The Agent's Proposition

by Stone, Lyn

Tess had no reasonable argument for that. The crushing ache in her chest had nothing to do with her injuries.

  Cameron returned to the bungalow, picked up the baggage they had left there and drove back to the airport. It took several days to get a flight out of St. Thomas and make connections to Egypt.

  He had no jurisdiction to arrest Selim once he got there. The Egyptian government had allowed the FBI and CIA to have former PLO official Mohammed Rashid a while back. He had been brought to Washington on board a secret U.S. military transport.

  There had been no legal or court proceedings, no deportation procedure or extradition hearing. That told Cameron that Mercier could have effected Zahi Selim’s extraction without any help. This was a test of Cameron’s loyalty and willingness to obey orders, plain and simple.

  He figured his only option was to convince the young man to return with him to the States and face the music. Now was the time Cameron certainly could use Tess’s powers of persuasion, because if he were Selim, he’d stay put.

  It took thirty-six hours and three plane changes to reach Cairo. That late in the evening was no time to approach Selim’s parents and try to locate him, so Cameron checked in to a Novotel near the airport, ordered room service and planned to get a good night’s sleep.

  Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Tess. That sweet little body, so full of energy, so light in his arms. Those bright blue eyes searching his, giving up her own thoughts with every expression. He imagined he could smell the scent of her hair and her skin, the impressions imbedded in his brain when he’d made love to her.

  He missed her. Had he ever missed anyone before? He had lived his life avoiding vulnerability. And involvement, he admitted. Maybe the two things naturally went together.

  Also, for the first time in his life, he was apprehensive about his ability to do a job. How in the world could he get Selim to give himself up? How would Tess handle it?

  Back in the world, Tess tried to resume life as usual. She wore her little gray suits and sensible shoes. She went to work precisely at seven, doing threat analyses and researching potential problems while she waited for another assignment. Her ribs had healed. Her heart had not.

  She was in love with the man. Might as well admit it even if there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Nothing she should do about it.

  He had fallen off the face of the earth. No one had heard a word from him or Selim, unless Mercier was keeping it to himself.

  She wondered if something terrible had happened to him in Egypt, assuming he had taken her suggestion and had gone there looking for Selim.

  Bulgar was arraigned and charged, still remaining silent. The two men whose names Tess had gleaned were also taken into custody and, believing that Bulgar had given them up, related the plan as they understood it.

  “So we don’t need Selim,” she told Mercier. “His testimony won’t change anything.”

  Mercier paused, giving her that look that seemed a reprimand for not recognizing the obvious. “Cochran needs him. You know why.”

  Six weeks later Mercier buzzed Tess to come to his office. She smoothed her skirt, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and marched down the hall to the inner sanctum, hoping he had a new mission for her.

  She had tried everything else under the sun to put Cameron out of her mind. Nothing had worked. She couldn’t even bring herself to take him off her speed dial. How many times had she stared at that phone, willing it to ring? And how many times had she almost called him, only to remind herself that Mercier was absolutely right? She had to let it go.

  “Come in, Tess,” Mercier called when she knocked. “Someone is here to see you.”

  Her pulse leaped. Cameron?

  Mercier gestured to the wingback that faced his desk.

  Tess stepped forward and her heart sank. “Zee? I can’t believe it! Where is…?” She stopped herself and rephrased her question. “When did you get here?”

  Selim smiled as he stood and held out his hand to shake hers. “This morning. I have been giving a statement of my involvement. My father says it is an admirable thing to take responsibility for one’s actions, even if they are wrong. So I have come.”

  Tess glanced at Mercier, wishing she could read his poker face. He had an ironclad shield up, a necessary thing, she supposed, when you worked with his kind of staff.

  She wanted to scream, “Where is Cochran? What’s happened to him?” But knowing Mercier’s assessment of her hero worship, she held her tongue.

