by Lydia Rowan
Suddenly Sloan felt self-conscious and offended, torn between the desire to run away and stand her ground. How dare he? Who was he to look at her like that?
“She’s not trained,” Adam said.
“Trained for what?” Sloan said, her voice increasingly high-pitched, not that either man seemed to pay attention. Surely they didn’t mean…
“Trained enough, and besides, she doesn’t have to be. You just need a cover. A real plus is everybody loves Sloan. She could keep people distracted while you do your work and check the place out,” Seth said.
“What work? What place?” Sloan asked, though at this point, the quiver in her stomach and Adam’s increasingly ferocious expression told her she knew exactly where this conversation was headed. And Sloan had no idea what to do with that, half of her beyond excited at the prospect, the other half tempering that excitement, telling herself it wouldn’t happen, and even if it did, she’d have to deal with Adam, the one who was currently glaring at her with a none-too-pleased expression on his face.
“Any interest in going to Bali?” Seth said.
Sloan let out a nervous laugh and then shook her head. She’d almost been expecting him to say that, maybe even hoping, but Seth had caught her unprepared.
“Seth—”
Seth turned to look at her then, seeming to ignore Adam for the moment.
“So, we have a little situation,” Seth said.
“Don’t you always?” Sloan replied.
Silver Industries, in addition to having only the best soldiers, had a habit of getting into messes and somehow finding a way out of them, something Sloan had witnessed through their recollections and her very occasional assistance over the years.
“It comes with the territory,” Seth said.
“Sure. For you guys. What does this have to do with me? Why are you offering to take me to Bali?”
“I’m not offering to take you,” Seth said, pausing to look at Adam significantly.
Sloan risked doing the same, knowing what she’d find when she looked at his expression, knowing his deep brown eyes would tell her she didn’t measure up.
“Seth. This is not happening,” Adam said.
“Unless you have another option, I think it is,” Seth said, though he didn’t look at Adam.
Sloan did look to Adam, and for the first time she could remember, she saw something akin to uncertainty on his face. It was an odd expression, one she would never associate with him but one present nonetheless. He was usually so closed off, Sloan had never even begun to try to hazard a guess as to what he had been thinking, and his expression certainly never gave it away. But as she looked at him now, she could see the question and the struggle in his eyes.
Her lungs froze, and she didn’t even risk exhaling, all of her focused on this situation, which would have been unthinkable. A reasonable, sane person would run screaming at the idea of being a mercenary’s escort on an operation to investigate a corrupt former admiral.
The same woman would run screaming at the idea of pretending to be the dating a soldier who seemed to hate her, but one she wanted with every fiber of her being.
Sloan wondered when she’d stopped being reasonable and sane. Because as crazy as it sounded, as much as she knew Adam cared nothing for her, to make no mention of returning her desire, she wanted to go. She was absolutely terrified, but she wanted to go.
As she watched Adam’s face, she saw the very instant he made his decision.
“You’re going to do as I say, and you’re not going to get in my way,” Adam said gruffly.
It was one of the rare times he had addressed her directly, and as she met his eyes, she saw he had again closed himself off and she couldn’t quite make out what he was thinking.
“I—”
“You’ll be awesome, Sloan,” Seth said.
“Seth, I don’t think this is a good idea,” she said.
She sounded timid, not exactly uncommon for her, but even the slight waver in her voice, the twisting uncertainty, was more than usual. Because she wanted to go, wanted to with every fiber of her being, but she knew her going was not a good idea. Actually, it was a very bad idea, because Sloan didn’t know if she could keep herself sane spending that much alone time with Adam.
She’d run from him, or even worse, confess how much she wanted him.
“Come on, Sloan. You’re a team player, and we really need you on this one,” Seth said.
Sloan managed to tear her gaze away from Adam and then looked at Seth, who was her friend, a man she trusted asking for help. Sloan never was able to let people down, didn’t think she’d be able to start now, despite the circumstances and the risk.
