Mackenzie's Pleasure by Linda Howard

sagging frame.
    He turned to check on Barrie. She was still asleep. The room was considerably warmer,
    and she had kicked the blanket aside. His shirt was up around her waist.
    The kick of desire was like taking a blow to the chest. He almost staggered from it, his
    heart racing, his breath strangling in his throat. Sweat beaded on his forehead, ran down his
    temple. God.
    He should turn away. He should put the blanket over her. He should put sex completely
    out of his mind. There were any number of things he should do, but instead he stared at her
    with a hunger so intense he ached with it, quivered with it. Greedily his gaze moved over
    every female inch of her. His sex was throbbing like a toothache. He wanted her more
    intensely than he'd ever wanted a woman before. His famous cool remoteness had failed him—
    there wasn't a cool inch on him, and his desire was so damn strong and immediate, he was
    shaking from the effort of resisting it.
    Moving slowly, stiffly, he set his purloined goodies on the floor. His breath hissed
    between his clenched teeth. He hadn't known sexual frustration could be this painful. He'd never
    had any trouble getting a woman whenever he'd wanted one. This woman was off-limits,
    though, from even an attempt at seduction. She'd been through enough without having to
    fend off her rescuer, too.
    As warm as the room was now, if he spread the blanket over her she would only kick it
    off again. Gingerly he went down on one knee beside her and with shaking hands pulled the
    shirt tail down to cover her. With slight disbelief he eyed the fine tremor of his fingers. He
    never trembled. He was rock steady during the most tense and dangerous situations, icily
    controlled in combat. He had parachuted out of a burning plane, swum with sharks and sewn
    up his own flesh. He had ridden unbroken horses and even bulls a time or two. He had killed.
    He had done all of that with perfect control, but this sleeping, red-haired woman made him
    shake.
    Grimly he forced himself to turn aside and pick up the radio headset. Holding the
    earpiece in place, he clicked once and immediately heard two clicks in response. Everything
    was okay.
    Maybe some water would cool him down. At least thinking about it was better than
    thinking about Barrie. He dropped a couple of purification tablets into the jug, in case the
    small amount of wine that had remained in it wasn't enough to kill all the invisible little
    critters. The tablets didn't improve the taste any—just the opposite— but they were better than
    a case of the runs.
    He drank just enough to relieve his thirst, then settled down with his back to a wall.
    There was nothing to do but wait and contemplate the walls, because he sure as hell didn't
    trust himself to look at Barrie.
    Voices woke her. They were loud, and close by. Barrie bolted upright, her eyes huge
    with alarm. Hard arms grabbed her, and an even harder hand clamped itself over her mouth,
    stifling any sound she might have made. Confused, disoriented, in sheer terror she began to
    fight as much as she could. Teeth. She should use her teeth. But his fingers were biting hard into
    her jaw, and she couldn't open her mouth. Desperately she tried to shake her head, and he
    merely gathered her in tighter, tucking her against him in a way that was oddly protective.
    "Shh" came that toneless whisper, and the familiarity of it cut through the panic and
    fog of sleep. Zane.
    Instantly she relaxed, weak with relief. Feeling the tension leave her muscles, he tilted
    her face, still keeping his hand over her mouth. Their eyes met in the shadowed light, and he
    gave a brief nod as he saw that she was awake now, and aware. He released her jaw, his hard
    fingers trailing briefly over her skin in apology for the tightness of his grip. The barely there
    caress went through her like lightning. She shivered as it seared a path along nerve endings
    throughout her body and instinctively turned her face into the warm hollow