by Tawny Weber
“Maya’s father must be thrilled to have her moving back. And Caleb too?” she said with a look of pure innocent curiosity. “Didn’t Gabriel mention he’d just recently moved back as well?”
“Caleb came home to…visit,” Pandora said, her hesitation so infinitesimal that only Danita’s training picked it up. “He came into my store his first day home to see his dad, and, well, I guess our romance started there.”
It was damned hard for Danita to accept that a woman whose face was lit with that much happiness and was practically overflowing with joy was lying to her. But there were too many tells. Tiny ones. The hesitation between words. A slight twitch of Pandora’s fingers, loosely clasped on her lap. But why?
To protect the man she loved?
Danita’s FBI resources offered plenty of information on Tobias Black, enough dirt on Gabriel Black, to make her attraction horribly uncomfortable and just a little info on Maya Black and her single arrest before she’d dropped off the map. But Caleb Black? The only information she’d found on him was brief mention in his father’s file with his date of birth.
Why?
Hunter knew.
Her expression rapt and focused on Pandora as the other woman shared a few details of her and Caleb’s courtship, Danita mulled over just what it was that Hunter knew. What was he keeping from her and why would it be necessary? And, the big question, how soon would she find out?
“I need to check the desserts, but I’ll be right back.” Pandora excused herself, waiting for Danita’s nod before sliding gracefully to her feet.
Welcoming the brief alone-time, Danita’s gaze shifted to the other side of the room.
It all came down to him.
Despite the fact that he was staying quiet and mellow from his position in a curvy iron chair in the corner, Tobias Black was clearly in charge of the room. And, she suspected, of whatever was really going on here.
The crime ring itself? Maybe.
Hunter’s operation? Probably.
Was Tobias behind bringing all his family members together for his own purposes, regardless of whatever else was going on?
Most definitely.
Then Tobias’s gaze landed on her. Speculation, admiration and just a hint of suspicion were clear in the dark blue depths. Before she could help herself, she arched one brow in challenge.
His eyes widened, then sparkled with laughter.
And with the grace of a man half his age, he rose and headed across the room.
Shit.
Danita’s stomach dropped. Her nails dug into her palms as she tried to smooth her breathing. What was she thinking? She was here as the fake bimbo fiancée. Fake bimbos didn’t issue challenges unless they involved Jell-O or tequila shooters.
She tried to align her thoughts and pull together all the threads of her control and her various roles.
Before Tobias could reach her, though, Gabriel stepped between them. With his back to her, all she could see was the breadth of his shoulders and, she sighed a little, the sweet view of his tight ass. Both looked a little tense, though.
“Sit down and relax, Gabriel. I just came over to get to know your friend. Not to share any family secrets,” Tobias said. Then his grin turned crafty. “Or should I say, your fiancée? Isn’t that how you introduced her to Caleb today?”
Danita wondered which comment had made Gabriel’s shoulders stiffen. That his brother had ratted him out. Or that his dad had secrets on the mind.
“Maybe I’m not so crazy about Danita getting to know you, though,” Gabriel shot back.
“Don’t be silly,” Danita broke in. “Of course I want to know your family, Gabriel, sweetie. That’s why I’m here, silly boy.”
She added a vapid smile and flirtatious flutter of her lashes to keep the rebuke from being obvious to anyone but Gabriel. His glare told her he’d got the message loud and clear. Tobias simply brushed his son aside to take a seat across from her.
“Well, let’s chat then,” he said with a smile that had enough edge to keep it from being fatherly, but was friendly enough not to be threatening. “Where are you from, Danita?”
“Bradford. That’s a small town in Pennsylvania,” she lied with a smile. “I moved to California hoping to be a star. You know, Hollywood with all its glitz and glamour, it was so appealing.”
Standing behind his father’s chair, Gabriel gave a rude eye roll.
“Indeed. Acting is a fine art. Are you focused on the big screen or the small?”
