Fox in plain Sight

by Tina Folsom

  “Oh my God, you actually have to think about that!? Way to boost a guy’s self-confidence.” He pulled himself up to sit, laughing, when Michelle started snickering.

  “Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I love it when a guy gets all flustered and insecure.”

  Nick planted a kiss on her nose. “You’re a strange woman, Michelle.”

  She opened her mouth for a protest, but he put his finger over her lips, stopping her.

  “Just as well that I have very peculiar tastes.”

  When her eyes softened and her lips curved up, he knew he’d won.

  “Do I have time for a shower before dinner?” she asked.

  “Take all the time you need.”

  She lifted herself up and stood. He couldn’t help running his eyes over her body, admiring her firm breasts, her slim waist and soft hips, her long legs, and everything in between. When she turned to give him a view of her shapely ass, he groaned, wishing he could shower with her, but he had something more important to do.

  “Do you mind if I switch on the TV while you shower?” he asked.

  Michelle looked over her shoulder and pointed to the coffee table. “If you can figure out the remote, help yourself.”

  Nick reached for the black device and gave her a mock-chiding look. “I’m a guy. We invented remotes.”

  Shaking her head, Michelle disappeared down the hallway. Moments later, he heard the water running in the shower.

  Nick jumped up, pressed the TV power button and turned up the volume, not even looking what channel was on. He gathered his clothes and dressed in fifteen seconds. Now he was ready.

  He quickly scanned the living room, knowing instinctively he’d find nothing of importance here. Nevertheless he did a cursory search of the few drawers and surfaces anyway. It turned up nothing. His next stop was Michelle’s bedroom. The door was opposite the bathroom door, which thankfully Michelle had shut. Nick now eased the door to the bedroom open and entered.

  There wasn’t much: a queen-sized bed, a dresser, night tables, a few boxes along one wall. The built-in closet was small and jam-packed with clothes, no files, no electronic equipment. Continuously listening to the sounds from the bathroom, Nick continued his search, opening the drawer of one nightstand. It was full of underwear. He rummaged through it, but only lingerie turned up.

  He rounded the bed and searched the other nightstand. Several loose condom packages greeted him, together with tissues and lubricant. Nick grinned involuntarily. Good to know that Michelle had some extra supplies, just in case they burned through the few condoms he’d brought.

  A quick perusal of the boxes turned up nothing but books and old photos. He checked his watch: Michelle had entered the bathroom three minutes earlier. He should have plenty of time to go through the rest of the apartment. He left the bedroom and stepped into the hallway. There, below the side table, lay her computer bag. He crouched down and opened it, tossing a quick glance to the bathroom door, listening intently. The water was still running.

  The bag held a laptop, several cables, as well as notepads, pens, and the product tag for the bag itself. He pulled the laptop from its compartment and opened it. Though he was almost certain that Michelle wouldn’t leave her computer unprotected, he had to find out if she’d, by some lucky chance, not password-protected it.

  He booted up the machine, drumming his fingers on his thigh while he waited impatiently for the wheel to stop spinning. When the screen filled with color and presented him with the request to enter a password, he wasn’t surprised. It would have been too easy. He quickly initiated the shut down and set the computer aside, looking through the bag once more. There had to be something.

  He flipped through the notepad, but apart from some scribbles that looked like a shopping list, he didn’t find anything. The moment the computer powered down, he slid it back into the bag. It didn’t want to go in all the way, so he pulled it out again and checked. He found a piece of paper on the bottom of the compartment and looked at it. It was a manufacturer’s warranty for a flash drive.

  But where was it?

  Shoving the computer back into the bag and closing it, Nick stood up. His eyes fell on the side table, where Michelle had tossed her keys when they’d entered her apartment. He picked the key ring up. Not only did it hold several keys, but a USB flash drive dangled from it.

  “Gotcha,” he murmured.

  The sudden echo of his voice startled him. That’s when he realized that the water wasn’t running anymore. Michelle was done with her shower. He’d never met a woman who was that quick.

  Shit!

  9

  Michelle wrapped the large bath towel around her still damp body and tucked in one end to hold it in place. Her hair was still wet, but she’d combed it. Considering the heat in D.C., it would dry in no time. With a last glance in the mirror, she turned the doorknob and opened the door.

  She found Nick sitting on the couch—fully dressed now—staring into the TV. He turned his head.

  “Hey,” he greeted her with an easy smile.

  “I’ll be just a minute more,” she told him. Her gaze fell on the TV and she had to do a double-take. “You’re watching the Hallmark Channel?” What guy did that? Was Nick a true romantic at heart with whom she could actually watch sappy romances on TV? This was too good to be true.

  Nick hastily reached for the remote. “Uh, no, ah, actually, I was just channel-surfing, trying to find ESPN.” He pressed a button, and the channel changed. Then he moved to the next one in the lineup as if to prove that he told the truth.

  Michelle chuckled. “Sure you were.” She turned toward the bedroom.

  “I was!” he called after her. “I was looking for a sportscast.”

