by Arianna Hart
“First aid and room service, what more could I ask for?” Was she actually flirting with him?
“Don’t go there, babe.” His deep brown gaze trapped her and wouldn’t let go.
She felt he could see through her and read the scandalous thoughts running through her brain. He maintained eye contact for a second longer before turning away, breaking the sensual spell that’d held her enthralled.
Her brain shrieked warnings but her body didn’t listen. Her libido had emerged from its hibernation hungry as a newly woken bear.
***
Lex cleaned up the supper dishes with the last of the water in the gallon jug. He had two more in case they didn’t find clean water nearby, but he wouldn’t be sorry to have less weight for the next trek.
Although, how they were getting to the next camp site he’d picked out on the map was anybody’s guess. Jane couldn’t hike ten yards with those blisters covering her feet. He still couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t said something earlier. She was tougher than he’d suspected.
Had he pegged her all wrong? She’d always seemed so snooty. He’d loved freaking her out by getting his mail in his underwear. The horrified expression on her face had made him laugh every time.
When he’d been putting the tent up she hadn’t looked horrified, she’d looked…hungry. And he wasn’t laughing now.
Oh no, he was feeling far from amused. Jane was inside the tent washing down with the baby wipes he’d bought, preparing for bed. He’d carried her there himself, almost groaning from the feel of her breasts pressing against his chest.
At least tonight she’d be bundled up in a sweat suit. Hopefully that would keep her hardened nipples from poking up and tempting him.
“Okay, I’m decent,” she called from the tiny tent.
“I’m almost done. I’ll be there in a minute.”
In the six by six foot space that they had to share tonight. With her.
She hadn’t balked about their sleeping arrangements nearly as much as he’d expected. Maybe she was just too tired to argue? That could be it. She’d almost fallen asleep in her beans twice before he carried her to bed.
His groin tightened at the image that phrase brought to mind. He’d brought Jane to his bed. Their bed. They were all alone out here. Maybe she’d get scared and want to cuddle up next to him. After all, it wasn’t like they were strangers. They’d lived across from one another for a year.
During which time they’d done little more than throw insults back and forth.
Right. She thought he was a player. There was no way Miss Uptight Dr. Farmer was going to crawl into his sleeping bag.
Unless she wanted a no-strings-attached fling.
Nah, that wasn’t her style. And even if it was, he wasn’t a player and he wasn’t going to be used as one. He could control his over-active libido and keep his sleeping bag—and his pants—zipped.
“Do you need anything else out here before I crawl all the way in?”
“No, I’m fine. Thank you.”
She was coolly polite again. Good. That would keep him from remembering the way her breasts had jiggled under her shirt.
Sure it would.
It was a challenge to snake his way into the sleeping bag without smacking Jane, but he did it with a minimum of swearing. Once he was settled and had his gun in easy reach, he clicked off the flashlight.
The darkness was all-consuming. He’d tamped down the fire before turning in so there wasn’t even the flicker of flames against the tent wall to break up the night.
“Wow.” Jane’s voice sounded much too close to him.
“Yeah. You don’t realize how much light pollution we’re used to until you come to a place like this.”
“No wonder our ancestors worshipped fire.”
“I never thought of that before. I just enjoyed looking at the stars.”
He heard her rustling around and realized she’d turned onto her side to face him. “Did you do much camping as a kid?”
“Are you kidding me? I grew up in Brooklyn. The only campfires we ever saw were the ones in barrels with street people clustered around them.”
“Then how do you know so much about the wilderness? You got us here and set up camp like a pro.”
“Wilderness training. The first time I had to find my way out of the woods by myself, it took me two days and I almost died of dehydration. I made sure I learned a lot about following a compass and a map after that.”
“Good thing.”
“I’ll show you how to read the map and use the compass tomorrow in case we get split up.”
He heard her sudden intake of breath and felt her tense up. Without thinking, he reached out and touched her face to calm her down. The feel of her soft skin under his fingers shot bolts of heat to his groin. He was thankful for the darkness that hid his reaction.
“It’s not that I’m scared or anything.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“I think you’d be an idiot not to be scared. You’ve been yanked from your comfortable life and dropped in the middle of an unknown forest. I don’t plan on leaving your side for long, but if something should happen you need to be able to find your way to safety.”
“What are you going to do? About all this I mean? How are you going to find out who’s after us?”
“Don’t worry about it. That’s my job. I’ll think of something.” Hopefully.
Lex dropped his hand and tucked it back inside the sleeping bag where it belonged. His fingertips still tingled from the contact so he rubbed them against his jeans to get rid of it. He needed to think of a plan, not wonder how much softer the rest of her body might feel.
***
A heavy weight crushing her stomach and a rock digging into her hip woke Jane from the sleep of the dead. It took her a few minutes to orient herself as to where she was and whose arm was thrown over her.
Lex.
Lex’s arm held her tightly to him, pressing her backside into his groin through their clothes and sleeping bags. There was nothing improper about it, but her cheeks filled with heat just the same.
