The Cinderella Mission

by Catherine Mann

  So what was he doing?

  She clicked through computer keys to try and up the volume, but Ethan had chosen to talk by the swishing hot tub.

  No doubt deliberately.

  If she had higher tech skills in this arena, she could probably weed through the interference. But she didn’t. Why was he meeting with Samantha so late when she should be resting up for the major embassy function in the works?

  The embassy. Samantha’s job as ambassador pro-tem to Delmonico.

  Kelly straightened. While Samantha didn’t know about Ethan’s ARIES status, she did know he had intelligence connections.

  The meeting was business.

  Relief threatened to swamp her. Too much. More emotion than she wanted right now when she didn’t know how Ethan felt.

  Kelly stared at the computer screen, taking in the two heads bowed close together, deep in conversation. She might not be jealous. But she was mad as hell. Anger felt good. Tangible and a lot less painful than what she’d experienced when he announced he’d be sleeping on the sofa.

  How dare he pull a stunt like this? Kelly considered racing down there and simply entering the meeting as if she’d been called to participate. Except he might leave before she arrived.

  Her eyes slid to the telephone. Ethan’s first lesson in field craft drifted through her mind.

  Sometimes the simplest answers worked the best.

  He always carried a cell phone in his pocket.

  Kelly reached for the receiver, never taking her eyes off the computer screen. If she and Ethan stood even an infinitesimal chance of working out, he needed to come to grips with accepting her as a fellow operative and equal.

  Starting now.

  Ethan took the computer disk from Samantha and wished he could come up with some words of comfort to offer a friend with too much pain in her eyes.

  Others might be fooled by her calm exterior, but he’d lived in that same hell for too many years and for the first time wanted to find a way out of it other than getting himself killed on the job.

  The cell phone in Ethan’s shirt pocket hummed, vibrating against him. Samantha jumped back, elegance in place again, if a bit brittle.

  Ethan slapped a hand over the pocket. “I’d better take this.” He pulled the phone out and glanced at the LCD screen to find his apartment number. Kelly. Panic punched him. He shouldn’t have left her alone. He flipped the phone open. “Kelly? Everything okay?”

  “Just peachy, partner.”

  Her over-bright tone set off alarms in his head. “Did you need something?”

  “Yeah,” the cheer in her voice faded, “I need my partner to be straight with me and not hold out on meetings with sources.”

  Ethan’s eyes shot straight up to the security camera in the corner wet bar. Busted.

  “That’s right, ace. I’m watching you this time.” Kelly’s voice shimmered through the phone waves with an extra electric kick of anger.

  Samantha patted his arm. “I should go.”

  “No,” Ethan said. “Hold on—”

  “It’s okay.” Samantha stood. “You have what you need. Work’s the best thing for me and I have a pile of it waiting back in my hotel room.”

  “Kelly, be with you in a second.” He flipped the phone closed on the distraction he did not need right now. He would deal with Kelly’s jealousy in a minute. “You’ll be at the summit ball tomorrow?”

  “Of course.”

  He couldn’t come right out and tell Samantha about the potential threat at the gala, and damned if the need to do so didn’t tear him up. Alerting the public would send the perps deeper into hiding and only make it tougher to catch them, leaving others open to the threat without the blanket of protection Ethan and Kelly had orchestrated.

  Ethan settled for a simple, “Watch your back.”

  “Of course.” She jabbed a finger at his chest. “And you remember to treasure what you have.” Whipping her coat off a chair, she stopped him with a raised hand. “I’ll see myself out.”

  Spine straight, she glided toward the door.

  See herself out? Training wasn’t easily ignored. He stood at the door and watched until she pulled safely away from the house.

  Prideful woman. He recognized the resistance to accepting help well. Now Samantha would just have to find the right person to help her through it. As he had. A person he damned well did intend to treasure and protect.

  As soon as they got past a serious head-butting in their future.

