by Tawny Weber
Sometimes it was sweet. Sleepy morning lovemaking while the sunrise washed them in misty rainbow light. Remembering the laughs they’d shared when the chocolate Mia had been licking off his body had given her a goatee, he realized that it could even be fun.
What he hadn’t realized—and should have—was that sex with Mia would be addicting. So addicting that he’d do damn near anything to keep having it. It, and her.
With a twitch of his head, Spence shook off the fantasy.
There was no point obsessing. He’d have it while he had it, and when they were done, it’d be finished.
Yet here he was.
Obsessing.
Again.
What the hell had happened to his life?
And what the hell was he going to do with it after he parted ways with Mia?
Put it away, he ordered himself. He had work to do. That’d always been enough for him before, and he’d make sure it was enough now. And until the job was done, he still had Mia.
Mia and Alcosta.
He scowled at the banner hanging from the opposite railing, the rich maroon-and-gold fabric woven around a depiction of haughty Alcosta’s face.
He might owe the jerk credit for bringing Mia into his life, but that didn’t mean he had to like the guy in any way, shape or form. Good thing, since the more Spence saw of Alcosta, the more he despised him.
As if drawn by Spence’s thoughts, the man himself strode into the villa, surrounded by his cadre of toadies. The man never arrived without at least a dozen people. You’d think they’d be there to help, but as far as Spence had seen, they all scattered as soon as there was work to be done.
One good thing about starting so early in the day was that Alcosta usually never dragged himself into view until at least noon. Looked like today was the exception.
“Ah, Mia,” he heard Alcosta call out. “Today is the big day. I hope you are prepared to make me a very, very happy man.”
“Everything is coming together perfectly,” Mia assured him, coming into view.
Having watched her dress that morning, Spence knew she’d chosen the draped emerald blouse, leggings and flat boots for ease since she’d be running from one end of the villa to the other, carting and arranging everything from flowers to photos to gift bags. But damn, she looked good.
From his body language, Alcosta thought so, too. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to his side, hauling her with him as they went from one side of the ballroom to the other, Mia filling him in on their progress every step of the way.
His toadies trailed behind, their faces buried in their devices as they walked. Spence surveyed the group, noting two new additions he hadn’t yet identified. Subtly angling his cell phone toward the group, he took a photo.
“These flowers, they are pretty enough. But the scent is overpowering, yes? Perhaps too much so.”
Arrogant, obnoxious and irritating, the man had spent the last week and a half micromanaging unimportant details while trying to change the bigger elements he’d previously agreed to.
Figuring it was time to make an appearance before Alcosta got his hopes up, he went down the back staircase so he could make his way into the ballroom through the kitchen. The caterers were already hard at work, filling most of the twenty-foot-long room with ingredients, noise and frantic energy.
As he strode through the room, Spence matched faces with the names in his files, ensuring that he’d had Smidge run a background check on everyone Mia employed.
Halfway down the homage to stainless steel, he saw one face he’d been wanting to chat with. After a second’s debate, he decided Mia should be fine for a few more minutes. He shouldered his way through a group of piping-bag-wielding decorators to a small, nook-style desk stacked chest-high with wrapped gift boxes.
“How’s it going, Clair?”
“Hey, Hottie,” the blonde greeted, pausing in the act of tying a personalized tag on each package to give him a smile way too predatory for this early in the morning. “I didn’t realized I’d see you here.”
“I’m assisting Mia. Where else would I be?”
“At the rate she goes through assistants? You could be in Brazil by now.” Clair laughed. “Or in the hospital. You know, with Mia and the curse of the accidents.”
“Yeah. Those accidents. Crazy how there haven’t been any lately.”
“I guess it helps to have a security guy lurking at fund-raisers and parties,” Clair murmured, suddenly getting really interested in tying the tag on just right.
“That it does. Good thing I’m covering things at the fund-raiser weekend. An accident happens at huge party like this, Mia could easily be ruined.” He waited for Clair to look up from the package she was tagging, but the bow seemed to take all of her attention. “I’ll bet you’re excited to work this event now, huh?”
“Excited? About putting names on gifts to give people for no reason?” She looked around the kitchen with a polite sneer. “I guess it’s always good to have work.”
“Don’t you keep pretty busy with, what is that called? Forever Families?” He already knew the answer, but wanted to hear her response.
“I’m never too busy to help Mia out,” Clair said with a toothy smile. “And if this event is a huge success, she’ll be a huge success.”
“Too successful to consider any other job offers, I suppose.” He waited a beat while Clair’s eyes widened. “Offers like the one I hear your boss was considering.”
“What are you talking about?”
“From what I understand, Lorraine Perkins is crazy about the work Mia does. Crazy enough that she wants to hire her full-time. Bringing in a permanent event coordinator would probably cut into your workload, wouldn’t it?”
“I’m a valued member of the Forever Families team,” Clair snapped, a hint of angry color dotting her cheeks. “I can’t be replaced by a party planner.”
