Wicked Attraction (The Protector) Read online

  “Last night was nothing.” She sat back in her chair.

  “It wasn’t nothing. It happened.” He slammed his mug down too hard on the tabletop. Burning coffee spilled on the back of his hand. He hissed, cursing.

  Nina got up from the table and drew cold water onto a dish towel and came back to wrap his hand, moving so much faster than he could have. “Careful, Ewan. Let me see.”

  “I’m fine.” He protested, but when she gave him a long, steady stare, he let her pull his hand closer.

  “That’s a nasty burn. You should call the doc.”

  Ewan frowned. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’ll be fine with a blister,” Nina said coolly. “If you want me to call, I can.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Nina.”

  Her lip curled. “Oh, yes. I’m sure you are. Never mind that I was trying to help. I forgot my place. Thanks for breakfast, but I’m not hungry anymore.”

  “I know that’s a lie,” Ewan bit out. His hand stung, throbbing, and he knew she was right about calling the doc. “You’re always hungry.”

  “I’m not always hungry!”

  “You eat more in one day than I could eat in a week!”

  They were both on their feet, breathing hard, so close he could feel her heat against him and all he could think about was how good she’d felt beneath him. How much he loved it when she hurt him while they were making love, how she knew exactly where and how to do it so that it never felt like pain, but only the greatest kind of pleasure.

  “This is a stupid argument!” Ewan shouted.

  “Yes, I know!”

  Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. He thought he caught the hint of her quirked smile, but it was so faint he couldn’t be sure. He took a step back to get out of her face, give her some distance. He took a deep breath, then another. He thought about sticking out his hand for her to shake and calling a truce. It wouldn’t be as good as kissing her, but he couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t bite him . . . and not in the way he liked. Before he could do anything, Nina put a hand to her temple with a wince.

  Her entire body jerked. She winced again, then grimaced. “Ah.”

  Ewan reached for her at once to put a hand on her shoulder. “What, baby? Are you okay?”

  She blinked rapidly. “Blank spot.”

  “What? Nina, sit down. What’s going on?”

  Tremors ran through her muscles, vibrations he could feel in his fingertips. She sagged forward against him, but only for a moment before both her hands came up and she pushed him away. When she stared into his face, it was entirely without recognition. It lasted no more than a heartbeat or two before she was frowning. Her gaze had cleared.

  “What happened?” Ewan asked.

  “Glitch in the tech.” Her voice had gone hoarse. She went to the sink and drew a glass of water. She gulped it and filled the glass again. She drank the second more slowly, finishing half before putting the glass on the counter to wipe her mouth. “It happens.”

  “How often?” Concerned, Ewan crossed to her, but she put up a hand to keep him from touching her. He kept his distance.

  Nina lifted her chin and looked at him dead in the eyes. “Does it matter?”

  “Of course it matters. Nina, if something’s going wrong . . .” Ewan trailed off at her expression. “Baby, please let me help you. I can call the doc—”

  “That won’t help. I’ve been in for my checkups and everything is fine. It’s a small glitch in the tech because it’s degrading. It needs to be updated.” She paused, then looked away, no longer meeting his gaze. “There’s nothing you can do about it, Ewan.”

  He could, though. They both knew it, but this time, Nina wasn’t saying it aloud. The truth rose to his lips, but Ewan bit back the words.

  He didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep. He’d already broken her trust once. He couldn’t do that again. Until he could be certain he was able to not only make the actual upgrades to the tech but also get the laws reversed so that using them would be legal, he wasn’t going to tell her he was working on it. If she hated him for keeping the truth from her before, he couldn’t imagine how betrayed she would feel if he convinced her there was a solution in store, only to have it fall through.

  “Does it hurt you?” he asked quietly.

  “There’s pain,” Nina said after a moment. “It hurts more after the physical pain goes away.”

  Ewan swallowed hard against the surge of emotions closing his throat. “Last night—”

  “I told you,” Nina said sharply. “It happened. We don’t have to talk about it. It was just a thing. A mistake we both knew better than to make.”

  “I guess I’m not as good as you are at forgetting,” Ewan said, his words meant to sting.

  If they did, Nina was hiding her reaction. “I’ve had more practice.”

  Ewan thought of the contract he’d terminated. All he had to do was send the file to ProtectCorps, and Nina could and would be out of his life within minutes. At the very least, he should tell her he’d terminated it and let her make the decision.

  “I need to leave for the lab in half an hour. Will you be ready?” Ewan said instead, once more making the choice to hide some truth instead of using honesty. He knew it. He didn’t care.

  He wasn’t ready to let her go.

  “I’m ready right now,” Nina answered.

  She was answering the question he’d asked her and not his unspoken thoughts, but her reply still sent a shiver of sorrow through him. He said nothing about it but gave her a curt nod. He left the room, sensing her gaze on him the entire way, but when he looked back to confront her, she’d turned away.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  About a month ago, Ewan’s former partner and co-inventor of the enhancement tech, Wanda Crosson, had been arrested for the repeated attempts she’d made on his life. Wanda had been one of the few who knew about Ewan’s family cabin in the mountains, where Nina and Ewan had gone to hide out until the threats died down. Wanda had shown up there with her own guard-for-hire, another enhanced soldier who was the only one who could take on Nina and expect to get out of it alive.

  He hadn’t.

  Wanda had been only one part of several groups, including the League of Humanity, that had been threatening Ewan. Some for his involvement in the original enhancement tech, others for his efforts at pushing the laws making the tech illegal for anything beyond use in private service, as well as those forbidding any upgrades. Since Wanda’s arrest, any threats of real importance had ceased. The sudden abandonment of what had been years of ongoing threats only proved Nina’s theory that the focus on Ewan had never really been about the enhancement tech in the first place. In this world, there’d always be something to protest and a way to monetize it, a way to rile people up to get them to support a cause. The League of Humanity had moved on to greener pastures.

  Nina wasn’t glad the focus was turning away from the enhancement tech, though. If people were busy hating, there were also their opposite counterparts who worked in support of the enhanced soldiers. When nobody was paying attention any longer, there was nobody left to rally for them.

  This didn’t mean she was hoping the security system at Ewan’s lab had been tripped by anyone trying to bring him harm, but it also didn’t mean that she automatically believed, as Ewan seemed to, that it had been simple vandalism. He’d spent about half an hour with the security team here at this facility, going over the reports of what had happened the night before. So far, none of them, including Ewan, seemed concerned.

  Nina had stayed in the background, quiet, paying attention but not drawing attention to herself. She watched him interact with the team of men and women he’d hired to protect this building, its contents, and the people who worked inside it. She had no criticisms of the way they’d handled anything, and she’d often admitted her specialty was reaction, not analyzation. Nothing about this situation screamed of danger to her, and yet there was a low-grade, per