by Cynthia Eden
Her breath was coming a little too quickly. She licked her lower lip. Then Lacey told him, “Don’t pounce, jump, or wreck anything.”
Now he had to smile. “Unless I get an invitation?”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.”
But he could hold his breath for an extremely long time. Fun fact, he’d been a SEAL before joining the CIA. Definitely top secret info. “You understand that since we’re pretending to be engaged, it has to look real, right? That is one of the reasons I wanted you for this job. The attraction that we have for each other is obvious.”
She glanced away. “I’m supposed to know what you’re talking about?”
Now a faint trickle of anger slid through him. “This is a dangerous case. Lives will be on the line. While we are in the field, I expect you to tell me the truth. I’m telling you the truth right now. Do me the same courtesy. If you can’t, forget the job. Walk away now.”
“Someone is grumpy first thing in the morning.”
He blinked. Grumpy?
Her gaze cut back to him. “Fine. If you must know, I do feel a vague, unreasonable attraction to you.”
He waited.
“Maybe not vague,” she allowed. “But it is unreasonable. You don’t have a nice reputation. I’ve been warned you’re exceedingly dangerous and manipulative. I’ve seen you in action that way, courtesy of the Wilde case that first brought us together, and I—”
“When I’m with you, I’m not the same man that I am when I’m around others.” A very honest statement. He was never the same with different people. “The attraction I feel for you is not some vague, unreasonable thing. It’s strong. Damn near consuming. Each time I see you, I think you’re more beautiful than the time before. You’re smart, capable, and you know how to stay cool under fire. Sexy as fuck.” He drank some of his coffee. Then revealed, “Not having to fake an attraction will make this go much easier. We’ll be in a romantic setting. We will be there with other couples.”
“Is this like a couples’ retreat deal?”
Not exactly. “Letting our natural attraction show will be beneficial. But don’t worry. The show won’t carry over when we’re alone.” He paused.
She nodded.
“Unless there’s that invitation.”
Her delicate jaw hardened. “It’s not coming. You will not be getting an invitation from me.”
How disappointing. He glanced at his watch. “The private jet is gassed up and ready to go. We should be on our way.”
She sipped a little more of her hot chocolate. Then she quickly licked her lips to remove any lingering whipped cream.
Pity. He could have licked the cream away for her. Perhaps another time.
“I’m assuming that I’ll get a fake name? You’ll give me a persona and you’ll have a cover, too.”
He didn’t have a suitcase. It would be packed and waiting for him on the plane. “You’re going in just as you are. You are Lacey Amari. Everything you say will be one hundred percent true about yourself.”
Surprise washed across her features. “Wait…what? Why?”
“As for me, I’m Dexter Ryan. That’s how I’ll be introduced. And if anyone wants to research me, they’ll find a fun background waiting to be discovered.” A background he’d carefully crafted. He always had plenty of false info darting around the world.
She reached for his arm. Her fingers curled around him. “Dexter Ryan isn’t your real name.”
“Is that a question?”
Her lips firmed. “Is Dexter Ryan your real name?”
“If you’re asking if I was born with that name, no, I wasn’t. But it is very real.” He could feel the warmth of her touch sinking through his body. Why did he enjoy her touch so much? Something to consider later. “The name is real, just as I am very real. I will keep you safe on this mission. You can trust me on that. You’ll come back safe and sound, and I’ll hold up my end of the deal. We’ll find out about your parents.”
“Thank you.” Soft. Grudging.
Delightful.
He laughed. “Was that so hard?” He leaned in close, mostly because he liked to pull in her delectable scent. “Better be careful, or you’ll start to think I’m not the big, bad wolf of the story, after all.”
“Are you?”
The question made his heart lurch. Dex kept the smile on his face as he caught her hand. Lifted it off him. And then brought it to his lips. His mouth feathered over her knuckles. “I’m the baddest wolf out there,” he assured her roughly. “Never forget that.”
***
The plane would be touching down in Colorado soon. She could see the white-capped mountains stretching around her. They were heading to a private strip, in a town called Fortune. She’d never heard of the place before, but it was fairly close to Aspen on the map.
She’d done an internet search on the hotel—or rather, the lodge they were visiting. Very, very expensive. Very private. An exclusive getaway for the rich. If you wanted to disappear and escape from tabloids or from corporate chaos, you headed to Fortune.
Her phone rang.
Dex was up in the front—freaking flying the plane. They had a pilot, but Dex had taken over shortly after takeoff. His control issues were showing. As if she hadn’t already realized that Dex liked to be in command of everything and everyone around him.
Her phone rang again. She pulled it out. Saw Eric’s face on the screen. She answered the call and put the phone to her ear. “You checking up on me already?”
“Are you safe?”
“Yes. I’m good.” High in the air and far away from threats. For the moment. “But I do appreciate the call.” Very…family-like.
Because he was family.
His sigh drifted to her. “I think this is a mistake.”
She glanced toward the front of the plane. Dex had just left the cockpit. Interesting. She’d rather thought he’d land them. But he was approaching and frowning at her—no, at her phone.
He heard it ringing. He came to see who called me.
Control issues.
