Mine to Protect (Mine 6)

Her mouth was so soft and silken beneath his, and her lips had parted—probably because the woman had been preparing to rip him a new one. His lips pressed to hers and his tongue slid inside her mouth.

This might be my only shot. I really hope she doesn’t slap me.

But…she didn’t.

She didn’t slap him. She didn’t jerk away. Maybe she was too shocked to attack.

So he kissed her deep

er. Harder. He let go of the control that he had to always keep in place—so tiring, being in control all the time. Some days, he just wanted to let go.

He wanted to let his darker side out to play. It had been far too long since he’d gone wild.

Her tongue teased his and his cock jerked in eagerness. She wants me? She wants—

Her hands were around his shoulders. Her nails bit into his skin. He pulled her closer and mentally cursed that giant jacket because he wanted to feel her against him. Not that mound of cushion. A growl built in his throat. He was pretty sure his zipper was making a permanent indention on his growing dick.

Want more. Want her so badly.

But not in a bus station. Not with people gaping at them.

Time to end this scene.

Zoe must have thought the same thing because her nails weren’t sinking into him any longer. She was pushing against him.

In a fast swoop, he picked her up in his arms. He hoped that shit looked romantic to everyone who was watching. They’d remember a quarreling couple who made up—and hurried outside.

Not an FBI agent. Not an ex-showgirl on the run.

Reunited lovers.

She had stiffened in his arms, and he tightened his grip as he hauled ass for the door—with her held securely against him. He knew she wouldn’t want to make a scene, either, and he’d been counting on that fact.

Zoe knew she was being hunted—and not just by him. A low profile was key for her survival.

A few moments later, they were outside. His breath created a small cloud as the cold air hit him.

“Put. Me. Down.” Her voice was way colder than the chill in the air. But he didn’t put her down, not yet. Victor didn’t lower her until he was standing right beside the rented SUV that he’d used to track her. Once they were at the vehicle—and safely away from prying eyes—he lowered Zoe to her feet and he trapped her between his body and the SUV. The better to stop her from fleeing.

“Why in the hell did you kiss me?” Zoe demanded.

They were both in the shadows, but he could see that her cap had slipped back, letting thick locks of her dark hair tumble free. “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said.

Her index finger jabbed into his chest. “It was a crappy idea!”

“Really? Because I’m betting if they’re pressed, not one of the people in there would be able to describe your face. They weren’t focusing on what you looked like, they were focusing on what we were doing.”

And she’d sure tasted even better than he’d expected.

His expectations had been high…with her, they always were.

He eased back and opened the passenger side door for her.

She didn’t get in. “Why do you keep doing this to me?”

“Protecting you?” He shrugged. “It’s sort of my job.”

“No, it’s not.” But she got in the vehicle. A minor miracle. He slammed the door and hurried around to the driver’s side. He knew there was a chance she would cut and run from the SUV the minute his back was turned. Luckily, when he jumped in the ride, she was still in the passenger seat. A small miracle.

“Your job,” Zoe announced, her voice husky and sensual even when she was pissed, “is not to keep me your prisoner.”

“Of course not.” He started the ignition. “My job is to keep you alive, though we both know that.”

“Victor.”

He threw the vehicle into reverse. “Sweetheart, you’re a wanted woman. On the lists of more hitmen than I can count. Your dear old dad was one Grade A sadistic bastard before he got thrown in prison, and all of his enemies want to take out their fury on you.”

She was silent. Never a good sign from Zoe.

“The FBI wants you alive. We’re here to protect you.” He turned the vehicle toward the exit.

“There is no we,” she huffed out the words. “There is you. You are sitting next to me. You’re the jerk who won’t let me just vanish. And that’s what I want—I can disappear and you can be done with me. I know I’ve been a pain in your ass—I’ve tried to be. It’s sort of been my whole life goal lately.”

Yes, she had been a pain. Always slipping away, never following the simple rules he had in place for her.

“Just let me go.” Now her voice had turned pleading. He hated it when she pleaded. Mostly because when she asked him for things, he had a real hard time saying no to her. “I heard…I heard you’d started spreading the word that I was dead, anyway.”

He had. Mostly because the heat had just kept coming toward her. So he’d figured if the right people thought she was dead, then she would be safer.

“They think I’m dead.” She leaned toward him. Her hand closed around his on the steering wheel. “If they think that, then I can be free.”

Only that story was recently blown to hell. “Yeah, about that…” Victor began.

But he didn’t get to say another word. Because the windshield on Zoe’s side of the vehicle suddenly seemed to explode.