“Oh, neither,” she said with a bubbly giggle, waving the options away with one hand. “I got here and within three months found out I was a horrible actress.”
“That’s too bad. But you stayed in California anyway? What are you doing now?”
“Well, I had to stay. I mean, my car broke down and I was pretty much out of money,” she said with a helpless sort of shrug. “So I turned to Plan B.”
“Well, now,” Tobias said with an impressed sort of nod. “Backup plans are always clever. I’m impressed that you came out here with a dream and when you saw it wasn’t going to work, you had an alternate. What’s Plan B?”
“To be a singing sensation.”
Gabriel wasn’t quick enough to quell his laugh, but he did quickly turn it into a cough.
“You’re a singer?” Tobias asked after blinking a couple of times.
“Well, no. I have a horrible voice. But I love the costumes,” she said earnestly. “And I really thought they could kinda hide my voice. Synthesize it or something.”
“Or something…” Gabriel snickered.
While Tobias shot a glare over his shoulder at his son, Danita worked up a pouty look. Jutting lower lip, puppy dog eyes and tucked-in chin.
“But they wouldn’t. Not for me. I was really bummed,” she said when the older man met her gaze again.
“That’s a shame that you had to give up your second choice,” Tobias said. She could see the glint of humor dancing in his eyes, just ahead of what might be suspicion. Whether he suspected her story, or suspected his son had horrible taste, didn’t matter. Her story would stand. And Gabriel was the idiot who’d hauled her along as his fiancée instead of his bimbo, so his taste deserved to be questioned.
“It was a shame,” she agreed.
“Did you give up on Hollywood then?”
“Oh, no,” she said with a quick shake of her head. “I went to Disneyland.”
“No place happier, right?”
“Right. Well, that and I got to be a princess there.”
“Beg pardon?”
“I dressed up as a princess. I wore a gown and a tiara, waved to the kids and had my picture taken.”
“You worked at the park?”
“Oh, no. They didn’t give me a job. They said I didn’t have the right look. But I did go every day for a week dressed as a princess, just to cheer myself up. It was great. And it got me over that whole star dream.”
This was the point in her spiel that usually confused most people enough to start rubbing their temples and looking for an excuse to leave the discussion.
But not Tobias. He leaned forward, his hands hanging loose between his thighs. Laughter danced in his eyes.
The same laughter she saw reflected behind him in Gabriel’s.
“So acting didn’t pan out and singing was a disappointment. It sounds like you made a great princess. And what brought you this far north? You are living up here in Northern California now, right?”
Danita wet her lips. A warning shiver tingled down her spine. This shouldn’t feel like a trap, but suddenly she felt like she should be stepping very, very carefully. This man was a criminal mastermind, she reminded herself. But she was a highly trained, very talented FBI agent. She could handle him.
“Danita’s living with me,” Gabriel interrupted.
What? She kept her expression clear and made sure her smile didn’t waver. But what the hell was he trying to do? Was this some macho protect-the-little-woman thing? Or was he afraid she’d say s
omething and ruin his game?
Either way, she wasn’t letting him run roughshod over her. This was her case, dammit.
Before she could say anything, he continued. “I like keeping her…close.”
“Is that a fact?” Tobias asked, his gaze never leaving Danita’s face. She saw something in his eyes. Concern? Or triumph? It was gone too quickly for her to decide.
Danita narrowed her eyes, trying to read the subtext. Before she could catch a clue, though, Gabriel stepped around his father to offer her his hand. Without thinking, she slipped hers into it and let him pull her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her tight to the warm length of his body.
“We should go, Blondie.”
She flicked a glance up at him. Then, noting the tension and what looked like sadness in his eyes, she frowned and, without thinking, slipped her arm around his waist to rub the small of his back in soothing circles.
As she turned to say goodbye to the group, he said in a voice meant for her ears only, “I think we need to have a little talk. In private.”
Suddenly Danita didn’t know what she wanted more.
To stay right here in this room filled with confusion and con artists.
