Dare Me (Take Me 2)

“Says you.”

He leaned just a centimeter closer, and yet…it felt as though his body was pressed against hers. She felt the melting sensation low in her body, the heat along her skin. Her chest rose and fell slowly…in time with his.

Their eyes remained locked.

In the far recesses of her mind, Nikki willed herself to look away. To move away.

She couldn’t.

She was riveted.

This man riveted her.

He was darkly complex. Drowning in emotions as ragged and razor-sharp as her own.

Some of those barbed emotions had to be wrapped around the incident in Mexico City, she suspected. He’d been undercover, trying to collect information by infiltrating a community of elderly residents, helping them with their estate planning. Pro bono, she’d heard. Then, when he’d feared something diabolical might be in the works, he’d stuck by those people. He’d tried to ferret out the danger…while saving as many as he could from it.

He was similar to Conner in that respect. Both men would risk their own lives to rescue others.

Nikki’s heart wrenched.

She realized she was innately drawn to this type of man.

And that made this situation an even more precarious one for her.

She didn’t want to be a danger magnet…nor did she want to be attracted to one. Let alone fall for one ever again.

Yet, balancing on the tip of the sword had always provided an element of excitement, a degree of exhilaration. When she and Conner were hopping from hotspot to hotspot to help people…there’d been no greater rush, no better sense of accomplishment.

Except, of course, when they were eventually entangled in bed and could breathe in every intricate nuance of each other.

Those were magical moments she missed. More than she missed the danger, of course. But Nikki suddenly realized that she couldn’t fully escape the fact she was accustomed to living her life on the edge.

And it just might be where she belonged.

So she said to the sexy QTango Ops agent, “I’m not forgiving you for the position you’re putting me in. And you will return my laptop to me, fully intact. But I have conditions of my own, Damen Castillo. I want to know everything about what happened in Mexico City and who’s leading this terror—”

“No,” he murmured. Quietly, yet sternly. Forcefully, even. “Absolutely not. I’m not giving you any more information that might put you in further jeopardy.”

“I’m not going to be in jeopardy,” she reminded him. “You’ve sworn to protect me.”

“Consider this part of the protection,” he told her.

“But if I know what to expect—”

“Don’t try to analyze the situation, Doc. You and I…? We’re already complicated enough as it is.”

“By a lot,” she concurred. “Just try to comprehend, Damen, that my brain never really shuts down. I have to dissect everything.”

“And find a solution to any problem?”

“That’s sort of the nature of the beast,” she confessed.

“Then be forewarned… You might not get all your answers this time, Nikki. You’ll have to get over it.”

Damen had provided the most basic information he could.

In the safest, sanest way he could.