The Cinderella Mission

by Catherine Mann

  She patted his cheek and spun away with a low laugh.

  Ethan, however, looked far from amused. Where had her tender lover gone? Kelly touched his chest. Ethan flinched.

  She jerked her hand back. Confusion, hurt and more than a little anger wrestled for control within her.

  “Come on.” He gripped her arm and tugged her toward the door, his touch far from loverlike.

  “Ethan.” She dug her feet into the carpet. “Ethan!”

  He gave her a slight tug, his face as immovable a mask as one of Eugenie’s mud treatments. “No time to waste. I have a call to make.”

  At least he wasn’t leaving her in her bedroom. She doubled her steps to keep up as he hauled out of the house.

  Her ire eased along with her confusion. Of course he wanted out of the house. He’d all but admitted to staying away because of the painful memories. The fact that he wouldn’t sell it but avoided entering said much about how his parents’ death still affected him.

  Ethan charged through the garage and back up the stairs to his apartment. He slammed the door closed behind them. The cavernous room echoed with silence and memories of what they’d shared in the room just a few minutes earlier.

  “Go to bed, Kelly. I’ll take care of making sure Brittany leaves.” Ethan climbed the stairs.

  Man, she was getting tired of chasing his hunky back. “I’ll wait up until you’re done.”

  He dropped into his computer chair and spun to face the screen. “I need to call ARIES.”

  “Okay.” She perched a hip on the desk beside him. “I’ll wait.”

  His gaze fell to her legs, held, then scorched up to her unrestrained breasts. Her body heated at the memory of his touch, of his mouth on her skin. Her breasts tightened beneath the cotton in an invitation he couldn’t miss.

  Ethan shifted, looked away and hammered keys. “I’ll be sleeping on the couch.”

  Her body still humming from the passion in just one look, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’re kidding, right?”

  He clicked until the surveillance screens shifted to views of Brittany’s car. “I can keep watch better that way.”

  Like he would actually sleep at all. She expected he would park himself in front of the screens all night. “Then we’ll both sleep on the sofa.”

  “No.”

  What the hell was going on? She might be inexperienced, but she couldn’t have completely misread him.

  Old insecurities threatened. He’d had her and was through. Or worse yet, he’d found her lacking. The sleep excuse was just that, an excuse to get rid of her.

  Her chest constricted. Even the thought hurt, so much more now that she knew exactly what she would be losing if he walked away. Damn him. She deserved better than this. “So is this the big brush-off, then? Sex was great, now we’re done?”

  “No.”

  “Can you give me a polysyllabic answer?” She thumped his shoulder. “And could you quit being so cold and look at me?”

  His jaw worked. Slowly, he spun his chair to face her. His shoulders lowered, his face lined with exhaustion for the first time since she’d met him.

  His hand fell to rest on her knee, his other hand clenched in his lap. “Tonight was…incredible, Kelly.”

  The ache inside her eased.

  His hand fell away. “But it’s time to get back to the real world. Go to bed. In less than forty-eight hours we’ll be standing down a room full of jewel thieves. I need a partner who isn’t asleep on her feet and can watch my back.”

  Turning away and shutting her out, Ethan reached for the secured phone and pulled the key from a hidden drawer. Twisting the key that guaranteed protected communications, he punched in the number. While waiting, he rubbed a hand along his neck, just as he’d done when telling about his parents’ murder.

  Self doubts faded, replaced by a new understanding. The day he’d lost his parents had left its mark in more ways than one. He didn’t like ties…fabric or emotional. Losing Celia had only cemented his defensive need for distance.

  All his revelations of the past hours poured over her, the reliving of his parents’ deaths brought to the surface by the revelations about his aunt. While he barked out an update into the phone, the harsh lines on his face mirrored those she’d seen when he’d stepped into the greenhouse.

  His hardened agent exterior covered pain.

  He’d come to her earlier because he was hurting. He hadn’t sent her from his apartment, but his emotional walls were in place, high and impenetrable.

