“Wow,” he said appreciatively, holding out a hand to her, then guiding her into a slow circle in front of him. “The poor fools at the party tonight will be babbling incoherently, and we’ll never get a decent voiceprint on them.”
Jamie smiled. She was familiar with the full force of Joshua Carter’s smile and the smoldering look in his eyes. They’d impersonated a married couple—or lovers—on assignment often enough. But while she valued Josh’s friendship and respected his abilities as an agent, she was curiously immune to his charms.
“Hit the dimmer switch, Josh, at least until we get to the embassy.”
“Humor me. I’m on a mission.” He winked at her, hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her off to the side where there was an open space.
“A mission?”
He pulled her into his arms, pressed his cheek to hers and started humming. “Dance with me,” he ordered.
“I’m warning you, Josh,” she said with exaggerated sweetness. “If this is a ploy to make some woman jealous...”
“Nope.” He grinned, dipped his head and nuzzled her neck.
It tickled, and she laughed. Then he twirled her around and caught her close again.
“Josh,” she warned.
“Come on,” he whispered into her ear. “We’re doing a mike check.”
“We just did that in the lab.”
“While you were dancing?”
“No, not while I was dancing,” she said, confident that the new, ultrasensitive recording equipment built into the beads of her dress and into her earrings had been checked under a variety of conditions. “What are you up to?”
“In a minute,” he insisted, pulling her even closer. “Could you look like you’re enjoying this a little?”
Jamie sighed and gave in, taking a turn around the room with him. Then, impatient, she stepped out of Josh’s arms. Turning to go to her office, she dragged him along with her. Once inside, she said, “Okay, what are you up to?”
“Dan’s here.”
“Oh.” It was all she could manage, the last thing she’d expected him to say.
“He’s been glaring at me ever since I walked into the office, and it gave me an idea.” Josh smiled wickedly. “I thought we could give him something to think about.”
She leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath, thinking this probably wasn’t the wisest thing Josh could have done, but it probably wouldn’t matter to Dan anyway.
“Did he see us?”
Josh nodded. “Looked like he could cheerfully slit my throat. Hell, what am I saying? He could really hurt me. If he comes after me, tell him to be careful of my pretty face, okay?”
“Don’t worry,” she reassured him. “You had it right the first time. Dan would go for your throat. Assuming he’d care if you and I were involved.”
“He cares.”
“He certainly has a funny way of showing it,” she said, trembling.
Josh pulled her to him, held her for a minute, no pretense to the embrace this time. “You going to be okay?”
“I...” She gave up, let every doubt she had show. “I have to forget about him.”
Josh laughed. “You’ve been doing a lousy job of it. I think you need to talk to him.”
“I’m really mad at him,” she admitted.
“Fine.” He stepped back, grinned wickedly and pushed her toward the door. “Tell him all about it. He deserves to hear it.”
Chapter 9
At first, she was nothing but a flash of light, a glint of gently swaying color glimpsed from the corner of his eye. Turning his head, Dan saw her as he’d never seen her before.
Jet-black hair and ivory skin wrapped in swaying, sparkling black beads. His hands faltered on the rim of the wheels of his wheelchair and a choking sound came from his throat. The dress... It made him think of a magazine layout of a well-known actress in a painted-on dress, a clever optical illusion of a woman who appeared to be clothed but wasn’t.
But Jamie was dressed, he told himself. There must be fabric under there somewhere. The black beads had to be attached to something other than whispery soft, sweet skin.
But from this distance, it looked as if someone had draped a layer of strategically placed beads over her naked body.
Damn.
He’d always known she was beautiful. Even sweating, her face flushed, her body dusty and muddy, even exhausted and angry, yelling at him, crying over him...she was beautiful.
But he’d never seen her like this.
She took his breath away, had him feeling like an adolescent boy again with sweaty palms and a perpetual hardon.
She did that to him, too. Especially after that night in the solarium.
He’d wondered if she hated him for the way he’d disappeared, if she had indeed moved on with her life. He couldn’t blame her if she had, but it was only going to be a little bit longer, he kept telling himself. He’d waited this long, come this far in rehab. He could wait a few more days to talk to her—to explain.
He hadn’t expected to run into Jamie today. He’d met with Tanner and was on his way out the door when he heard Jamie laughing, a muffled sexy sound that had heat curling inside his belly, making him warm all over. It sent him after one more glimpse of her before he left.
Then he saw shimmering black beads gliding down the hallway, and bare, ivory-pale arms twined around the shoulders of a man in a black tuxedo. The man was smiling as he dropped his mouth to the side of her delectable neck. She laughed again, as they danced. As the man twirled her around, his face came into view.
Josh.
Of course, it would be Josh.
Dan shoved the chair forward, down the hall and through the doorway of the deserted conference room, knowing he’d be smart to try to calm down.
It was hard to push a wheelchair when his hands were clenched into fists and when he really wanted to slam one of his fists into the wall.
No, he reconsidered. Not into the wall. A face. A mouth too pretty to be a man’s. He’d ram that satisfied little sigh right down Joshua Carter’s throat.
