Bare Nerve by Katherine Garbera Page B

conservative clothes, yet feisty and kick-ass. You should be leery of holding a weapon in your hand, yet I know that you’re comfortable with it.”
    “That’s my training. I’m not hiding anything, Jack. What you see with me is exactly what you get.”
    He shook his head as he closed the gap between them. He caught her chin in his hand, lifting her face. Their eyes met, and she felt the brush of his breath across her cheek. “That isn’t true. You want the world to think you’re someone who views the world in black and white, and yet your entire life is based on that gray area in between.”
    Anna shook her head but knew she was lying to both of them. She hated the fact that she worked in that gray area. That she didn’t officially work for any government. But she would never stop doing the job. She believed in what she did, even if she didn’t have the sanction from someone in power. “You might have a point.”
    “I do have one,” he said, leaning closer to her. “Slap me if you have to, but I can’t go another moment without feeling your lips under mine.”
    He lowered his head to hers. Rubbed his lips over hers. A slow back-and-forth movement that made Anna stop thinking. She realized this was what had made her so restless. Not Algeria or the mission. Not the fact that she was unsure of her future.
    But this man.
    Jack Savage and the unbridled lust he pulled so effortlessly from her.
    She felt his tongue against the seam of her lips, and she gave up all pretense of being calm. She reached up to clutch his shoulders and drew him closer to her. She wanted more than his lips on hers. She wanted his hot, hard body pressed against her. She wanted his arms around her.
    She wanted him.
    She opened her mouth under his, returning his kiss with the kind of passion she’d always wanted to experience but never had.
    This man was bringing her to life in a way she hadn’t expected. He groaned a deep sound that made her tremble as she tipped her head to the side and gave him greater access to her mouth.
    His hands slid down her back, cupping her hips and drawing her against him. He lifted her and carried her back into the motel and up the stairs to his door.
    Being alone for an entire evening with a woman wasn’t something he usually preferred, but he had the feeling tonight he needed just that. Needed the distance from his team and to spend the night with Anna. Because he had no idea where his personal life was heading. And for the first time since he’d enlisted at eighteen years old, he didn’t know what the future held.

Chapter Eight
    J ack carried Anna over the threshold into his room. He never slept on a mission—an old habit he’d never been able to shake. Normally he didn’t ask for a room, but he was glad he’d taken one this time.
    He kicked the door closed, set Anna on her feet, turned and latched the door, and then settled his back against it. She stood there with only the dim light of the moon flickering through the threadbare curtains over the one window in the room.
    “No pressure,” he said, realizing that with her he didn’t want to be as uncouth as he had been with other women.
    Sex . Was that what this was? Sex had always been a bodily function to him. But with Anna it seemed it would be more. His itch tonight couldn’t be scratched by just anyone—this was a specific craving for her.
    “No pressure? Wow, you really have a way with the ladies,” she said.
    “I know I don’t,” he said. “But I also know I can’t let this chance pass. There is something about you, Anna, that makes me feel…Well, it’s different.”
    “Me, too,” she admitted in a small voice. “Come over here and kiss me again. I don’t want to think about this too long or too hard.”
    He pushed away from the door and walked over to her. She looked small and fragile in the wan light and so infinitely beautiful he knew he should just walk away. She was a woman out of his league. But at the same time he’d