  Mercier smiled as if he approved of her decision to keep quiet. “In light of Mr. Selim’s voluntary cooperation and invaluable assistance in the capture of Mr. Bulgar, I feel we should recommend that he be allowed to return to Cairo. Since you are better acquainted with him than anyone else involved, do you have any objection?”

  Tess took a deep breath and shook her head. “None at all, sir. And Zee, I agree with your father. Stay admirable, okay?”

  “Okay!” Selim said with a grin. “I have decided to enter the textile export business. Father believes I might someday become manager of his London market, when I have learned how everything works.”

  “Quite a gamble, Zee. I’m sure you won’t let him down,” she said, glad he was getting this second chance.

  Mercier handed her a folder. “Here is your new assignment. Try to wind it up in a couple of weeks, in case something else pops and we need you back here.”

  She held the folder. “Any special instructions or information I’ll need besides this?” she asked.

  “All in there. Now get out of here and get busy. Mr. Selim and I have a few more things to discuss before I order his ride to the airport.”

  “Keep in touch, Zee,” she said, shaking his hand.

  Selim pumped hers hard, grinning from ear to ear. “I will, Tessa. And thank you for changing my life.”

  Tess smiled her goodbye, unwilling to say it out loud and thus ignore Mercier’s tradition of avoiding the words. He seemed to believe it jinxed a return or something, and they all complied without ever discussing it. She did hope to see Selim again and wished him well in his new life.

  Maybe she ought to thank Selim for inadvertently changing her life. If it had not been for him, she would never have had those days and nights as Tessa, the rich girl who shopped and partied on the French Riviera. She would never have met Cameron. She would never have fallen in love.

  Even though it hadn’t worked out for her and Cameron, Tess didn’t regret a single second of it. She and Cameron had gone their different ways, but she had always known they would have to do that. She still had every larger-than-life minute of their time together, good and bad, to hold forever and remember.

  She went back to her office to read the folder of instructions Mercier had given her so she could get on with the next assignment.

  Maybe she looked the same as before and had resumed the regular routine of her life, but Tess knew she was forever changed.

  Chapter 15

  Cameron kicked back on the small deck of the Lucky Duck. She was a far cry from the yacht he’d captained in Saint-Tropez, but that was okay. Nothing could beat viewing the world from the flybridge of the Duck, hooking a marlin, snoozing in the little cabin on a cool afternoon. He had customized her so he could live on her if he had to. Nope, the upscale Jezebel didn’t fit his lifestyle, anyway.

  Neither would Tess, but he thought of her constantly and wondered if he’d ever see her again.

  Maybe he’d give her a call and see if she would still give him the time of day. Probably not and what would be the point? Mercier had warned him off and given good reasons for it. Still, Cameron needed to hear her voice. He took out his cell phone, as he had so often since he’d returned to Tybee. It chirped in his hand.

  Bobby Ray. “Hey, boss, we got a half-day fare up here at the café looking for a coast tour. I know you don’t like to do ’em. You want me to take it?”

  “I’m aboard. Send ’em on over.” Cameron stuck the phone back in his pocket. O
ne last customer of the season. What would he do all winter?

  He glanced over at Café Loco, only faintly curious about who would want to go out on a cold day like this.

  A figure in blue headed down the dock, strutting in high heels. His smile grew wider as she drew closer.

  She was wearing a bright blue silk number much like the one he’d bought her in Nice. She must be freezing in that thing. The chilly breeze off the water teased the pale blond tendrils that had escaped from her upswept hair. What the hell was she doing here? And did he even care why so long as she was here?

  She stopped next to the Duck and propped one hand on her hip. “Captain Cochran?” she asked with a sly smile.

  “Agent Bradshaw.” He stood up. “Getting late. I doubt you’ll catch many fish before dark.”

  “What if I’m not fishing for fish?”

  “Kick off your shoes and come aboard,” he said, feeling like the gods had smiled at last. He reached for her and she leaned forward, her hands resting on his shoulders as he lifted her aboard.

