to find a cure before things could get worse.
Kalina had wanted to go to Beijing and get right in the thick of things. He could just imagine how she would have operated. She was not only a great epidemiologist, she was also a compassionate one, especially when there was any type of outbreak. He could see her getting attached to the people—especially the children—to the point where she would have put their well-being before her own.
That, and that alone, was the reason he had agreed with her father, but at no time had he plotted to have an affair with her to keep her in Sydney. He was well aware that all her hostility was because she believed otherwise. And for two years he had let her think the worst, mainly because she had refused to listen to anything he had to say. It was apparent now that she was still refusing to listen.
“Have you finished talking, Micah?”
Her question brought his attention back to the present. “No, not by a long shot. But I can’t say it all tonight. I need to see you tomorrow. I know you’ll be in town for the next couple of days and so will I. Let’s do lunch. Even better, let’s spend that time together to clear things up between us.”
“Clear things up between us?” Kalina sneered in an angry whisper as red-hot fury tore through her. She was convinced that Micah had lost his ever-loving mind. Did he honestly think she would want to spend a single minute in his presence? Even being here now with him was stretching her to the limit. Where was a good glass of champagne when she wanted it? Nothing would make her happier right now than to toss a whole freakin’ glass full in his face.
“I think I need to explain a few things to you, Micah. There’s really nothing to clear up. Evidently you think I’m a woman that a man can treat any kind of way. Well, I have news for you. I won’t take it. I don’t need you any more than you need me. I don’t appreciate the way you and Dad manipulated things to satisfy your need to exert some kind of power over me. And I—”
“Power? Do you think that’s what I was trying to do, Kalina? Exert some kind of power over you? Just what kind of person do you honestly think I am?”
She ignored the tinge of disappointment she heard in his voice. It was probably just an act anyway. At the end of those two months, she’d discovered just what a great actor Micah could be. When she’d found out the truth, she had dubbed him the great pretender.
Kalina lifted her chin and straightened her spine. “I think you are just like all the other men my father tried throwing at me. He says jump and you all say how high. I thought you were different and was proven wrong. You see Dad as some sort of military hero, a legend, and whatever he says is gospel. And although Micah is a book in the Bible, last time I checked, my father’s name was not. I am twenty-seven and old enough to make my own decisions about what I want to do and where I want to go. And neither you nor my father have anything to say about it. Furthermore—”
The next thing she knew, she was swept off her feet and into Micah’s arms. His mouth came down hard, snatching air from her lungs and whatever words she was about to say from her lips.
She struggled against him, but only for a minute. That was all the time it took for those blasted memories of how good he tasted and just how well he kissed to come crashing over her, destroying her last shred of resistance. And then she settled down and gave in to what she knew had to be pleasure of the most intense kind.
God, he had missed this, Micah thought, pulling Kalina closer into his embrace while plundering her mouth with an intensity he felt in every part of his body. She had started shooting off her mouth, accusing him of things he hadn’t done. Suddenly, he’d been filled with an overwhelming urge to kiss her mouth shut. So he had.
And with the kiss came memories of how things had been between them their last time together, before anger had set in and destroyed their happiness. Had it really been two years since he’d tasted this, the most delectable tongue any woman could possess? And the body pressed against his was like none other. A perfect fit. The way she was returning the kiss was telling him she had missed this intimate connection as much as he had.
Her accusations bothered him immensely because there was no truth to what she’d said. He, of all people, was not—and never would be—a yes-man to her father, or to anyone. Her allegations showed just how little she knew him, and he intended to remedy that. But for now, he just wanted to enjoy this.
He deepened the kiss and felt the simmer sear his flesh, heat his skin and sizzle through to his bones. Then there was that surge of desire that flashed through his veins and set off a rumble of need in his chest. He’d found this kind of effect from mouth-to-mouth contact with a woman only happened with Kalina. She was building an ache within him, one only she had the ability to soothe.
Over the past two years he’d thought he was immune to this and to her, but the moment she had walked into the ballroom tonight, he’d known that Kalina was in his blood in a way no other woman could or would ever be. Even now, his heart was knocking against his ribs and he was inwardly chanting her name.
Lulled by the gentle breeze as well as the sweetness of her mouth, he wrapped his arms around her waist as something akin to molten liquid flowed over his senses. Damn, he was feeling the heat, and it was causing his pulse to quicken and his body to become aroused in a way it hadn’t in years. Two years, to be exact.
And now he wanted to make up for lost time. How could she think he had pretended the passion that always flowed through his veins whenever he held her, kissed her or made love to her? He couldn’t help tunneling his fingers through her hair. He’d noticed she was wearing it differently and liked the style on her. But there was very little about Kalina Daniels that he didn’t like. All of which he found hard to resist.
He deepened the kiss even more when it was obvious she was just as taken, just as aroused and just as needy as he was. She could deny some things, but she couldn’t deny this. Oh, she was mad at him and that was apparent. But it was also evident that all her anger had transformed to passion so thick that the need to make love to her was clawing at him, deep.
Conversation between an approaching couple had Kalina quickly pulling out of his arms. All it took was one look in her eyes beneath the softly lit lanterns to see the kiss had fired her up.
He leaned in, bringing his lips close to hers. “You are wrong about me, Kal. I never sold out to your father. I’m my own man. No one tells me what to do. If you believe otherwise, then you don’t really know me.”
He saw something flicker in her eyes. He also felt the tension surrounding them, the charged atmosphere, the electrified tingle making its way up his spine. Now more than ever, he was fully aware of her. Her scent. Her looks.
She was breathtaking in the sexy, one-shoulder, black cocktail dress that hugged her curves better than any race car could hug the curves at Indy. There was a sensuality about her that would make any man’s pulse rise. Other men had been leery of approaching her that night in D.C. when he’d first flirted with her. After all, she was General Daniels’s daughter and it was a known fact the man had placed her on a pedestal. But unlike the other men, Micah wasn’t military under her father’s command. He was civilian personnel who didn’t have to take orders from the general.
She surprised him out of his thoughts when she leaned forward. He reached out for her only to have his hands knocked out of the way. The eyes staring at him were again flaring in anger. “I’m only going to say this once more, Micah. Stay away from me. I don’t want to have anything else to do with you,” she hissed, her breath fanning across his lips.
He sighed heavily. “Obviously you weren’t listening, Kalina. I didn’t have
