Maximum Risk Read Free Page A

picking them up off the ground. She’d put them in danger because she didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts.
    “Relax. I can handle anything that comes our way.”
    Quinn’s soft command brought her out of her thoughts. She didn’t want him to handle what came their way. Didn’t want it to come at all. What she wanted was to go to her hotel in Furkat, shower, sleep for twenty-four hours straight, and deliver the next shipment of books to the girls in Bil. The girls needed those books and she needed to deliver them. She’d made a promise a long time ago to a little girl named Dembe. Only death would make her stop delivering on her promise.
    She didn’t need the inky darkness, the looming silhouettes of rocks, trees, and the mountain peak. And she certainly didn’t need Quinn’s hard, warm body pressed against hers. The sensual way his peppermint breath fanned her cheek. The faint scent of sandalwood clinging to his skin or the way his hand splayed along her ribcage, his fingers just grazing her breast. How his chest rose and fell steadily against her back.
    Her heart started to race for another reason entirely. An entirely inappropriate reason for a woman who’d just broken off her engagement with her fiancé.
    “How long do we have to stay like this?” she asked.
    “Thirty minutes to be safe. Am I hurting you?”
    Avery swallowed past her dry throat. “No.”
    Silence stretched between them. She searched the dark for anything that moved. Every noise made her cringe and break out in a cold sweat.
    “Relax.”
    Quinn’s voice in her ear made her jump. Relaxing was not an option with him pressed so intimately against her and the possibility of bad guys showing up at any minute.
    He shifted so she could rest her cheek on his forearm, bringing her in closer to his chest where she could hear his heart beating strong and steady. The warmth of his body seeped into hers and her eyes began to droop, despite her anxiety.
    “Avery. Wake up.”
    Avery opened her eyes with a start to find Quinn crouched in front of her. She lifted her head. “Is it safe to move?”
    “Yes. But, you’re not going to.”
    Before she could stop him, he scooped her up off the ground and strode to the log she’d sat on earlier, to deposit her gently.
    “I’m not helpless,” she grumbled, even though her feet ached along with the rest of her body. Adrenaline had blocked the pain earlier, but it came on full force now.
    “I’m well aware of that. Humor me, and this time stay put until I’m finished.”
    He moved away until all she could see was his silhouette in the darkness as he gathered branches and stacked them a short distance away. Minutes later he returned, lifted her into his arms and carried her to the shelter he’d made. If her head hadn’t been swimming she would have demanded he stop treating her like a child. She could walk on her own two feet, no matter how much it hurt.
    The shelter barely held both of them, but was completely hidden. Impressed, she scooted to the corner, sitting with her head ducked as he slid inside with her. Quinn pulled items out of a green bag—one of two he carried—using a penlight held between his teeth. He sat with his profile to her, focused on his task, but she’d bet he was aware of everything around him. The alertness he demonstrated elicited trust and confidence. Made her want to lay her head on his shoulder and let him shelter her in those big, strong arms.
    Sobering, she looked away. A woman who leaned, she was not. No matter how tempting. She had learned long ago to lean only on herself because there was no one else to count on after her parents were killed in a car accident and her aunt who took her in didn’t want her.
    A hammer chipped away at her temples and she absently rubbed them, hating that her hands shook. That she jumped at every noise.
    “You’re thinking too much.”
    Quinn’s voice brought her abruptly out of her thoughts. Fine with her, because she didn’t