Her Hero After Dark by Cindy Dees

Author:Cindy Dees
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense
ISBN: 9781459227552
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-05-02T00:20:27+00:00

Chapter 10

Jennifer watched in agony as Jeff waged an internal struggle with himself, her heart shattering by slow degrees. It could’ve been so good between them. But there was no way she could stand by and watch a man she cared about destroy himself.

Funny how much maintaining his enhanced strength resembled an addiction. How could he not see it? Whatever rush he got out of being abnormally strong was powerful enough that he wasn’t about to give it up for her. He might be hooked on a classier poison than most people, but he wasn’t so far from an alcoholic or heroin addict. She only wished his secrets weren’t more important to him than she was. She slid off her stool.

“Should I walk to the front gate, or will somebody give me a ride?” she asked soberly. “I assume the Feds are still parked out there.”

“Don’t go,” he ground out.

“Give me a reason to stay.”

His entire body stiffened. And then, all of a sudden, the tension went out of him. “Fine. Is it possible for me to get off the meds? Yes. I would have to give my body maybe a year to lose muscle mass first. But eventually, once my muscles wouldn’t tear apart my skeleton, I could stop the drug therapy.”

She turned around slowly. “Would you go through those awful withdrawals again?”

“No. The only reason I was in pain was the torque on my bones. Take away the overpowering muscles and all that goes away.”

“Then stop. Now! Become a normal man again.”

“But I don’t want to be normal. I like being strong.”

“You’re not strong. You’re a freak.”

His jaw rippled angrily. Didn’t like hearing the truth, did he? That was too damn bad. The man was taking a completely unnecessary risk with their future—whoa. Their future? Since when had that happened? Were they a couple already? She didn’t recall him giving her the right to make decisions for both of them.

“I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I had no right to call you a freak.”

He smiled without humor. “You are very good at that whole, spy doublespeak thing. You apologize and say you had no right, but you never actually admit you were wrong.”

“I don’t think I am wrong.”

He pressed his lips together until a white line formed around them, and she suspected her mouth was the same. Clearly, the two of them would have to agree to disagree on this one. If he could stop, he would be crazy not to. Period. She simply didn’t understand how he couldn’t see that.

“Why did you start taking the meds in the first place?” she asked.

“The bad guys in the world are getting the best of us. The free world desperately needs to keep what little technological and scientific edge it has over them if we’re to remain free. How many years do you think it would take our government to approve a program to fund and test something as controversial as Gemma’s research?”

She winced. “Decades, maybe.”

“Exactly. And we don’t have that kind of time.

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