Tempting the Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

swung around to the man who had taken her pack.
    On the ground, spread out in a display, was her pistol, dart gun, specimen kit, hunting knife, maps, cryptozoology book and handwritten notes about chupacabras.
    “Well, now,” Logan murmured. “I think someone has some explaining to do.”
    Marlena cleared her throat delicately. “We don’t mean any harm. If this is your spot, we’ll move on.” She made her voice shake, and her big blue eyes even filled with tears.
    God, she was good.
    26

    Sela held her breath as Logan moved toward Marlena, slowly, his shoulders rolling like a jaguar on the prowl.
    Get him, girl, Sela thought, but he stopped a few feet from the other woman, squatted on the ground and opened her pack. He pawed around in it and then froze, and Sela bit back a smile, knowing exactly what he’d found. Marlena feigned horror as he drew a small pink vibrator from her pack. Somehow, she even managed to turn about ten shades of red. The woman belonged in Hollywood, not at ACRO.
    The men made lewd noises and comments, but Logan cocked an eyebrow, looked from Marlena to Sela. “Are you two … involved?”
    “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Sela snapped.
    He shrugged. “I’d like to watch.”
    “You’re a pig.”
    “I’m a guy who’s been in the fucking jungle for a month without a woman.”
    Marlena was still looking mortified. Almost as though Logan felt sorry for her, he shoved the vibrator back in the pack and stood. “Cuff them. We’re taking them back to base.”
    The man closest to Sela whipped flex-cuffs out of his pocket. Sela waited until he jerked her arms behind her back, and then she spun, took him down with a knee to the groin. Before anyone could move, she shot into the brush, running as fast as she could. She knew she was going to get caught—this wasn’t about escape, it was about making sure Marlena was the good girl, the one everyone would want to be nice to, protect, fall for.
    Sela was going to be the hard-ass, uncontrollable bitch. Which really wasn’t a big stretch of her acting abilities.
    Branches slapped at her face, snagged her hair, and twice she nearly went down when her boot caught on tree roots. She leaped a small stream, but when she landed on the other side, her foot slipped, and she tumbled down an incline. She rolled to a stop, pain shooting through her shoulder. Shit. The sounds of pursuit grew closer. Wincing, she shoved to her feet and started toward a dense copse of trees—
    Something hit her like a train, and she went down. Hard. Agony screamed through her shoulder, and she cried out before she could stop herself. She lay on her belly, a heavy body on top of her. Strong legs pinned hers together, and a thick arm pressed into the back of her neck.
    “That was a stupid move,” Logan growled into her hair.
    “Bite me.”
    Teeth caught her lobe. The son of a bitch actually bit her.
    “Lesson number one,” he said. “Don’t ever say anything to me you don’t mean.”
    “Fuck you,” she spat into the dirt. “And I do mean that.”
    “As an offer?” He ground his pelvis against her—and did he …? Yes, he 27

    did. He had an erection. Maybe the vibrator had put some ideas in his head.
    That, or the month in a jungle with no woman.
    “As in, go to hell.”
    He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Sweetheart, I’m on my way.”
    He shifted his weight, taking pressure off her shoulder, which was throbbing.
    “Now, do you promise to be good?”
    “Oh, yes,” she said sweetly. “Absolutely. You’ve totally cowed me.”
    “You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?” He yanked her arms behind her back, and she gritted her teeth against the pain in her joint. “You left your lover alone with a bunch of armed, horny guys.”
    “I panicked.” She winced as he secured her wrists with flex-cuffs. “Is she okay?”
    “Dunno. Maybe if you’d shut your trap, you could hear her scream.”
    She roared with anger, which wasn’t entirely