The Cinderella Mission

by Catherine Mann

  Ethan tucked behind the bar and poured drinks for his guests from memory. “Kelly will be down in a minute.”

  Matt winked at Samantha. “Women and their makeup rituals.”

  She elbowed him. “Brat.”

  “Princess.”

  “Bite your tongue.”

  He grinned at her. “So you want me?”

  Samantha snorted. “Not in this lifetime, Tynan.”

  “Ah, then I’ll just have to hold out hope for the next incarnation.” Matt jabbed a finger toward Ethan. “Quit laughing. She turned you down, too, pal.”

  Ethan shrugged. He and Samantha had gone out a couple of times. She was a gorgeous woman, a statuesque redhead, but chemistry was a damned unpredictable beast and it hadn’t been there for them.

  Not like it was with Kelly.

  Ethan glanced at his watch. Kelly was never late. The woman’s Palm Pilot told her when to eat, for God’s sake. Aunt Eugenie was probably plastering some kind of makeover magic on her face. He hoped he’d chosen right in trusting his aunt with this project.

  A surge of protectiveness swelled within him. He wanted this evening to go smoothly for Kelly, as well as for the investigation. He knew Matt and Samantha would charm her, but Jake’s fiancée hadn’t struck him as the empathetic sort. With any luck, she would be obsessed with the purchases from her prewedding shopping spree in New York and DC. He still couldn’t figure what his friend saw in the woman, not that it was any of his business.

  Friend? His thoughts cranked back to Kelly being his friend. Except what he shared with her seemed different from what he experienced with these people.

  Surely it had to be because he could let down with Kelly since she knew about his ARIES connection.

  And then there she was. Kelly. His friend. Looking so like her but not at all that he forgot to breathe. He had to give Aunt Eugenie credit. She’d done her job well with subtle strokes of understated elegance.

  A creamy blouse glided over Kelly’s skin, rippling a sheen of enticement with her every step. Silky black pants enhanced her dark eyes. Why had he never noticed her eyes before? He’d only seen the innocence, never the smoky temptation as she looked up through long lashes at him.

  Her hair was gathered low at the base of her neck, the tail trailing over her shoulder in stark contrast with her pale shirt. Much like that same hair would look caressing her bare skin.

  Rein it in, pal.

  Ethan clasped her hands in his. “Hi, Kel.”

  He meant to kiss her cheek.

  Meant to.

  But didn’t.

  His mouth brushed hers. Not long. Not open. Damned platonic for that matter. And more arousing than anything he could remember.

  Hell yeah, chemistry was an unpredictable creature.

  His hands fell to rest on her hips. “You look great,” he growled, then wondered why he hadn’t said it louder for the benefit of other ears and the cover.

  “Thank you.”

  “Although those sweats of yours have their appeal.” He squeezed her hip right over that elusive tattoo. Taking advantage of the luxury of his cover, he lost himself in the smoky depths of her eyes until a throat cleared behind her.

  Ethan glanced over Kelly’s shoulder to find Jake Ingram and his willowy blond fiancée, Tara, who was holding onto her man with a death grip.

  “Well, fella,” Jake taunted with just a hint of Texas drawl to soften the edge, “the big ones do fall hard.”

  Kelly slipped around to Ethan’s side. “Introduce me to your friends.”

  Ethan searched for the right words to explain the woman at his side and found simply, “This is Kelly.”

  How could he describe her any more fully when he barely understood her himself? Forget the adjustments in clothing, he’d found more layers to this woman the past week than all those sweaters she used to wear.

  Samantha stepped forward and extended a hand with the gracious elegance Ethan had counted on her showing. “So pleased to meet you, Kelly. I suspect we’ll all be seeing a lot more of you in the future.”

  Ethan watched Kelly slide into conversation with ease.

  They had somehow convinced these people after not more than one close-mouthed kiss and a simple greeting. It shouldn’t have been that easy, given how commitment-shy they all knew him to be since Celia.

  Yet they’d bought it all the same. Had he and Kelly looked that convincing as a couple? So much so, Samantha immediately plopped Kelly into the prospect of any future gatherings.

