THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

reached this room. With her back to it, her face was hidden in shadows until she lifted her head. The sight of the pain in her eyes broke his heart.
    He opened his arms and she came into them. Zane wrapped her in a close embrace, so very glad to feel her warm body next to his.
    “I thought you were gone,” he said, his voice raw with emotion. “Forever.”
    She shook her head against his chest. Tears dampened his shirt.
    “Are you okay?” he asked.
    She nodded against his chest, hugging him around the waist.
    “How’d you get in?”
    “Trish came by. Saw me on the patio and thought I’d gotten locked out.” 
    He stroked up and down her back, his fingers massaging along her spine. His chin rested against her silky hair. A lump of gratitude formed in his throat. She was alive.
    Angel tilted her head back. Sad eyes beseeched him through wet lashes. “I had to get them away from you.” 
    Her fervent declaration shook him. She didn’t need to protect him. It was the other way around.
    He breathed out a deep sigh and leaned his forehead against hers, pleading in a whisper, “Honey, I wish you’d trust me enough to tell me what’s going on.”
    She pushed her hands up his chest then clasped each side of his face, stroking lightly until two fingers rested on his lips.
    He kissed the soft pads.
    “I told you, you’re the one person I do trust, but I’m not taking you down with me if my situation goes bad. If that happens, you need to be able to distance yourself from me.”
    There was one problem with that advice.
    He couldn’t distance himself because he couldn’t let her go. With or without her help, he’d get to the bottom of this and find a way to stop whoever was after her.
    Her sheer breath flowed against his neck. She trailed her fingers across his face and neck, tormenting him with the wispy touch. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come back here, but I had nowhere else to go.”
    “I’m glad you came back. You can always come to me.”
    “My being here puts you at risk. I never meant to cause you trouble. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
    He hugged her close. From what was she trying to protect him? “Who’s the guy that’s after you?” he urged.
    She shook her head “no” against him.
    He’d have laughed at her favorite word if he weren’t so damned worried. “I can’t keep guessing. Help me out here,” Zane said. “He’s not your boyfriend or husband, is he?”
    “No,” she said, barely above a whisper.
    “Then you either did something to make him angry as hell or you have something he wants,” Zane said.
    “Yes.”
    “Which is it?”
    “Both.”
    What did she have? Zane had the compass, but that couldn’t be it. Could it?
    “If you give it back, will he leave you alone?” Zane asked.
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “It doesn’t belong to him,” she explained.
    Zane drew his head back. She was killing him. None of this made sense.
    All his questions fled when she blinked up at him through wet lashes.
    Nothing mattered at that moment. Not her past, not his future, nothing but the luxury of her in his arms.
    Zane lowered his lips, gently raking across hers. He kissed her cheek, her nose, her eyes, tasting the salty tears.
    He moved his lips along her chin up to the crest of her ear and buried his face in her hair, inhaling the wonderful fresh smell. She’d showered again. Between that sweet scent and her wearing nothing but his T-shirt, relief gave way to a want so deep and hungry his hand shook when he stroked his hand along the smooth contour of her back.
    Caution sirens screamed in his head.
    Her scent overrode them.
    Her fingers twined around the back of his neck, drawing herself up against him. His lips swept softly over her warm mouth when he wanted to do so much more.
    She surged up, returning his kiss with an intensity that rocked him.
    He clenched a fistful of her T-shirt. Her mouth urged him to take what she offered. He scooped her bottom and lifted her against him.
    Her legs wrapped around his waist then she rubbed up and down against his arousal, sending what blood was left in his body surging into his groin.
    Holy mother of...
    He held her with one arm and used his other hand to reach up under her T-shirt to cup her breast. The minute his finger brushed over her nipple, she surged against him again.
    One more time like that and they’d end up on the floor.
    He turned and lowered her to his sofa then hovered above her on his knees. Now he