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The last time TJ had been in town he’d spent the entire timesitting in her living room in sweats and a Cowboys T-shirt playing video gameswith her. He’d needed a haircut but hadn’t been willing to get it until the daybefore he reported back, so he’d looked a bit scruffy.
She’d still thought he was sexy as hell, but she was donemooning over that man. They seemed to have moved into a long-term married couplephase without any of the sex that should have come before it. He came into townon leave and spent all his time with her. He didn’t even bother to drop hisstuff at his parents’ place. He showed up and took over the guest room. Heworked around her house, fixing things up, and they watched TV together and hehugged her like he didn’t want to let her go and then marched back on with hislife. Years. She’d spent years like this, and she was done.
She remembered the last time she’d seen TJ. They’d been in aconference room in Sydney, Australia. His team had clashed with hers, andthey’d had some serious tension between them. She’d been stupid and had readhis cues wrong and embarrassed herself again by trying to kiss him.
Baby, this is still not a good idea. Nothing’s changed.
But she wanted it to, and if she didn’t try her life neverwould. She would watch her friends all find love, and she would end up alonewith five cats. And probably a couple of dogs and goats. So when he’d tried toget her alone to talk about their tension, she’d told him no.
Don’t think this is over, LouLou.Not even close.
But it was. It had to be.
Watching Tasha Taggart fall in love had given her the pushshe needed.
Hence the dating app. She’d been on three dates and thenmatched with Dennis, and curiosity had gotten the better of her. Not that shewas going to do anything with the dude who’d dumped her for prom, but she wascurious. She was viewing this as a good test date.
Surely at some point she’d meet someone she wanted to havesex with.
Or she could find a Dom at The Hideout.
“What are you doing these days?” Dennis asked. “I wassurprised you were still here in Dallas. When I’ve thought about you over theyears, I have to admit I saw you in New York or LA. London, maybe. You got yourdoctorate, right?”
She’d finished her doctorate in mathematics at the age oftwenty-two and become one of the youngest professors in the history of theUniversity of Texas Austin. Then Kala Taggart had walked into her office andoffered her a spot on the team.
The CIA team her best friend had been trying to landforever. The last two years of her life had been about the Agency.
Not that she was going to tell Dennis that. Her life washighly classified. “No, that was fine for college, but I always wanted to beclose to my family. My parents are here, and my little brother. He’s twelve,and I don’t want to be some picture on my parents’ wall to him. So I’m workingat this think tank run by the guy who built 4L.”
“You work for Drew Lawless?” Dennis looked impressed.
Which was exactly what her cover was supposed to do. Whenshe’d joined the team, they’d all needed covers, with the exception of CooperMcKay and Tristan Dean-Miles. They had the military to cover for them. Lou,Kenzie, Kala, and Tash had never belonged to the armed forces. But they didbelong to McKay-Taggart. Kenzie and Kala and Tash all worked for their dad’sfirm in various roles. Lou needed something more. There wasn’t a position fordoctorate in mathematics and expert in mechanical and computer engineering at asecurity firm. It was a cover that worked on short ops—like the one they’drecently run in Sydney—but anyone who knew her would question it.
No one was shocked to discover she was the head oftechnology, research, and development at one of the edgiest think tanks in thecountry. Especially given her family connections to the man who ran it.
It came with a good salary—way better than the Agency—and aspectacular lab where she created tech to help her “sisters” save the world.All in all, not a bad gig.
“I do, though he’s not around a lot. I’ve only met him acouple of times. His wife and kids seem nice.” Andrew Lawless was connected tothe Taggarts by marriage. His sister had married Case Taggart a long timebefore, and the billionaire hadn’t minded stepping in to help out Ian Taggart’sAgency team. Especially since he got first dibs on a lot of Lou’s work. “Hismain focus is 4L. He kind of lets us do what we want.”
Dennis’s head shook as though he’d known it all along. “Wow.I knew you would go places. You were so smart.”
Not smart enough to go to prom with though. Still, he wasfeeding her ego. She knew she shouldn’t take the compliments seriously, but itfelt good to have a man looking at her like he wanted to date her. “How aboutyou?”
“I’m in banking. I work in investments,” he replied. “I workfor a billionaire, too, but mine is some old dude on a board somewhere. Not ascool a job as yours.” He seemed to get serious, taking a sip of the Americanohe’d ordered. “I’m glad you said yes, Lou. There’s something I’ve wanted to sayto you for a long time.”
Even though she hadn’t thought about him in forever, therejection still hurt. “Is it about prom?”
He nodded slowly, as though he wanted to think about everyword he was about to say. “I was a jerk in high school, and I would like toapologize to you.”
She nodded. “You’re forgiven. It was a long time ago.”
His head shook, and a look of deep regret came over hisface. “You don’t know what you’re forgiving me for. That shouldn’t surprise me.You were always such a sweet girl. You never could see… That doesn’t matter.Louisa, I made a stupid bet about you back in high school, and I regret it. Iregretted it right after I did it. It was locker-room talk, and I wouldn’t havegone through with it. I kind of asked you out on a bet, and then I realized howmuch I liked you. I need you to understand that I am not that dumbass kidanymore, and I would kick my own kid’s ass if he ever did anything like this.Not that I have any kids. I’m single and child free at this point. But Iwouldn’t want my kid to ever act that way.”
“A bet?” She frowned his way. “Tell me you didn’t bet youcould get me to sleep with you on prom night. Because that would be cliché andgross.”
He winced. “Like I said, I wasn’t going through with it.”
She had to laugh. “Okay, well, I’m glad that you didn’tbecause then I would have let Kala murder you.”