“I’m sure you couldn’t. Unless Lorraine decided to revamp the fund-raising arm of her company and needed a coordinator to run it all. That’d probably cut into your hours.”
“What’s your point? If you’re accusing me of something, just spit it out.”
“No accusations,” Spence assured her. “Just conversation.”
“And is there a point to your conversation?”
“No point, either.” Spence smiled. “It was good talking with you, though. I’m off to take care of that security stuff. You know, to make sure there are no accidents.”
He left her shaken enough to ensure that there would be no accidents/sabotage screwing with this event.
He strode into the ballroom just as Mia and Alcosta, with his entourage in tow, came out of the dining room.
“Spence,” Mia greeted, her voice as tranquil as a the sea and her eyes as turbulent as a winter ocean. “I’m glad you’ve joined us. We’re just going over some last-minute details.”
Alcosta looked anything but glad to see him.
“We have much still to discuss,” the man said, waving his leather notepad between them as if he could shoo Spence away. “Mia, my dear, let’s continue. Meanwhile, my assistant needs the details of security from your helper here.”
And just like that, the man scooped Mia up by the arm and moved her to the other side of the room. As long as they stayed in view, Spence figured he’d let him get away with it.
“So you’re the helper.” The blonde smiled, her teeth gleaming white against her tanned face. “I can’t believe we haven’t met already. I’m Jessica.”
Pulling off the femme-fatale look that Clair obviously aspired to, Jessica graciously held out her hand for him to either shake or kiss.
“Mia’s roommate, right?”
“And you’re what? Mia’s boyfriend?” With a flutter of her lashes, Jessica dismissed that relationship as if it were nothing. “If you’ll give me all the details of
your security arrangements for the events, I’ll go through them to make sure they meet Señor Alcosta’s requirements. I need information on everything that you’re planning to do, of course.”
Everything?
That’d be a no, in all caps. She worked for the man Spence had deemed the enemy. No way was he handing the real details of his security plan to Alcosta’s team.
Still, he knew the value of playing nice and keeping the enemy complacent.
“Mia already okayed the specifics, but I’ll give you a rundown,” he said. As he gave her a generic overview, the woman made copious notes with a slightly trembling hand.
“Are you okay?”
She glanced up from her notes, her perfectly enhanced eyes glittering like sapphires, hard and cold. “I’m fine. Excited about this weekend, of course. There’s been a lot of work and time put into making this happen. It’ll be gratifying to see it all finally happen.”
An innocuous enough answer. So why did it make the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in warning?
“And since tonight’s the big kick-off event, I’ve got a lot still to do,” she said, her smile as friendly as her tone was dismissive. “It was nice to finally meet you.”
“Yeah. I’ll definitely see you around.”
He dug his cell phone out as he watched her cross the room, and then he texted Smidge. Time to dig a little deeper into Ms. Jessica Alexander.
“Whew, I’m glad we came in at five,” Mia said, hurrying up to take his coffee cup. She drank it down, handed him back the empty cup and gave a huge sigh. “I’ve already added an hour’s worth of tasks to the day and we’re just getting started.”
“What do you need me to do?” he asked, skimming his fingers along the back of her neck as he checked Alcosta’s position. Ten yards away from Mia, surrounded by cronies, the man waved his arms from here to there, directing his minions while he barked orders into his cell phone in Spanish.
“I’ve got it covered, but thanks.” Mia leaned into him for a brief second, as if absorbing a little comfort from his presence before she dove back into the craziness. “Are you on schedule? Do you need any help from me?”
“I’m good.” He glanced down, prepared to give her a grateful smile, and got lost in her. Just looking at her. The perfect glow of her skin, the confident tilt of her head, the assurance vibrating from every gorgeous inch of her. “Actually, I should be saying that you’re good.”
“Are you talking about last night?” Lowering her voice to a husky tease, she leaned closer to say, “I told you I could bend in ways you couldn’t imagine. You shouldn’t have bet on it.”
“Losing never felt so good,” he admitted with a laugh before shifting his stance, angling his weight back on his heels to take pressure off his suddenly tight zipper. “But I meant all of this. You’re good at all of this.”
Surprise showed in her eyes, and gratitude in her slowly widening smile.
“I appreciate that,” she said softly. “It’s not often that I hear that kind of support.”
“Believe me, I have complete faith that you can do anything. Absolutely anything at all.” Including, he realized in a moment of stunned awareness, make him fall in love with her. And that without even trying.
His stomach plunged into his feet, along with most of the blood in his body. Sweat beaded his brow. He felt as if he’d just jumped from a storm-tossed airplane into the raging sea without a parachute. Helpless, terrified and completely out of his depths.
“Spence?” Wide-eyed, Mia surveyed his expression. “Yo, Spence? Are you okay?”
“Sure.”
“You’re not. Something’s wrong. Let’s go upstairs. You can rest for a little while. If you don’t feel better, I’ll run you over to the health clinic.”
Just like that, she’d walk out on the biggest event of her life because he was sick. Because she always put others first. That’s the kind of woman she was. Right down to her career, she always focused on helping others.
