No matter how Thomas might glance at her.
“You’re doing it again,” Noelle blurted. Then she could have bitten her tongue when his face tensed. She was normally so much better at controlling her emotions and her responses to people, but Thomas just put her on edge.
“Doing what?” Thomas asked voice totally emotionless.
“Staring at me...as if—as if we’re—” She floundered because what Noelle really wanted to say was...As if we’re lovers. But they weren’t. No way would she have forgotten him.
It was just...the intensity in his eyes...the heat...
“I make you nervous,” he said.
Why lie? “Yes.”
“Because you know what I’ve done.” His gaze slid to the files on the seat beside her. “You read all of our files, right? When you were trying to decide which EOD agent was actually a psychotic killer in disguise.”
That had been her first assignment at the EOD. This outing to Alaska was her second.
“So, what’s the verdict, doc?” The doc was mocking, but Noelle was a doctor, a psychiatrist. She’d been trying for years to understand the demons that chased people.
Ever since she’d woken up in a small, southern hospital with her life shattered around her.
“Tell me...” Thomas continued with his gaze assessing. “Am I dangerous? Am I psychotic? Is that why you tense up every time I get near you?” He leaned forward. “Are you afraid I’ll hurt you?” Then, before she could respond, his jaw hardened even more. “Because that’s not the way things work at the EOD. You trust your partner, or you don’t trust anyone.”
She couldn’t seem to take a deep enough breath. Thomas filled the space around her so completely.
The pilot’s voice floated over the intercom then, announcing their impending landing.
Thomas leaned back.
But Noelle’s hand flew out. She touched his wrist.
Thomas stilled.
“I know you’re not psychotic. You’re a soldier. A damn fine one, at that,” she added because it was true. “And if I seem nervous...” Tell him. “It’s not you, really. I have a...very hard time getting close to people.” Mostly because Noelle had made a habit of putting a wall between herself and others.
Once, that wall had been necessary for Noelle’s survival. But now, she didn’t know how to live without that protection.
His gaze dropped to her hand.
Noelle slowly pulled her fingers back.
After a moment, Thomas’s stare lifted once more to her face. “You’ll be closer to me than you will be to anyone else.”
Goose bumps rose on Noelle’s arms. Was that a promise? Or a warning?
Then the plane began its descent, and she held back the other questions she wanted to ask him.
* * *
THOMAS ANTHONY WAS used to danger. He was used to pain. He was used to surviving any and every hellhole on earth. As an Army Ranger, his job had been to get the mission accomplished, no matter what.
But his job had never involved working intimately with Noelle Evers, not until now.
She doesn’t remember me.
He’d known that, of course, from the beginning. From the first day he’d glanced up at the EOD and found himself staring into her warm, hazel eyes. Just looking at her had been like a punch to his gut. He’d wondered if she’d seen the flare of recognition in his eyes, but...
No, she hadn’t shown any awareness of the past they shared.