  And in that moment, a deeper ache spread, because now Kelly knew. Her quest to learn more about Ethan and banish her crush had worked. Her infatuation was truly a thing of the past.

  She loved Ethan Williams, a man who wanted her body, even her friendship, but would never risk accepting her heart.

  Ethan sprawled in the steel-backed chair in the spacious ARIES tech lab while Kelly, Juarez and Davidson discussed listening devices. With her legs crossed, Kelly swung her foot in a lazy dance back and forth, the delicate arch of her calf all but hypnotizing him.

  Another thirty-six hours and he could put this case behind him. Ethan tapped a folded memo along the table, flipping it over and over in his hand.

  He didn’t know what the hell to do about Kelly after that. Sure, he’d thought about marriage, but now he wondered if Kelly might be better off without him. He’d lived day-today for so long, planning for the future could scare the sludge off his Jag. If he screwed up as he’d done last night, Kelly paid the price.

  The hell of it was he could not touch her again until he had his head on straight and a plan of action in place. Sleeping on the sofa sucked when the woman he wanted waited warm and willing up a flight of stairs. She deserved better than some half-baked plan for a day-to-day future.

  The future. Sweat beaded Ethan’s brow.

  Director Hatch leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest as he watched without a word.

  Did the man ever sleep? Ethan wrestled with images of a younger Hatch and Aunt Eugenie tearing up the world in their field-agent days, a reminder that this lifestyle didn’t last.

  How would he and Kelly end up? Going separate ways? Both of them living out their lives alone? Ethan returned his attention to the discussion at hand.

  Carla Juarez grasped tweezers and pinched the miniscule listening device, rolling her wheelchair toward Ethan. The size of a grain of rice, the device would lie out of sight in his ear canal. He never questioned how it stuck there. Wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. Juarez had proposed they give Kelly a dry run using the device to become accustomed to multi-tasking with several voices transmitting through the earpiece. Ethan had welcomed the chance to leave the apartment and put some people between himself and Kelly.

  Except it wasn’t helping.

  Hatch pulled a roll of antacids out of his pocket and thumbed one free. “We finally caught up with your tour guide from the mine. He says someone paid him a thousand dollars to send you down the wrong shaft and rig the generator. Said the guy gave the excuse of being a jealous boyfriend. We’ve got a sketch artist working on it.”

  Ethan had been hoping for more. “And Brittany Hill?”

  “No suspicious movement.” Hatch popped the antacid in his mouth and clicked it to the side. “We’re keeping a tail on her.”

  Juarez leaned closer, the tweezers tickling Ethan’s ear. “The power of young love.”

  “Very funny, Juarez.” Ethan scratched a hand over his burning gut.

  “Quit fidgeting!” Carla Juarez chastised him. “Do you want me to rupture your eardrum?”

  “Lovely image. Thanks.”

  “No problem, hotshot.”

  Ethan flipped the folded notepaper between his fingers again like a quarter in a sleight-of-hand trick. The message from Samantha had arrived just as he’d warmed up the Jag while waiting for Kelly. He still didn’t know how he planned to handle Samantha’s request that they meet, whether to include Kelly or not.r />
  She would be mad, but he couldn’t afford to let that influence him.

  “All done.” Juarez wheeled her chair around. “Okay, Kelly. Your turn.”

  Kelly hooked her feet together and tucked them under her seat—ankle boots her footwear choice of the day designed to make his life a living hell.

  Juarez winked. “You look great, kiddo.”

  Kelly smiled. “Thanks, Carla.”

  “I’ll say.” Davidson emitted a low whistle from beside the map of the ballroom on the wall. “You do clean up well, Taylor. Pencil me in on your dance card. I’ll rest up this bum leg of mine just for you.”

  Kelly swacked his arm. “You’d better not set one foot out of headquarters and leave me high and dry with no backup.”

  “No fair. Rich boy over there gets all the fun.” Davidson pitched a marker at Ethan.

  Ethan shot him a glare in the timeless communication of one male to another that said without question, mine.

  Davidson cocked a brow before stepping back with a slight nod of acknowledgment.

