New Title 1 (49 page)

“What are you doing?”
Liz whispered, grabbing my arm.

“It
’s okay: I know who it is.”

She relaxed a fraction, but still hung ont
o my arm.

“Is this a romantic
assignation, Lee?” she said, with surprise and some annoyance.

“Sort of,” I
muttered, “although I didn’t know he’d come here tonight. It wasn’t planned. I’m sorry, Liz.”

“This really isn
’t like you,” she said, frowning.

“I know,” I said, apologetically.

I pulled open the door, and Sebastian quickly stepped into the room.

Liz
’s face was a picture.

“Sebastian, you
’ve met my friend Liz Ashton.”

“Yes,” he said
, stiffly.

“Chief Hunter,” replied
Liz, glaring at him with obvious dislike.

I rubbed my forehead.

“I’m sorry about this, Liz, but can you give us some time alone?”

She snorted and shook her head, muttering something that sounded like
, “bloody fool”.

I presumed she meant me, although
her words fit Sebastian just as well. I had a few choice words of my own to say to Chief Hunter.

“Two hours, Lee,” she said, glancing at her watch with zero subtlety. “I
’ll be downstairs in the bar if you need me.”

She threw a final, accusing look at Sebastian and left.

I was still deciding what to say to him as I shut and locked the door, but before I could speak, he tugged me into his arms and kissed me.

His tongue was in my mouth and his hands pressing into my flesh, chasing all thoughts but one from my overheated brain.

When he finally let go, I was breathless and aroused – which was probably his plan – but I wasn’t letting his outrageous behavior go unchallenged either.

“What the hell are you doing, Sebastian?”

He shrugged and grinned at me. “I thought I’d kiss you before you yelled at me. Guess it didn’t work.”

“You think this is a joke?
” I said, my voice rising with frustrated disbelief. “First David, now Liz. Why don’t you just skywrite it?”

“What did the asshole say to you?”

I sighed. “He’s not going to tell anyone – he was really nice about it.”

Sebastian scowled
.

“
Liz won’t say anything to anyone either – I’ll just have to listen to her chewing me out later. But I’d have much rather she didn’t know just now – she’s my
work
colleague. You’ve got to stop taking these risks, Sebastian. For my sake, if you won’t do it for yourself.”

He grimaced. “I
’m sorry, Caro. I just go a little crazy around you.”

Not good enough.

“Well, you have to get it under control. Now please, please tell me your assignment to Ryan Grant is temporary.”

He stared at me. “Fuck! I was wondering why they
’d seated you next to him. Are you embedded with him? Shit!”

“Exactly my thoughts.
He can’t know, or it’ll really screw things up for both of us – well, mainly for me. Sebastian, you’re going to have to act like you did in Geneva, as if you still dislike me – or at the very least, ignore me. Can you do that?”

“Fuck, Caro,” he sighed. “Yes, I can do it. But I
’ll hate every fucking minute of it.”

“At least
if we’re in the same Camp: I’ll know what you’re doing and that you’re safe.”

He gave me a small smile.

“Same goes for you. Yeah, there is that. And we might get a chance to… hook up?”

I shook my head, even as the image took shape.

“No, too dangerous. You can’t risk it and I
definitely
can’t risk it. Grant isn’t an idiot.”

“No, he seems
on the ball.”

“On the plus side, Grant already thinks you dislike me.”

Sebastian frowned. “Because…?”

“
Liz: she mentioned that we’d met in Geneva, and at that stage, she still thought you were an ass. Well, that hasn’t changed, but just a different sort of ass now.”

He gave me a crooked smile.

“An ass?”

“Big time.”

He leaned against the door and crossed his arms, his head cocked to one side, a damn sexy smile on his face.

“What happened with your little friend, Natalie?”
I said, not prepared to let him off the hook just yet.

His smile vanished. “She
’s no fucking friend: she wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, and then Grant kicked me out because of her.”

“What did he say to you?”

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably.

