Undercover Hunter(61)

                “Of course it was. We discussed it. It’s been a premise all along—that it had to be someone local. But the spider thing... It’s not a snatch and grab, DeeJay. That’s why no one ever sees anything. These kids are going willingly.”

                She nodded, halting midstride. Cade bumped into her.

                “Sorry,” he said.

                She hardly heard him. “This kid must have mentioned to him that his dad was driving him home that afternoon. How else would our spider know to be there, and to flatten the dad’s tire? So the boy had a relationship with him.”

                Sickened by the images filling her head, images of a human spider preying on weaker victims, she pivoted sharply and found herself chest to chest with Cade.

                Instantly all the air seemed to vanish from the room. She looked into his aquamarine eyes and felt her heart flip. Someone struck a match to her very center, filling her with all the heat of a raging fire.

                Where the hell had that come from? She wanted to step back, ignore it, pretend it wasn’t happening, but she remained frozen, imprisoned by the sudden, overwhelming bonds of passion. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong situation. My God, they were working an important case and there was no room for this. Was she losing her mind?

                But he didn’t move, either. For an instant he looked startled. He waited a moment, and she was sure he could read her mind. Or her face. Or her entire body.

                “DeeJay?” His voice had gown husky, quiet.

                She couldn’t have made a sound to save her life. In the airless, heat-filled universe she had just entered, she was trapped by her own needs. Needs denied for far too long.

                “I won’t touch you,” he whispered. “Not unless you ask. Won’t go there...”

                She understood. His last female partner. But not even understanding could make her back away and release him. Maybe he was uneasy because she had been raped.

                But all of that barely bounced across her brain as deeper, more primal impulses held her in thrall. Any question about whether she could turn off her obsession had just been answered by another obsession.

                She still couldn’t speak so she raised her arms and pulled him in for a kiss. That, too, had been running around in the back of her mind all day, much as she had tried to ignore it.

                And this instant she did it, she knew it was so very right.

                * * *

                Cade had a million reasons to back away. From the outset he’d successfully ignored his attraction to her. She was prickly and difficult and, mostly, she was female. Danger, as he’d learned in Denver. Except DeeJay didn’t play games like that. He’d already figured it out. If anything, she was too damn honest.

                All of that ceased to matter in an instant. Everything he’d been trying to ignore and pretend he wasn’t feeling suddenly burst the bonds he’d placed on himself and exploded into a maelstrom of passion. It was as if banking the fire and ignoring it had made it erupt violently.

                He clamped his mouth over hers and kissed her as if he could fuse them in the heat into one being. Then her head tipped back, welcoming him more deeply, as hungry as he for what was to come.

                Finesse flew out the door. He would never after remember how they had stripped, only that four hands had worked wildly at pulling away layers of clothing as if they were in a race against time.