Or to get back to the pseudo-privacy of their hotel room, and see just what Gabriel’s little talk felt like.
6
“LOOK, I’D RATHER YOU didn’t pour the extra dose of charm over my family.”
Tossing her purse on the dresser, Danita gave him a puzzled look, then shrugged. “You brood in silence for the entire drive home, and that’s the first thing you decide to say to me?”
Shoving his fists in the pockets of his slacks, Gabriel tried not to grit his teeth. He’d stayed silent on the ride home because he knew damned well if he made that demand aloud, he’d sound like a jackass. Always nice to be proved right.
“What’s the big deal?” she continued, hanging her coat in the closet. “We’re here to do a job. I’m here to prove your father is running this little crime ring. You’re here to prove he isn’t. Either way, we have to work together. And the faster we get it done, the better. People talk to people they like, so I was likeable.”
His jaw had clenched when she mentioned her main objective—arresting his father. But he didn’t comment. Instead, he asked, “Is that what you call it? Likeable?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I call it. You’re acting like I hit on your father and tried to talk your brother and his fiancée into a threesome.” Running her fingers through her hair as if to loosen the curls, and her fake persona, Danita gave him a long look, then pulled her largest suitcase out and laid it on the bed. The luggage distracted Gabriel’s unexplainable frustration for a second as he watched her set the neatly folded stacks of clothes on the bed.
He tried not to drool over the bits of black lace and filmy red fabric that were surely something sexy. He didn’t even need to see what it was to imagine that soft fabric draped over her pale, silky skin. His earlier frustration was quickly disappearing as desire rose.
Then she unzipped the bottom of the suitcase. Gabriel frowned, wondering what she was going to pull out of her FBI bag of tricks next. A cache of weapons? A computer station complete with homing signals and listening devices? Some weird but erotic form of bondage so she could tie him to the bed and ensure he didn’t run off and get into trouble during the night?
Gabriel shifted, his hands fisting a little tighter in his pockets as his body stirred at the image. He’d never been a man to give up control, in any way, but the idea of playing tie-me-up with Danita was making him hard.
But what she pulled out of the bottom of the suitcase wasn’t sexy or intriguing. It was big and squishy.
“Is that a sleeping bag?” he asked, squinting at the moss-green fabric.
She shot him an amused look as she rezipped the case and started stacking her clothes again. “What? You didn’t think I was going to share a bed with you, did you?”
Gabriel grinned. “Is that a challenge?”
“Hardly,” she said. But he saw the nerves in her eyes, in the way her fingers clenched the handle of the suitcase as she set it back in the closet. “Knowing our cover as a couple meant we’d have to share a room, I came prepared.”
“You’re going to bunk on the floor in a sleeping bag,” he mocked. “Sounds comfy.”
“It will be,” she tossed back with a chilly smile. “Especially with the gun I’ll have under my pillow.”
“Is that for me, or for the bad guys?”
“That’s for anyone who interrupts my sleep.”
Gabriel’s voice lowered to a husky purr. “Sweetheart, if I interrupt your sleep, you’ll be thanking me. Not shooting me.”
“Only in your dreams.”
“You were a lot more fun when you were kissing my family’s ass,” he muttered, walking over to look out the window. He didn’t know why her rejection bothered him, except that it did. Not in an ego-crushing way. He frowned at the dark view as he considered. No, it was more a hurt feelings kind of thing. Which was stupid. When had he started having feelings for her? And what the hell was wrong with him for letting that happen?
“Of course I was nice to your family. What’s your problem with that? You’re the one who claimed me as your fiancée instead of sex-for-hire,” she reminded him. “All I did was play the part.”
He glanced at the sleeping bag again and hunched his shoulders. Who the hell was she? The tough federal agent? The sweet girlfriend who’d charmed his family? Or the sexy siren who made a man so crazy he’d drop a few grand for a single kiss and then give thanks. Were they all parts she was playing? Who was the real Danita?
