BORN TO PROTECT by Virginia Kantra

Author:Virginia Kantra [Kantra, Virginia]
Language: por
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 10

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Jack's hand slid from Christina's hair to her shoulder. His thumb rubbed her lightly, making her breath catch. Her brain slowed. Her blood thickened.

His face was very close. She could see each eyelash and the hard dip of his upper lip and the darkness of his eyes.

He pulled on her shoulder, turning her toward the bathroom. "Come see my pictures."

She took two slow steps toward the narrow doorway, struggling for balance in a rising tide that sucked at her feet and her resolution. "Is that anything like 'Come look at my etchings'?"

She felt his amusement as a puff of warm air on the back of her neck. "If I say yes, will you bolt?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Am I going to be embarrassed?"

"No dirty pictures," he promised. "Just some photographs of you."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she muttered. But she straightened her shoulders against his guiding hand and marched ahead of him into his jerry-rigged darkroom.

Drying prints still swagged the walls and shower curtain. She flinched from the shadowed images of her own face, the angles of her own body.

"Tell me what you see," Jack said low in her ear.

She swallowed. "You want me to compliment you on your technique now?"

"Not until I do something you like." Oh, heavens, she thought. "Concentrate on the subject," he said.

Her gaze swept the sagging row. She wasn't in every photograph. She admired a study of leaves, a silhouette of trees, a swirl of dark water. She felt a pang over a shot of Eric Hunter's profile as he watched the other boys on the bank, his glum face in stark contrast to the braced casualness of his pose. Pain and exclusion were subjects Jack Dalton understood.

But there were still way too many pictures of her. Her face, frowning over a collection tray, laughing as she listened to a student. Her body, crouched or stretched or in fluid motion. She felt as exposed as if it were her underwear hanging there on the line.

"What do you see?" Jack asked again.

"I see a great many pictures you had no right to take."

He shook his head like a disappointed teacher. "You're not looking closely enough." He moved up behind her again, so that she felt him warm and solid at her back. "Look at you. Look at yourself the way I see you."

Her pulse kicked. "I am completely indifferent to how you see me," she lied.

"You don't sound indifferent," he said, his voice ruffling her senses. "You sound … excited."

She looked nervously over her shoulder. He watched her, his eyes dark and steady on her face, and all right, yes, he was so big and close and hot, of course she was excited. Only what good did it do her? Any minute now he would remember what she was and where they were and throw her out.

"I'll try to control myself. I remember you don't like me to get excited."

"What the hell kind of crack is that?"

"Oh, that's right," she said, nodding sagely.

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