Frowning now, she gave his arm a quick rub before subtly skimming the back of that same hand over his forehead. Checking for fever, he realized, falling even deeper. Who did that? Who cared that much?
Mia. Only Mia.
“I’m fine,” he said before she tried to take his racing pulse and realized that something really was wrong with him. “I just got distracted by one of those crazy thoughts. You know how it is.”
“Okay,” she said, her tone making it clear she didn’t know but was willing to humor him. “But maybe you should take a break anyhow. We were up really early, and we barely got any sleep last night.”
He’d led successful missions into war zones while averaging only two hours of sleep in a sixty-hour period. But he couldn’t tell her that. Because she didn’t know who he was. Not really.
“I’m fine. Really,” he lied. “I just realized there is a scenario I hadn’t prepared for.”
As he’d intended, she thought he was talking about event security, because Mia cast a worried look around the ballroom until she found Alcosta.
“I can’t imagine any scenario that you haven’t already covered,” she murmured. “But now that you’ve thought of it, you can take steps, right?”
Steps. Right.
“I’ll handle it,” he vowed. “You won’t even know it was an issue.”
Part of handling it meant focusing on the here and now. Securing this event and doing his job. With the same determination that’d served him for years, Spence yanked all of his attention back to the matter at hand.
Alcosta.
He knew the man was dirty.
His unjustified travel to questionable locations and uncut, lifelong relationships with criminals proved that. But dammit, there was no credible threat. No actual suspicious activity. Nothing to tie Alcosta to any crime. But Spence couldn’t shake the feeling of impending trouble. Trouble that’d hit this weekend.
So Spence would do as he always did.
Take the op steps.
First, locate the target. His gaze narrowed on Alcosta, who’d commandeered the one table that’d been dressed for the evening, shoving aside the centerpiece and wrinkling the blue damask cloth as he spread paperwork over the surface.
Target located.
Second, assess any credible threats. Then third, secure the perimeter.
As far as Spence had been able to assess so far, an actual threat was nonexistent unless he counted Alcosta trying to hit on Mia. He had to admit that when he’d relayed that lack of apparent threat to the Admiral he hadn’t been too frustrated to be told to stay on the job. Not when that order gave him more time with Mia.
Still, threat or not, it was a job.
Which put him right back to op step number two, determining if there any threats. Before he could start his rounds, though, Mia wrapped her hands around his empty mug.
“More coffee?”
“Sure thing.” He surveyed the ballroom, noting that Jessica had found a private corner and was having an intense conversation on her cell phone. “Tell me about your roommate.”
“Jessica?” Handing him back the full mug, Mia looked around until she spotted the other woman, too. “What do you want to know.”
“You’ve lived together for quite a while, right? How well do you know her?”
“Actually, we haven’t lived together all that long. We ran into each other a few months back, and Jessica needed somewhere to stay while she was working here in San Francisco. Since Alcosta is only here temporarily, she thought it’d be fun if we lived together.”
Interesting. The intel Cade had sent on Alcosta’s team showed Jessica Alexander having lived at Mia’s address for a year and a half. Not a handful of months. Something that could easily be chalked up to a clerical error, but Spence wasn’t that gullible.
“Fun. Like reliving the good-ole-days type of thing?�
�� he murmured absently.
“That’s pretty much how she put it, too. I didn’t think we were that close but I guess we impact people in ways we don’t even realize.” Mia shrugged. “We were both nominated for homecoming queen, ran for class president. That sort of thing. We weren’t really friends, but I suppose we did spend a lot of time together.”
“Who won?”
“What?”
“Who won?” He looked at Mia. “You or her?”
“I won sometimes. She won others. She was prom queen. I was homecoming queen. She was head cheerleader. I was class president. Why?”
“Just curious.” Very curious. “Do you know how long Jessica’s worked for Alcosta?”
“Years. She started with him right after college. She loves it. The travel, the excitement. She says working for a powerful man is almost as good as sex. Which she’d know,” Mia added with a laugh. “From what she tells me about her and her man friend, their sex life is both wild and crazy.”
“Have you met him? Her man friend?”
“No. She’s supersecretive about him. I don’t even know his name. I think that mystery adds another element to the wildness she likes so much,” Mia said with a shrug before glancing at her watch. “That’s it for my break time. I’d better get back to rocking this event.”
“You rock your end. I’ll get to rocking mine.”
“You’re the best,” Mia said, stepping into him so that her body aligned perfectly with his. Ignoring their audience, she locked her gaze on his and, with so much emotion in her eyes that he felt like he’d been hit in the head, rubbed her lips over his. When she pulled away, he felt as if she were taking the very air he needed to live away with her. “See ya.”
Unable to do otherwise, Spence watched her walk away. Might as well get used to it, he told himself.
Needing a little time to decompress after the emotional bombing he’d just survived, Spence took his coffee and headed for the second perimeter walk of the day, this time taking special note of the flow of the paths from the villa’s patios through the gardens. He gauged the distance between each of the large glass doors, checking locks as he went.