Adair, Cherry -- T-FLAC - 13 by Cherry Adair

Author:Cherry Adair
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN in love?” Tory asked softly. Sprawled bonelessly

over his body she nuzzled her mouth against the underside of his jaw.

She hadn’t gone for the hard sel ; he might as wel give the soft-shoe

shuffle a shot, Marc thought drily. But he couldn’t resist stroking her back

beneath the silky skeins of her long hair. “I’m not a stick-around kind of

guy. You might have guessed that by now.” How could skin be this soft?

This sensitive? How could she smel of vanilla after all she’d been through

in the last few days?

“Why not?” She traced a path along his jawline with her damp mouth, her

fingers tangled in his hair. He liked the weight of her blanketed over his

body. He enjoyed the feel of her slender hands petting him.

“Too many people I cared about have—” Betrayed me, he thought, and

replaced it with “—been taken away from me. I just don’t trust the hell

out of fate.”

“What if I trust it enough for both of us?” Her mouth was beside his ear

now, and her warm breath made him shudder with every soft word.

Then I’d call you a fool, he thought grimly. “Don’t delude yourself, I’m not

capable. I’ve seen too much to ever have the naive belief that love will

conquer all. Any excess emotion makes a man weak, be it love or hate. I

can’t afford to be off guard. My life and those of my col eagues depend on

my having a clear head.”

He missed his T-FLAC operatives. He missed the life that had once been

his world. Guilt still ate at him that he’d allowed Alex Stone to come here

to Marezzo alone. Whiling away the useless hours before dawn with his

friend’s sister wasn’t exactly a stel ar move. Another rock in his suitcase of

guilt.

86

The Mercenary

He seemed to be compounding it stone by stone.

Tory cupped his cheek in her cool palm and brushed her mouth over his as

delicately as a butterfly’s wing. “And an empty heart?”

Yeah. It probably would be empty. If he had one. He didn’t. Made life a

hel of a lot easier to deal with that way. He tilted her chin up so that her

eyes met his, needing her to understand just a little. “I want you more

than I’ve ever wanted another woman—if that means anything.” It

shocked him to realize that he spoke the truth.

“Does it to you?” she asked wistful y.

“Yes.” His mouth was less than a whisper away as he breathed the words

like a prayer, “Yes, God help me. It’s all I’ve got to give.”

“Who hurt you, Marc? What woman made you lose the ability to love?”

“What makes you think there was a woman?” What makes you think I was

ever capable of giving or receiving love?

Tory regarded him steadily in the rippling glow from the distant lake. Her

eyes were very green, very serious. She brushed her hand across his

shoulder. “Because I know that someone hurt you very badly. Because

sometimes when you look at me, and I can see how much you want me,

you rub at this scar right here and the heat goes out of your eyes and you

try to make me hate you.

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