THE FEAR. Oh, God, the fear. I’d blown everything. I shook my head, trying to deny everything, but that only made him angrier. He snarled and grabbed both wrists in one huge hand, trapping them against the wall high above my head. “What was the plan? Kill me? You have a knife under there, a needle?” He hooked his fingers under the belt of the robe and tugged and the knot came apart, the whole thing going loose around me. I struggled, flushing. “Or were you just here to open the door for a hitman?” He glared at me. “It wouldn’t be the first time a pretty woman’s tried to do that.”

Pretty?!

He pressed my wrists harder into the wall. “Who are you?!” he roared.

I squeezed my eyes shut in terror. I wanted to weep because it was all so wrong. I’m not a sexy assassin or a hitman’s girlfriend or even a proper FBI agent, I’m—

“I’m no one!” I sobbed.

The pressure on my wrists eased a little. When I opened my eyes, he was swimmy and blurry behind a film of tears. I blinked them away and saw the anger slowly fading from his face. For a second, his eyes were blue, gentler, than I’d ever seen them. “You really believe that, don’t you?” he muttered.

I just panted and stared at him, stunned.

He had that look again he’d had in the hallway. Fascinated. He’d seen something in me that cut through all that coldness. I wasn’t a threat, anymore.

He released my wrists, but he didn’t step back, yet. My arms slumped down to my sides and that made the robe slide down over one shoulder. His eyes followed it, tracking over my shoulder, my collarbone, the slope of my breast.

Our breathing slowed, the adrenaline leaving us. And the mood shifted.

When his eyes flicked back up to my face, I saw that glittering, furnace-like heat again. I realized just how close our bodies were pressed. My breasts were pillowed against his chest. Our breathing had fallen into sync and every time we inhaled, the tight pressure, the rub of hard against soft, was almost unbearable, sending streamers of heat snapping and twisting down to my groin.

For the first time, both of us seemed to become aware that his leg was between mine. His clothed thigh was against my bare one and, even as I registered it, I could feel his cock hardening, thickening, the heat of it pressing against the very top of my inner thigh, the head of the bulge nudging up against my pussy lips. I swallowed, going weak. The heat was continuous, now, strumming faster and faster through my body, and every time it reached my groin I could feel it turning to slick moisture.

He glanced down again. The press of his chest was all that was stopping the robe from slithering the rest of the way down my arm and off. If he moved just a little….

He looked at me again. For an instant, he almost looked helpless. Konstantin? Helpless?

And then he closed his eyes and uttered some Russian curse under his breath. When he opened his eyes, he wouldn’t look at me. He stepped back and, to my amazement, he very gently gripped the robe and pulled it back up my shoulder and into place. Then he took the two edges in his hands and wrapped them around me, and finally tied the belt in place, as carefully as if wrapping up a doll for Christmas.

When he’d finished, he stared at the floor for a second, those muscled shoulders rising and falling as he fought to control himself. Finally, he lifted his head and looked me in the eye. The cold was almost back, just a hint of stubborn blue remaining. “I am going to do something a man like me never does, Hailey Akers. I am going to apologize.” He looked me right in the eye. “I am sorry.”

And then he opened the door and gestured for me to leave. I was a teary, shaken, turned-on mess, but I didn’t know what else to do, so I stepped out into the hallway. One of the hotel reception staff was approaching with a keycard to let me back into my room.

Konstantin’s voice stopped me just as I reached my door. “Hailey?”

I turned around. His hulking body filled the doorway, one big hand gripping the frame. “I don’t know why you were really in my room. But from now on, stay away from men like me.”

He closed the door. A moment later, the woman from reception let me back into my room. And the very second my door was closed, Calahan grabbed me and pulled me into his arms.

For nearly a minute, he just hugged me, his arms locked around my back. My cheek was against his chest and I could feel how angry he was, his breath trembling on each inhale.

He suddenly pushed me back to arm’s length, his hands gripping my upper arms so hard it hurt. “Are you fucking crazy?” he snapped. “Have you got any idea how dangerous that was?”

I’d never seen him so scared. I knew that was where the anger was coming from so I just nodded meekly. Then, “I wasn’t going to leave you in there.”

He glared at me. Cursed under his breath. Then he pulled me tight against him again, stooping a little so that his stubbled cheek was pressed to mine and I was looking over his shoulder. “You’re okay?” he asked, his voice raspy with fear. “He didn’t hurt you? He didn’t...do anything to you?”

I shook my head, clutching him tightly. But my heart was booming in my chest. He’d done plenty to me. I was a wreck, scared and shocked and turned on and... God, did that really happen? Had I...connected with the guy we were meant to be bringing down?

He’d nearly kissed me. Hell, when he was standing there with his leg between my legs...I felt my face go hot, just at the memory of it. And I’d wanted him to. I still wanted him to.

I squeezed my eyes closed. Idiot! I was lucky to have got out alive. What I still didn’t understand was why he’d let me go. What had he seen in me that made him soften?

I’d thought that I knew him, after watching him for two years, but I’d been utterly wrong. For a few minutes in that hotel room, I’d glimpsed a different man. One I didn’t understand at all.