Her brows lifted.
“Bruce Mercer doesn’t have a daughter,” he said again. “Because if he did, the woman would be a constant target. She’d never be safe.”
She understood. Oh, heck, yes, after the past twenty-four hours, Tina definitely understood. “He doesn’t have a daughter,” Tina repeated. Did Drew think that she wouldn’t protect the other woman? She could have sold her out at any time, if that was what she wanted. “I’m not like that,” Tina said, suddenly angry because, after everything that had happened, Drew actually thought she’d trade someone else’s life for her own. She shoved against him.
But Drew didn’t back away. “What’s wrong?”
“You think...” Now she was the one gritting out words. “That I would throw someone else at those animals? Knowing that they’d just torture her? Kill her?” She wouldn’t stand by and watch an innocent suffer. That wasn’t who she was. “I wouldn’t.” She’d had to watch her parents suffer.
Their deaths had almost broken her.
He pinned her hands to the bed. “Calm down.”
“You calm down!” Tina snapped at him. “I’ve been kidnapped, cut, locked up, handcuffed—and I’ve held it together!” She’d even saved his hide. Where was her thanks? “I’m not going to betray the EOD, and you should know me better than that.”
His hold didn’t loosen. “Torture can break anyone, Doc. I’ve seen seasoned warriors crumble with the right pressure.”
“Maybe you should have more faith in me,” she told him, the anger snapping in her words. “Now let me go before I damage those stitches!” Because she was fighting mad.
Drew shook his head. “You won’t. You won’t hurt me. You’re a healer. That’s what you do.” He brought his head close to hers.
Before she could snarl at him, Tina heard a new sound rising in the distance. The unmistakable whir of a helicopter’s blades.
She stilled.
“It’s okay,” Drew told her, but his voice had dropped to a whisper. “They’re just doing a sweep. They’re not going to see the bike, and they’re not going to see us.”
She didn’t have that confidence. “Maybe they’re searching for houses. Places that we could have used for hiding. They could land here—”
He laughed softly at that. “They’ll be lucky to land anywhere. A guy named Grayson was the only other pilot there, and when I went up with him once, he could barely hold the bird steady. That’s why they were so quick to bring me on board. They needed me.”
She still wasn’t exactly feeling reassured. Especially because the whir of the helicopter’s blades was getting closer and closer—louder and louder.
“Don’t think about it,” Drew told her. “Think about this.”
Then he kissed her. She was still angry at him and scared about the helicopter.
But she had a weakness. One very distinct weakness. She liked kissing him because the man sure knew how to use his mouth.
His tongue licked lightly over her lower lip then it thrust into her mouth. He kissed her slowly, deeply, as if he were savoring her.
She was sure savoring him.
She wanted to wrap her arms around him, wanted to feel the broad expanse of his shoulders, but he still held her hands pinned to the bed.
Other parts of her body could sure feel, though. His arousal pressed against the juncture of her thighs. He’d moved, shifted his weight, so that he was positioned between her legs.
His mouth slipped from hers. He began to kiss his way down her neck. Her breath was coming in fast gasps, and— “The helicopter is gone,” she whispered as she realized an intense quiet had swept over the area.
He kept kissing her neck.
Right. Gone chopper. But focused man. “Drew?”
His head lifted. Those golden eyes seemed to blaze. “I want you.”
Her breasts were tight, aching, and when had she started arching her lower body against his? She wasn’t normally one to have desire ignite with just a kiss.
But Drew wasn’t a normal kind of guy, and the way he made her feel was definitely not normal, too.