  The future.

  Ethan hadn’t thought beyond finishing a mission in years and yet, he found himself imagining how much Kelly would enjoy outings on Jake’s yacht. Or how she and Samantha would discuss European politics and brush up on foreign languages together.

  The future. With Kelly in it outside their roles at ARIES.

  As much as an operative tried to distance himself from his cover, the lines blurred. He’d been around long enough to accept that. Except right now the lines seemed a hell of a lot more than fuzzy.

  For the first time in over ten adrenaline-packed years with the CIA, Ethan Williams was in serious trouble.

  “Thank you for going to the trouble to come over.” Kelly walked Ethan’s guests toward the sunroom door, tension twisting within her until she felt ready to snap.

  She’d made it through with no social gaffes, rounding out their dinner party with after-meal drinks by the pool. So why the unrelenting tension?

  Because that kiss had knocked her off-kilter for the whole evening. The heat of his lips, his breath, his words lingered.

  Why did Ethan stir her when both of these other men left her cold? All three tall, dark and studly men could have stood in front of a camera—Matt for a GQ cover spread, Jake for a cowboy calendar pin-up, and Ethan for Biker’s Monthly.

  Kelly definitely favored the Harley.

  Matt helped Samantha into her beige suede coat and winked over her shoulder at Kelly. “I wouldn’t have missed this.”

  Jake’s pampered fiancée Tara smiled her farewell. Kelly suspected if they’d met without the endorsement of Ethan’s arm and hefty bank account, the woman wouldn’t have considered Kelly any more important than Aunt Eugenie’s brass bull doorstopper.

  Jake clasped her hand. “Nice to meet you. Have Ethan fly you out to the ranch for the weekend sometime soon.”

  Matt thumped Jake’s back. “Yeah, looks like these two may beat you to the altar if you change the date again.”

  Tara’s smile turned brittle. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

  Apparently Matt’s White House position bought him courtesy points since she let him off the hook with only one comeback.

  After the couples left, Kelly sagged onto a poolside lounger. She stretched out, wiggling her toes inside her shoes and staring up at the stars.

  Their kiss had left her too restless to call it a night. They would have to debrief the evening anyway. She would just keep a safe distance on her lounger.

  Ethan dimmed the overhead lights until only the moonlight above and lamps inside the pool illuminated the glass room. He cruised to a stop beside her. “What did you think of them?”

  He snagged a deck chair and flipped it to face her before he dropped to sit. Close. Too close.

  So much for distance.

  His elbows rested on his knees, a drink clasped in his hand. Muscled forearms flexed, a dusting of dark hair along tanned skin showing beneath his rolled and cuffed shirt.

  The heater purred to life in the already too-warm room.

  “I liked Samantha.” Air swirled around her, saturated with the scent of chlorine and Ethan’s musky soap. “She had some fascinating insights on the current political unrest on the Delmonico-Rebelian border. Delmonico should kiss her feet in gratitude if she gets that economic treaty hammered out with the US.”

  Ethan tapped her chair with the toe of his wingtip shoe. “What were the two of you saying about us when you swapped languages?”

  “Nothing much.”
Except for Samantha’s friendly warning about Ethan’s commitment-shy ways and a confusing reference to a woman named Celia. Somehow the mere mention of that name carried more weight than a pack of Brittanys.

  “And what do you think of the others?”

  She turned her head to look at him, to enjoy the play of the starlight along his coal-black hair. “Jake’s a good guy. I’d trust him.”

  “You’re right on with that. Solid intuition will serve you well in the field.” He rolled his glass between both broad palms. “What about Tara? You didn’t seem to say much to her.”

  “I’ve learned that quiet can be good, too.” She toyed with the edge of her ponytail. “I discover more about people that way. You’d be surprised what I pick up around the agency because people don’t notice me.”

  “Kelly—”

  She didn’t want to hear his protest. “Or if they do notice me, they’re so convinced I must want detailed descriptions of their exciting lives since mine must be so boring.” Kelly smiled. “Listening to Tara go on, I got such a kick out of knowing that ‘astute’ corporate attorney didn’t have any clue who she was talking to.”

