Harry spun. His right forearm swiped up and out, moving her gun out of firing range. Continuing through, his left arm came around her and took control of her weapon hand. He forced Elise to her knees and turned the firearm on her while it was still in her grip.

Victory illuminated his face, and his teeth flashed in the half-light. She smiled up at him as her hand withdrew the sgian dubh from her boot and pressed the blade to his gut.

Harry’s eyes went blank.

She laughed, her chest heaving from the recent interchange. “Two kills for me, Benson. One for you.”

He wasn’t even breathing hard. Elise rose to her feet. He slipped an arm around her and held her in place, barely six inches from his body. Traitorous tingles broke out across her skin.

“Missed me, did you?” he asked.

The oaf. She thrust out her chin and tipped back her head. “What kept you? You didn’t check in.” The temper returned full force now that she knew he was safe.

“I was unavoidably detained.” He leaned in close and sniffed her hair. “Mmm. Citrus. Sweet and tart. It suits you, my little tiger lily.”

Her breath suspended. He had called her his tiger lily once, long ago on the banks of the River Cherwell, where he had kissed her in the shade of a willow and told her he loved her. Why did he always have this effect on her? Furious with her traitorous body, Elise shoved him aside and wiped off her leathers. “What happened?” she snapped, getting down to business.

“I had a productive evening.”

He gave her a disarming smile that ratcheted her blood pressure into the danger zone. How dare he behave as if everything was okay. The bampot hadn’t reported in for the last two hours. And when he returned, he had nothing to say except it had been a productive evening? She’d been worried sick and ready to break multiple laws to go in after him.

“I don’t report to you, Elise,” he said softly.

Inwardly seething, she cocked a brow.

“But I might be persuaded to kiss and tell,” he teased, lowering his head until his mouth was within a centimeter of hers.

The moments lengthened with each thud of her heart as the tug of attraction sizzled between them.

“If I did? Would you tell?” She called his bluff.

He eyed her in the silvery dawn, then stepped closer—crowding her. “When I take that kiss, you won’t need to bribe me.”

Two hours after Harry’s overnight reconnaissance, he started back to base. Tearing down a hill in his Land Rover, he downshifted and crossed an overflowing burn from yesterday’s rainstorm. He removed his sat phone from the glove box and dialed Nigel.

“Thatcher.”