Page 13 of Tiger on the Prowl

“I had a really nice time last night,” Jay said, leaning closer to Olivia.

She lifted her lids and looked into his eyes. “I did too. I’m so glad I ran into you.” Then she let out a breath. “I was wondering… I mean, I know this might come out of left field…but…” She hesitated.

He kissed her on the cheek and inhaled her sweet scent. “What?”

“Well, Grace, my sister, is getting married this weekend, and I don’t have a date for the wedding. I wondered if maybe you wanted to come with me.”

She’d blurted out the words, and Jay realized that she was using all her courage to make this suggestion.

Fuck! As much as he would have liked to accompany her to a wedding, there was no way he could do that. At an event like that, the chance that somebody connected to Smith would recognize him was even higher than sitting in this café.

“Uhm,” he said, trying to find a way to let her down without hurting her. “I’m not really the wedding kind of guy. I mean, you don’t really know me, and your family will be there, and…”

“I get it,” she said, and the smile she gave him looked forced. “It’s okay. I just thought I’d ask.”

“If I could come with you, I would,” Jay said and put his fingers under her chin, making her look at him. “It’s just that there’s a lot going on in my life right now.” He pressed a kiss to her lips and felt like a total jerk. Olivia deserved a real boyfriend, a man who could commit to her, not a man who used her to get information on Smith.

He needed to get out of here before he made things even worse.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “I need to get to my physical therapy appointment.”

“Oh, sure. Are you doing anything later? Maybe we could meet up.”

“Wish I could, but I’ve got lots of errands to run. Can I call you?”

“Sure.” She pulled out her cell phone and unlocked it. “Give me your number, so I can send you mine.”

Damn, she was smart. He had no choice but to give her the number of the burner Fox had given him to communicate with the other ex-Stargate agents. When his cell phone pinged, he said, “Got it.”

He’d have to get rid of the SIM card later and exchange it for another one to make sure he couldn’t be traced should the number fall into Smith’s hands. He regretted having to do this, but his life and that of the other agents was on the line. And he couldn’t risk lives because he had a crush on a beautiful girl. Ah, fuck, who was he kidding? It wasn’t just a crush. He’d been slowly falling for Olivia ever since he’d first adjusted her hips in her Downward Dog pose in class. Making love to her had cemented the fact that this was no fleeting crush.

But he couldn’t act on his feelings, no matter how much it hurt to let Olivia go.