“There’s something you should know,” Eric continued grimly. “August Shay was attacked last night.”
She shot upright in her seat. August Shay had been the man who put his gun in her face. The perp who’d been stalking her recent client. The guy who—
Should have been in a maximum lockdown. “Was it other prisoners? Did they jump him?”
“No. The guards swear August was in a separate cell. And, no, the guards didn’t do it, either. But then, I can’t be sure who hit him because the security feed mysteriously cut right before the time of the incident.”
Dex strode toward her. “Who’s on the phone?”
She waved him away as Eric told her, “When Layla headed into see the prisoner this morning…”
Layla. She knew he meant Detective Layla Lopez. Lacey had become fast friends with the other woman since beginning her job at Wilde.
“When she went in, hell, he confessed to the murders of two women.”
“What?”
“August had stalked and killed them. Women who all looked just like Jessica Harper.”
The Broadway star he’d been after. “OhmyGod.”
“He even told the cops exactly where to find the bodies. Someone got to him last night, Lace. Someone scared the hell out of him. Scared him so much that August confessed everything. He’s going to be locked up for a very, very long time. I’d be surprised if he ever gets out again.”
Her throat had gone dry.
Dex slid into the seat across from her. “We’ll be descending soon. You should buckle up.” His hands went to his own seatbelt.
Her gaze lingered on his bruised knuckles. She swallowed. Twice. “Thank you for letting me know about August. I appreciate it, Eric.”
“Are you sure you feel good doing this mission with Dex?”
Good wasn’t the right word. And Dex was staring straight at her. “I’ll talk to you soon,” she promised Eric. Then s
he hung up.
Dex shook his head. “Afraid that’s going to be a no-go. When we leave the plane, that phone will stay here. I’ll give you a new one, don’t worry, but it will have some security upgrades, courtesy of the agency.”
The agency. He meant the CIA.
“Please don’t call Eric or anyone else at Wilde.” His tone dropped. “This is a very delicate situation, and I don’t need to be worrying about outsiders.”
She fumbled and managed to secure her seatbelt. “You didn’t tell me how you got those bruises.” She couldn’t take her gaze off them.
“Sure, I did. You asked if I’d hit something, and I said yes.”
Another swallow. “Did you hit something…” She dragged her eyes up to his face. “Or someone?”
He stared back at her. The pilot made an announcement that she only vaguely heard.
Then Dex said, “If you have a specific question for me, why won’t you ask it?”
Fine. But she’d start with a statement, not a question. “August Shay just confessed to killing two women.”
“Um. Yes. I know that already. Hate to spoil the reveal, but I tend to get intel very fast.”
Her breath hitched.
“Did you know…” He leaned forward. “That those two women were also petite brunettes? That he shot them in the head?”
“I—” No. She hadn’t known that. Eric hadn’t exactly had time to describe the victims to her.
“You didn’t tell me that you were pretending to be Jessica Harper during your recent investigation and that the reason August put a gun in your face was because he thought you were her. You are his type, after all. And I bet you blended perfectly when you took her place and used yourself as a victim.”
Had that been anger humming in his voice? Why would he be mad? “I wasn’t a victim. I was acting to draw him in. I was—”
“I don’t want you to be a victim. I want you to be a kickass agent who doesn’t let anyone get close to hurting her. Do you understand me? Every moment that we are in Fortune, you stay on your guard. You do not let anyone catch you unaware.”
“I can do the job.” Was he doubting her? “In case you didn’t know, I disarmed August easily when he pulled the gun. Just as I’d planned. I took him down, and I saved the client. Now August is in jail, and, apparently, that is where he will stay for a very long time.”
The plane was descending. She felt the shift in angle, and her hands clamped around the edges of the arm rests on either side of her body.
“You still haven’t asked me what you truly want to know…” He didn’t move at all. Just kept leaning casually toward her.
“Did you go to see August Shay last night?”
“Yes.”
Just…yes? “And you hit him?”
His expression didn’t alter. “Still not getting to the real point.” A slow exhale. “Don’t you really want to know if I beat the guy until he confessed?”
Yes, she did want to know that. Because she’d seen some damning evidence. “Your knuckles…”
“I went in for a chat. I didn’t like hearing about the gun in your face. August didn’t like being locked up. So I guess we were both feeling stressed. He came at me, swinging, so I swung back.” A shrug. “Here’s the thing, I swing pretty hard.”
She thought of the tall, muscled August. His bright blond hair. His soulless blue eyes. The way he’d smiled when he’d pulled the gun on her. “Eric said someone scared him into confessing everything.”
A faint, almost mocking laugh. “And do you think I’m a scary man?”
He didn’t look scary as he sat across from her. He appeared confident. Casual. Relaxed.
But she could feel the danger swirling beneath his surface. “Yes.” A firm nod. “I think you can be a very scary man. I think you’re probably the worst enemy that anyone would ever want to have.”
“Good thing I’m not your enemy.”
Goose bumps rose on her body.
His head cocked to the right. “August put a gun to your head. He killed two women who looked exactly like you. You were the one who took him down. Don’t you think—with a man like that—he might have now become fixated on you? That if he got out, he’d turn his obsessive compulsion on you?”