  The silk felt so smooth beneath his palms, her skin beneath it firm and cool. He caught the scent of her, even sweeter than he remembered. “You look incredible.”

  “And you look contented,” she said with a sigh as he held her. “I hoped to find you a little bored here after your travel and adventures. How was Cairo?”

  “Crowded. Inconvenient. Not too hospitable. How’s McLean?”

  “Just the way you left it when you brought Zahi back. Why didn’t you stop by and say hello when you were there?” The question sounded casual, but he knew it wasn’t. Her feelings were hurt.

  “Mercier didn’t think it would be a good idea.”

  “I know he offered to take you on. Not interested, I guess.”

  Cameron let her go and stood back, taking her hand. “Let’s just say he sounded less than enthusiastic. I guess there’s still that little black cloud remaining. I’m okay here.”

  “Oh, he wants you all right. He sent me to persuade you.”

  Cameron resented that. Tess should have come on her own because she wanted him, and he thought at first she had. “So I’m your current mission, huh?”

  She smiled and squeezed his hand. “For the second time around. Do I have any chance of getting you off this boat and back to your old life?”

  He pursed his lips and studied the creek’s outgoing tide, which was seeping back to the Atlantic. “How much time do you have to work on it?”

  “Couple of weeks.”

  He sighed. “It could take that long. I’m fairly dug in here. Stubborn as I can be, too. Everybody says so.”

  “And I’m fairly persuasive,” she warned. “I had lessons from the best in how to entice a man to do something.”

  She removed her hand from his, padded barefoot over to the companionway and peeked inside. “Not too shabby. I could work in these conditions.”

  Cameron felt almost giddy about her doing just that. However, noting the ease with which she got around the deck without wobbling or turning green, he also experienced a little guilt over how she was able to do that. “There’s something I probably ought to confess. About your seasickness, or rather the way you overcame it.”

  She turned and made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “Oh that. You hypnotized me, of course.”

  “You were aware of it? I must be losing my touch.”

  “No, but I have thought about it a lot since then, replayed what went on in the restaurant that day. It finally came to me how you did it.”

  “And you’re not mad that I did?” He could hardly believe it.

  “No, I don’t mind. As a matter of fact, when I told him, Mercier was really interested that you could do that with so little prep and without my knowledge or cooperation. ‘Valuable tool,’ he said. Also he likes that you’re a believer. You know, in what some of us on the team are able to do. Like my telepathy. That’s improving, by the way.”

  She ducked inside the cabin and sat down on the bunk where he spent most of his nights.

  He followed her in. “So you can read my mind now?”

  “Sometimes I get a glimmer of what you’re thinking, but I believe it’s only when you want me to.” She bounced on the bunk a couple of times as if testing its comfort quotient.

  “You did great reading Zahi and, from what Mercier said, Bulgar, too.”

  “Thanks.” She patted the bunk beside her, and he sat down. “I hear Savannah is steeped in paranormal stuff,” she said. “You ever try to delve into that?”

  Cameron shook his head, distracted by the way she looked, sitting there on his bunk, leaning back on her hands, her head quirked as she gave him that seductive smile he had once encouraged her to use on someone else.

  “I did study it to some extent just to see what it was all about,” he admitted. “You can’t grow up around here with all the ghosts and things without getting a dose of Geechee culture and hearing about the voodoo.”

  “So you learned how to cast spells.” She sat forward, as if fascinated. “That’s basically what hypnosis is, right?”

  “Well, I don’t know if I’d say they’re the same. With spells, the trick is that the caster and the castee both have to believe in it. Seriously believe. Then it works.”

  “You believe in the spell you’ve cast on me?” she asked, leaning closer.

  “Do you?” He drew a finger across her brow and down the side of her face, ending at the edge of her mouth.

  “Seriously believe it,” she admitted, looking breathless with anticipation. Her lips were parted.

