As the scene vanished from view, she turned and faced forward, her arms crossed beneath her br**sts as she remained silent.
The earbud, all but hidden in her ear canal, was silent, deactivated at Cullen’s end. It wouldn’t be activated again until they arrived wherever she was being taken, or until the network’s agents following her lost sight of her.
Until then, she was on her own.
Swallowing tightly, she tried to put another inch of distance between herself and the big Breed sitting next to her.
Stygian Black. He was a bit of a lone Wolf according to the information Cullen had managed to acquire. A Wolf Breed who worked exclusively on missing cases that involved hidden Breed labs and/or missing Breeds or their mates.
He wasn’t a Breed who worked well with others, the report said. And he was one that would just as soon kill a man, or a Breed, who got in his way as he was to look at him. Yet, he’d been working with the Bureau of Breed Affairs for years, and he did so without killing anyone.
Was it a testament to Jonas Wyatt’s skill as a commander or simply his control over the animal genetics that were so much a part of the Breeds he commanded? Whichever it was, she could do nothing but admire his ability to work with a man whose animal was as close to the surface as this one’s was.
His gaze turned on her every few seconds as though to be certain she was still sitting there. Black eyes gleamed with amusement each time she caught him watching her. Each time she caught him, he would deliberately allow his eyes to flick to the upper mounds of her br**sts where they rose above the exercise bra.
As she felt his gaze pin her once again, she turned her head and glared up at him through the veil of her lashes. The fact that she could tell when he was staring down at her, and all that had moved were his eyes, was distinctly disconcerting. Bothering her even more was the fact that her ni**les were hardening further with each look. Having such a response to a man, any man, wasn’t a situation she wanted to deal with, especially with a Breed.
“Are you comfortable?” his voice rumbled with a primal, erotic rasp that sent a shiver of sensation racing up her spine.
“Not really,” she muttered.
She was distinctly uncomfortable with the warmth traveling across her nerve endings as the sensitive flesh of her clit tingled in interest.
As far as she was concerned, this was the wrong man, or Breed, and the wrong time for such an attraction.
“You could sit on my lap,” he suggested with a slow smile as he patted a hard, well-muscled thigh. “There’s plenty of room.”
Oh, hell—
The real problem where that question was concerned was that she was way, way too tempted.
“No, thank you.” Jerking her head forward, she stared between the front seats to the road beyond.
“I’d be more than happy to accommodate you.” Leaning closer, he all but whispered the words in her ear.
Oh, she just bet he would.
“No.” She didn’t have the breath to put that “thank you” in there a second time.
Chills were racing over her skin, tearing up her spine and, she swore, sizzling in her lower stomach. Her flesh was warming, her ni**les sensitive and the need for touch was like an ache just under her flesh. An ache she had no idea how to assuage because she was damned if she thought it was completely advisable to sleep with him.
But, yes, she did want to sleep with him. She wanted him to touch her, to hold her, to give her what she had so far managed to deny herself. To share a bed with a man, or with a Breed, and to learn all the things sexually that she hadn’t really had an interest in until now.
And why now?
Never had she ever had a reaction like this to any man, let alone a Breed.
As he sat back in his seat, she peeked up at him, swallowing deeply at the impression of pure raw power that surrounded him like an invisible mantle.
Dark-skinned, more so than any other Breed she had seen before, he was rumored to have the DNA of a rogue black Wolf and a voodoo priestess, and the dark bronze tone of his skin reflected both.
His eyes were as black as midnight with what appeared at times to be small pinpoints of blue. His jaw was so hard, so arrogant and savagely hewn she knew he would be as stubborn as hell.
High cheekbones, strong, arched brows, and such long thick black lashes, they simply made her jealous.
His skin fascinated her. Darker than the strongest tan, but it wasn’t black. It was simply such a dark, dark earth tone that she wondered if it held the warmth and vibrancy of the earth it so reminded her of.
The name, Stygian Black; the name suited him.
The black eyes, the nut brown flesh, the air of power and strength.
Damn, she could feel him watching her again. Her shoulders were tingling.
Narrowing her eyes, she glanced up, glared—
She could do without another once-over, if he didn’t mind. If she became much more interested in the fact that he was glancing at the upper curves of her br**sts—
The sound of Braden clearing his throat from the driver’s seat as he slid the driver’s-side window down an inch or so had a flush of raging embarrassment staining her face. It was probably staining her entire body, damn it.
Flattening her lips, she considered kicking him, but he was wearing those damned black boots Breeds wore with their mission uniforms. She’d read they were so tough that a snakebite couldn’t even penetrate them. She doubted he’d even feel her foot slamming into his shin.
He smiled.
The bastard.
“Leave me alone.” Pushing the words through clenched teeth as she clenched her thighs against those stirrings of arousal, she wondered if there wasn’t some way to get the door open and just push him out of the moving vehicle.
“How am I bothering you?” he murmured with such false innocence that the Breed on the other side of her actually chuckled.
If only she had a few more years’ training on her. That vehicle-tossing thing was something Cullen was really good at; perhaps she could have convinced him to teach it to her.
As it was, in a physical confrontation with a man like Stygian, her only hope was in simply running.
And she had a feeling she couldn’t run far enough or fast enough to get away from this Breed.
If the look in his eyes was any indication, running wouldn’t be an option.
No, a Breed would expect her to mildly stand in place until he gave her the order to do otherwise.
She didn’t think so.
Turning back to stare out the front window, Liza tightened her arms beneath her br**sts and gave him something to look at. Or to slobber over, she thought. He was definitely acting like a dog.