The final realization helps me regain the reins I lost while trapped by lust. This is the very reason I usually keep them firmly in my grasp. It is the only way I’m guaranteed to be free of burden.
With a shimmy of my shoulders, I return my eyes to Alex’s. The heat burning my veins simmers when I spot one thing in his eyes I never thought I’d see.Sorrow.
“It’s okay,” I assure him when he attempts to speak but can’t.
“You don’t understand, Rae.” His words are barely whispers. “This isn’t. . . I can’t—”
“Wait to get out of here. I get it.”
If I had any chance of fooling you with a declaration that my tone was confident, I’d tell you it was swimming in it. It is a pity my libido isn’t the only thing that packed up and left town a few months ago. My ego went right along with it.
My back splays against my door when Alex takes a step closer to me. His kiss-swollen lips, mussed hair, and dilated eyes are a brutal reminder of what I’m being denied. “That’s not it at all, Rae. It’s just. . .”
I save him the hassle of rummaging up a better excuse by dipping under his arm, jabbing my key into the lock and entering my penthouse apartment.
The brutal slam of my door drowns out anything he says next.
Chapter Thirteen
I stand outside of Regan's door for the next ten minutes. I don't say anything. I can't. There isn't anything I can do to change the monumental fuck up I just made, so why bother? I have no excuse for the jealousy card I played except that this is foreign to me — all of it.
That possessive, narcissistic asshole I portrayed in the elevator isn’t me. There is just something about Regan that brings out my chauvinistic side. Just the thought of her with Isaac. . .Ugh!My blood boils just thinking about it.
I told myself she was stirring me, that she wanted me to react to her taunts, but no matter how many times common sense screamed at me that I was a better man, I didn’t hear a fucking word he spoke.
I wanted to piss a circle around Regan to mark my territory. I wanted to fuck her so hard, my name would ring in Isaac’s ears for years to come, but one confession unraveled it all.
Isaac lives in this building. His apartment is the one sitting opposite Regan’s, so you can be assured any surveillance equipment in this hallway was infiltrated by the FBI the instant Isaac was placed on their radar.
That means they have our kiss on camera. If that isn’t bad enough, they may even have glimpses of Regan’s bare breast. It’s probably only a bit of cleavage, but that alone has my legs pumping as fast as my heart.
I charge down the corridor before throwing open the emergency exit door next to the elevator bank. The shoes Regan despised batter the stairs as hard as my heart smashes against my ribs. I take the stairs two at a time, my focus on one thing and one thing only—protecting Regan.
By the time I make it onto the sidewalk outside Regan’s building, only half a lung is in operation, but a new record-setting pace has been achieved. As my lungs work through their oxygen deprivation, I scan the congested street. In a town as bustling as Ravenshoe, even the Bureau has issues finding parking spots.
I find what I’m looking for half a block down. The faded pizza sign on a dark blue van makes it appear authentic, but the lack of movement on a Friday night assures me it is the vehicle I’m seeking.
When I throw open the unlocked door of the van a few seconds later, a man I’d guess to be early to mid-twenties startles. He has the same blond hair as me, a similar wonky smile, but his shoulders are two sizes smaller than mine and his personality a whole lot more timid.
“Move,” I instruct, shoving him away from the bank of monitors he is seated in front of.
It takes me flashing him my ID before he does as instructed. If my endeavor to remove Regan from the FBI’s surveillance mainframe weren’t my utmost priority, I’d commend his commitment to the job. Not many tech agents come out of the gates firing. Most wilt away within the first six months on the job. The fact he didn’t flinch when given a direct order has me curious about how long he’s been on the job, and why he requested to be a technician instead of an agent.
When he eyes me with suspicion, I add to my ruse, “We got word our target is piggy-backing off our surveillance. I need to check the servers to ensure they’re clear.”
I'm talking nonsense. I'm a field agent for a reason. This technical mumbo jumbo isn't my field of expertise. Fortunately for me, I only need to know one button to fulfill my goal: the delete button.
“That can’t be right. I coded this program myself. It is unhackable,” the young technician assures, his voice more confident than his facial expression.
“Is that so?”
When he nods, I add on, “Then what is this? Why is our target visiting her now?”
I point to a monitor on my left that shows Isaac knocking on Regan's apartment door—the same door I pinned her to with my cock as I assaulted her mouth with my tongue.
Our kiss—fuck.How can you describe something you’ve never experienced before? I’ve kissed plenty of women, but I’ve never had an all-encompassing,I’ll never seek release without it entering my thoughtskiss before.
The fact I’m thinking this way after nothing but a kiss proves the power Regan has over me. I don’t just want to break the rules for her. I want to rewrite them.
