Read Her Kind of Hero for Free Online

as we speak.” He pulled out a foil-sealed package and tossed it to her. “It’s theequivalent of an MRE—a meal ready to eat. Nothing fancy, but if you’re hungry, you won’t mind the taste.”
    â€œThanks,” she said huskily, tearing into it with urgent fingers that trembled with hunger.
    He watched her eat ravenously, and he scowled. “No food, either?”
    She shook her head. “You don’t feed people you’re going to kill,” she mumbled through bites of chicken and rice that tasted freshly cooked, if cold.
    He was very still. “Excuse me?”
    She glanced at him while she chewed a cube of chicken. “He gave me to three of his men and told them to kill me.” She swallowed and averted her eyes. “He said they could do whatever they liked to me first. So they did. At least, they started to, when you showed up. I was briefly alone with a smaller man, Arabic I think, and I tried to make him mad enough to release me so I had one last chance at escape. It made him mad, all right, but instead of untying me, he…put his knife into me.” She chewed another cube of chicken, trying not to break down. “He said it was a…a taste of what to expect if I resisted him again. When you came in through the window, he was just about to violate me.”
    â€œI’m going to take care of that cut right now. Infection sets in fast in tropical areas like this.” He opened the first-aid box and checked through his supplies. He muttered something under his breath.
    He took the half-finished meal away from her and stripped her out of the T-shirt. She grimaced and lowered her eyes as her mutilated bra and her bare breast were revealed, but she didn’t protest.
    â€œI know this is going to be hard for you, considering whatyou’ve just been through. But try to remember that I’m a doctor,” he said curtly. “As near as not, anyway.”
    She swallowed, her eyes still closed tight. “At least you won’t make fun of my body while you’re working on it,” she said miserably.
    He was opening a small bottle. “What’s that?”
    â€œNothing,” she said wearily. “Oh God, I’m so tired!”
    â€œI can imagine.”
    She felt his big, warm hands reach behind her to unfasten the bra and she caught it involuntarily.
    He glanced at her face in the small circle of light from the lantern. “If there was another way, I’d take it.”
    She drew in a slow breath and closed her eyes, letting go of the fabric. She bit her lip and didn’t look as he peeled the fabric away from her small, firm breasts.
    The sight of the small cut made him furious. She had pretty little breasts, tip-tilted, with dusky nipples. He could feel himself responding to the sight of her, and he had to bite down hard on a wave of desire.
    He forced himself to focus on the cut, and nothing else. The bra, he stuffed in his backpack. He didn’t dare leave signs behind them. There wasn’t much chance that they were closely followed, but he had to be careful.
    He had to touch her breast to clean the small cut, and she jerked involuntarily.
    â€œI won’t hurt you any more than I have to,” he promised quietly, mistaking her reaction for pain. “Grit your teeth.”
    She did, but it didn’t help. She bit almost through her lip as he cleaned the wound. The sight of his big, lean hands on her body was breathtaking, arousing even under the circumstances.The pain was secondary to the hunger she felt for him, a hunger that had lasted for years. He didn’t know, and she couldn’t let him know. He hated her.
    She closed her eyes while he put a soft bandage over the cleaned wound, taping it in place.
    â€œGod in heaven, I thought I’d seen every kind of lowlife on earth, but the guy who did this to you was a class all by himself,” he growled.
    She remembered the man and shuddered. Micah