After a long moment, one where she again wiped her palms against her skirt, she lifted her gaze to meet Seth’s and then nodded.
He smiled, the grin of the cat who’d eaten the canary as he swept his arm out toward Adam. “Sloan, meet your new fiancé.”
2
Three days later, when Adam rang Sloan’s doorbell, his heart gave an uncharacteristic thud.
It took a lot to get to him, and as much as he would have preferred to think it was excitement from beginning a new mission or annoyance at the prospect of having to spend five fun-filled days in the sun, he knew his reaction wasn’t either.
The prospect of seeing Sloan was enough to make his heart beat a little bit faster, which was more than part of the reason he had avoided her for so long.
Finding her place had been easy. In fact, he had long known where she lived; that was an extension of the job. He never knew when it might be necessary to find her, and it made sense to keep track of the whereabouts of all members of his team, which he counted Sloan a part of. There was nothing more to it than that, no matter how much the curiosity and excitement about learning more about her might have said otherwise.
He waited at the door, listening as he heard her approach. A few seconds later, she pulled the door open.
That thud from earlier, followed by one almost exactly like it, rattled his chest as he looked at her wide eyes, which were now blinking with questions. After a second, she pulled the door open wider, giving Adam a glimpse of her body.
A nice V-neck T-shirt, nothing of particular note, except that on Sloan’s sinful curves, even a T-shirt was a thing of beauty.
“Adam?”
He blinked at the sound of her voice, looked up at Sloan’s eyes, wondering how long he’d been staring at her.
“I’m here to pick you up,” his voice gruffed out, rougher than he’d intended.
She’d noticed his tone, as her wide eyes and the stiffening of her shoulders told him. She frowned slightly and then a moment later, she gestured behind her. “Come in.”
He stepped inside, and waited as she closed the door. After she had, she looked at him, directly meeting his eyes. That was something she’d always done, something that still got to him.
He could remember it, the very first day he’d arrived at Silver Industries and seen her. He’d spent three aimless years wandering around after retirement and for lack of anything else to do, he’d finally given in to Lucian’s requests to join his company.
The operation had been small then, just a handful of guys and Sloan in a shitty building downtown. After only two seconds in that building, Adam had felt comfortable, felt like he was home. And Adam had quickly found out it had had everything to do with Sloan.
“Pleased to meet you,” she’d said, extending her hand with a bright smile on her face, staring directly into his eyes.
After years of living on the edge, it only took that innocent-eyed beauty just out of college to render Adam speechless. It was only after Lucian had elbowed him that Adam realized how he’d scowled at the girl, but she hadn’t given any hint of discomfort. She’d just stood there, so short, she barely reached the middle of his chest even with the heels she wore, hand extended.
When he’d reached out and grabbed her hand, he’d felt a spark at her touch. If someone else had told
him that, he’d have said they were fucking ridiculous, but Adam had felt it. He’d held her hand maybe a touch longer than was appropriate, but after a second he’d let her go, and she’d smiled at him again, still bright, but different than it had been before.
That had been the first and last time he’d touched her.
But not the last time he’d wanted to.
One look and a handshake, and Sloan had burrowed her way into him, and every sideways glance, every glimpse of her beautiful smile and amazing body, only increased her hold over him.
But he never acted on it, and if her distance from him was a reflection of how she felt, that was a very good thing. She went out of her way, or at least it seemed so to him, to ignore him, seemed to make every effort not to be alone with him.
That bugged the fuck out of him, but he also appreciated the fact she kept those boundaries, ones he wasn’t sure he would be able to maintain himself. Now they were supposed to spend nearly a week together in close quarters, pretending to be engaged?
He didn’t know if he would make it.
And from Sloan’s stricken expression, she must be feeling the same way.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said, hoping he sounded reassuring but not so sure when she widened her eyes.
“You need me,” she said a moment later.
