Desire Disguised Read Online Free Page A

dead, and your friend is in poor shape, so I’m going to need to talk with either you or Mat about it.” Despite his wish to relax the mood between them, that sounded threatening. Caraline must have thought so too, because she glanced again at the door and reached behind her to grab her brother’s thin arm.
    “You leave Mat alone.”
    “I’m not going to harm your brother. Or you.”
    A skeptical scowl twisted her lips. They were still pretty even when tight with repressed emotion. Ben winced when his subconscious added that bit of commentary, and Caraline reacted to his expression.
    “Pardon me if I don’t believe that.”
    Ben desperately needed to restart this encounter. Time to make some concessions and get her to relax before she collapsed. Mat had watched this terse exchange with an attentive air but was still curiously quiet. Ben didn’t have much experience with boys, but he thought they would normally be more talkative and willing to add an opinion here and there. This one was as self-contained as a wise old philosopher.
    “You’re here for thirty hours at least. Probably more. So, rather than push things until you fall on the floor, just tell me where your intended destination was so I can inform whoever is waiting for you that you’ve been delayed. No more details than that.”
    “There’s no one waiting for us. We can’t be printed and registered,” Caraline whispered and glanced around the room as if she thought she was being monitored.
    “Why not?”
    “Because we’re in danger.”
    “From what?”
    “People who want to kill us.” Her shoulders slumped, and her head ducked down.
    Ben took a quick moment to take that in. This was either the elaborate set up for a sympathy play by a skilled grifter, the sad delusions of someone with a mental imbalance, or the last effort at maintaining anonymity from someone in genuine fear. She might be irrational and not in peril from any actual threat, but Ben could certainly sense her desperation. He hadn’t missed the way she’d bitterly accepted she needed to tell him something. The young woman swayed on her feet.
    “Let’s come back to that later. How about I promise not to send any information about the crash out on a datadrop for the next thirty hours, and you agree to stay still and let the med people do what they need to do to get you and your brother better.”
    “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
    “Because I’m trusting you not to inform my superiors I’m not following proper procedures.”
    A gust of breath that was almost a laugh left her in a huff. She narrowed her eyes and gave him a considering look. He was impressed she was this formidable after everything she’d been through. “You’d get in trouble for doing this?”
    “I would.”
    “What would they do? Make you sit in the corner for an hour? Take away your stunner for a day?” Caraline swung out her hand and pointed at his waist.
    Ben glanced at his belt. He’d forgotten he even wore it. “I doubt it. They’d reprimand me.”
    “Oh. Harsh.” She breathed in deeply and gripped the edge of the bed as her eyelids fluttered. Her brother reached out to pat her back.
    “Come on, Sis, it’s thirty hours. We can’t go anywhere if we get out of here. We don’t even have shoes.”
    Ben wanted to shake the boy’s hand for his complicity. But before he could press his point, Caraline’s knees gave out, and she sank into an awkward crouch. Ben lifted her thin, shivering body and carried her over to the room’s other bed. She was a ghastly shade of white, and as he laid her down, he checked the monitor that sprang to life as soon as her body hit the padding. As her vitals began to scroll, he was reassured that everything seemed to be within normal parameters. Normal parameters for someone who’d survived a re-entry crash and was dehydrated. He had to remind himself to remove his hands from her, and when he did, her eyes met his for a moment. She looked at him as a