Moving only an inch or so at a time, Jane managed to slide out from under his hand without waking him. He snorted once and rolled onto his back, flinging his arm over his head. She froze and waited to see if he’d wake up, but he continued to snore softly.
His beard had grown thicker overnight and made him look scruffy. But scruffy in a good way. A very sexy, good way.
Stop ogling him and find a bathroom before he wakes up.
Her good sense had terrible timing. Jane patted the puffy sleeping bag until she found her flip-flops and slipped them on over her bandaged feet.
The ground was wet with dew and the leaves twinkled in the morning sunlight. The forest looked like it had been coated with fairy dust overnight and the sight took her breath away.
Birds called to one another from their perches and squirrels jumped from branch to branch. The lack of mechanical noises was bizarre. No cars zoomed by on the highway, no telephones rang or TVs blared. She felt like the only person in the world.
Jane took a deep breath of the cool, morning air and held it for a count of ten. Her body ached. More than ached, it throbbed. Her thighs felt like someone had taken a meat tenderizer to them and her shoulders screamed every time she lifted her arms.
Thank God they weren’t going anywhere today. She didn’t think she could handle another workout like that just yet.
Her sigh misted the air in front of her as she went off in search of a “little girl’s bush”. She was getting to be an old hand at this. Great. She could add “can pee in the woods” to her resume.
Ugh. Her resume. With everything that had happened in the last two days, she’d forgotten about getting fired. Losing her job was the least of her worries right now though, so she gladly pushed the depressing thought away.
“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt,” she murmured as she shuffled back to camp.
The fire had died down to tiny
embers. It occurred to her that Lex must have gotten up to tend the fire at some point during the night, but she hadn’t heard him.
Closing her eyes, she tried to recall how he’d lit the fire in the first place. He’d built a little tepee with twigs and bark. Once that got going, he added more wood to it.
Well, she already had a coal there, so if she threw some twigs and bark on it, logically, it should start up again.
In mere minutes, she had a cheery fire burning and snapping. She looked at the blaze and felt prouder than when she’d made the Dean’s List. Maybe she wasn’t such a baby after all.
By the time Lex rolled out of the tent she had hot water boiling for the instant coffee she’d found in the backpack. They’d have to share a mug as the tin mess kit he had didn’t come with a second cup, but she didn’t care. As long as she had caffeine she was happy.
“You’re up early. How’d you sleep?”
“Surprisingly well, all things considered. I have coffee if you’d like some.”
“You’re a goddess. I’ll be right back.”
Jane watched him pad off to the woods almost silently in his untied boots. How’d he do that? He should be clumping along like an elephant instead of gliding like a panther. Must be something else they taught him in wilderness school.
It was kind of nice to have Lex be pleasant to her. Last night when he’d realized her fear, his touch had been gentle and soothing. And the way he’d taken care of her feet had been deliciously tender.
There was more to Lex D’Angelo than just a handsome face and a hard body. Although that body was nothing to sneeze at. He stretched his arms overhead as he came into camp, as though working out some lingering soreness. His T-shirt rode up and Jane got a glimpse of six-pack abs and the sexy curve of his pelvis.
A shiver ran down her spine and she had to raise the mug to her lips to make sure she wasn’t drooling.
“I hope dry toast is okay with you. I didn’t want to risk trying to carry eggs.” Lex broke some twigs off a long branch and speared a slice of bread with it.
“As long as I have coffee I don’t care what we have to eat.”
“Let’s see if you’re still saying that after you’ve eaten hot dogs and beans for a week straight.”
“A week? You think it’ll take that long?”
“Probably longer. Someone wants the jump drive Sarah mailed me. Wants it enough to kill for it. This isn’t TV, we’re not going to figure it out in an hour.”
“But how? How are we going to find out who is after the jump drive, what they’re doing wrong and why they want to kills us over it?”
“We’re not going to do anything. I am.”
“If you’re not going to involve me, why can’t you leave me somewhere else? Certainly your agency has safe houses or whatnot.”
“Sure they do, but I can’t trust any of them right now. I don’t know for sure that there’s a mole at EIS, but I trust Mac. And if he says our covers aren’t safe then I believe him.”
“So you’re just going to leave me alone out here in the wilderness while you run around playing secret agent man?”
“Pretty much. We won’t be safe until Mac gives the all clear and I find out why Sarah was killed. Which means I’ll be investigating her last case while you keep yourself out of sight and out of trouble.”
Jane bit back a smart remark. She might feel like a superhero because she survived the trek up the hill and peed in the woods, but she was a psychologist, not an FBI agent. Or whatever he was now.
He was right. She couldn’t be much help in finding out who was after them.
“So what’s on the agenda? I’d like to give my feet another day to heal, although they feel much better this morning,” she said after they finished their dry toast.
“I’m going to do some recon. I have a plan but I need more information before I can put it into action. While I’m gone, you can color your hair.”
“Excuse me?”
“I bought some boxes of hair dye. Pick which one you want to use.”
