Tempting the Fire
feigned. “You fuck! If you hurt her—”
    “You’ll what?” He rolled her over so she could look into his deceptively handsome face. Deceptive, because behind his mossy eyes and beneath his tan skin, he was a monster who was in bed with Itor. “Seems to me you don’t have a lot of room to make threats.”
    Distant memories ran through her head, sad ones, of her puppy, Max, being hit by a car, of her best childhood friend, Misty, moving away. Of her mom, in the hospital, dying. Tears sprang to her eyes, just the way she needed them to.
    “You’re right,” she rasped. “I’m sorry. Don’t hurt Marlena. Please.”
    Something in Logan’s face softened, just for a moment. Maybe he was human in there somewhere. With the backs of his fingers, he brushed away the dirt clinging to her cheeks.
    “What’s your name?” When she said nothing, he sighed. “You’ll find that cooperating will go a long way with me.”
    “Fine,” she bit out. “It’s Sela.”
    “See? That didn’t hurt, did it?” He pushed to his feet, giving her the opportunity she needed.
    Rolling, she swung her legs out, caught him in the knees … and he went down like a log. Granted, he was up again in a heartbeat, snarling with fury, but still, it felt good to give him a good whack.
    “You can’t help it, can you?” he snapped. “You keep doing stupid things.”
    “You keep pissing me off!”
    He blinked. And then he laughed, and good Lord, the man was drop-dead, fucking gorgeous when he did that.
    “Come on.” He grasped her by the forearms—keeping out of the way of her legs—and yanked her to her feet.
    The pain in her shoulder was like an arrow of fire, and she sucked in air.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked, his brows drawn, almost as if he was truly concerned.
    28

    “Nothing,” she said through clenched teeth.
    He narrowed his eyes at her, but after a moment, he shrugged. “If you’re too stubborn to ask for help, you’ll suffer.”
    “Asshole,” she muttered.
    He smiled and pushed her into motion ahead of him, but this time, he wasn’t rough with her, was actually careful not to touch her injured shoulder. He probably wanted it to start feeling better so he could poke her there later.
    She started walking back the way she came, which wasn’t easy, given that her arms were wrenched behind her back. “We’re not lovers.”
    “What?”
    “Marlena. Me. We’re not sleeping together. I mean, we’d planned to be out in the jungle for a while, so, you know … big deal if she wanted to bring a toy with her.” She stepped awkwardly over a log, jerked away from Logan when his hand shot out to help her.
    “Hey, I’m all for a woman enjoying toys.”
    Hopefully he was picturing Marlena with the vibrator right now. “Well,”
    she said, “my point is that we’re not together. We like men.”
    “Is that right?”
    Sela shot him a glare over her shoulder. “Some men. The kind who don’t hold us at gunpoint.”
    “Huh.” Suddenly, he was against her, his chest to her back, his arm around her waist. “Good to know.” His hot breath fanned her ear, and a shiver of feminine appreciation, which was utterly inappropriate given who he was and the situation she was in, skated over her skin. “That’s very good to know.”
    She broke away from him, her heart pounding, her breath coming in gasps.
    She’d gone into this mission knowing it would be dangerous. Terrifying.
    But this man was going to chew Marlena up and spit her out.
    God, she hoped Dev knew what he was doing, because she was starting to think they were in way over their heads.
    29

Chapter Three
    Every man’s eyes were on her as Dax walked her through the camp. When Marlena was a teen, the attention had made her cringe, but now, at twenty-nine, she’d long ago grown to accept it and use it to her advantage.
    Except this one would be tricky. She’d have to play good little prisoner and try to wind every man in the camp around her finger, since Logan wasn’t

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