“You’re damned good at playing,” he muttered.
Eyes wide, she crossed her arms over her chest and jutted out her chin. “I beg your pardon?”
“How do women do that? Put so much disdain and ice in four simple words.”
“How do men manage to walk upright with such huge egos cutting off their circulation?”
“As long as it’s stroked nicely, my ego feeds my circulation.”
Danita rolled her eyes, but he saw the flash of amusement in those blue depths.
“Look, we’re stuck together for the rest of the week, so you might as well get over whatever’s got you in a snit.”
“And you need to start following the rules,” she snapped back.
Sick of rules, sick of someone else calling the shots, Gabriel strode over, grabbed her shoulders and took her mouth in a quick, searing kiss. Her lips melted beneath his, soft and welcoming.
His body hardened. But before things could get interesting, she pressed her palms against his shoulders.
“This is crazy,” she protested, pulling her mouth from his and stepping quickly away. So quickly, she almost tripped over her own feet and landed on the bed. She grabbed the footboard for balance with one hand while shoving the other through her hair. Taking a deep breath, she shook her head in protest.
“Crazy,” she repeated. “You need to stop doing that. I’m a federal agent. You’re in my custody. Quit,” she stopped, as if she’d run out of words. Instead she waved her hand in the air to indicate whatever had happened before and grimaced. “Just quit.”
“But I like it,” he said with a grin as he leaned against the headboard and crossed his arms over his chest. He liked her all flustered and out of control, too. The more confused she was, the more confident he was that he was in charge of this little game. And as his daddy had taught him when he was young, confidence was key to everything.
He stepped closer, trapping her between the footstool and the hard length of his own…body. His muscles tensed, hardening right along with his dick as he watched her breath shudder. Her pupils were huge as she ran her tongue along the lush deliciousness of her lower lip.
His eyes narrowed, taking in the rapid pulse fluttering against the delicate line of her throat, the gorgeous sight of her nipples pebbling against the soft fabric of her black sweater.
She was incredible.
And he was going to have her.
Keeping his hands to himself, he leaned in, brushing a soft whisper of a kiss against the pulse pounding in her throat. She moaned. He leaned back and grinned.
“Get a grip, Black. We’re here to do a job,” she reminded him, her words coming out in a gasp. “You’re just getting carried away with the roles we’re playing.”
“Roles?”
“Right. This isn’t real,” she claimed, sounding desperate. He figured she was trying to convince herself as much as him. “None of this is real.”
“Didn’t you hear? The food at that little gathering was all made up of aphrodisiacs,” he said, his fingers sliding along the silky-smooth curve of her cheek before tangling in her soft blond curls. “You know the thing about aphrodisiacs? They don’t create desire. They amplify it.”
Her breath shuddered, washing over his lips like a soft caress.
“So baby, all this heat between us? Those oysters and asparagus, the chocolate and cayenne, they’re just turning up that heat. And that heat is real. Do you like how it feels? Aren’t you curious about how much better it’ll be when it hits a boiling point?”
This time he pressed his lips to the delicate line of her jaw, whispering tiny open-mouthed kisses all the way to her ear, where he blew softly before nipping at the soft flesh of her earlobe.
Her tiny mewl of approval made his dick dance with happy joy. Damn, she was responsive. This was going to be one hell of a hot night.
Before he could step things up, though, she gave a little moan. Then she pushed him away. Again. Gabriel bit back a growl of frustration. “That’s crazy. There is no such thing as aphrodisiacs. Just like there’s nothing between us. Circumstance and proximity don’t equal true attraction.”
Amusement faded along with the tentative shift he’d made into a good mood. Anger, frustration and an unexplainable sadness overwhelmed him again.
“Blondie, you are one hell of a lousy actress for a professional liar.”
“You’re the professional liar,” she snapped, sidestepping him and hurrying over to the dresser so the wide expanse of the room was safely between them. “And I save all my acting skills to pretend I’m attracted to you when we’re around other people.”