He smiled at her. “Annalise, I’m trained to know that. I look for certain tells. More than anything I could see his fear. He held the weapon without any real confidence, and he was far too emotional. Besides, he didn’t have a killer’s eyes.”
She returned his smile. “I always told you that you’re the best hostage negotiator in the whole wide world.”
His dark gaze softened. “And I always said that you were the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world.”
He was too close to her. Her breath suddenly felt a bit labored as the moment between them lingered. His thigh pressed against hers, his warm body intimately near, and as the residual fear she’d felt earlier completely drained away from her another emotion surfaced.
Desire.
It rocked through her and flushed her entire body with a sweet warmth. He felt it, too. She saw it in the sudden burn of his eyes as he gazed at her.
She leaned closer and parted her lips in invitation. Her heart stuttered to a near halt as she waited to see what he was going to do. And then his lips were on hers. At first it was a hesitant, tender kiss, but then it became more insistent, far more demanding as his tongue swirled with hers.
His hands tangled in her hair, and she turned to grip his shoulders. Oh, she’d missed this...she’d so missed him. His mouth felt so familiar and yet at the same time so exciting and new to her.
The kiss spoke to a place deep inside her that had been dormant since the day they had parted ways, a place that now felt alive and as necessary as the very air she breathed.
“Annalise,” he moaned as his mouth left hers and found the spot just behind her ear that often drove her wild with desire. He then blazed a trail of nipping kisses down the side of her neck.
How on earth had she ever walked away from this man? His simplest touch electrified her, and his kisses made her feel more alive than any man she had ever dated before or would probably ever date in the future.
Slowly his hands untangled from her hair and moved down her back. He pressed her tightly against him as once again his mouth found hers for another soul-stirring kiss.
She wanted him. She leaned back, pulling him with her so they both were lying on the bed. She could feel his heart beating rapidly against her own, letting her know he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
One of his hands began to caress her stomach, each stroke bringing him closer and closer to her breasts. She wanted his touch. Oh, dear heaven, she wanted them both naked and moving together beneath the sheets.
“Evan.” She breathed his name as his mouth once again left hers. As he kissed down the side of her cheek, his beard created an additional pleasant sensation.
Finally his hand covered one of her breasts. Even though she wore a T-shirt and a bra, her nipples hardened as if eager for a more intimate touch.
She pushed against him and raised up just enough to pull the T-shirt over her head and toss it to the other side of the bed.
He unbuttoned and took his shirt off as well, and once again they came together. Her skin remembered the warmth and pleasure of his. As they kissed, their tongues once again swirled together in a wild dance of half-breathless passion. His fingers moved to her bra hooks...
At that moment a knock fell on the door.
Evan jumped up, half-dazed with his desire for her. He grabbed his shirt and quickly buttoned it while Annalise grabbed her T-shirt and ran for the bathroom.
He drew in a deep breath, grabbed his gun from the nightstand and then opened the door to see Davis. “I just wanted to let you know that Phil is now a guest in Chief Cummings’s jail.”
“Thanks, man. I’m now wondering if all the members of that group are as rabid as Phil.”
“Whatever they call themselves, they are definitely a cult,” Davis replied. “According to Phil, a bunch of them are planning to set up a protest of some kind later this evening outside the hotel. I have a feeling it’s going to be a circus.”
That made up Evan’s mind. The last thing he wanted was to try to stay focused and concentrate while a bunch of crazy cult members set up camp outside the hotel. Davis nodded to Annalise as she returned to the room.
“Annalise has offered the use of her house to me...and I’m going to take her up on it.”
He had to admit that what had happened just before Davis had knocked on the door had shocked him. His desire for her had caught him off guard, and he didn’t want that to happen again. Surely a house would be less intimate than the hotel rooms, and it really didn’t matter where he did his work.
“My place is only minutes from here,” she said to Davis.
“Sounds like a perfect way to avoid the circus that might go on here,” Davis replied. “It’s going to be difficult to completely secure the hotel now, and that’s going to take manpower. Instead of being out looking for the fugitives, a bunch of officers will now have to be here. When are you planning on making the move?”
“As soon as we can,” Evan said. He could see no downside to moving to her house.
“Then I’ll get out of here,” Davis replied.
“I’ll text you and the others as soon as we’re settled at Annalise’s place,” Evan said.
Once Davis was gone, he turned to Annalise. “You need to get packed up.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “Shouldn’t we talk about what just happened between us?”
“There isn’t much to talk about,” he replied. “Adrenaline was running high. We’d just been through a tense situation with Phil, and what happened between us was a mistake and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