“Oh, well, never mind – I can guess.
She didn’t look pleased either – I think she was planning to have you for dessert. Was it you who told her to cover up?”

“Yeah, not that it made any difference.”

“She must have listened to someone. At least you tried. And you are
very
trying, Chief Hunter. Part of me wants to slap some sense into you…”

“And the other part?” he murmured,
wetting his lips with his tongue.

“
Well,” I said, running a finger down the red braid that edged his uniform jacket, he dI was wondering what we could do for the next…” I checked my wristwatch, “…115 minutes?”

I thought Sebastian would leap on me but he closed his eyes, as if he was in pain.

“What’s the matter, tesoro?”             

“I really fucking hate this, Caro. We
’re always running in different directions, we’re always running out of time. I just want to wake up with you in my arms every day.”

God, this man was irritating – and wonderful – and
he could say the most romantic things at the time when I most needed to hear them.

“I know, Sebastian, and I feel the same. But
it won’t be like that forever – we will be together. We just have to be patient.” I stroked his cheek, “And for now, we have 113 minutes left.”

His eyes snapped open.

“Fuck!”

Suddenly we w
ere all fumbling, hurried hands, panting into each other’s mouths, as Sebastian tried to tear off his uniform and undress me at the same time. I was naked and ready long before him, so I lent a helping hand, which didn’t seem to help much.

“Damn it, Caro,” he groaned, as I pressed myself against him, feeling the
thick material against my heated skin.

He
backed me towards my bed, his erection rigid against my thigh. I fell backwards and then burst into laughter.

“What?”

“The whole pants around the ankles thing – it’s not a great look.”

He grinned ruefully
as he toed off his shiny shoes.

“Guess I
’d better lose the socks, too.”

“Definitely.”

When every item of clothing had been stripped off, he stood next to the bed and gazed down at me. I didn’t feel like laughing now.

“You like what you see, Caro?”
he asked, with a low, rough voice.

I nodded
, my mouth suddenly dry.

“After tonight, well, we don
’t know when… so I want you to remember me like this… when you look at me – see me like this, wanting you.”

And he stroked himself, his eyes half closing as he breathed in deeply.

“And when I look at you, this is what I’ll be thinking about: close your eyes.”

Reluctantly, I let my eyelids flutter down.

The mattress moved beneath me, and I felt Sebastian’s warm hands on my ankles. Slowly, he moved my legs apart, then he kissed his way up to my thigh, and my breath caught in my throat.

He didn
’t stop, and I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted him loving me forever.

Sometime later, w
e lay in each other’s arms, peaceful and blissfully sated.

Suddenly, an enormous explosion erupted outside, rattling the windows of the hotel. Sebastian grabbed
me and pulled me onto the floor by the side of the bed, away from the window. He waited for ten seconds, then cautiously got to his feet, standing to one side of the window to peer out.

“Probably a car bomb –
about half a mile away.”

I was still shivering on the floor.

“It’s okay, Caro. We’re okay.”

I
’m sure we were both thinking the same thing: we were okay, but somewhere out there in the night, people had lost their lives, even now lying on the ground, bleeding into the dust. I wondered if Liz would be off to the site, to report on what had happened. Sometimes it felt important to be on the frontline, telling people back home what was happening in this far away war; but sometimes if felt like we were no better than war pornographers, capturing the misery of other people on film, or in photographs, asking them at their most desperate moment to give us a sound bite to file and send home. Job done.

It was a fine line to tread
, and not one we always got right. But I still thought that what we did was ultimately worthwhile – I had to.

I stood up hesitantly
, naked and feeling exposed.

Usually when I was on assignment in a dangerous location, I wore clothes day and night. You never knew when you might have to evacuate your hotel room in a hurry, when the time it took to put on pants and a T-shirt was
going to be the difference between life and death.

But with Sebastian, I broke all the rules.

“Caro, are you okay, baby?”

“Yes, I suppose so. Just knowing that out there… you
’ll be facing that soon.”