He tried to deny it, and made a concerted effort not to elaborate on that point and instead said, “This isn’t your responsibility. You don’t have to do it.”
“So that’s why you’re here? To talk me out of going?” Sloan said, her eyebrows drooping, her expression pinched with clear disappointment.
Adam thrilled at the prospect, but he quickly reminded himself this was probably a trip she was looking forward to, a little bit of excitement that had nothing at all to do with him.
“No. I came to take you to the airport with me, but you don’t have to do this,” he said.
She smiled, the expression not as bright as usual but genuine all the same. “Adam, I’m beginning to think you’re of the mind I don’t have to do this,” she said.
A smile of his own tugged at the corner of his lips, and he allowed himself a rare laugh. “Lucian signed off, and Seth was practically jumping with joy, but neither one of them took the time to give you that option.”
“Give me that option? They didn’t, and it’s very considerate of you to, but I’m here and I’m taking this trip for the team. It’s the very least I can do, and since you need me, I’m going to be there.”
“This could get dangerous, Sloan,” he said, sobering.
She nodded. “It could. But you’ll be there.”
Her voice was completely firm, didn’t betray the slightest worry, and her conviction, her faith, was humbling. So humbling Adam chose to ignore it and instead focus on something else.
“I will, so you’ll be fine. Besides the fact I don’t want to see you hurt, I’ve been told that I am to return you intact or face the direst consequences,” he said.
“Lucian?” she asked, her forehead crinkling.
Adam snorted. “I can handle Silver. No, this directive came from Cassandra herself,” Adam said.
“And you don’t want to tangle with her?” Sloan asked, shifting her body so that she was a little bit closer to him, the small smile on her lips making him almost dizzy with desire.
“A good soldier follows orders, knows his limitations, and knows when to retreat. I wouldn’t stand a chance against her,” he said.
She laughed, and Adam again found himself doing the same. How was that possible? Sure, he’d been lusting after Sloan for the better part of a decade, but he barely knew the woman, had spent almost no time with her, though the energy between them was easy—well, easy, save for the crackling sexual chemistry—and playful in a way Adam so seldom found.
Sloan Wakefield was dangerous.
She didn’t look it, her soft curves and warm smile beckoning him seemingly without effort on her part. And that was the danger, so Adam had to be vigilant, hard, no, impossible, as it would be.
Adam looked away and focused on her plant stand. It looked hand-painted, and Adam noticed other hand-painted pieces, revealing an artistic streak of Sloan’s he hadn’t been aware of before.
“So we’re agreed?” Sloan asked a moment later, pulling Adam from his thoughts.
He turned back to her. “What?”
“I’m taking this trip and we’ll both make it back intact. Agreed?” she asked.
“Deal,” he said, knowing she would make it back intact. He’d see to that. The question was, would he?
She nodded and then gave him a slight smile, though he could still see a little cloud in her eyes.
“But…?” he asked.
“What?” she said.
Adam watched her, lifted a brow. She chuckled, seeming to know Adam wasn’t buying it.
“It’s just…” She glanced away and then looked back at him again. “Why do we have to be engaged?” she said.
Adam smirked to cover the sting of the question. Made sense that a sweet woman like her wouldn’t want to pretend to have anything to do with him, but it stung nonetheless. So he focused on answering the question.
“Another of Seth’s brilliant ideas,” he said. Sloan nodded for him to continue. “Said I look too cheap to take a girlfriend halfway across the world. A future wife, though…”
She seemed to expand the soft smile that lit her features, giving Adam another kick in the chest. “What?” It was his turn to ask.
“That’s sweet,” she said.
He frowned and then shifted closer to her. “Sweet?”
“Yeah, sweet and romantic,” she said, the dreamy look on her face sending the thud in his chest lower and sparking an arousal that had him hard as stone in an instant.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
When he spoke, she shifted her eyes to meet his and his cock got even harder.
