She leaned in until her mouth hovered next to his. “You think I’m that easy to take?”

Son of a bitch. “I don’t know, Natalie. Do you want me to take you?”

She pulled back. “You assume because I’m a woman I’d be submissive during sex.”

Jesus, she went there. “Who said anything about sex?”

She snorted. “Oh, please.”

Just as he thought. They were finally on the same page, and it was the wrong damn page. Sure as hell the wrong time. “I know what I like.”

“I can guess.” She tipped a bit to the side and grabbed on to his shirt in a rough hold to stand upright again. “You demand complete dominance.”

“Mutual pleasure.”

Her body began to list to the side and she blinked a few times. “What did you . . .” She visibly swallowed as she shook her head. “What’s happening to me?”

“I think you know.” He slipped his hands around her elbows in a gentle touch. The room was going to sway for her and he needed to be ready.

“I don’t . . .” Her knees buckled as her grip on his shirt tightened. A second later her gaze flew to his. “You—”

“Drugged you.” He nodded as his gaze searched hers, trying to figure out how far gone she was at this point. “Yes.”

Before she could answer, her head tipped back and her body went limp. That hand dropped from his shirt and her body fell as if her bones had disintegrated.

He caught her before she hit the floor. Scooped her right up in his arms and stared down at her. Enjoyed the feel of her in his arms far too much. But he didn’t mind the sudden quiet. “Now you’ll follow my directions.”

The lock clicked and the door opened. In walked Gabe’s younger brother, Andy.

“Talking to unconscious women.” Andy shook his head. “Is that your thing now?”

Gabe refused to get diverted by bullshit talk. “Our scheduled transport should be here. We need to get moving.”

Andy glanced at Natalie then back to his brother. “I thought she’d never drink the water.”

That made two of them. The rush of relief stole some of the stiffness from Gabe’s shoulders. Since the alternate plan involved knocking her out, he’d been pretty damn grateful she got thirsty or nervous or whatever caused her to reach for that bottle.

“She’s careful.” He admired that. Admired so much about her.

“Really worried there for a few minutes that I’d have to listen to a lengthy discussion of the type of sex you preferred.” Andy shivered. “Not interested in that, by the way.”

At thirty-six, Gabe was six years older than Andy but sometimes felt like the grandfather of the company. He kept them on task. So, treating his brother to a front-row seat of the attraction kicking his ass was not Gabe’s idea of a good time. “She was testing boundaries. A smart strategy, actually.”

Andy smiled. “Boundaries?”

Enough standing around and talking nonsense. That wasn’t Gabe’s style anyway. “Do you want to die today?”

“Are you tough all of a sudden?” Andy pressed in the code and unlocked the door again. Opened it to the private area leading to the emergency stairs and the helicopter waiting on the roof. “To be honest, I was more concerned she’d get the drop on you, then I’d get stuck trying to get her out of town.”

“You’re hysterical.” Gabe followed his brother out the door and down the long hall.

“I’m not sure why you think I’m kidding.”

He held her close with her head tucked under his chin. The smell of her shampoo, something floral, filled his senses. “I can handle her.”

“Uh-huh.”

Unable to reach out and punch in the code, Gabe stopped at the door to the exit. Looked down at her face and that mouth. “Meaning?”

Silence pounded around them. Andy didn’t make a move for the door or say anything. The quiet had Gabe’s head snapping up. He looked at Andy, shorter with more of a runner’s build. He worked with a quiet confidence, but this time something else moved in his eyes. Concern, maybe?

They didn’t have time for this. The helicopter would take them to a private airstrip, then they needed to get on a jet and disappear.

Gabe was about to bark out orders when Andy piped up. “You’re looking at weeks alone with her in a snowed-in cabin.”

A fact that gnawed at Gabe. The close proximity would test the limits of his control, but he could not admit that. “I’ll refrain from strangling her.”

Andy’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe, but will you be able to keep your other body parts away from her?”

Good fucking question. “She’s a job.”

Andy typed in the code and the emergency door opened. “You keep telling yourself that.”

That was the plan. Gabe just hoped he could stick to it.

TWO

Natalie stood at the window and watched the snow come down. More snow. Buckets of it fell every minute, or so it seemed. She knew because she’d been watching since she woke up fifteen minutes ago.

Exhaustion still pulled at her muscles and clouded her head. She didn’t panic or wonder what happened. She knew the answer—Gabe.

He’d drugged her to get his way. Not that she blamed him for using whatever means necessary to get a job done. She’d been in his position in the past and used the same knockout tactic. Back then if she couldn’t extract someone from the field with permission, she did it the hard way. Well, the hard way for them, not her.

Still, being on the receiving end ticked her off. Being dragged to who the hell knew where didn’t sit well either. From the topography and weather, she knew she’d been asleep for some time. She now saw towering trees and snowcapped mountains in the distance. No other houses were visible for miles. She had the eerie sense he’d stolen her away to the wilderness, leaving her dehydrated and woozy. And that meant being out of it and unable to fight back for a long time.

Yeah, he’d given her something that jacked up her system. It could take her some time—she had no idea how much—to regain her equilibrium. Until then she’d be vulnerable to all sorts of dangers. The type she normally handled with ease, from assassin attack to the simple task of regulating her own body temperature.

That’s what she got for leaving the CIA on bad terms. A farewell gift that included having her life flipped inside out while she waited for the fallout in the middle of nowhere.

First step: find her so-called bodyguard and set down some ground rules that included no drugs unless she was the one administering them. And if she found the opportunity to punch him, she just might grab it. Paybacks were a bitch and he should know that.

Nothing moved in the towering trees weighed down with thick white powder. Every now and then she’d hear a whoosh and snow would tumble, adding to the piles already covering the ground. The place didn’t work for her. It was too quiet, too isolated. Someone could approach through the makeshift forest around the small cabin. That meant she needed to move. Make a plan, probably find viable transportation.

Not that she was dressed for tracking and running. She stood in jeans and hiking boots. Gabe would have to explain that part since the last time she remembered she’d been wearing a suit. Blue, most likely. Probably had her hair pinned up, which she did for work. Now it rested on her shoulders and spread down her back.

Forget about the rest of it. The man was going to get his ass kicked for stripping her. She glanced down at the gun in her hand. Maybe more than an ass-kicking, but at least he left her a weapon. She’d just need to be clear that didn’t exactly make up for the rest.

She looked out over the bright white landscape and squinted, searching the ground for footprints. The gray sky, so thick with clouds and cutting off any natural light, made it hard to judge the actual time of day. But she could guess, because over the years and through numerous assignments she’d developed an innate sense about this sort of thing.