  She didn’t reply and walked into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. As she dropped her towel onto the bed and rummaged through her closet to find something appropriate to wear, she smiled to herself. Nick was unusual, she had to give him that. When they’d made love, he’d been intense and demanding, while simultaneously proving to be a very considerate lover, one who not only took care of her needs, but seemed to actually have a need to satisfy her. And he had. Satisfied her. Immensely.

  But outside of bed, Nick was different: gentler, sweeter, almost shy. And he seemed embarrassed, almost flushed, when she’d caught him watching a made-for-TV romance, as if he didn’t want to reveal that softer side of himself. A side she really liked.

  Michelle slipped into a thin summer dress and took a matching cardigan from the hanger. She opted for high heels, wanting to feel sexy tonight. She inspected herself in the full-length mirror inside the closet door and twirled in front of it. She definitely looked presentable.

  Taking a deep breath, she left the bedroom and walked back into the living room. The TV was off, and Nick wasn’t sitting on the couch anymore. She turned on her own axis. Had he left without her?

  “Nick?”

  Footsteps coming from the kitchen made her turn. He came walking back into the living room, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

  “Hope you don’t mind. I helped myself to some water.”

  Relieved, she exhaled. “Of course not. I’m sorry, I should have offered you something to drink earlier. I’m such a bad hostess.”

  He walked up to her, his eyes fairly drinking her in. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that. You were very welcoming.” He graced her with a smoldering look, one that made her knees tremble.

  She wiped her suddenly damp hands on her dress, fidgeting.

  “You look very nice,” Nick murmured, taking another step closer that brought them chest-to-chest. With his index finger, he tipped her face up. “Absolutely stunning, in fact.” He brushed his lips over hers in a feather-light kiss. “Now you’re making me really hungry.”

  She swallowed hard, knowing he wasn’t talking about food. And suddenly she didn’t care about dinner anymore.

  Nick took her by surprise when he stepped back and reached for her hand. “Let’s go and have that
first date, shall we?”

  Almost disappointed that he hadn’t thrown her down on the nearest flat surface, she followed him to the door. He took the small backpack that he’d tossed there upon entering her place and opened the door. Turning to the side table, Michelle grabbed her keys and shoved them into her handbag, then slung it diagonally across her torso, following Nick out and letting the door slide shut behind her.

  Muggy air greeted her when she stepped outside and walked along the sidewalk next to Nick. Though it was still light, and would remain so for another few hours, dark clouds hung in the sky and she could almost smell the coming thunderstorm.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked, giving him a sideways glance.

  Nick pointed in the distance. “It’s only three blocks. Are you okay walking in those shoes or would you rather take a cab?”

  She was touched by his concern. “I can walk, no worries.”

  “Good.” He paused. “Tell me a little about yourself, Michelle. I’m curious about your life. Are you from D.C.?”

  Hesitant to reveal anything about herself, she asked, “Are we doing twenty questions?”

  “No, but we are on our first date, and from what I recall about first dates, people tell each other stuff like where they’re from, what their favorite color is, things like that.”

  “From what you recall?”

  “It’s been a while since I’ve been on a date,” he admitted, sounding almost embarrassed about it.

  “How long?”

  “Too long I guess, since it appears that the rules have changed since I last had one.”

  “The rules haven’t changed,” she admitted. “I just don’t go on many dates.”

  “Well, we’re a pair, aren’t we?” He squeezed her hand and pulled it to his mouth, pressing a quick kiss on her knuckles. “So how about I start with something to break the ice?”

  “I think we already broke the ice earlier.”

  Nick let out a belly laugh. “You’re something, Michelle. I’m surprised no guy has snatched you up yet. Girls like you don’t stay unattached for long.”

  She shrugged. “I’m not really the kind of girl who’s looking for something permanent.” It was a lie, of course, one she’d had to tell herself for a while now. Her life was way too chaotic to be thinking of settling down anytime soon.

  “Mmm.” Nick looked at her from the side.

  To bridge the awkward pause that was building between them, Michelle asked casually, “So, what were you gonna tell me about yourself to break the ice?”

  “What I do for a living. But if you’re not interested, we can talk about something else.”

  “No, no, please. Tell me what you do.”

  “It’ll probably sound boring. Maybe I should just make something up instead.”

  She stopped walking and turned to face him. “No, please don’t. It can’t possibly be all that boring. Besides, you don’t have to impress me. You already got me into bed, remember?”

  “How could I forget?” He winked and took her hand again to continue walking. “I work with computers.”

  “Doing what?”

  “I make websites for people. You know, small businesses mostly. It’s not a bad job, and I’m pretty good at it.”

  “That’s great. You work for yourself, then?”

  He nodded. “Independent contractor. I prefer that to being shackled to some company and having to be accountable to a boss.”

  “Yeah.” Like she had to be accountable to Mr. Smith. And she hated that, hated that he was blackmailing her.

  “How about you? What do you do?”

  “Consulting,” she shot back. “But I’m looking to make a change.”

  Like flee the country and disappear just as soon as she could set everything up and make sure Mr. Smith couldn’t track her down. Until then, she had to play by his rules and execute his orders.