  “You’re ten times the woman she is.”

  “Thanks.” The draw of the admiration glimmering in his eyes proved as heady as his touch.

  “I apologize for any awkwardness, all the same.”

  “It’s not your fault she and I didn’t have much in common to discuss. Makes me glad you and I aren’t really a couple so I don’t have to put up with her for the rest of my life.”

  Their eyes met, held, heated, until his gaze dropped somewhere around her ponytail dangling over the side of the lounger.

  Ethan rattled the ice in his glass and knocked back the last swallow. “It took a determined woman to rope Jake.”

  “Some don’t fall easy, I guess.”

  “Guess not.” He scooped a melting ice cube from his glass and pitched it in the pool. “What about Matt?”

  “He says you cheat at poker.”

  “He’s just pissed because I beat him last time.” Ethan angled his head to the side. “So what did you think of him?” he asked again.

  Kelly smiled at the memories of Matt ribbing Ethan throughout the night. “He’s fun.”

  Ethan’s face blanked.

  What? Did Ethan actually think she was stupid enough to chase after the guy, even if she was attracted to Matt, which she wasn’t. “You can quit the jealous boyfriend act since no one’s around. Mighty dog-in-the-manger of you anyhow since you only want me for the job.”

  “Who says I don’t want you?” He lifted a strand of her hair and caressed it between two fingers.

  Kelly held herself still, willing away the shiver of awareness at his touch.

  He twisted the lock of hair around two fingers. “That doesn’t mean it’s right. Knowing I’m the wrong kind of man for you won’t turn off the attraction. Men’s minds and, uh, libidos aren’t necessarily in synch with each other.”

  “Oh.” The power of that single kiss tingled back over her like a near-miss with an electrical socket.

  “Yeah, oh. But your objection is duly noted. No more jealousy.” He dropped her hair. “Good luck chasing Matt around the White House when this is over if that’s what you want.” He started to stand.

  She dropped her hand to his knee, halting him. “It’s not. Not what I want, I mean.”

  Ethan sat down again without speaking.

  “Just ask the whole office. I told them all how I feel, didn’t I?”

  His pupils dilated until the black nearly pushed past the deep blue, like storm clouds chasing through a clear sky. The electric tingle spread into something more like an unharnessed lightning bolt.

  Samantha’s words came back to haunt her. Not because she harbored any thoughts of settling down with this guy. But because he seemed so far out of her league at the moment she wondered if an encounter with him would leave her fried to a crisp.

  She needed to think, and she couldn’t with him so close. So gorgeous.

  So wanting her, too.

  Kelly sat up. “I told the office this is about business. In spite of your…” she paused to let her eyes rake him in a bold maneuver she would have never managed a couple weeks’ prior, “…charms, I will do my job.”

  She shot to her feet and made tracks away from him before all her bravado abandoned her in favor of returning for another round of Ethan’s kisses.

  The house echoed like an abandoned tomb from one of Aunt Eugenie’s sightseeing jaunts. Sure the place usually reminded him of a crypt with all its ghosts, but he’d been willing to wade through them to find Kelly. No luck. Ethan took the stairs two at a time back into his apartment.

  Where had Kelly gone after she’d run out an hour ago? He still wanted to punt Jake’s fiancée on her liposuctioned butt for being condescending to Kelly.

  Although Kelly seemed to have held her own damned well.

  A newfound respect for her swelled within him. He’d thought she was insecure. What the hell had he known? Kelly didn’t need to flaunt her importance to make herself feel good. She’d let Tara condescend without ever once setting her straight or putting her down.

  So, if she wasn’t upset about Tara, what the hell had gone wrong to make Kelly run away? Whatever it was, he had to fix it and ease the tension between them.

  If only he could find her.

  Unease threatened the edges of his reason. He wanted to believe nothing could happen to her behind the walls of his home. But he knew he couldn’t count on that.

