The Departed

room.” His voice lowered when she tensed and tried to pull away.
    “You don’t get to boss me around anymore, Jones.”
    She tried once more to pull away, but this time he herded her into a narrow dip in the wall. A quick glance showed that it led to the chapel. She glared up at him. To her surprise, he was glaring back, his pale blue eyes glittering at her, and his normally emotionless face was anything but. “I’m not trying to boss you around, damn it. You’re walking around looking like you’ve got death dancing on your shoulders and you’re not doing shit to stop it. Should I just ignore it?”
    “What does it matter to you?” She shouldn’t be looking at him. She told herself that, told herself to look away, to look anywhere but at him. She couldn’t, though. She couldn’t look away from his eyes. Swallowing, she rested her head against the wall and repeated, “What does it matter to you?”
    A heavy breath rushed out of him, his shoulders rising and falling. His blue eyes, so fiery hot and so unlike the cool, icy professionalism she was used to seeing, bored into hers. “Just shield up, damn it.” Then he shoved off the wall and stalked away.
    Immediately, Dez sagged a few inches and covered her face with her hands. Damn it. What in the hell… Damn it. Her knees were shaking. Her belly felt all tight and hot and jittery, and damned if she knew why.
    You damn well do know —
    No. She wasn’t thinking about that—
    She took a deep breath and lowered her hands. Then she looked up and gasped when she realized Taylor had returned, silently. One hand came, curled over the back of her neck. “This is why it matters, damn it.” He hauled her against him and as his mouth crushed against hers, her brain clicked off, shut down…
    And her body came to life. After more than a year of existence, Dez felt like she was living again. His free hand gripped her hip, keeping her body pressed close to his while his other hand tangled in the short strands of her hair to yank her head back.
    This wasn’t just a kiss, she thought. It was…more. It was everything. He breathed her in, just as she breathed him in. After so much time apart from him, she felt complete again. Whole.
    His tongue stroked across her lower lip and she opened for him with a groan. He didn’t waste a second, pushing deep inside. She bit him lightly and his long, lean body shuddered, crowded her back against the wall.
    Dimly, she knew they couldn’t do this. Dimly, she knew they needed to stop.
    But she didn’t care .
    He was touching her. Finally, he was touching her again and it was so wonderful, so beautiful, she thought she might die. And then, just as quickly as it had started, it ended.
    He tore his mouth from hers, panting. Pressing his brow to hers, he stared into her eyes. “Damn you. You know why it matters.”
    “If it matters that much, you shouldn’t have let me walk,” she challenged.
    He sighed, one hand restlessly kneading her hip. “It’s because you matter that we can’t do this, Dez.” He closed his eyes and then pulled away. Not just physically.
    Mentally. She felt it, that slow mental withdrawal. Her heart ached inside, and those words made it all that much worse. She mattered ? Hell, if she mattered…then she shook her head. She couldn’t think about this right now. She had a job to do. And not just the one that Taylor had brought her here for—she’d made a promise to Tristan and even if he’d moved on, she would still keep that promise. She couldn’t leave until it was done.
    She wouldn’t acknowledge the disturbing sense that she had something else here that awaited her.
    That disturbing sensation in the cemetery.
    Those vague, faint whispers.
    She needed to cling to something—cling to the fact that she could just finish this job and get the hell away from Taylor Jones before he broke her heart all over again.
    HE’D lost his mind.
    Taylor knew he’d lost his mind. The last thing on earth he should have done was put his hands on her. The last thing he should have done was put his mouth on her. The last thing he should be thinking about was doing it again.
    But he was.
    Damn it, maybe he really was closer to losing his mind than he’d thought. Not that it would take much of a push, being here. He needed to focus, needed to get a grip. Needed to get whatever information he could out of Desiree, get her out of this place, and then see if the team was needed here. He wasn’t so certain they