  He trailed the finger down her neck and let the tip of it rest on the swell of her breast. “I wonder who’s doing the casting here.”

  “Using every trick you taught me and then some,” she admitted. “Are you under now? Can I command you to move to Virginia?”

  “Not yet,” he said, moving closer to feather teasing kisses across her lips. “Mercier gave you two weeks. Don’t spoil him by reporting success too soon.”

  “Then I am succeeding?” she said, catching his mouth with hers.

  He kissed her again, tasting her gently and pulling back when she would have deepened the kiss. “Too soon to tell. Remember, you’re supposed to enjoy your work. Why rush through it when you don’t have to?”

  She moved his hand to cover her breast. “You’re toying with me.”

  “Any objections?”

  “None whatsoever,” she said and lay back on his bunk and watched with slumberous eyes as he undressed her.

  He thoroughly enjoyed the view of her lying there as he did a quick version of the strip he’d done for her before. Her slow, seductive smile grew wide.

  Maybe she hadn’t come to Tybee just to repeat the job offer, after all. He moved onto the bunk with her, taking her in his arms. “You feel so good,” he whispered.

  “I feel just great,” she said with a shy laugh. “I missed you, Cam.”

  “I missed you, too.” He smoothed his palms over her back, her sweet little behind, and pressed her close as he kissed her hard. Game over. He didn’t care if she knew how desperately he wanted her. Or how little restraint he had left.

  She opened to him immediately and sighed her feeling when he entered her. For a long moment, he held still, savoring the oneness, wishing it could last forever.

  Right then he knew without a doubt. “I love you, Tess,” he whispered.

  Her body responded, moving beneath him, demanding everything and giving everything without hesitation. Vaguely, he registered that she hadn’t said she loved him, but he felt it with every brush of her hands, in her kiss and in the wordless sounds of pleasure she made as he loved her.

  Urgency wrecked his control, his wish to make it last, and seemed to fuel her own response. He thrust faster and faster until he felt her tremble and contract around him. He groaned with release and sheer exhaustion.

  And he couldn’t help a tinge of disappointment. This should have been sweeter, longer, more romantic for her.
This was the woman he loved, not some quick roll in the hay. Hell, their first time had gone smoother than this. He had never lost control this way.

  He moved off of her, lay on his side and cuddled her close. “Next time…”

  “That was wonderful!” she mumbled, her words vibrating against his shoulder. “You were wonderful.”

  She meant it, too; he knew she did. Cameron smiled and nuzzled the top of her head, planting a kiss there on her tangled curls. “I love you, Tess. If you love me, too, will you stay with me? Marry me?”

  Her sigh warmed his skin. “You have two weeks to persuade me, and this was a pretty good start.”

  “Do you think you could love me?” he asked seriously, holding her tighter, needing the words.

  She moved her head so she could see his face. Her heavy lidded gaze met his. “Read my mind. Of course I love you. Why do you think I came down here? I wouldn’t have exposed half my boobs in that tarty dress or put those arch-killing shoes back on for anybody but you.”

  Cameron laughed and kissed her forehead. “No reason to go to all that trouble. I was a goner when you came down the dock the first time.”

  “Liar! I was a mess that day!” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “You thought I was a frump. And I was.”

  “You were as cute as a little buttoned-up agent could be, but I never place much stock in looks. Do you? Those are far too easy to change and disguise who you really are.”

  “The way you changed mine. I came here like that to persuade you, but you do realize that I’m not really a ‘sexy blue silk and do-me shoes’ kind of girl, right? I thought maybe you made me into what you wanted.”

  He tapped her chest with his finger and smiled into her eyes. “It’s this Tess inside I fell for. Brave, sweet, unpredictable and pretty damn smart. Beautiful Tess, inside and out.” He rested his palm over her heart. “Can’t live without her.”

  “You know this is moving way too fast?”

  He didn’t think so. “We are both trained to make quick decisions, though.”