Jordan Summers - [Dead World 01] (11 page)

"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice
rumbling
close to a growl. Before he could
stop himself, Morgan
circled her and
sniffed twice. She was beyond ripe.

"Do you have a cold?"
she asked, following
his
movements with her eyes. He blinked. Why would
she
think such a thing?
"No." Morgan's brow furrowed as
he stopped in front of her. She hesitated, then stuck out
her
hand. "My name is Gina Santiago."

Morgan shook her hand, surprised by the calluses he
could feel etching her palm. She obviously didn't work at a desk. He released
her reluctantly, when every fiber of his being screamed to draw her close.
"Is there something I can do for you, Miz Santiago?
We don't normally get much attention from the
tacti
cal team. Looking for a donation? If so, I could've saved you a
trip."

"Not hardly, but I'll keep you in mind for next
year." She smiled and Morgan's knees almost buckled. "So you're
aware of what I am."

"Of course." Morgan
stepped closer, crowding her,
Gina held
her ground, showing no signs of submi
ssion.
Her inaction both surprised and pleased him. "I
spotted you coming
a mile away. Even if I hadn't, half the town has called me since you
arrived."
His
 lips
quirked. "You're big news." He gave her a
cursory glance. "And now I see why."

Gina crossed her arms and glowered.

"I take it this isn't a social call," he
added quickly.

"No." She glanced around the tiny room, her
gaze landing
on several of the lab assistants huddled in the
corner.

Morgan followed her line of sight as it focused on the
small viewing screen highlighting Roark Montgomery.
Today he
appeared to be pushing his plat-form on protecting the "blood purity"
of the human race. He tried not to listen to the politician spew his racist
venom about separating "true society" from the Others.

"Turn that crap off," Morgan snapped,
glaring at the lab tech holding the remote.

Gina flinched.

A
second later the screen dimmed and tense silence
permeated the room.

"I guess I know who you'll be voting for come
election time."

Morgan
shot her a sharp glance. She couldn't possibly
support that
monster. Yet, from the expression on
her face, he knew she did. Something wasn't
right.

"Is there somewhere private we can talk?"

Morgan
paused, not sure what to make of this woman.
 
Finally,
he nodded toward the door. "We can speak
in my office."

He
turned to leave. Her fingers curled around his bicep,
sending warmth
rocketing through his blood. His
heart slammed against his ribs. Her touch was so soft
caressing—
familiar.
He tensed under her grip.
A vision of
the erotic dream he'd had flashed in Mor
gan's mind. It couldn't be. Yet
there was no mistaking his body's reaction.

If she could do that with a
touch, what would hap
pen when he spread
her beneath him'.'

Morgan stilled. When had he decided he'd have her? Was
it when he'd heard that she'd entered town
or
when he first laid eyes on her? He wasn't sure, but
he had no doubt that
he would.

"Before we go, is there
anything of interest in there
I should
know about?" She pointed to the double doors leading to the dissecting
lab.

Her question dashed his ardor and made him decidedly
uneasy. "No. why?"

Gina rose to her toes and tried to look through the
scratched windows. What in the hell was she doing now? Morgan squared his body,
using his shoulders to block her view.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

If it wouldn't raise suspicion, he'd kick her cute
ass out of town right now. Morgan quelled the
urge.
"Not unless the tactical team is suddenly interested in
becoming involved with tracking the movements of the unknowns or our illegal
boundary-crossing problem."

Gina bristled and slowly lowered her heels to the
ground. "We do our best to patrol the area."

"Yeah, and we do the
rest," he said, before adding,
"Follow
me."

Morgan led Red out the door and into the street.
She
half expected
him to tell her to go to hell. She wouldn't
have
blamed him if
he had. She probably would've if their
circumstances were reversed. 

They walked past a couple of outfitting shops before
reaching his
office. She barely glanced at the storefronts
as they passed by. Her eyes had
zeroed in and refused to leave his perfectly compact ass.

Morgan was a lean man with sinewy
muscles, but in no
w
ay skinny. His shock of dark
hair hung to his shoulders in wild disarray, a blatant disregard of
law-enforcement grooming standards. Red wondered what other
rules he
ignored.

"Gina, your heart rate is accelerating again and
the temperature
of your skin is rising. Do you need assistance?"
Rita chimed.

He glanced over his shoulder in time to catch her
staring
at his ass, and arched a brow. His spun-gold-colored
eyes glittered
with amusement. Their intensity
sucked t
he breath from her lungs.

"Your palms are beginning to sweat and your nip
-—" It took two tries for Red to hit the
right button and
shut Rita off.

"She's been malfunctioning lately," Red
lied, hoping that Morgan believed her.

The look he gave her made Red
decidedly uncomfortable.
 
What was it
about the men in this town? She wasn't
used to men looking at her
that
way. For that matter,
she wasn't used to men noticing
her at all. Most couldn't see past the uniform. 

Kane and Morgan Hunter didn't have that problem.
 
They
paid far too much attention. For a heart-beat,
Red feared what Morgan might
see. Yet when he
met her eyes again, his expression had changed.