It didn’t help in the least that Dan had no right to care whether Jamie was sleeping with Josh, whether he’d pushed her right into Josh’s arms. Dan still wanted to strangle the man. Right after he ripped Jamie out of his arms.
From the chair? he reminded himself. It would be a neat trick to do either one of those things from the wheelchair.
Of course, long odds had never dissuaded him from going after anything he wanted. And he wanted Jamie.
He wheeled around and went to find her. When he didn’t spot her after making the rounds of the office, he slipped into her office. The light over her desk was on. So was her computer. She’d be back, and he could wait.
Dan finally had accepted the fact that he was obsessed with Jamie, that he wanted her in every way possible for a man to want a woman, that he couldn’t keep his hands off her when she was near him. All she’d done that day in the solarium was lean over and give him a quick kiss goodbye, and he’d hauled her up against him, had his hands all over her, had her nearly undressed in seconds. He’d been so crazy for her he’d forgotten that his legs didn’t work the way they used to. He hadn’t remembered until he found himself sprawled on top of her and had been hardly able to move.
It had been the stuff of his nightmares. When he’d been in the hospital and his mind drifted unerringly back to her and he remembered the way she tasted that night at the warehouse, remembered the feel of her body caught between his and the wall, and he wanted her despite all the reasons he couldn’t have her, he made himself think of making love to her without his legs. He pictured himself lying flat on his back in a bed, pictured her pretty body sitting on top of his, moving slowly but urgently against him, and he imagined himself just lying there helplessly, motionless beneath her.
That image had been humiliating enough to make him push her away from him in the hospital.
But then she’d taken that image away that night in the
solarium by so willingly spreading those sleek thighs of hers and settling her body against his. By letting him push her clothes out of the way and pressing her breasts against his chest. By kissing him as hungrily as he kissed her and rocking her body against his, as if she ached for him every bit as much as he ached for her.
She’d shown him that making love to her would be anything but humiliating. It would be urgent and edgy and utterly satisfying. Together, they could find a way. He knew it in his heart. But his pride got in the way and he left the hospital without telling Jamie where he was going.
Yet the idea of being with her had flirted around the edges of Dan’s mind. Life with Jamie... What would that be like?
He’d had to remind himself that very little had actually happened between them. They’d worked together. They’d bickered a bit here and there. They’d made one date they never kept. And they’d nearly made love. Put that way, it seemed ridiculous that his feelings for her could be this strong. But there it was, staring him in the face. Now that he’d seen her after so many weeks, he couldn’t fight his need for her any longer, and he couldn’t stay away.
So he sat there in the corner of her office, cursing himself for what he’d done to her already and trying to figure out how to make it up to her.
Finally, she walked into her office and shut the door behind her.
He remained motionless in his spot in the corner as she pulled a .22 from the tiny purse she earned, loaded it, checked the safety and put it away.
Then she put one foot, in its black, high-heeled sandal, on the low table in the corner. When her dress, slit up one side, fell open at midthigh, his mouth went dry. Her hands reached for a thin, deadly stiletto strapped high on her thigh. She pulled the knife, flicked open the blade, examined it in the light, then froze.
She knew she wasn’t alone.
“Expecting trouble?” he asked casually.
Slowly, she straightened and turned to face him. Dan noted a dangerous glint in her eyes as she walked toward him. She was breathing rapidly, the seemingly nonexistent material of the dress straining across her breasts, as she brandished the weapon in her right hand.
“You should be more careful,” she cautioned. “After all, I’m armed and quite possibly dangerous.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, fighting a grin. God, it was good to see her. “Are you planning to use that on me?”
“Well,” she considered. “I guess that depends on what you have to say for yourself.”
At the moment, it was all he could do to think clearly, knowing that not five minutes ago another man had his hands and his mouth all over her. He wanted to obliterate any trace of Joshua Carter’s touch, wanted his own hands in her hair, and his taste on her lips, her neck and her cheek.
But there were some things he needed to tell her, some things he owed her. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to admit, “I missed you.”
Her chin came up defiantly. “Really?”
“Yes.”
That only served to infuriate her even more. He saw fire flashing in her eyes, saw a grim look of determination there as well.
“Is that supposed to be an apology?” she demanded.
“Well—”
“Or an explanation? For letting me walk back into that hospital six weeks ago and find out you’d left without a word to me? For refusing to even pick up the phone and talk to me when I called?”
“Jamie—”
“I’ve never seen you run and hide from anyone. Or anything. I didn’t think you had a cowardly bone in your body.”
Ouch.
He deserved it, he told himself. He’d hurt her. Again.
Still...a coward. No one had ever called him a coward.
“What do you want me to say?” he asked. “That I’m sorry? I am.”
She came to stand in front of him, too close to him. He could smell her perfume. Or whatever subtle scent she drenched her body in. He shifted uncomfortably in the chair, feeling cornered and not liking it a bit.
“Funny,” she said, “You don’t look sorry.”
“Jamie...” he began.