  10

  Nick felt the flash drive burn a hole in his pants pocket during the entire dinner at the cozy Italian neighborhood restaurant he’d taken Michelle to. Somehow he had to find a way to look at the contents of the flash drive, copy them, and put the memory stick back onto Michelle’s key ring before she noticed it missing. Which meant that he had to continue being his charming self so Michelle would invite him back to her place after dinner.

  It wasn’t a hardship at all. Michelle was fun to be around. She had a quick wit and a sharp tongue, a wicked sense of humor, and an infectious laugh. Yet with every laugh they shared, with every eye contact they made, his guilty conscience grew. However, he had no choice but to continue his deception. Michelle could be the key to the information he needed, information that might save not only him and his fellow Stargate agents, but maybe thousands—if not millions—of people. He couldn’t let his own feelings get in the way of the greater good.

  If Michelle was the person who was trying to prevent him from accessing the CIA’s secret servers, then she knew something and would be able to lead him to the person who’d destroyed the Stargate program and killed Henry Sheppard.

  “Dessert?” Nick now asked, looking across the table at Michelle.

  She shook her dark blond locks. “I’m too full.”

  “You sure?”

  “Absolutely. How about we get out of here?”

  He leaned over the table, lowering his voice to a seductive murmur. “I don’t want the evening to end yet.”

  Her eyelashes fluttered. “It doesn’t have to.”

  Her words sent a thrill through his core, and he snapped his head to the side, catching the waiter’s eye. “Check, please.”

  When the waiter placed the tab in front of him, Nick pulled several bills from his wallet and placed them on the little tray.

  “Do you always pay cash?” Michelle asked.

  “My credit card got stolen last week. I’m waiting for the bank to send me a replacement,” he lied.

  In reality, he didn’t use credit cards when he could avoid it. Cash was much harder to trace and safer if one wanted to stay off the grid.

  “Ready?” he prompted Michelle and stood, offering her his hand to help her up.

  “Ready.”

  As they walked to the exit, Nick eyed the signs to the restrooms. Now was the time, or things could get dicey for him later. He stopped.

  “Sorry, do you mind if I stop at the restroom?”

  “No, go ahead. Actually, I’ll go, too.”

  Nick headed for the men’s room and dove into the first stall. He sat down on the toilet, pulled his laptop from the bag and booted it up, while he pulled the flash drive from his pocket. The moment his computer started up, he unlocked it with his password, shoved the memory stick into the port, and copied the entire contents onto his hard drive. He had no time to look at what he’d copied, didn’t even bother to shut down the computer properly or eject the stick safely, just slapped the lid shut and pulled the flash drive from the port.

  A few seconds later, he left the stall and walked out of the restroom.

  Michelle was already waiting for him. She smiled. “Beat you to it.”

  Nick shook his head in disbelief. “You can give a guy complexes, you know that?” He put his arm around her waist and guided her to the door of the restaurant.

  The hostess opened it for them. “Thank you for your visit.”

  “Good night,” Nick responded and walked out the moment a lightning bolt split the sky. Only a second later, thunder sounded above him, and the clouds opened up, unloading raindrops as thick as peas.

  “Damn!” Michelle cursed, stopping under the awning in front of the restaurant.

  Nick looked at her thin summer dress, which would most likely become transparent once soaked. And while he wouldn’t mind that particular kind of view, he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate it.

  “I think we’d better try to get a cab.”

  “You’ve obviously never tried to get a cab during a D.C. downpour.” She shook her head. “We’ll be standing here all night. I say we m
ake a run for it.”

  He looked at her with a newfound appreciation for her no-frills attitude. “You sure?”

  “You chicken?”

  “No, just a gentleman.” He grinned and took her hand. “But since you clearly don’t care about gentlemanly manners, I’ll submit to your wishes.”

  Michelle winked at him. “Submit, huh?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Don’t get any ideas!”

  He tugged at her hand, and they dashed out from underneath the protective canopy, running along the sidewalk. Instantly they were doused from above as if they’d stepped into a shower stall, while passing cars splashed them from the side. There was no escaping the water.

  Luckily, Nick knew that his computer was well protected in its water- and shockproof cover inside his backpack.

  It didn’t take them more than four minutes to bridge the distance from the restaurant to Michelle’s apartment. When Michelle opened her handbag to dig for her keys upon reaching the main entrance of her apartment building, Nick stretched out his hand and took them from her.

  “Allow me, milady!” he said gallantly and bowed in an effort to distract her.

  “Playing knight now, are you?”

  He turned toward the door, hiding what he needed to do by showing Michelle his back. “Knight in shining armor actually,” he said jokingly, buying himself more time to hook the flash drive back onto the key ring. He turned the key in the lock an instant later and opened the door.

  Michelle rushed inside and he followed, shaking off the excess water from his hair and body while the door fell shut behind him. Michelle was already climbing the stairs, eager to get to her apartment, and he hurried after her. Her wet dress showed every curve of her body, clinging to her like a second skin. Through it, he could see that all she wore beneath was a thong, no bra. The sight made him hard in an instant.

  Arrived at the door to her apartment, Nick pulled Michelle into his arms, unable to hold back his desire for her a moment longer.