Tempting the Fire Read Free

missions that might require them to screw someone. Annika had never needed it, but now that she was with Creed and sleeping with him, she’d been anal about getting the quarterly boosters.
    “Whoa.” He held up his hands and took a step back. “Just checking. You’ve been moody and tired.”
    “Moody?”
    “Ah … well …”
    “Moody?” Oh, she’d show him moody. She spun around and took the steps two at a time. The thud of heavy boots followed her, and she wheeled back to him with a snarl. Creed drew up like he’d hit a wall. “Don’t. You wouldn’t want to touch me and get me pregnant or something.”
    He blinked. “Are you upset because you want kids?”
    “Hell, no, I don’t want any little drooling rug rats!” A couple of guys dressed in the standard ACRO uniform—black BDUs—stared as they walked past, and she flipped them off. But she also lowered her voice. “But you know, you could at least pretend that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I did get pregnant.”
    Except, it would be, because she’d been raised by CIA monsters to be a robotic killing machine with no morals or feelings, and she wouldn’t even know where to start raising a kid. She wasn’t mother material and never would be.
    Apparently, Creed agreed, because his face markings stood out starkly as his tan skin paled.
    “It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but—”
    “But what?” Fuck. She had no idea what she was upset about. At all. But she kept getting angrier and more irrational by the second.
    “It’s just … it’s something we should talk about,” he said quietly.
    A weight settled in her gut, which had started churning. She knew he wanted kids. He knew she didn’t. It was a reality they’d have to face eventually, but she didn’t want it to be now.
    “I have to go.”
    “Annika—”
    “Later.”
    She took off as if she had a fire lapping at her combat boots’ heels. God, how long had it been since she’d walked away from Creed in a moment of anger?
    A year, at least. And here she was, reverting back to her old self, and why?
    Because he’d asked her if she was current on her birth control?
    Of course she was … wasn’t she?
    As she jogged through the little park in the middle of the base, she recalled her last visit to medical. She’d had a question for Kira, ACRO’s most talented animal whisperer, but the woman hadn’t been at the kennels or stables where she 14

    usually was. Annika had had to track her down at ACRO’s day care facility, where Kira’s triplets stayed while she and Ender were working.
    Annika hadn’t been breathing in the scent of baby powder and diapers for even two minutes before she’d practically run out of there and had gone straight to the medical facility, where she’d demanded a shot—four weeks early.
    That had been three months ago. Three months and three and a half weeks ago, actually.
    Oh, God.
    Annika clutched her belly as a wave of nausea rolled through her. She was overdue.
    Over. Due.
    Fuck.
    She glanced at her watch. She had to teach a class in half an hour. That gave her enough time to jump in the Jeep and head to a drugstore.
    Five minutes after that, she should know if her world was still safe and sound.
    Or if it had just ended.
    SELA COULD STILL FEEL THE BURN OF ANNIKA’S EYES IN THE
    middle of her back as she entered Dev’s office. He was sitting at his desk, grumbling at a PDA, which he put aside when Sela sank into a chair.
    “Things were so much easier when I was blind,” he sighed, and she had to admit, he’d been scary-efficient as a blind man. Now he seemed more harried. He didn’t miss a beat, though, and pushed a file at her. “You’re going to South America. Brazil, near the Colombia border.”
    “To investigate what I saw on the video?”
    He nodded and ran his fingers through his spiky brown hair. “Any idea what might have attacked those men?”
    “I can’t say. It looked like some sort of animal, but I’d rather not