  Juarez rolled away from Kelly. “Okay. All set.” She passed Ethan and Kelly each a tiny clip-on microphone. “Tech support is working a set into your clothing buttons now. With a heist in the works, we decided planting the mikes in jewelry might not be such a wise idea.”

  Kelly turned her back and whispered, “Ethan? Are you there?”

  Her voice echoed in his head—sheer pleasure and torture in one silken-toned package. He shifted in his seat. “Yeah, Kel, I’m here.”

  Her laugh tripped free as she spun to face him. “Oh, man. This is so cool.”

  Cool?

  It seemed mighty damned hot in the room to Ethan.

  Juarez passed Ethan and Kelly each a small plastic case. “Your contact lenses. They’re tinted to just the right level to counteract the effects of the Laser Dazzler if it needs to be activated.”

  Kelly cradled hers as if they were the crown jewels. “You came through.”

  Intellectually, he understood the need to keep the volume low so as not to burst the eardrum, but God help him, her husky tones spiraled through his mind like tendrils of smoke.

  Juarez grinned. “Didn’t want you to have to resort to one of those other options suggested by the Marines over in the Urban Warfare Battle Lab.”

  Davidson chuckled. Good. No temptation in hearing that voice.

  “Ah, come on.” Davidson rubbed a hand along his thigh absently. “It would have been fun watching the Gastonian ambassador try to wade through the sticky foam. Or the microwave gun singe the polyester right off the girlfriend of the Holzberg secretary of state.”

  “All in the name of compassionate combat,” Juarez chimed, her wheelchair offering a glaring reminder of the price of war. She rolled toward the door. “Come on, Kelly. Let’s take a spin around the office and gab with people, while the guys talk in here. You can get used to processing all the different channels of information coming your way at once.”

  Kelly held open the door. “It’s so wild hearing you in double, literally and through Ethan’s mike.”

  “You’ll also have the command post voices back here to contend with, but you’ll adjust before you know it,” Juarez said, her voice dimming as she wheeled into the hall. The door swished closed behind them.

  Too bad the image of Kelly’s animated face remained in Ethan’s mind as real as her voice in his ear.

  Hatch shoved away from the wall. “Davidson, run through the security checklist again. Taylor can listen in. Won’t hurt to hear it repeated.”

  “Sure.” Davidson grabbed another marker from the metal tray. A map of the ballroom with the plastic overlay for notes sprawled across the wall.

  Ethan tipped back in his chair. Markers squeaked as Davidson drew a series of Xs resembling a basketball play grid. Their background chatter would offer enough for Kelly to process as she walked the halls back to her desk.

  Soaking up compliments from too-damned-pushy men.

  She wouldn’t be lacking for date offers after this op ended. Offers from a pack of fools who hadn’t been able to appreciate her diamond-in-the-rough beauty before.

  She deserved better.

  Better than him, too, for that matter.

  Her voice caressed his ear. His eyes slid closed. Excitement pulsed through her words, as it had the gems at the mine, later when they’d shared a simple snowball.

  A kiss.

  Going sentimental over a snowball?

  Lack of sleep must be screwing with his self-control, but he would sleep when they caught the scum responsible for Alex Morrow’s disappearance.

  When he had Kelly safely behind her desk again.

  For how long, a voice taunted? How long before she landed her next field assignment and ended up with bullets tearing through her mojo and into her back like Juarez?

  Kelly laughed over something. What? Damned if he hadn’t been following the conversation. Her silky tones rolled around in his head, a part of him he couldn’t escape when his emotions were too damned close to the surface.

  The sound of her blended with memories of her sighs of pleasure in the mine and later in the greenhouse. He could almost feel her under him. Need pulsed through him, thick, hot and without warning. Just like Kelly in his life.

  His breath huffed in and out, every drag of air heavier than the next. He wanted her. Any way he could have her and damn the consequences. He wanted her now. Just give him ten minutes alone with her in a closet where he could hike that—

  A cleared throat broke into Ethan’s concentration. He bolted upright, his eyes snapping open. Davidson stared at him with an ill-disguised smirk. His soon-to-be-pounded buddy snagged a red marker and scribbled on the board. Do you need a cigarette?