Until that moment. Red hadn't known that it was
possible to simultaneously convey resentment and sexual desire. She found the
ability disconcerting, especially since she had no doubt he'd done it on purpose.

And that, more than anything, pissed her off. She
wouldn't allow him or anyone else to intimidate her. Red didn't scare easily.
He would find that out the hard way. She opened her mouth to tell him. but he
interrupted.

"I haven't seen one of those talking navcoms in
years," he said.

She bristled.

"They don't make them like they used to. I wish I
would've hung onto mine," he said, taking the fight right out of her.
"We're here."

Morgan opened the door and
waited for her to step
inside, then led
her to his office. The show of man
ners
reminded Red of her grandfather, despite the de
cades' difference in
their ages.

He signaled to a clerk and one of his deputies in the
other room, before pressing a button to shut the
door. "Please take a seat, Miz Santiago." He drew out her
name, swirling it on his tongue like a sweet until
she shivered in
response. "Can I get you some water?"

"That would be great."
she said, sitting in the chair
nearest
the desk so she could keep her back to the wall and her eyes on the door. An
old habit that had kept her alive on more than one occasion.

Morgan's office was streamlined, much like the man.
There were no personal touches, only the bare
minimum in the way of
furnishings. Whatever it took to function and nothing more. 

White paint splashed the walls,
while gray trim out
lined the window and
door frames. A row of vertical buttons
lined one wall, making the room look as if it wore
a shirt. Thin pad-less metal chairs banked a faux-
wood desk, leaving little in the way of comfort. A
couch that had seen better days was shoved in the
corner,
almost as an afterthought. Either Morgan didn't
receive a lot of visitors or he didn't want any.

Red decided it was the latter.

He pressed a button on the wall and a refrigeration
unit
popped
open with a hiss. Morgan reached inside and
grabbed two waters, then held them out.
Their fingers
brushed as he handed her a canteen. Red's hand
shook and she
almost dropped the water as tingles
from the innocent caress shot along her arm.   

Red looked from her hand to his face, then pulled
away. It had been a long time since she'd felt more than
basic physical
satisfaction from a man's touch. The
fact that Morgan's innocent caress managed to affect
her left her on
edge.

"Thanks." She nodded, before taking a huge
unladylike gulp.

Morgan watched Gina Santiago from beneath his lashes.
 
He
couldn't help but do so. She was stunning and
unclaimed—a very rare
combination for a woman her
age these days. One that made her more valuable than
water in his
mind.

His
sex twitched at the thought of drinking her up.

He'd
thumbed through a file on her history before she'd
come to the
dissecting lab. The document didn't compare
to the woman. She'd pinned her ebony hair
back in a severe ponytail and wore no
enhancement
whatsoever, but those
things did little to diminish her
impact.

He inhaled again, unable to get enough of her ripe
scent. Although slightly different from anything he'd ever encountered, it
nonetheless drove him insane. The aroma filtered through his senses, encircling
his cock as surely as if she'd closed her tight fist around him.

Her civilian clothing purposely resembled the uniform
the tactical team wore. The black fabric that was nearly painted on her
luscious curves left little to his already strained imagination. Her hard
nipples bore into her shirt, teasing his eyes and mouth. One
taste would quench his curiosity, but would it
sate
his
hunger? His gaze
traveled leisurely down her long, slender legs, visually feasting upon her
muscled limbs.

Even if her clothes hadn't been a dead giveaway
about her profession, her shoes would've been. No
one outside of law enforcement was issued black combat boots. He looked at the
shine. They were new, if the lack of scuff marks was any indication. Yet he
knew
from her file that she wasn't a rookie.

Nothing about the woman's appearance explained the
strange nickname he'd found tucked discreetly within her file. Why did they
call her Red?

She shifted, her womanly curves undulating beneath her
clothes.

Morgan fought hard to keep from drooling. He doubted
that she'd take it for the compliment that it was. This wasn't good. Gina
Santiago's presence was a distraction he could ill afford. Not now. He needed to
get rid of her
and quick, before he did something embarrassing
like bend her over his desk and
mount her
from behind.

"So what interest does the tactical team have
with my
little town?"

"None." Gina shook her head, and a strand of
hair cascaded
down to rest next to her delicately curved car.
"I'm here
unofficially."

Morgan's hands tightened on the arms of his chair as
he fought to
keep from reaching out and touching the
silken mass. "Mind explaining?"

Gina
sat
forward, accidentally giving him an unexpected
glimpse of her modest cleavage.
"We found a body
in the woods thirty klicks north of here yesterday.
 
The
victim, Lisa Solomon, appears to have been attacked
by animals.
From soil samples gathered at the
scene, we suspect she came through the Republic of
Arizona. Quite
possibly Nuria itself. Does her name
ring any bells?"

Morgan tensed as her words registered, all desire forgotten.
 
She
wasn't here because of Renee Forrester.  That
fact should make him feel
better, but it didn't. There
had been another murder. "No, should it?"