
    He pulled back from his thoughts very sharply. What right man? He was nobody’s right man. He lived in another world, far from this one, and he had no right thinking a woman like Judith Henderson could be his. Not even in his imagination—yet he didn’t move, not an inch.
    “Let me try.” He didn’t wait for her to step aside, but reached around her with both arms, trapping her between the door and his body, careful to keep her hidden from Ivanov’s scope while he took the key from her hand.
    His fingers brushed hers. A jolt blazed through his body, the force of it shaking him. She was more frightening than any enemy he’d ever stalked and killed. She moved him when nothing ever had. A captive in the circle of his arms, she went very still, but he felt every breath she took. Heat rushed through his veins and settled like a fireball in his groin. He had used sex as an effective weapon, a perfect tool, extracting information, controlling his body, allowing an erection when needed, sustaining it for as long as it took, but he couldn’t remember a time when his body responded to a woman in the way it was doing now, almost as if it had a mind of its own.
    The strange and very unique phenomenon was both shocking and exhilarating. He’d never been on a roller coaster, but he felt almost as if he was on one now—thrown this way and that, off balance, all over the place, nearly incapable of breathing. His lungs felt starved for air. He was aware of everything about her, strands of her hair, the length of her lashes, her parted lips, the rise and fall of her breasts even as he pushed the key into the dead bolt and wiggled repeatedly to get the lock to fall into place.
    “I have to tell you, Judith,” he confessed, half Stefan and half Thomas, “it’s getting harder and harder to breathe.”
    He expected her to push him away. Anything to save herself—or him. Maybe she didn’t realize the danger she was in and it had nothing whatsoever to do with a sniper’s bullet.
    “I noticed that. My lungs are burning too.”
    He groaned. Her honesty was going to kill him. He wasn’t an honest man. He didn’t even know now if he was deliberately manipulating her, which he was entirely capable of. He had no idea who he was