“Zoe!” He bellowed her name even as he slammed his foot down harder on the gas pedal. She slumped near him, and he was fucking terrified that she’d been hit.

He looked at the broken glass and realized—

A bullet. Some sonofabitch had taken a shot at her.

Because despite what Zoe had just said, no one thought she was dead. That wonderful plan he’d had before? A rat at the FBI had turned that plan on its damn head. Now she was being hunted again and if that bullet had hit her…

I will fucking kill that shooter.

He yanked the wheel to the left, then took a hard right, sending them rushing away from the bus station. He wasn’t about to stop and give the shooter another chance to fire at her. They were getting the hell out of there.

Another bullet hit the back of the SUV.

Zoe was still slumped low, nearly in his lap.

“Zoe! Talk to me!” Was his heart beating? He wasn’t sure. Just breathing was hard. Zoe couldn’t be hurt. She couldn’t be dead. That shit was not happening. No, no, no. A black rage built in him, swallowing up everything in its path and—

“Stop yelling my name and just drive!” Her head turned, just a bit, in his lap. “Because I am staying low until we are away from that jerk! No way am I taking a bullet!”

A smile yanked his lips up and he did just what the lady had ordered—he drove hell fast and he got them the hell away from that jerk.

***

Had he hit her?

Slowly, Kyle Lawrence lowered his weapon. Frustration boiled in his gut. He was a first class sniper, trained by Uncle Sam back during the days when Kyle had been intent on being all he could be…

He didn’t normally miss a target. But…

Had she moved? Right before I fired?

Kyle feared she had. And since this particular gig was payable only when the woman’s dead body was delivered…hell, he wasn’t about to get his payday yet.

He put the rifle back in its case. The weapon had been equipped with a silencer and no one had been outside to witness that little shoot-out. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the little attack had never even happened. It was so easy to hide most of his hits. Folks never realized the danger that was right around them.

He snapped his rifle case closed and hurried toward his truck. While the FBI agent had been inside, sweet-talking the woman into coming out with him, Kyle had put a tracker on the guy’s SUV. The agent wouldn’t get far.

And the woman?

If his bullet had missed her, well, she still wouldn’t live long. Kyle had a reputation to maintain. When he took a hit, he always, always got the job done.

Zoe Peters was a dead woman walking. The other fools who thought they’d get the bounty on her head? They needed to get in line behind him. She was his prize, and no one would stand in his way.

Not any other fool hit man.

And sure as hell not some FBI agent.

Kyle cranked his truck, floored the baby, and got on th

e trail of his precious prize.

Chapter Two

I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m alive. Zoe kept chanting those words in her mind. She’d actually felt that bullet whip past her before it sank into the headrest—a headrest that her head had been in front of just seconds before! But she’d leaned toward Victor a split-second before the bullet exploded through the windshield. She’d grabbed his hand…

And managed to stay alive based on sheer, blind luck.

The SUV stopped.

Stopped.

Her head was currently in Victor’s lap—yes, a weirdly intimate spot but she didn’t care how embarrassing that position was—it was a safe place, and she was all about safety. But when the SUV stopped, her hand clenched around his thigh. A very strong thigh. “What are you doing?”

“I’m making sure you’re all right.”

And he pulled her up.

She swatted at his hands. “I’m fine! I’d be better if you just kept moving!” Her frantic gaze shot around the vehicle. There was a big, round hole in the front windshield, on her side of the vehicle. It was dark outside, and she couldn’t see much out there. Maybe some twisted trees. An old farmhouse.

His hand rose and he pushed away her cap. She was surprised she’d still been wearing that thing. Her hair tumbled around her shoulders and his fingers moved carefully over her face. Caressing her cheeks, sliding under her chin. Moving down her neck…

“Um, yeah, no bullet holes,” Zoe said, clearing her throat. She didn’t like it when Victor touched her. His touch made her heart race, made her knees shake, and made her…well, want things that she shouldn’t.

Because FBI Special Agent Victor Monroe? He was not a man she should want. He was not a man she should be fantasizing about. He was not a guy who should be on her desire radar at all…

But he was.

And this is how twisted my life has become.

Every single day, she lived in fear. Would another of her father’s psycho enemies come after her? Would she get to be tortured by some other maniac because she had to keep paying for dear old dad’s sins?

“That was too close.” Victor’s voice was low, angry. A hard rumble that was oddly sexy. Right. Like I don’t think nearly everything about the guy is sexy. That was the reason she’d kissed him back at the bus station. She’d fantasized about his mouth for too long and when he’d pulled her close, Zoe had thought…