ManOnFire Read Free Page B

breath settle into the same rhythm as her legs. She hadn’t kissed anyone in years, couldn’t remember if the last time had come close to Wells, but she doubted it. You don’t forget perfect .
    The poly-skin suit hugged her body tightly, but it couldn’t suppress the trembles just from remembering how Wells had felt, how he’d tasted. Sensations shuddered through her and she ran faster and tried to grind them away with her feet. Half way around her second lap, another beat joined hers.
    Amanda moved her feet faster. She streaked around the rest of the circuit, but the newcomer still gained on her. She ran full out, leaned into it and let the effort chase her thoughts away from Wells. It worked, too. Her muscles bunched and flexed, burning the extra energy, forcing her mind to focus on the job at hand—until Commander Wells jogged up alongside her.
    In poly-skin…and sweat.
    The tingles spawned without the physical contact this time. She revisited her Gerafit theory. She needed medicine and quick. Perhaps the doctor could give her a shot.
    “You didn’t file a complaint.”
    “For what?” She fixed her eyes on the track ahead, which helped, but didn’t drown the sound of his breathing.
    “Unprofessional conduct.” His footfalls matched her steps. The rhythms blended. “Assault?”
    She stopped running and grabbed the wall. The track bounced enough to throw Wells wide, making him stumble a step before he caught his stride and pulled up six paces ahead. His ass looked like marble in the poly-skin. “Assault?”
    He didn’t turn around right away, and she saw his shoulders lift and fall. When he did face her, his expression held fire again. His broad jaw glistened, and his eyes met hers in something akin to defiance. His voice, however, held less confidence than his gaze. “Why didn’t you file a complaint?”
    “Was I supposed to?” Her anger swelled to the surface and she latched on and used the momentum to subdue her body’s reaction to the man. It didn’t help that he advanced on her, cutting the distance between them in half. “Was it some kind of test?”
    He frowned. The scowl made her heart stutter, but at least it stopped his feet. “A test? No.”
    They stared off for a moment, both breathing hard, but with enough space between them that she could at least attempt to focus. A test made sense. She should have filed the report the second they got back to base—she’d wanted to think it. She fished for the anger again, tried to fan it into some kind of defense. Wells tilted his head and curled his lips into a smile.
    “Why didn’t you file it?” He took a step closer.
    Damn. She needed an offensive and more than just the wall to hold her up when he looked at her like that. He made a good point, though. She could have filed a complaint, could have ruined his career if the brass had believed her. Why would he have risked that, if not to test her? She snagged the thought and flung it at him. “Why did you do it?”
    That brought him up. His eyes widened and a soft chuckle drifted down the track. Wells stepped forward again, one, two steps, until they could have touched. He let his eyes slide down, pointedly following the line of her poly-skin suit and then back up to meet hers. “Why?”
    “Why? If not a test, then why’d you risk it?”
    His smile faded. Something flashed in his eyes, but it was hard and steely. His jaw tightened. “Because I wanted to. Because I thought—”
    Footsteps sounded below the ramp, boots clipping between the mats. Wells stiffened. He snapped his mouth shut on whatever he’d meant to confess. His eyes tried to finish the thought, bored into Amanda until she had to look away. She remembered to breathe, to cling to the fading ember of anger and to keep her hand firmly wedged against the track wall. He thought what? That she wanted him to kiss her? Had her out-of-control hormones been so obvious that the commander was obliged to kiss her? The warmth spreading over