Dangerous Promise (The Protector) Read online

  “No. You could choose not to sell it that way, not to package it that way, but the inherent ability to manipulate memory is tied into every single bit of that tech, Nina. And I don’t have faith that whoever decides to sell it wouldn’t also have a back door to people willing to pay even more to figure out a way to control huge portions of the population. I can’t allow the risk of that. That tech, as-is, has done enough damage to enough people.”

  Nina frowned. “You talk like somehow it’s your responsibility, all of that.”

  For a moment, he didn’t answer her. Then he shook his head again and turned away from her. His shoulders hunched briefly before he straightened. One hand on the mantel, he turned to give her his profile.

  “I can’t explain it to you. I wish I could.”

  “Me, too.” She waited for him to say more, and when he didn’t, she decided to let it go. She’d thought, for a few minutes, that they were on their way to nudging this uneasy friendship into something steadier. Clearly, she’d been wrong.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Nina had not gone back to reading her book. Instead, she’d moved to the bank of shelving below the living room windows. If everything he’d told her had shocked or upset her, she wasn’t showing it. She was strong in more ways than just physically, Ewan thought, again with admiration.

  What had been so important and awful was the question she’d asked him. The truth was that he couldn’t afford for her to know it, and he would never allow her to be reset on his behalf, because if anyone was able to link him to the original tech, they would come after him and not merely with death threats. Ewan had never worked directly with torture tech, but he knew how well it could work. They would use it on him and force him to hand over the existing enhancement tech upgrades, and he could not allow that.

  “I haven’t seen one of these in . . . well, I haven’t ever,” Nina admitted as she bent to look at the wooden cabinet and the record player inside it. She glanced over her shoulder at him with a small grin. “Wow. This is a real museum piece.”

  She was clearly changing the subject, but that was fine with him. Ewan moved next to her so he could look over the selection of vinyl albums in their cardboard sleeves. He plucked one free, turning it over in his hands to look at both sides. Pink Floyd, The Wall. “It’s been here as long as I can remember. Should we play this one?”

  “I’ve heard of that. I can’t say I’ve ever listened to any of the songs. It’s a movie, too, isn’t it? They show it on the viddy stream sometimes, on the classic channel.” She cocked a hip and shifted to look at the album, leaving Ewan very aware of her body heat and the brush of her hip against his.

  “Yeah, it’s a classic.” Another album caught his eye and he tucked The Wall back into its place on the shelf. He took out another. Slow Groove Hits of the Sixties. “This would be the nineteen sixties, not the twenty sixties.”

  “Obviously.” She laughed and gestured at the album. “Put it on. Let’s hear it.”

  Ewan slid the record from the sleeve. He could remember his great-grandmother using the record player, but not exactly how to turn it on. He figured it out in a few minutes, setting the arm on the spinning vinyl disc and stepping back at the crackling noise coming from speakers set discreetly in the walls all around the room.

  The slow beat wasn’t at all familiar, nor were the words, but the feeling of the music brought back memories that had him standing in the center of the room for a minute or so with his eyes closed. Swaying a bit. When he opened them, Nina was staring at him curiously.

  “My great-grandmother,” Ewan explained. “This must have been one of her favorites. She listened to it a lot. I can remember coming here to stay with her in the summers, and she’d pull this out and play it. My mom would laugh and remind her that she could stream music more easily than by using the old player, but Gigi would only shake her head and say that nothing sounded as good as vinyl.”

  Nina cocked her head, listening to the music. “Gigi, is that what you called her?”

  “Yeah. G, g for great-grandmother.” One song ended and the next began. “I remember this one, too.”

  Nina held out her hand. “Wanna dance?”

  “I already told you, I can’t dance,” Ewan protested even as he let her snag his fingers in the cuff of her grip. “Seriously. . . .”

  “Trust me, it’s easy.” She turned them both so they faced each other. “Think of it like running, one foot in front of the other. Just much slower.”

  Ewan let her pull him a little closer. The hand linked with his gripped, while her other one went to his shoulder. His free hand fell naturally to the curving place on her hip. He’d danced before, of course, even if he’d been bad at it. This was different, somehow.

  Like everything else was different because it was with Nina.

  Smiling, she drew him closer. In minutes she was nestled against him, his cheek pressed to the soft brush of her dark hair. They found a rhythm, moving in perfect time to the words and music of a song that had been popular long ago yet felt exactly right just then.

  He felt rather than heard her speak against him, and he pulled back far enough that he could say, “Hmm?”

  He couldn’t have known Nina meant to kiss him until she did; once her lips pressed his, there seemed no way he could have ever thought she meant to do anything else. Her tongue slid against his. He breathed her in.

  They danced.

  The music stopped, but in the silence they kept moving. Mouths open, tongues searching. Hands roaming. He walked her backward toward the couch where she’d been sleeping all these nights when he was upstairs staring at the ceiling and wishing he wasn’t such an idiot.

  Her hands were already on his belt as they fell onto the couch. His moved over her body, his hands touching the complicated set of buckles, straps, and holsters on her harness. He settled his palms on her sides below the leather as they kissed, giving himself a minute or two to adjust to the position.

  He’d had his hands on her body before this. Knew she was curvy and firm. What he hadn’t expected were the places on Nina’s body that were also . . . soft. Yielding.

  She rolled the two of them so she was on top. Her knees pressed against his hips. She took his lower lip between her teeth, but gently, until he sighed and arched, and she ground herself against his hardness and licked the tiny little spot of pain she’d left behind with her kiss.

  “You like that?” She whispered the question into his ear.

  “Yes.” For a second he regretted admitting that truth to her, but only a second before she did it again and the bright flare of arousal lit him up inside.

  “Take off your shirt,” she whispered.

  Ewan hesitated for a second or so before pulling it off over his head and tossing it to the floor. He lay back, his hands running up her sides again. Nina put her palms flat on his bare belly, and his muscles leaped beneath her touch.

  “Mmm,” she said. “Yummy.”

  “Nobody’s ever said that to me before.” He’d meant to speak aloud, but his voice had dropped to a husky whisper.

  Nina nuzzled at his neck, her lips moving on his ear. “What? Yummy? What a shame. Because you. Absolutely. Are. Delicious.”

  His heart kicked in his chest as he turned his face toward hers to get at her mouth again. Her fingertips trailed up his ribs, tickling so that he burst into low laughter and wriggled. His hips bucked upward.

  Nina laughed, too, but caught at his wrists when he tried to keep her hands from moving against his skin. Ewan arched beneath the touch, not surprised at the strength of her grip but at how his body responded to it so quickly. So fiercely. When she pinned his hands next to his ears, Nina looked just as surprised as he felt.

  Ewan stopped struggling immediately at her expression. His tongue slipped out to stroke along his lower lip, and her gaze caught the motion. She stared, then looked into his eyes. Her pupils had gone wide and dark. Her lips were wet; she’d also licked her mouth in an imitation of his motion.