Kara still had her hand on his arm, trailing her fingers back and forth. “Yeah, I remember.” His voice was rough.

“Al, listen,” she said quietly. “I know you’re still in love with her. But you and I really care about each other, and in a few days we could both be dead. Maybe we could just...keep each other warm, for a little while.”

Pain and longing mixed within him, so that all at once his heart was beating fast. He’d wondered ever since he was fourteen what it would be like with Kara. So why not, when the girl he loved was lying in someone else’s arms right now? Why the hell not?

But for some reason the words Yes, great idea wouldn’t come.

The room grew heavy with tension, like the air before a storm. Looking down at her hand, Kara slowly glided it across Alex’s chest, inch by inch. It dipped up and down over his muscles, making him shiver. Finally her palm came to his other shoulder and stopped. For a long moment her eyes searched his...and then she leaned over and kissed him.

Alex sat very still. Her lips were so soft, so gentle, and this was Kara, Kara – who he used to lie awake at nights thinking about. He was enjoying this, he told himself – a gorgeous girl who he’d had a crush on for years was kissing him; of course he was enjoying it.

The image came from nowhere: Willow, sitting at the picnic table in Chihuahua. The smoothness of her neck under his palm as he kissed her; her laughter as she complained that his lips were too spicy.

He pulled away almost harshly. Kara sat back in surprise, her eyes wide.

“Sorry,” he muttered. His throat was so tight he could hardly speak. “I can’t. I just can’t.”

Lying in bed later, Alex stared unseeingly into the darkness and wondered what exactly was wrong with him, that he couldn’t even bring himself to kiss someone else. As if he thought he’d be cheating on Willow or something, when she’d dumped him as thoroughly as it was possible to be dumped. When according to her, she’d been using him for weeks, just to get to Seb.

He couldn’t believe it. He still just couldn’t believe it.

Wake up, it happened, Alex told himself harshly. Anyway, to hell with this. He had a team to take care of. He had to be there for them these next few days; that was the only thing that mattered. Thinking of the upcoming attack, Alex was aware of the same dread Willow had sensed in him on that long-ago night in New Mexico. But everyone was going to be okay, he’d make sure of it. He could die; that was fine – but not his team. He’d do everything in his power to keep them safe.