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“Makes sense.” Was that what was on his mind, or was it something else? “All right. Out with it.”
His forehead furrowed. “Pardon?”
“What’s bothering you? I mean, besides having to be undercover with me.”
“That doesn’t bother me.”
I raised a brow and folded my arms.
“It doesn’t.”
“What is it, then?”
“Xavier Vella. My gut is telling me he didn’t kill Mithras out of revenge for what he did to his girlfriend. I’d bet anything there was something Mithras knew that Xavier didn’t want us finding out.”
“Perhaps we should share this theory with the team.”
“I’m thinking that, instead of being in St. Moritz, we should’ve gone to Mallorca.”
“I think you might be right.”
8
ZEPPELIN
It was all I could do to stop staring at Verity. Her hair was disheveled, her cheeks pink, and every time she bit her bottom lip, I wanted to lean in and lick it. Sitting on the bed with her looking like she was, felt almost postcoital. Working with her day in, day out in this manner would be the biggest test of restraint I’d faced in my life.
“This seems like a good time to take a break,” she said, closing her laptop.
“Are you sure? We still need to talk about Oleander’s abduction.”
She nodded. “I want to shower first.”
“There’s no shower.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Zeppelin. What I meant is I want to bathe first.”
“Right,” I muttered, doing my damnedest not to picture her naked in the oversized tub. If I were feeling more like myself, I’d joke about us taking one together, but it would come out wrong, and Verity would be offended, again threatening to leave the mission. But why shouldn’t I be myself? Was my restraint moreindicative of my desire for her than if I was as much of a jokester as I normally was? “We could conserve hot water.”
Verity made a face. “Ew.You want to use my dirty bath water?”
This time, I rolled my eyes. “I was facetiously suggesting we bathe together,Verity.” I emphasized the code name.
She shook her head. “No, thanks.”
I laughed out loud.
“What?”
“I expected you to be horrified.”
She put a hand on her hip. “Is that what you were hoping would happen?”
I shook my head. “I’m a wanker.”
She smiled and spun on her heel, then looked over her shoulder. “You’ve got that right,” she said with a wink.
While I made myself another espresso, I thought about how far my opinion of the woman had swung in the last twenty-four hours. I actually liked Verity. Yeah, there were times she could be bitchy, but as I’d just said, I could be a wanker. That she gave it right back to me turned me on as much as imagining her naked in the tub did.
