Somewhere in Nevada

Hiding her face with a blue Yankees baseball cap and keeping her face down turned to avoid any security cameras, Elena Dawson rushed to get what she needed. She was used to hiding, of running. After becoming an agent for the Paranormal Defense Agency, it was something she never thought she’d do. Now she was doing just that because of them.

She surreptitiously scoped the small market as she walked down an aisle after grabbing a small basket, searching for exits and making sure no agents were present. They were everywhere.

When the front door bell rang, she glanced over her shoulder. Her heart stuttered at the sight of a man so beautiful that for an instant she forgot where she was.

In that moment, she realized she had never been so lonely. She’d been alone so long she’d almost forgotten what lust was, how it made a woman’s skin tighten and tingle.

She had to remain alone. With the agency after her, she was constantly on the move. There was no choice. Anyone she might let close was in as much danger as her.

The man stopped at the postcards, and then as if sensing her stare, he met her gaze with stunning blue eyes. He was tall, lean, and had a short blond hair. Snug, faded jeans and a tightly fitting gray T-shirt over his sculpted body made her mouth water. Just the sight of him made her ready to be caressed, kissed, and loved. Her breasts grew heavy, her nipples hardening, and a pulse of need sparkled through her core. Her blood heated while her breathing became erratic.

If her body wasn’t betraying her on its own, the divine man ran his gaze over her from head to toe, and she recognized the hunger written on his face. When she glanced down, there was no mistaking the bulge pressing against his jeans. He wanted her.

She wanted him too.

Taking a long breath, she turned away, refocusing on her task. She grabbed food items quickly, adding the prices up in her head and dropping them into the basket. She didn’t want to spend any longer in the market than she already had.

When she was done, she placed the basket on the counter and waited patiently while the cashier slowly typed prices into the cash register while most of his attention was on the small television set at the end of the counter.

“I’m kind of in a hurry,” she said softly, but he continued as though she hadn’t said anything.

She felt someone behind her.

She didn’t have to look back to know it was him. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as if his eyes were boring into her flesh. Without realizing it until it was too late, she was already glancing back. She met his gaze, but she turned away as quickly, while hiding her face with the baseball cap. Her pulse quickened.

“Thirty-six dollars and fifty cents.”

She looked at the register to see the total. “You must’ve made a mistake. I counted thirty-four dollars.”

Which was exactly what she had clutched into her hand.

“Look, lady, you gonna pay or not?”

Elena threw the money on the counter and went to check her pockets. She didn’t have any change. She was stalling as she tried to decide if she should use her powers. She needed the food; however, she had to keep a low profile.

“You’re almost three dollars short.”

“Yeah, the ones you’re trying to steal,” she murmured under her breath.

Elena heard a chuckle behind her, knowing exactly who it came from.

“What did you say?” the employee asked, obviously getting angry.

Elena was about to use her powers when the mystery man’s chest touched her back. Contact, finally she had contact after so many years. She shivered when his hard thighs slightly touched hers.

He reached around her and laid three dollars on the counter. “I think that covers it,” he said, then looked down on her. Elena was a few inches shorter than he was, but it didn’t matter when his gaze dropped to her lips.

It would never happen, she thought to herself.

“Thank-thank you,” she mumbled, moving away from his touch while picking up her bags. Without another glance, she headed for the door.

She didn’t look back when she threw her things into the passenger seat and left. Then all she saw was desert and diamonds in the sky.

* * * * *

Logan Stark watched the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen get into her car and disappear as if she’d been a dream. But she had been real, and she had looked at him as if craving every bit of pleasure he could give her. There was something there; he’d felt it. And he was sure she’d felt it too. But she left.

Disappointment weighing him down, he dropped into the driver’s seat of his car and opened his bag of chips.

She was beautiful.

Her brown wavy hair reached her shoulders, surrounding a heart-shaped face with deep brown eyes and full lips. She was only a few inches shorter than he was, which would make it easy to lean down and kiss her. Her smooth, olive skin enveloped a body so stunning it took his breath away.

His cock had swelled when he saw her, surprising him. No woman had ever excited him with just a look.

He wasn’t a fool though. She was in trouble. He saw it in her eyes and the way she hid her face from the cameras. Her expression when their gaze met had been sad at first, as though she craved something she could never have. That saddened him so much that he wanted to find her again, to replace that memory with a sweeter one. But then, her breath quickened, replacing the sadness with desire. And he wanted her.

And she’d run, but he didn’t think it was from him. She had the look of someone who lived on the edge and had for a long time, who was used to disappearing. Like him, perhaps. Logan couldn’t settle down in one place because the result could be catastrophic. But if she had just given him a chance, they could be together now, instead the loneliness he lived with, buried deep in his soul.

Sighing, he put aside the half-eaten bag of chips and got on the road. The moon was so bright it lit the road ahead of his headlights. After thirty minutes of driving, as though in a stupid B movie, a teenager ran into the middle of the road, gun raised, pointed directly at him.

“Damn it,” Logan cursed under his breath, slamming his foot on the brake.

The windshield shattered in a spider web of cracks, making Logan lose control of the car and veer into the shallow ditch at the side of the road. When the motor died, he tried to start it again, but the door was ripped open. The boy was stronger than he looked, grabbing him by his collar and pulling him from the car.

Logan fell to the ground while pieces of glass cut his skin.

“Get up,” the boy said, pointing the gun at Logan’s head.

“Look, kid. You can have anything you want, there’s no need for this.” The kid was out of his mind, on drugs, with red-rimmed eyes and shaking hands, obviously in need of a fix.

“Give me your phone!”

“Okay, okay. Just calm down.” Logan reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

The kid took it, mumbling under his breath, “I’m gonna kill those gangbangers dead,” while he touched numbers on the phone. But before he could do more than that, Logan spotted headlights coming in their direction.

“Don’t do anything or you’re dead. Get up. Get up!”

Logan rolled to his feet, keeping his limbs loose, awaiting his chance to disarm the kid.

The guy hid the gun and pretended everything was fine while he touched the screen of the cell phone. Logan figured the gun was probably pointed at him from under the boy’s clothes.

The car got closer, and Logan hoped they just kept driving. He wasn’t scared, he had been in situations similar to this when he was a cop, but a civilian wouldn’t know what to do. He was afraid for the person behind that wheel, especially when the car started to slow down when it got closer to them.

Logan let out a slow breath when the car stopped, killing the lights. His gut clenched when he saw the woman from the market exiting the car.

“Hey guys, what’s going on?” Her stance was calm and her voice soothing. However, that wasn’t enough for the kid who gripped Logan’s body to shield his own and push the gun directly into his temple.

“Stand back or I’ll blow his fucking head off,” the kid warned, pressing the metal even harder against Logan’s head.