Mercenary Trilogy - Willing Part 6

He said something nasty, and she flinched. She'd heard men swearing around her all her life, but n.o.body had Nitro's coldly controlled tone of voice.

"Sorry," he grumbled.

"For what?"

"Hotwire says I shouldn't curse around you since you aren't a soldier anymore."

"I don't understand. Why?"

"According to his mother, it isn't right to swear around a woman."

She'd heard that, but she still didn't get the distinction of then versus now. "I was a woman when I was a

soldier." Heck, she was still a soldier...in all the ways that counted. Would that ever change?"Too much of one.""What?""Never mind.""So, Hotwire told you to watch your mouth?""Yeah.""When did you talk to him?""While you were napping.""Oh. I would have liked to talk to him, too.""There was no need." Nitro sounded awfully surly about it."I guess not. That's sweet how he told you not to swear around me." She smiled. She could just imagine how well the instruction had gone over with Nitro. "But don't worry about it. I don't expect you tochange just for me.""I can be as polite as the next guy."She'd never noticed him wanting to. "Whatever you say."

"I can d.a.m.n well stop swearing around you if I say I will."She couldn't help it; she burst out laughing. "Yes, I'm sure you d.a.m.n well can...," she wheezed outbetween bouts of laughter.

Taking a sideways peek up at him, she saw burnished red along his cheekbones. It made her laugh all the harder. The prospect of Nitro blushing was just too much for her funny bone.

"If you can stop imitating a hyena, we can finish our discussion," he said with freezing cool.After several deep breaths, she managed to stifle her mirth. "I don't know what else there is to say. Youwant me to promise something impossible."

"It would help if you'd wear looser clothes and more of them."How was that going to help her temper? "My clothes aren't too tight.""Your jeans outline your s.e.xy little rear perfectly, and if you're wearing a bra under that shirt, I'll chew boot leather for dinner."

She gasped, shocked he'd noticed her lack of a bra. She hated wearing them, and because she wa.s.small she didn't have to. "I'm not that big. I don't wear one most of the time.""I noticed." He sounded aggrieved."Oh." Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s tingled at the thought of him looking close enough to notice. She knew he was observant, but he had to have really focused in on her to discern that detail.He stopped and glared down at her. "And it doesn't help.""Help what? What exactly are we talking about here?""Me surviving another bout of close proximity to you on a mission.""My lack of a bra is going to hurt you?""It already has.""What? You don't look wounded to me.""That's because you're not looking in the right place."When her gaze dropped to where he was indicating, heat zoomed into her cheeks. She lifted her head to focus on his face again immediately, but the damage to her equilibrium had been done.

"I'm supposed to be walking off my s.e.xual tension," he growled, "but instead all I can think is getting you

alone somewhere and touching your b.r.e.a.s.t.s, tasting them until you almost come from the stimulation andthen burying myself in you so deep, my d.i.c.k will finally stop hurting."She couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. Couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You want me?""Don't sound so surprised. I'd say your effect on me is pretty obvious. If not, just what did you think caused my hard-on?""You said...""That you turned me on."Several things clicked into place. Things she probably should have taken into account already, but she was so ignorant of men. On top of her own ignorance was Nitro's confusing behavior. He acted angrywith her half the time, not like a man who wanted her."You mean every time you get hard around me, I turn you on?"His expression said that should be obvious even to her. "Yes.""Oh.""Are you saying you didn't know?"

"Men can get hard reading an ad for hot tubs in the Yellow Pages.""I'm not one of them. Unless I was thinking of you in a hot tub."Her jaw dropped, and her heart started galloping like the winning horse at the Kentucky Derby. Because he got hard around her a lot. He'd been that way on the mission with Wolf and Lise. She'd thought it

was just his natural virility.

"I thought you were always like that."

"Hard?"

"Yes."

"Only around you."

That couldn't be true. "You're always mad at me."

"I'm always l.u.s.ting after you. Can't you tell the difference?"

"No. I thought you didn't like me."

"I wanted you."

"Wolf doesn't act like he hates Lise."

"Lise is sleeping with him."

"Oh."

"Stop saying that."

"I don't know what else to say."

"I don't mean to act like I hate you," he said through gritted teeth.She could be pardoned for questioning his sincerity. "Really? A man can want a woman without likingher."

"Yeah, he can, but I do like you."

She looked down at the ground, comparing the size of his big feet to her smaller ones. "You said notother women...""Yeah.""You mean other women don't turn you on as frequently as I do?" She could barely believe she was asking this question."Other women don't turn me on at all right now."Her head snapped up in total shock. "You're lying."He spun to face her fully, his dark skin pulled taut across his cheekbones, the muscles in his jaw locked, his eyes almost black as they fixed on her with steady intensity. The silent regard was unnerving, but she

didn't know what to say.

She could not conceive of such a thing being possible.

After several seconds of silence, he reached out and cupped her nape, his hands hot against her skin. "

Have you ever known me to lie?"

"No."

"Exaggerate?"

"No."

"What does that tell you?"

The impossible. "You don't want other women."

"No." He didn't sound happy about it.

"You don't want to want me."

His brown gaze bored into her, and she could feel it inside as if he were touching her in places that had

no name. "It's h.e.l.l on a man's libido and ego, not to mention his mood, to want a woman to the exclusion

of all others who doesn't want him."

"I do want you," she blurted out.

His gaze narrowed. "That's why you jump ten feet every time I touch you or come near enough to do it."

"I don't jump ten feet."

"But you do move away. Fast."

"That's because..."

"Because why?"

"You make me feel jumpy."

His face looked hewn from rock. "I scare you?"

"N-not exactly."

"What exactly?""I get all jittery when you get close, like I've had too much caffeine on an empty stomach. It makes menervous."

"Nervous, or s.e.xually excited?"

"I don't know."

"Don't you?"

She couldn't answer. It was as if his hands on her throat had drained her of the ability to speak.

"You're not jumping now."