“I’m not dying my hair.” She paid good money to get her blonde highlights and she wasn’t ruining them.
“Yes you are. They’re showing your picture all over the place so you have to change your appearance. I’m going to do it, too, don’t worry.”
“Easy for you to say. You have about two inches of hair. It’ll grow out in a month. I haven’t been a brunette since I was sixteen.”
“Whatever. Just pick one and be done with it. I have to do a recon. I’ll be back in a few hours. Don’t go anywhere.”
Then he planted a kiss on her lips and disappeared.
Chapter Eight
The compound Lex spied through his binoculars looked more like a military fort than a religious retreat. A twelve-foot fence enclosed a cinderblock building. Black-clad guards patrolled the perimeter and security cameras scanned the grounds.
If it wasn’t for the neon cross and sign that read The Great Hope Ministry, he’d think he was scoping out a prison instead of a church. There was a lot more going on here than some con man stealing retirement money from little old ladies.
Not that there weren’t plenty of them filing into the building. A shuttle bus brought a dozen or more blue-haired passengers every half hour. They shuffled into the building chattering happily to one another. None of them seemed the least bit disturbed by the fence and guards.
Damn it, he needed to get down there and into that building. What was James Robert Beaupree protecting?
What type of vice made the amounts of money he’d seen on the jump drive? Drugs, gambling, weapons dealing, white slavery? The location was too far out in the sticks for a high-profit gambling ring. That left arms, slavery or drugs.
He’d keep his options open, but Lex was putting his money on drugs. They weren’t near enough to any major shipping ports for easy transportation of weapons or human cargo. The gambling angle didn’t feel right, but it was a possibility. Hell, anything was possible, that’s why he was doing a recon. God, he hated going in blind.
Lex crept away from his observation point and eased closer to the building. He kept his binoculars trained on the people coming and going from the ministry building. If he could catch one of the guards unaware, maybe he could snag the uniform and sneak in for a better look.
They were well-trained, that was for sure. Someone with a brain had organized the guard rotations. They mostly kept within sight of one another or the cameras.
Crap. He’d have to wait until dark before he could try anything. Which would mean leaving Jane alone in the forest at night. That would go over like a fart in church.
He’d never had to worry about his partner before while on a mission. And hopefully he’d never have to again. Trying to solve the mystery of Sarah’s death and keep Jane safe was a pain in the ass.
This whole situation sucked. He had no backup, no resources and his “partner” was a freaking socialite. Might as well pick one of the women getting off the shuttle bus to be his partner instead of Jane. At least then he could get some intel about what the inside of the building looked like.
The kernel of an idea began to sprout in his brain. What if he used Jane to get some inside information? He trained the field glasses on the shuttle bus again. With the exception of a few tottering old codgers, every person getting off that bus was a woman.
Most of them were AARP candidates, but there were some younger women mixed in. If he could disguise Jane well enough, she could mix in with the others and get in and out without anyone the wiser.
Wait a minute. What the hell was he thinking? He couldn’t send Jane on a mission. She wouldn’t know the first thing about gathering intelligence. It was too dangerous to send an innocent inside.
He’d have to figure out a way to sneak in himself. There had to be at least one or two young guys joining the mission. It couldn’t be all females. He settled himself in to wait.
After two hours his butt had gone numb, his eyes were blurry and he was
chilled straight to the bone. He was also frustrated as hell.
Not a single guy under the age of seventy had gotten off that bus. In fact, the only young men he’d seen were the guards. He was going to have to take one out and try to impersonate a guard at night. There was no other way for him to get inside.
But Jane could.
He swore in English, then Italian, then some gutter Spanish before he felt better. She was a freaking civilian. What the hell did she know about undercover ops? She’d blow her cover in ten seconds flat.
Or would she?
How hard would it be for her to blend in with the other housewives and attend a service? She wouldn’t be trying to investigate, just get the layout of the place. It couldn’t be that dangerous if all these old ladies came and went freely.
Crap. He’d have to put it to Jane and see what she thought.
God help him.
***
Mud. Her hair was the color of mud. Jean Claude would never forgive her. Without a mirror she couldn’t get the overall impression of her new “do” but from what she could see in the bottom of the pan, she looked as plain as a sparrow.
Wonderful. She didn’t have a hair dryer so she couldn’t blow her hair out straight. It curled wildly all around her face. She was sure she must look like she’d stuck her finger in a light socket.
The jeans she’d picked up at Wal-Mart slid so low on her hips she had to wear the baggy sweatshirt to keep her belly from showing. She didn’t have a speck of makeup on, and her hair was a dirt-colored mop. At least she didn’t have to go out in public like this.
Where the heck was Lex? It was getting dark and he hadn’t come back yet. She didn’t know whether to start dinner—such as it was—without him or wait.
How would he react to her with her hair like this? Not that she cared what he thought about her looks, but she was vain enough to want to appear attractive.
Right.
Like he would even look twice at her if she wore a silk dress and had her hair professionally done. She’d seen the type of women he was interested in. They all had big boobs and curvy hips and oozed sexuality.