Hunter Read Online Free Page B

just ignore them, the way he ignored any questions he didn’t want to answer.
    He drove the way he did everything else, with confidence and poise. Near collisions, bottlenecks, slow traffic, nothing seemed to disturb him. He eased the car in and out of lanes with no trouble at all, and soon they were at the airport.
    She noticed that he didn’t request seats together. But the ticket agent apparently decided that they wanted them, to her secret delight, and put them in adjoining seats. That was when she realized how lovesick she was, hungry for just the accidental brush of his arm or leg. She had to get a grip on herself!
    He sat completely at ease in his seat while she ground her teeth together and tried to remember all the statistics on how safe air travel really was.
    â€œNow what’s wrong?” he murmured, glancing darkly down at her as the flight attendants moved into place to demonstrate emergency procedures.
    â€œNothing,” she said.
    â€œThen why do you have a death-grip on the arms of your seat?” he asked politely.
    â€œSo that I won’t get separated from it when we crash,” she replied, closing her eyes tight.
    He chuckled softly. “I never took you for a coward,” he said. “Are you the same woman who helped me set up enemy agents only a few weeks ago?”
    â€œThat was different,” she protested. She lifted her blue eyes to his dark ones and her gaze was trapped. Her breath sighed out, and she wondered which was really the more dangerous, the plane or Hunter.
    He couldn’t seem to drag his eyes from hers, and he found that irritating. At close quarters, she was beautiful. Dynamite. All soft curves and a sexy voice and a mouth that he wanted very much to kiss. But that way lay disaster. He couldn’t afford to forget the danger of involvement. He had a life-style that he couldn’t easily share with any woman, but most especially with a white woman. All the same, she smelled sweet and floral, and she looked so beautifully cool. He wanted to dishevel her.
    He averted his face to watch the flight attendants go through the drill that preceded every flight, grateful for the interruption. He had to stop looking at Jennifer like that.
    They were airborne before either of them spoke again.
    â€œThese people that you think are following us,” she said softly, “is it the same group that broke into my apartment?”
    â€œMore than likely,” he said. “You have to remember that strategic metals tend to fluctuate on the world market according to the old law of supply and demand. When a new use is found for a strategic metal, it becomes immediately more valuable.”
    â€œAnd an increase in one industry can cause it, too,” she replied.
    He nodded. She was quick. He liked her brain as much as her body, but he wasn’t going to let her know that. “We didn’t pick up the ringleader, you remember. He got away,” he added with a cold glare at her.
    She flushed. She didn’t like being reminded of how helpless she’d felt. “I didn’t ask you to stop to see about me,” she defended.
    He knew that. The memory of seeing her lying inert on the floor still haunted him. That was when he’d first realized he was vulnerable. Now he seemed to spend all his time trying to forget that night. The agents, his job to protect Jenny and the company, had all been momentarily forgotten when the agent knocked her down in his haste to get away. Hunter had been too shaken by Jennifer’s prone position to run after the man. And that was what made him so angry. Not the fact that the agent had gotten away, but the fact that his concern for Jennifer had outweighed his dedication to his work. That was a first in his life.
    â€œWe’re transferring to another flight in Phoenix, under different names,” he said, lowering his voice. “With luck, the agents will pursue us on to California before they realize