She braced her hands on either side of the low arms on his chair. He leaned back as far as he could, but still, he felt heat and anger radiating from her body. He saw perfectly formed breasts and through the slit up the side of her dress, a smooth, silky thigh. Her scent washed over him, overwhelming him. Her breath skimmed across his mouth, giving him just a hint of the taste of her, making him want desperately.
All he had to do was reach out and take her.
He didn’t care anymore that she’d been with Josh only moments before. She was with him now, and he wanted to keep her here, wanted to pull her across his lap and palm her hips and pull her to him, because he was every bit as aroused as he had been that day in the solarium. And he hadn’t even touched her yet. He hadn’t planned on letting himself touch her at all.
She leaned closer still, until her lips were aligned with his, until he wasn’t sure if she was going to smack him or kiss him. He deserved the first, yearned for the second.
“I know,” she whispered seductively, an angry woman scorned, “you told me once that it wouldn’t matter to you if you and I did make love. You said it wouldn’t last, either. I just didn’t believe you.”
“Jamie—”
“But don’t worry.” She straightened, gave him a cold, almost regal stare. “The last six weeks convinced me. I won’t make the mistake again of thinking you give a damn about me.”
She turned to walk away, but he caught her, held her with a hard grip on her arm until finally she faced him once again. But how could he beg her to forgive him for what from her point of view had to seem unforgivable?
“Jamie—don’t go.”
“This is what you wanted,” she reminded him.
“No, it’s not what I wanted,” he said.
“Oh, I forgot,” she said, livid now. “It’s what you decided was best for both of us. As if the decision had nothing to do with me. Or anything I may have felt for you.”
“You’re right,” he admitted. “That’s what I did.”
She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him. “Is that supposed to be an apology?”
Dan fought the urge to grin and to tell her she looked absolutely beautiful tonight. He knew just enough about women to realize he had only one option here—a full confession and a plea for mercy—something he’d never been willing to do for any woman before. But he had been a jerk, and he’d been absolutely miserable without her.
“I thought I might be able to negotiate with you,” he tried instead.
“Negotiate?”
He nodded. “I’m prepared to make a full confession. In exchange for that, I thought you might consider going easy on me? After all, I’m a man, and my species is notoriously inept and insensitive when it comes to dealing with women.”
“Inept and insensitive?” she repeated incredulously. “And I’m supposed to let you get away with it? Because I’m a woman and my species can forgive anything?”
He laughed, because he thought he was making progress with her and because it felt so good just to argue with her. “Some women can,” he admitted.
She shook her head and muttered something that didn’t sound very forgiving.
“Jamie.” Dan reached out and took her hand, curling his fingers around the back of hers, grateful when she didn’t pull away. “I’m sorry, babe. I’m lousy at this, and I just can’t seem to stop hurting you. I swear it’s the last thing on earth I want to do.”
All the fight seemed to go out of her. Her shoulders relaxed a bit. Her chin came down. Her eyes glittered with moisture, and her voice shook. “Okay, that was something remotely resembling an apology. It needs work, but...”
“Maybe I’m not hopeless?”
“I’m not sure. You’ve obviously been indulged for too long by women with half a brain and a thing for arrogant—”
“Come on.”
“Stub
born—”
“Jamie.”
“Insensitive—”
He laughed again.
“Jerks,” she finished.
“Maybe you could take me on as a project. Reform me. For the good of womankind,” he offered, forgetting all the promises he’d made to himself about not touching her.
Tugging on her hand until she bent over him, he took her mouth hungrily, the too brief touch only serving to make him want her more. “If it helps, I’ve been miserable the last few weeks. And not just because rehab is hell,” he admitted.
“I might find some satisfaction in knowing you’ve been miserable.”
He winced theatrically, ready to grovel some more. “Maybe we could discuss this outside the office? Preferably when you’re not armed to the teeth?”
“Talk about what?” she said carefully.
“You and me.”
She went still, staring at him, measuring, assessing, probably trying to figure out if she could trust him again. “Dan, I’m stubborn, but I’m not foolish. I don’t make a habit of chasing after men who don’t want anything to do with me, and I don’t like playing games.”
“I’m stubborn, too, and I can be incredibly foolish at times. No more games, Jamie. Promise.”
“Well,” she admitted reluctantly, “I suppose we could talk.”
“You’re a generous woman,” he said.
“Yes, I am.”
He laughed again, then glanced at the clock that read half-past seven, then looked back at her in that killer dress. “I take it you have to be somewhere tonight.”
She looked at the clock as well. “Oh. Yes. Josh and I are going to a party at the French embassy, and I don’t have much time.”
“Okay.” He dropped her hand.
“So, are you still at the rehab facility or have you...” Her voice trailed off awkwardly and for the first time, she let herself take a good, long look at his body in the chair.
He found himself holding his breath, braced for what he might find in her eyes. Seeing nothing but determination and a calm, steady gaze, he could breathe again.
“I have another couple of weeks there. Maybe a month. I haven’t given up yet,” he said carefully, measuring her reaction and wanting to make all sorts of rash promises about what he intended to accomplish before he came back for her. “Please, Jamie. Don’t you give up on me, either.”
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