New Avengers: Breakout Prose Novel by Kwitney Alisa

Author:Kwitney, Alisa [Kwitney, Alisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marvel
Published: 2013-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CLINT tried to recall when he had done anything this stupid. As a kid in the Iowa Lutheran Foundation Group Home, sick of having his meager belongings swiped, when he had dug up a nest of fire ants and dumped them in Erik Gregerson’s bed? As a teenager in the circus, when he had gone on stage so drunk he couldn’t walk straight, and then attempted a tumbling run? Or perhaps it had been during the start of his brilliant criminal career, when he had tried to shut up a family’s golden retriever without hurting it, and had wound up with thirty stitches in his hand and a prison record.

No, thought Clint, as the first rays of dawn filtered down through the leaves, revealing the elegant curve of Natasha’s back as she straightened her clothing. None of that compared in sheer, reckless, damn-the-consequences stupidity to this. He took a deep breath, trying to think what to say, and then realized Natasha had her back to him. Christ. She looked over her shoulder, and they both rolled for their weapons at the same moment.

“I feel like we’ve done this before,” he said, his grip steady on his bowstring as he tried not to think what the arrow would do to that pretty face.

“There’s a slight variation in position.” Natasha indicated the Glock, aimed at his heart instead of his head.

Clint didn’t make any wisecracks. It seemed a bit ridiculous to go back to flirty banter when his knees were still weak from their last encounter. “Nat,” he said, and then, surprising even himself, continued, “I’m putting down the bow.” She simply stared at him, unblinking, as he placed his recurve gently on the ground, and then held up his hands, palms out. “If what just happened here was you playing me, then go ahead and shoot.”

Her gun hand didn’t waver. “Of course I was playing you, the same as you are playing me now. I must admit, you’re very good, to risk it all just to wrangle a little more information.”

“Look, I know it’s kind of embarrassing, but let’s face it. What just happened here—” Clint gestured at the grass, pressed flat by the imprint of their bodies. “You can’t tell me that was part of some plan.”

“Please. Don’t insult my intelligence. You know as well as I do that in our line of business, sex is just another weapon.”

Clint considered all the ways women could feign passion. He thought, not for the first time, that Mother Nature had given them one hell of an advantage in the deception department. He thought about how many men had let their egos sway them into thinking that of course she was a master manipulator, but that time with me, hey, that had to be different. He thought about the fact that, as far as he was aware, he and Nat had both left themselves unprotected—in more ways than one.

It was a lot of thinking, but it all took about a second, and then Clint made his decision.

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