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She knew that she shouldn’t take it. It would be better to just shoot him down again. Instead, she found herself tucking the card into her back pocket.
“I better get back to work.”
Nickolay reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She leaned into his touch before she could stop herself. There was no denying that they shared a spark, but she couldn’t allow herself to act on it.
* * *
Two days later, she opened her door to let Agent Roberts into her apartment. Well, it was the apartment that the FBI had secured for her. It came furnished and she’d just gone shopping yesterday to fully stock the pantry, not sure how long she’d be living here.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked as her boss stepped inside, looking around as if he thought there might be a hidden threat.
Talk about paranoia.
“No, I’m fine.”
He followed her into the small kitchen, taking a seat at the round table. Alice sat across from him with her hands folded, already knowing that this wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation.
“Have you found anything?” Roberts asked, getting right to the point.
She sighed. “No.”
He frowned. “Overheard any sensitive conversations? Anything at all?”
“It’s only been a few days.”
He leaned back, scrubbing his hand down his face. “I know, but…fuck.”
He stood and paced the small space. Alice watched him, feeling like she was failing, blowing her big chance to prove herself as more than just the woman that slept with her boss.
“The section chief is demanding that we come up with something,” he said. “I tried to downplay it at the meeting, but we’re losing more support every day. I need to give them something.”
“I told you after my first meeting with Chloe and Alek that I’m not allowed to go into the master suite or office. I’m sure that if I could get into one of those rooms, I could find something useful.
“Then, maybe you need to think outside the box,” Roberts said, his eyes intense as he stopped pacing, looming over the table with his hands flat on the surface. “Weneedsomething on these people.”
All she could do was nod. He seemed to understand that he was asking a lot of her, but they both knew that he didn’t have much of a choice. Months of investigating hadn’t gotten him anywhere, and this undercover operation was his Hail Mary. The whole thing was on her shoulders. Agent Roberts left soon after that, but she couldn’t stop thinking about what he said.
Think outside the box.
Going into her bedroom, she picked up the business card sitting on her dresser. Was she really going to do this?
The pressure was on. Nickolay was a potential member of the Bratva. If she got close to him, maybe she could find the information the FBI needed to make their case.
That was what she told herself as she sent him a text, telling him that she reconsidered and was available for dinner that weekend. But deep down, she knew that she was just interested in exploring their connection, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself.
6
NICKOLAY
Alice livedon the ground floor. He didn’t like that. It was too easy to access. If someone broke into the building, her apartment would be one of the first that would be hit.
He knew that he was thinking this way because of his own experience with the criminal world, but that certainly didn’t make him feel any better.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he knocked on the door and waited, his mind going back to that day in the bathroom when he asked her out. He hadn’t really planned it, but once he was in that small space with her, looking into those brown eyes and longing to touch her, he couldn’t help himself. He was drawn to Alice, and it had been so long since he felt something like that about a woman that he couldn’t resist exploring it.
When she opened the door, his mouth went dry. She was gorgeous in a black dress with a halter top that hugged her body, highlighting her feminine curves. Her brown hair was down in waves that fell around her shoulders, and he remembered how soft the strands were when he brushed them behind her ear. His fingers itched to touch her again, but he wasn’t going to rush this.
There was something about Alice that seemed cautious. She had rejected him initially, and he didn’t fail to notice that she’d pulled away from him when their hands touched in the hallway. He could tell that she wanted him, but she was resisting it for some reason. Maybe it was because they barely knew each other.