  Ethan pivoted on his heel and shot through the hall to the back entrance in the garage. Taking the steps three at a time, he framed his words to reassure Kelly. Christ, he would never, never cheat on her. Couldn’t fathom ever wanting another woman. Damned well looked forward to exploring a thousand ways to make Kelly sigh with pleasure.

  However, while he wasn’t used to accounting for his actions—to anyone—he recognized she carried a lifetime of insecurities, thanks to her parents.

  He paused outside the door to give himself a second to gather his thoughts. Then remembered she was likely watching him anyway.

  She made a hell of a student. He punched in the code and swung the door open. “Kelly?”

  The low squeak of his office chair spinning above offered the only answer. Kelly lounged at his wall of computers in the loft, her arms draped over the rests with negligent ease. Her legs stretched for endless miles in front of her.

  The fire in her eyes sparked a shower of ire upon his head.

  “Kelly, it’s not what you think.” Was that cliché the best he could come up with? This woman stole his ability to think, reason and apparently his ability to talk rationally, as well.

  “Then what was it, Ethan?” She stood, her voice picking up speed and anger with every word. “Explain to this junior operative what I misunderstood about my partner meeting with an embassy source without telling me.”

  Busted. Truly busted.

  Well, hell. He’d underestimated her. She wasn’t jealous at all. Not even a slice insecure.

  She was professionally pissed.

  Kelly started down the stairs, slowly, every word punctuated with a step. “Tell me why half the team keeps from the other half what’s going on.”

  Somehow he suspected his “keeping her safe” answer wouldn’t gain him any ground.

  She cruised toward him. “Make me understand why it’s smart ops to hamstring your partner by insisting she sit in a freaking apartment all the time rather than utilize the skills you taught her.”

  He opted for a shot at a bluff. “Samantha lost her husband, Kelly. She’s going through a rough time. She needed someone to talk to.”

  Her arms folded over her chest. “Good try, Williams. I’m not buying it.”

  Kelly waited, her face smooth and expressionless.

  When had he lost control? The first time Kelly spoke to him. “Damn it, Kelly, I taught you that poker face, so you can just cut it out.” Still she didn’t budge. “Fine. Yeah, I was meeting with her to discuss business. She had some intel to pass along about an intercepted message. She wanted it off the record and untraceable back to her.”

  “And you didn’t see fit to tell me?” Her voice rose with the color in her cheeks. “I could have had something to offer, and instead I’m sitting up here with nothing but a stack of crossword puzzles.”

  Screw this. She wanted to know, he’d tell her. “Well, at least you’re safe!”

  “I don’t want safe!” She thumped his chest with both palms. “I want to do my job the same as you do.” Her breast heaved under her dress, before she spun away. “God, there’s no reasoning with you.”

  “Don’t walk out on me.” He grabbed her arm.

  She jerked free. “You can watch over me with your cameras. Then you won’t have to worry about any messy arguments or emotions. You can keep your distance and brood, rather than face what we did together. What we felt. Hell, you can’t even commit to a real partnership. It’s no surprise any hint of a real relationship would
send the big bad agent running for the hills.”

  Her words raked across emotions already too damned raw, fired the gut-burning desire he’d held in check all day. For months. For years, around this woman.

  He studied the set line of her jaw. The rigid brace of her shoulders. She burned for this job just as he had for so many years, even before he’d lost Celia.

  Kelly wasn’t going to give up. She lived for this job. And damn it, so did he.

  His mental image of those resignations went up in flames. He could almost see the edges blackening, curling, turning to powder. With them went his hopes of scratching out some kind of future with Kelly that wouldn’t send him to the nuthouse worrying about her.

  “Fine. You want real? Here’s reality. Nobody’s running now.” His hand shot behind her head, tangled in her hair and tugged her head back.

  Before she could do more than gasp—perfect since parted lips suited him damned fine—his mouth crashed down on hers.

  Ethan drew in the taste of Kelly. The scent of her. The feel of her soft body under his hands. Every bit of her saturated his senses with as much potency as her voice.

