Shadows to Light (Shadows of Justice 5) by Regan Black Page A

more personal inside her reacting and sparking off something inside him.
    She came back into the front room, not quite meeting his eyes. "Which bedroom do you want?"
    The one with you in it. He stifled that response and tried to look at her as an assignment. Failing that, he kept his distance. "Doesn't matter to me. I promise I won't jump you."
    "Thanks. Knowing I wouldn't fight you off is what scares me most."
    "FYI, saying things like that isn't exactly a turn off." He unbuttoned and removed the standard issue jacket, feeling her gaze roaming his torso. Did she have any idea what that did to him?
    She laughed and a blush stained her cheeks. "Maybe we should talk about, um, you know."
    "How the world falls away when you kiss me?" He smiled as her blush deepened.
    "I meant your injuries."
    He didn't have money, wasn't Hollywood handsome, but he'd been around enough women to know when he was wanted. "Injuries? Short conversation. I'm feel fine."
    "I only took care of your face and after the thing," she motioned toward her neck, "I was too tired to ask. I should've taken care of you first."
    He bit back a curse. Her clinical voice scraped at his pride. "I'm not buying that. There's something here." He motioned to indicate the space between them. "Don't deny it."
    "Fair enough." She caught her full lower lip between her teeth, her dark blue eyes hot and locked on him now. "I can't deny it." She turned and strolled away, only to pause when he didn't fall in behind her. "Coming?"
    He sprang after her, followed her into the bathroom. He sighed when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Kissing her was everything soft and warm and sweet. Her body was hot and pliant as his hands cruised over her curves. She slid her hands under his shirt and he moaned, letting go of her long enough to pull it off and toss it aside. If anyone interrupted them this time he'd –
    "Ow! What the hell?"
    "Look." She'd raised her hands to his face, her touch as clinical as her voice had been as she turned his back toward the mirror.
    He looked over his shoulder, scowled at the bruising. "Looks about right. I took a hard punch."
    "Or a dozen." She aimed what he considered her intense healer gaze at his back, his sides.
    The bruises were still in the early stages, but he recognized the severity. "Forget ' em. I you I feel fine."
    He tried to distract her but a mere touch of her fingertip across the worst spot made his knees buckle. He caught himself on the marble counter. "Can't you leave it alone?"
    "No. I don't think I should."
    "It didn't hurt this bad when you were kissing me." She made a snorting sound. "Are you laughing at me?"
    "Only because I'm concerned."
    "You really need to work on your bedside manner."
    "As soon as I'm done working on you."
    "Fine." He let her help him to the bedroom and fell face down on the bed, feeling weak all over. "It didn't hurt this bad when the bastard punched me," he said. He gritted his teeth to stop his stupid whining. Hopefully she could fix a broken jaw if it came to that.
    "No, the punch was just the delivery. The real, deeper injury takes time to rip through a system as strong as yours."
    Jameson felt like he'd been wrapped in cotton. Hot, fuzzy cotton. He didn't understand everything she was muttering about, but he thought there was a compliment in there somewhere.
    It made him smile as he floated somewhere just above the fuzzy cotton, in a cooler place. He felt her fingers at his spine, spreading like cool water down his back.
    Great trick, better feeling. The woman had a way of touching that made hand to hand combat almost worth it. He drifted there, in that cool, pain free place, thinking about Mira, until he slept deep enough that he wasn't thinking about anything.
     
    * * *
     
    Mira watched Jameson sleep off the effects of the brutal attack. She'd spared him the worst of it, but still the guilt twisted inside her.
    When she recognized the enforcers, she should've just gone along