  Ethan growled low, “Bite me, bud.”

  A gasp sounded in his head. Kelly. “What?”

  “Nothing,” Ethan mumbled. “Just Davidson making a fool out of himself.”

  Hatch crossed to his case sitting on the table. He snapped it open and pulled out a file. “Nice work, people. I’ll leave you to do your job.”

  Walking toward the door, he placed the file on the table beside Ethan, dropping a roll of antacids on top without hesitating. The door clicked shut behind the director.

  Davidson capped the marker. “What’s that?”

  Ethan scooped the antacids off and flipped open the first page of the file. His parents’ names leapt out, along with his aunt’s.

  Adrenaline seared him. He had it. The file on his parents’ murder. No doubt Hatch had computerized copies, but Ethan had what he needed.

  Yet the thrill faded as quickly as it had surged. All he could think of was Kelly.

  Mine. Again the single word pulsed through him. Became a part of him.

  He was a selfish bastard who couldn’t let her go. But he also couldn’t spend his life eating rolls of antacid and wondering if she’d made it through the day alive. Even if he cut himself out of her life, she would always be there in his head, as she was now, earpiece or not. Kelly had become a part of him no amount of distance could slice free.

  Which left him with only one option.

  Ethan crumpled the note from Samantha in his hand. He would decide after the meeting if Kelly needed to know the results of what he learned.

  For now, he would get through this assignment. Do whatever it took to keep Kelly alive.

  Then come hell or high water, when the clock struck twelve on Kelly’s Cinderella mission, Hatch would have two resignations on his desk.

  Chapter 14

  Kelly raced up the stairs to Ethan’s apartment, too jazzed to wait until supper to meet him as they’d arranged. Every step pumped her excitement from work up another notch. She planned to entice Ethan out of whatever had brought on his bad mood and celebrate.

  God, she loved her job. The whole day at ARIES trying out equipment had been a blast. She’d worked the ops-support end for two years, all but salivating when others donned the high-tech tools of their
trade. ARIES had the best of the best, thanks to their unlimited black ops budget. Nowhere in the world were operatives better outfitted.

  And now she was one.

  What would Hatch have for her next?

  Restless energy charged through her. She wanted the next days to whiz past.

  Then what? Would Ethan’s walls come down or double in height?

  Her feet faltered on the landing.

  She wouldn’t let him.

  Kelly punched in the code to Ethan’s alarm and let herself inside. “Ethan?”

  He’d said he needed time to shower and change. Well, she planned to surprise him in the shower and change his attitude.

  The silent apartment greeted her. Strolling through the kitchen, she trailed her fingers along the rim of his coffee cup where his mouth had rested. A poor substitute for the man’s kiss, especially when she would likely spend another lonely night in his bed while he sacked on the couch if she didn’t make some headway.

  “Ethan?”

  No answer, not even the sound of a shower.

  A tingle started up her spine, a newly developed sixth sense she’d developed over the past two weeks.

  He’d left her alone. He rarely did that anymore, always insisting they stick together.

  Overprotective lout.

  So what was he doing now?

  Kelly bolted away from the table and up the stairs to the computer loft. Time to use some of those skills he’d taught her. Dropping into his chair, she clicked through the grounds surveillance commands until she found him.

  And Delmonico’s ambassador pro-tem, Samantha Barnes. His former girlfriend. Sitting on a lounger together by the indoor pool, Ethan beside the cool beauty, his head ducked close to hers.

  Those old insecurities kicked in with a vengeance. Samantha Barnes was everything Kelly had once dreamed of being. The stunning redhead was brilliant, confident and an acting ambassador of an important American ally in an unstable region.

  No. Kelly halted the green-eyed monster in its tracks.

  Ethan may have cut a wide swath through the female population, but always one at a time for as long as she’d known him. She trusted his innate sense of honor enough to know he would completely set her free first. And he hadn’t done that. Yet.