“Seth doesn’t think you’re cheap. He thinks you’re discerning, that you’d want to make this a once-in-a-lifetime trip with a once-in-a-lifetime love,” she said, that smile still softening her lips.
Adam hadn’t quite thought of it that way, but looking at Sloan, he could halfway believe it and he definitely liked it.
“I like the sound of that,” he said, his voice an octave lower.
They stood in silence for a long moment and Sloan watched Adam as she began to nibble on her bottom lip. Watching her do that made him unspeakably jealous because he wished it was him doing it instead. But he pushed that aside and refocused on her. Though he didn’t often talk to her, he’d observed her long enough to know her lip-nibbling was a sign something worrisome was on her mind.
“What else, Sloan?” he asked.
She met his eyes and then smiled guiltily. “I was just thinking. We don’t have a story.”
“Story? What do you mean?” he asked.
She lifted her hand and moved it back and forth between them. “You know? Story. How we met. That stuff,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said, lifting his eyes from her face to think. Then his eyes found hers again, making his heart thud a little harder. “A bar. I saw you and our eyes locked across the room. It was love at first sight.”
Sloan shook her head and crinkled her nose. “No.”
“No?” Adam said.
“No. There’s no spark in that, no magic,” she said.
“Magic? I didn’t know that was a necessity,” he said.
“Well, I believe it is for any engagement, marriage, or long-term relationship, so our story needs magic,” she said with certainty.
“So I see you’ve given this some thought,” Adam said. She clearly had, and Adam wondered to what end. Had Sloan been thinking of him, of them? Because while he couldn’t say it out loud, their story, his and Sloan’s, had magic and sparks enough to light a fire, at least on his end. “What did you come up with?” he asked a moment later.
She smiled, then looked at him, and for a moment Ada
m couldn’t help but wish her smile was real, that it was for him and him alone.
“We can keep the bar. My first thought was art gallery, but…” She shrugged.
Adam shook his head. “No. Okay, so we met at a bar,” he said.
“Yeah, and we locked eyes across the room. You came over and we talked, but soon the night was over and I left. You cursed yourself for letting me get away and went back over and over again, hoping I’d show up. One day I did, and we’ve been inseparably-wildly-passionately-madly in love since,” she said, her voice sounding almost wistful.
So wistful, in fact, it made Adam suspicious.
“Did that really happen to you?”
She looked up at him, the slightly wounded frown on her face making him reflect on how gruff his voice had been. He didn’t like that fact, but what he liked even less was the look on Sloan’s face, the one saying she was reliving a memory, or maybe a long-held fantasy. As much as he didn’t like it, she was entitled to her life and her loves, real or not. He just wouldn’t be a stand-in for her fantasy guy on this trip.
Sloan looked around the apartment, frowning.
“What are you doing?” Adam asked.
“Looking for my fiancé,” she said. Then she paused, stood up as tall as her tiny frame would let her. “Oh, wait, I don’t have a fiancé. That explains it,” she said sarcastically. Adam smiled quickly, feeling more than sheepish, but moved quickly to defend himself.
“Come on, Sloan. If there was something that happened, I don’t want you to have to relive it. We can come up with a different story,” he said. What he’d said was true, though his willingness to go along with the story to alleviate burning jealousy was something he kept to himself.
She snorted. “Don’t worry, Adam. I’m not wallowing in old hurts. That story is pure fantasy. I’m not the type of woman who gets relentlessly pursued. Heck, it might not even be convincing, but I think it’s a good story. Has depth without details, so it should keep people from digging too deeply.”
Her logic was sound, but he didn’t like the mechanical way she spoke about something that had moments ago felt so real, so possible. He also didn’t like the first half of her sentence, wanted to tell her how wrong she was about being the type of woman to be relentlessly pursued. She was, and he would have given anything to be that pursuer. But opening the topic now would be too telling, reveal far too much of what he felt for her. It wouldn’t do to have that on the table before they even got the mission started.