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Well hot damn, Red wanted to know my relationship status. My cock jumped to attention, but the rest of me remained casual. I smiled to let her know I understood what she was fishing for. “If you want to know if I’m married, you can just ask.”
Our eyes met. My pulse and cock throbbed in time with each other. The way her tongue darted out to wet her lips and her eyes drifted closed just a millimeter confirmed what I’d suspected and, if I were being honest, hoped. The sexual attraction was mutual.
She cleared her throat. “Are you married?”
I sank down beside her on the bed, fighting the impulse to lean her back and kiss a path down her throat. I kept my distance, far enough to keep myself from touching her, close enough to feel the heat of her skin. I whispered to her. “How about a little game of ‘you show me yours and I’ll show you mine’.”
I didn’t miss the fact that she nibbled her lower lip and her nipples hardened and showed through her blue silk dress. God, how I wanted to see every inch of her body. I wanted to taste her skin and cup her full tits and find out whether the hair between her legs was as red as that on her head. I was so caught up in fantasizing about her, I had to remind myself she might be up to her gorgeous eyeballs in the shit surrounding the soldier’s death so I could speak again.
“What were you doing in that parking garage?” I asked point blank. “Who do you suspect those men with guns were?” I leaned close to her. A few inches closer and I could have kissed her. “And which are you: a private doctor to the rich and powerful, or a member of some shady organization called HEAT?”
Her shallow breaths proved I’d rattled her. “You know how to take all the fun out of that game.”
“Nice avoidance tactic, but I was a Green Beret. You know who they are and what they do?” I’d spent most of my twenties as part of the elite army unit that specializes in unconventional warfare and reconnaissance missions, often from behind enemy lines.
She looked me up and down, then nodded to indicate she believed me.
“Then you know I won’t give up until I get some real answers.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you still have a security clearance?”
Oh, Christ. I’d known this was a possibility, but those were exactly the words I didn’t want to hear. “Tell me I didn’t stumble into some intelligence agency bullshit.”
“I can’t confirm or deny,” she answered. “But for someone who must have relied on intelligence to do your job—”
“Necessary evil.” I pushed off the bed and crossed to the window. My shoulders were tight and a headache was starting at the base of my skull. The CIA operatives I’d worked with in the field were always working an angle, holding on to the information we needed to do our jobs until the last possible second, often for no reason other than the power trip of knowing something other people—in this case, the army grunts who lived or died by that knowledge—didn’t. Then there were the NSA, DIA, FBI, and a handful of other intelligence agencies that seemed to have a pretty even mix of decent people and total bastards.
HEAT sure as hell sounded like an acronym the government would use, although I’d never heard it.
Behind me, Red spoke with a soft, even tone. “Listen, I don’t want to drag you into this any more than you want to be dragged. Let me borrow your phone and I’ll call my team to come get me and then...”
“Then what?” I turned to face her and leaned against the windowsill, waiting. I knew the answer. I was just waiting to see whether she would tell me the truth.
She lifted her hands and shrugged slightly. “They’ll do a background check on you, ask you some questions.” She stared down at the blankets, unwilling to meet my gaze. “They might surveil you for a few days.”
There it was: the truth. Still, it pissed me off. “Surveil me?”
She lifted her gaze, but didn’t make eye contact with me. “To make sure everything is as it seems.”
“And that I’m not one of these bad guys, these Carbonados.”
“In a nutshell, yes.”
“I see.” I crossed my arms over my chest. I really did see, but I didn’t much like the view. If this HEAT group had enough resources to spare to spy on me, where the hell had they been when one of their own was being held at gunpoint? I asked her just that.
The question seemed to surprise her. “What?”
“This group of people who have enough time on their hands that they’ll be following me around. Where were they last night, when you needed them? Maybe they should spend less time tracking allies and more time protecting their own. What kind of half-assed team is this? And what idiot is making these poor calls?”
Maybe I wanted to convince her she should trust me more than she should trust them, which she should, in my not-so-humble opinion. Maybe I hoped she would stop talking about this TJ guy like he was the one who’d saved her last night instead of me. And I could make an educated guess that her hero TJ and the shot-calling idiot were one and the same.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “There was no reason to believe I was in imminent danger.”
She closed her eyes. I didn’t know whether she was worn out from her ordeal or tired of talking with me, but I knew the signs of one party withdrawing in a negotiation. I’d struck some shady deals with some awful people, sometimes while behind enemy lines when I was in the army. And almost every time, there was a point when discussion broke down and someone started backing away, like she was now. That meant it was time for me to give her space. I would have to wait a little longer to get my answers.
I stood. “The doctor said you’ll need lots of liquids and small meals every few hours.” I pointed to a large water glass on the nightstand. “So drink up, and I’ll be back shortly with green tea, toast, and fruit.”
“That’s it? You’re holding me against my will? Not even giving me one phone call?”