  He cupped her bottom, lifted, rocked their hips against each other.

  She whimpered under his mouth.

  Control. He had to find it. He eased back, hands shaking. “I’m being too rough.”

  “No,” she insisted, drawing his bottom lip between her teeth, “you’re not.”

  He rested his forehead against hers. “Do you want—”

  “Yes!” She jerked his shirtfront. “I want. Do I ever want. I want you. I’ve always wanted you and don’t know how to stop.”

  And neither did he.

  He slanted his mouth over hers. Without breaking their kiss, he backed them toward the stairs. Bodies locked, they kissed and stumbled up the steps, flattening against the wall to tunnel hands under clothing. Finally, they made it to the landing. He reached for the door, but before he could twist the knob, Kelly hooked a leg behind his and rocked their balance. Or maybe that was the effect of her kiss.

  They fell to the floor, Ethan twisting at the last second to cushion her from the floor.

  “Now,” she whispered against his lips, kicking off her shoes. “Here.”

  She didn’t have to tell him twice. His hand burrowed under her dress to whip her stockings and panties down and off. He pitched the pink wisp fluttering over the banister.

  In a tangle of arms and legs and need he rolled her under him. She worked the fly button free on his jeans with a newfound expertise. No fumbling, she found him. He gave a brief thought to undressing, but Kelly’s insistent touch, her kisses, nips, sighs urging him on, told him she wanted this as much as he did. Slow would come later.

  He tore his wallet from his back pocket and found protection.

  Damn it, never would he lose sight of protecting Kelly.

  And then he was in her. Only fair since she’d been inside him all day. All month. For as long as he could remember and right now he couldn’t seem to remember anything but her.

  And the feel of her gripping him with moist heat.

  Under him, in him, a part of him.

  He moved within her, holding back until his every muscle strained, screaming for release. The longer he held back, the longer he kept her, the longer he didn’t have to contemplate what could happen in the next twenty-four hours.

  That he couldn’t let happen.

  He couldn’t lose her.

  He couldn’t lose—

  Her cry of release ripped through him, her beautiful body arching up and into him once, and again. His own shout mingled with hers until he sagged on top of her, absorbing her aftershocks.

  Keeping her with him a few seconds longer.

  Chapter 15

  Kelly trembled with the residual waves of pleasure rippling through her.

  She’d wanted him. Wanted this. But hadn’t fully understood the storm churning through Ethan. The intensity of whatever tore at him radiated in waves. She’d grappled her way over his wall and now didn’t know what to do with what she’d found. There weren’t books for her to study on this one, and her lack of experience in relationships left her with precious little to draw upon.

  She kissed his neck and waited for him to talk, a better option than to risk saying the wrong thing. Ethan rolled off her and sat with his back against the wall, dragging in air.

  He traced a finger along her neckline, dipping in to pull the chain around her neck, down to the stone dangling from it, the aquamarine from their mine trip. “You’re right. I should have told you about the meeting with Samantha.”

  Shock kept her from talking more than indecision—and hope.

  Maybe…

  “It’s been a hell of a day.” He untwined the chain and stood.

  Ethan straightened his clothes, then extended a hand to her. She rose to stand beside him, ready to curl up in his bed and savor whatever time they had left together, to grab some intimacy with this elusive man.

  Instead, he turned the corner and climbed the last few steps to his computer wall. He reached past her to his side of the computer console. “Hatch gave me the file on my parents’ murder.”

  Kelly rubbed the tensed muscles in his arm, trying to understand where he was going with this. “That’s good. What does it say?”

  “I haven’t read it yet.” He held it as if testing its weight. “But I can’t stop thinking about it. And yeah, I misstepped earlier. Thinking about them…hell, yeah, I want to keep you locked up tight here.”

  He held up a hand. “I know. You don’t want protection.” Ethan dropped the file on the desk beside her. “Here.”

  Kelly picked it up. “You want me to look?”

