“I hate it when you make sense,” she said on a sigh.
Draco grinned.
“And I hate when you know you’re right and grin like an idiot.” She lifted her chin. “If you want food, you’d better wipe that stupid look off your face and get moving.”
Instead of taking offense, Draco chuckled, ruining all of her bad-tempered haranguing. “Yes, ma’am.” He popped to attention, saluted her and opened the door. “Just let me clear the exit.”
She waited patiently, tapping her toe.
Okay, not so patiently.
When he proclaimed it was safe, she marched through the door.
“And by the way, I can’t wipe that stupid look off,” he said, leaning close as she stepped through the door. “It’s my face, like it or not.”
The problem was that she liked it. A lot. Too much.
However, she couldn’t let him worm his way past her defenses.
Not this time.
Hadn’t she learned over the years that people didn’t stay? They said they loved you and then...
Left.
Her mother to death.
Her father, when she’d needed him most while grieving her mother’s passing, had left her for work.
And Draco.
Because he was afraid?
“Give me a break,” she muttered under her breath.
“What was that?” Draco cupped her elbow and leaned close, his breath stirring the tendrils of her hair around her ear, making butterflies erupt in her belly.
“Nothing,” she said. Butterflies be damned. She wouldn’t allow herself to fall for the man. Not a second time. Not after he’d bailed on her without so much as a fuck off.
“We’re supposed to be a happy couple on vacation,” he whispered.
“Huh?” Her brow puckered as she tried to remember where she was.
Not in Virginia. Alone. Left behind.
“You know,” Draco said. “Our cover? A couple? Happy?” He drew a smile across his face.
How could he be so casually jovial when she was trying to be smart, stoic and protective of her heart? All this pretending to be a couple was messing with her mind. If she wasn’t careful, she’d start to believe their playacting was real and kiss him again.
Her heart fluttered and settled in an unnatural flurry of beating that hammered against her ribs.
Get a grip.
When this investigation was over, they’d go their separate ways.
Draco would return to Texas, and Cate to Virginia. They would never see each other again.
Her heartbeat slowed to a miserable crawl.
