Untamed Hawaiian Heat (Rift Hunters) Read Online Free Page A

the edge, adrenaline pumping through his veins in anticipation of experiencing the wind caressing his skin as he’d free-fallen into the cool water below.
    He’d been relieved when Kiana had been preoccupied while he bent and picked the man up. A jolt of awareness had shocked him when he’d grasped the man’s arm to hoist him over his shoulder. His cock had instantly hardened, causing him to pull back. Glancing up at Kiana, he knew there was no way around this. The rest of the team was already headed back to camp.
    And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let her carry him. Not after the reaction she hadn’t bothered to hide. When Mateo picked the man up, the words he’d heard Remi say as sleep claimed him the night before came rushing back.
    He’s coming.
    He had no idea what the hell that had meant, but he didn’t want to dwell on it with Kiana scrutinizing his every move.
    Resigned to his task, Mateo had taken hold of the stranger’s arm and pulled him up to a sitting position so he could ease the man over his shoulders. He’d done a scan of the stranger’s body to determine if he could be moved without further injury, so he knew it wouldn’t hurt to carry him that way. The only problem was, he didn’t want to feel the pulsing energy swirling through him from physical contact with the man. And he definitely didn’t want to feel the blood rushing to his cock.
    He’d never felt the former, but the latter he’d vowed never to allow himself to feel again.
    Ever.
    Mateo increased his stride, wanting to calm the raging heat in his blood before Kiana realized he’d blocked their link. He didn’t want to answer questions about things he’d rather forget.
    * * * *
    Four days.
    It had been four days since the stranger had fallen at her feet like some angel cast out of heaven, and Kiana still couldn’t shake the awareness he’d awakened in her. In fact, despite trying everything she could think of, it had only grown stronger.
    She’d even used the fever he’d developed that first night as an excuse to continually check on him. Mateo’s patience with her on the subject was wearing thin. He’d stalked out of their quarters this morning when she’d told him she was going to check on the man after getting the upgrades to her cybernetics.
    And there was that feeling she had that something else was bothering him. She could feel it shimmering just beneath the surface. When she’d tried to prod at it through their link, Mateo had become angry and taken off.
    Kiana sighed heavily, wishing there was an easy way to solve this puzzle. Between the reason for the OS’s interest in Hawaii dangling just out of her grasp, the stranger’s appearance, and Mateo’s subsequent anger at her reaction to the man, she was exhausted. She sank down onto the chair beside the stranger’s bed and closed her eyes.
    She had tons of paperwork she should be filling out about the incident resulting in his arrival, but she couldn’t concentrate long enough to fill any of it out. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get the man’s piercing blue eyes out of her head. Something about them called to her, teased something in the back of her mind. A snippet from a half-remembered dream, perhaps.
    Feeling the energy stirring anew at the thought of those eyes, Kiana opened hers and glanced at the bed.
    The stranger lay on his back, still dressed in the clothes he’d arrived in, minus the heavy leatherlike jacket. Niki and Ash hadn’t found any internal damage when they’d done a full-body scan. According to Ash, he didn’t have any cybernetic implants either. Kiana refused to acknowledge the small part of her that wished they’d found something requiring the removal of more of his clothes. She sensed allowing her thoughts to go in that direction would be a very bad idea.
    She clenched her hands to quell the itch to reach out and touch him. She’d been fighting the need to do so since the first time she’d touched him when she’d turned