  “Go ahead,” he shot over his shoulder as he loped down the stairs to the kitchen.

  Already she could see him pulling away, but this time he’d left a piece of himself behind. While Ethan pulled water bottles from the refrigerator, Kelly flipped through pages, icy horror chilling away the remains of passion. Was he trying to tell her something by showing her the brutality of how his parents had died?

  A line item snagged her attention. “Ethan,” she called, her eyes still scanning the pages, soaking up the words with dawning horror, “where was your au pair—Iona—from? The woman who supposedly passed along your locale to the attackers?”

  He returned to the loft, placing a bottle beside her. “From what little I could find out the past couple of weeks, Iona’s passport listed her as a Swiss National.”

  Kelly tapped the paper. “That’s not where she was born.”

  He tugged the yellowed paper sealed in a plastic sleeve. “Bastia. But that doesn’t—”

  “—exist anymore.” Cold certainty hardened within her. “It was absorbed into the shifting borders of—”

  “Rebelia. Damn it. Here.” He pitched the computer disk Samantha had passed along onto the computer console. “See what you can make of that. Samantha lucked into this message intercepted by Delmonico’s intelligence. She says even if you break the encryption, it came from Rebelia, which means I’m screwed as far as interpreting it anyway.”

  She jammed the disk into her computer, activating the software to decode the encrypted message while Ethan waited beside her, edgy restlessness pulsing from him.

  Words shifting before her, she typed out the translation and found…

  “Oh my God,” she gasped, leaning back from the computer. “Read.”

  Ethan canted forward, his eyes scanning, widening with dark realization. “If this is right, someone in Rebelia is targeting jewels all around the world. Specific jewels. This isn’t some random heist. They’re out for the Gastonian ambassador’s blue sapphire.”

  Kelly leaned back in the chair. “Aside from the value of it, the diplomatic repercussions alone could start an all-out war between the countries.”

  All roads led back to Rebelia. Eugenie’s diggings into CIA workings back then and operative Alex Morrow’s disappearance now.
r />   Could a small country like Rebelia actually have had an intricate spy network in place for over thirty years?

  Of course it could. The magnitude of what they were facing rolled over her. And apparently rolled over Ethan, as well. He grabbed for the phone. “Screw this. I’m calling Hatch and telling him to cancel the whole damned summit ball.”

  She clutched his wrist. “What about Alex Morrow? And whatever else is planned with the rest of the next heist and the one after that.”

  He jerked his arm away and shot out of the chair. “Fine. Then your unreasonable boyfriend is asking you to sit this one out at headquarters so I can think.”

  She stood, toe-to-toe, determined to have her answers this time. “And what about the next op?”

  His silence and stony face answered her too well. He really expected her to give it up for him.

  “You want me to quit?”

  Still he didn’t disagree. Instead, he moved closer, hips molded to hers as he stroked his hands down her back, lower. “You want to travel, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.” His hands journeyed sensuous paths over her body with a lover’s knowledge of where to touch. “I have enough money for ten lifetimes and we’ll spend it all in one. You’ll be so busy, you won’t have time to miss ARIES, or anything else.”

  “Don’t,” she pulled herself away, anger and passion making painful companions in her belly. “Don’t try to manipulate me.”

  His throat worked, none of the Ethan lightheartedness in sight. “I love you, damn it. I never wanted to love anyone this way again. Hell, I never have loved anyone this way. That has to count for something.”

  Everything within Kelly went silent and still. Ethan loved her?

  And she couldn’t do a thing about it.

  Blue eyes she’d dreamed of for so long stared back down at her. Part of her yearned to take anything he offered. Another, stronger part of her knew better.

  “There was a time I would have given anything to hear those words from you. But Ethan, you’ve taught me I’m worthy of more.” She let herself touch him, her palm to his chest, a bittersweet pleasure. “I’ve spent years trying to be something I’m not to make people love me, which is silly because then they don’t love the real me, anyway.”