Page 62 of Shane
Holding their bodies tight against each other, Shane ravaged her mouth, lips, chin, and cheeks with a pent-up passion that put whisker burns everywhere he kissed. And she loved every last one of them. This was as close to indecent exposure as Everlee had ever been with any male. If she was what and who Shane wanted, she was ready to bare all, give all. Standing against the barn wall. Lying in the dirt. Any. Where.
The more their physical connection overheated, the more the air between them buzzed with feral electricity. Her body wanted this man inside of her, now. Again. Every tingling part of her hummed until—
A polite, feminine “Ahem” broke the spell.
Shit!“Bremmer?” Everlee gasped, literally gasped into Shane’s mouth, almost swallowing her tongue at what their prisoner had just witnessed TEAM agents doing to each other. Pulling far enough away from Shane’s up-close and oh, so ruggedly handsome face, Everlee glared at the alleged killer in their midst. “What are you doing here, Bremmer? I mean Smart?” Shit, she couldn’t think straight. Was she Tuesday Smart or Tuesday Bremmer?
Everlee settled for Tuesday.
Tuesday’s shoulders lifted in a shy shrug that almost—almost—made her look innocent.
Yeah, right.“Where’s your damned cuffs?” Everlee growled even as Shane breathed like a sexy beast in her face and told her, “No worries. She’s with me.”
Like that was supposed to make her feel better? “She’s what? With you how? What’s that even mean?”
“Hi again, Agent Yeager,” Ms. Smart offered quietly. “Yes, I’m here. Guess Shane forgot to tell you that before he dragged you outside to kiss you, huh?”
Swiping off the tears dripping down her face with a quick hand, Everlee glared at the woman and snapped, “Damn it, Smart. You’re a convicted, err, suspected—oh hell! You’re a child-killer and murderer and a—Shit! I don’t know what you are anymore!”
“She’s not a killer,” Shane declared huskily, the sensation of his warm breath tantalizingly heady on Everlee’s sweaty neck.
Her stare snapped from him back to Smart, then back to him. Hot damn, that sexy rumble of his was a distraction Everlee didn’t need. Normally, she wouldn’t’ve been bothered by a male. By any male! But this was Shane, and he was here, and he had come expressly for her, and…
He was holding her and loving her like she’d never been held or loved before. With his entire body and both hands. With his mouth and his tongue and his lips. With his breath. With everything he was. Hehadrisked his life to save her. She was alive because of Shane. Not because of Alex or Butch or… or anyone else. Just Shane.
A wave of humility rolled over her, dousing her self-righteous snark. Everlee buried her face in the warm, sweaty corner where his shoulder joined his neck and took a deep breath of him to help her think. Until Smart ruined everything, all Ev wanted was Shane. On his back. In bed.
But now, the position she and he were in was inappropriate on so many levels. Did she care? Sort of, yeah. Not about what Smart had seen or about TEAM rules, though. Only about Shane. No way was she letting go of the man in her arms. She refused to push away just to make Smart feel more comfortable. Everlee didn’t care what offended the alleged murderess or what she wanted. Only Shane. He was here and he could hold onto Everlee all day if he wanted to. She wished he would, and they could—
But Alex would care.Oh, yeah. Alex. Damn.The brittle warmth of embarrassment flamed up her neck, her face, and on up into her scalp. She was prickly all over. Probably looked like a sweaty, red-faced troll. True, some of that red was probably the blowback from one of those dead guys’ heads. And sweaty or not, Tuesday Smart somehow managed to look fresh and kind and…
Shit.
Turning away from her sharp, green eyes, Everlee bumped her forehead against Shane’s scruffy cheek. “I needed you and here you are,” she whispered. “How’d you know where I was? I know you’re smart, but how—”
“No, babe,” Shane mumbled into her mouth, his incredibly sexy five o’clock shadow abrading her already tender lips. “She’s Smart. I’m just some guy.”
Everlee couldn’t help smiling. “I know she’s Tuesday Smart, smartass. But how… how’d you find me, and why isn’t she locked up? Did you have to bring her with you?”
“Of course. She knew the way. Where else would she be? We were in the same Toyota when it rolled, remember? She’s the one who saw those asshats fly off with you in their chopper, not me. Not sure I’d even be alive if she hadn’t pulled me out of the SUV.”
“You’re hurt?”
Shane pressed his forehead against hers. “I think we’re all a little dinged up, but I’m good, and you’re here and…” He took a breath and purred. “I like this, Everlee. I like you. You’re perfect.”
Oh, man, he was killing her with every sweet word out of his mouth.
“She saved your life?” Everlee asked, incredulous that a black widow would do something so noble—unless she had ulterior motives. This could all be a trick.
“No, I just—” Tuesday started to explain.
Shane interrupted Ms. Smart’s quiet rebuttal with a firm, “Yeah, she did. She saved my life, Ev, and she even talked with Mother. Err, Mom.”
“I only did what anyone would do after an accident,” Tuesday said evenly, which made Everlee look closer at her dirty hair and the smudges on her chin and cheeks. The model-worthy lady Everlee who had taken down just last night, looked more like a battle-worn soldier just come in from a firefight now. Her t-shirt was filthy. Her fashionably tattered, stone-washed jeans were so torn up they showed more skin than before, and some of that skin was scraped and scratched, dirty and bloodied.
“Really, I just did what anyone else would’ve done, Agent Yeager. I’m sure sorry I couldn’t get out of my seatbelt before those men took you away, though. You were dazed and hurt, I could tell. You took your seatbelt off before we rolled, didn’t you? Do you remember anything? Did you hit your head when the SUV rolled?”
That seemed to be the question of the day, hour, minute. Still clinging to Shane, with his hands still clamped under her butt, holding her to him, Everlee shook her poor aching head and replied, “No. I can’t recall the rollover or even what kind of car we were in. Shane said Toyota? Where the hell did we rent that? Only thing I remember when I came to is being on my stomach inside a buzzing machine with a rag stuffed down my throat and a smelly bag over my head.”