Well, now that she was learning all the details about August and his crimes, she was thinking—
“Couldn’t very well let that happen to my new partner. So I went to have a talk with him.” His bruised knuckles flexed. “During the course of our talk, he realized the error of his ways. He confessed to his crimes. You know what? I think he even started to like the idea of prison.”
That made zero sense. “Why would he do that? Why would he like prison?”
His gaze was lethal. Chilling. “Because he liked the idea of having bars between him…and me.”
She couldn’t look away from him. “You are a scary man.”
“I protect what’s important to me. If I have to be scary to get the job done, so be it.” His stare swept carefully over her. “You don’t ever have to be afraid of me. You understand that, don’t you?”
She wasn’t so sure what she understood.
“We’ve landed.”
They had?
“I’ll go change.” He unhooked his seatbelt. “Got to make the right entrance.”
Yes, yes, the job. Focus on that. “Should I change, too?”
He’d already risen to his feet. “You don’t need to change a fucking thing. You’re perfect as you are. Remember that.”
He stalked away from her.
And her breath expelled in a long rush.
***
She was terrified of him. Not exactly a surprise. Maybe he should have put off that little chat with August until after the mission.
But he put a gun in her face.
Nah, no point in putting off that particular come-to-Jesus meeting. Besides, now two other families had closure regarding the murders of their loved ones. And August Shay would rot in a jail cell. Win, win.
Dex glanced into the small mirror. Rolled back his shoulders. He was wearing crisp black dress pants that had been tailored to fit him, a white dress shirt with the top three buttons undone, and a blazer. For a moment, he shifted through a few different facial expressions as he tried to get just the right look that he needed—
Do you even know who the fuck you are any longer?
The question slipped through his mind. Slowly, very slowly, his expression hardened. His eyes went cold even as his jaw became rock hard. A killer stared back at him.
Yes, he knew exactly who he was.
A light knock rapped against the door. “Dex? I’m thinking maybe I should change. I mean, I just glanced out the window and you have a limo waiting for us. The outfit I’m wearing doesn’t—”
He opened the door, and he made sure that when he saw Lacey, he had a warm grin on his face. “How many times do I have to tell you…you’re perfect as you are?”
Her head tilted. Her gaze slid over his face. Lingered on his mouth. “I have to tell you, I think that grin is the scariest one you have.”
His smile slipped a little.
“Because you somehow do this thing where the grin goes up to your eyes, so it looks real, and maybe that’s the scary part. Even I want to believe it, but…”
“You don’t,” he concluded softly.
“I’ve caught a few of your real smiles. They were fleeting and brief, but they stuck out in my mind. Now that I know what those look like, it’s hard to be fooled again.”
Well, well. He leaned toward her. “And that’s why you’re perfect,” he told her. “Absolutely perfect.”
She swallowed.
He wanted to kiss her. Actually, he was pretty desperate to do just that. “You be exactly who you are on this mission. I’ll be the one who pretends.”
“Why do I feel like that’s the story of your life?”
Because it is. “The show starts the minute we step off this plane.”
“Okay.”
“Be prepared for what’s to come.”
“I am.” She sounded utterly confident.
“Let’s see, shall we? Better run a quick test first.” Then he closed the last bit of distance between them and put his mouth on hers.
Her lips were parted and open, and when his mouth touched hers, heat pulsed through Dex’s body. Heat. Lust. Need. His tongue dipped into her mouth, and fuck, she tasted sweet. As sweet as he’d dreamed. Because, sure, he’d had his share of fantasies about Lacey Amari. The woman was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
She didn’t back away from his kiss. Instead, her fingers curled around his shoulders and she pressed closer to him. Pressed that hot, tight body of hers flush against him, and she opened her mouth even wider.
Yes.
His cock surged toward her. Long, hard, fully erect. Her tongue met his. She kissed him with a light delicacy, a careful hunger, and he wanted to wreck that care. He wanted to make Lacey light on fire with lust. He wanted her nails clawing at him. He wanted her mouth frantic. He wanted her as hungry as he felt.
“How’s that?” Lacey whispered against his mouth.
“I think you can do better.”
“What?” Her eyes blazed at him. “You did not just say—”
He had. Mostly just to stir her up. “You’re holding back. I can feel it.”
Her lashes flickered. “It was a first kiss. I’m supposed to jump your bones with a first kiss?”
“Jump my bones anytime,” he invited.
Her cheeks flushed.
Did she have any idea how gorgeous she was? “You’re my fiancée. You’re mad about me.”
“Mad is the right word, but you’re using it the wrong way in this instance.”
He grinned.
Her breath caught. “There it is.”
Then, before he could say anything else, she used her hold on his shoulders to pull him forward once more. This time, when she kissed him, the fire nearly ignited his whole body. He could feel her hunger. Her need. Her desire. She kissed him as if she’d never wanted anyone more, and he responded the exact same way. His hands dropped to her hips. He wanted to pick her up, pin her against the nearest wall, and plunge deep into—
“Better?” Lacey panted as she pulled her mouth away from his.