  Part of him shouted to run the grounds. Find her. Now. But logic argued he could search faster with his surveillance system.

  Ethan jabbed the code into his lock and swung into the main room. Five steps in, he realized he hadn’t taken time for any of his usual precautions.

  Hell. He’d get them both killed this way.

  He wasted twenty-three heart-pounding seconds checking his apartment before he leaned over the computer desk. Forget sitting. He punched codes, clicked through locations…

  The empty industrial-sized kitchen.

  The library. Aunt Eugenie and her cat curled up and napping in a wingback by the fireplace.

  The camera made a slow sweep of the front grounds before he swapped to the rear-grounds angle.

  “Come on, Kelly. Where the hell are you?” She wouldn’t leave without telling him. She might not be experienced in the field, but she knew better than that.

  A flicker sliding off the screen snagged his attention.

  Ethan reversed the camera. Adjusted the angle. Narrowed. Closer, until he locked in a close-up of the greenhouse.

  A light shone through the thick panes.

  His heart rate regulated back down to only time-and-a-half. He clicked through keys, searching for the camera inside the greenhouse.

  Nothing?

  He hacked into regular security…and still nothing.

  Why the hell hadn’t any of them thought to install cameras inside the greenhouse? Ethan swiped his 9mm off the desk and sprinted down the stairs. Damn it, Kelly was inside. He knew it.

  And heaven help anyone responsible if she’d had another one of her “accidents.”

  Chapter 7

  Kelly reached to brace a hand on the glass pane beside the spidering ferns. Sleet pinged the greenhouse roof with hypnotizing regularity. She secured her headphones and let the CD sounds of Ocean Serenade soothe her.

  She straightened into the delicious stretch until her spine reached perfect alignment, and then she began the series of controlled movements. She didn’t have the equipment for her Pilates stretches and exercises available, a price she would have to pay as she didn’t want to risk interruption in the gym. So she improvised, the solitude and scenery being more important to her. Her feet never tangled when she was alone.

  Inhale. Stretch. Exhale. Inhale. The fragrant bouquet of hothouse roses, gardenias, lilacs and lush fertility swirled through her with every breath and conditioning exercise.
If only she could capture this scent and setting to take home with her, so much more deeply transporting, sensually exotic than her window garden.

  Tension melted from her a layer at a time as she directed energy to one area at a time, while relaxing the rest of her body. She put all worries of investigations and deadlines and criminals out of her mind.

  Excising thoughts of a certain agent tempting her to bare more than her tattoo proved a little tougher. What had happened to getting over him? Their whole evening together as a couple had felt real. Too real.

  Too right.

  Inhale. Stretch. Exhale. Focus on the rushing waves flowing through the earphones.

  Her connection crackled. Wobbled. Kelly secured the cord on the headset. She should have just bought a new one. It wasn’t like the things were even expensive, but frugality became second nature in her quest for travel.

  The soothing sounds steadied. Kelly nodded and pulled herself straight again. On a whim, she reached to snap an orchid off the plant. Eugenie had issued an open invitation to help herself to anything in the greenhouse, and right now she couldn’t resist treating herself to at least one sensual indulgence.

  Kelly savored the heady scent before tucking it behind her ear. A frivolous gesture, but who would know here in the shadowed darkness?

  Moving shadows.

  Outside the window.

  Apprehension stung her like the sleet sheeting the panes. Ethan had never uncovered who had followed them. She might be behind secured walls, but that didn’t mean she should let down her guard for a minute. She dropped into a crouch, cursing that her new SIG-Sauer lay locked and useless inside a secret compartment in her suitcase.

  Hadn’t she learned threats could lurk in the safest of places? Her professor hadn’t respected the sanctity of school grounds when he’d lured her into his office under the pretense of discussing a test grade.

  Her pounding pulse throbbed in her ears. At least no one skulking outside would be able to see her. She inched farther to the side. Think. Stay out of sight until she could find a weapon and ID who it was.

  She stifled suffocating memories of a hand on her mouth, blunt fingers pinching her nose until she stilled beneath him rather than pass out from lack of air. Her hands fisted.