She’d never admitted it before. There were people who knew, of course, people who’d she trained with, and people who she’d been on missions with. But the number of people who knew her real identity was kept to a minimum because of her future missions.
Her skin felt prickly, as if it were a humid and suffocatingly warm day where there wasn’t a breeze in sight, and her clothes felt heavy and sticky. Adrenaline ran hot and fast through her as the words bubbled up on her lips.
Then they died.
She couldn’t say them, couldn’t admit them. She just couldn’t say that she was a spy, an agent of the Vallerian Intelligence Agency. It went against all her training and desperate desire for secrecy.
He said the words for her. “You’re a spy. One of ours probably, maybe, but a spy nonetheless. Now, why the fuck are you on my ship?”
She sucked in a breath. It wasn’t the first time she’d been accused of being an agent. It usually happened on missions at some point, a side effect of dealing with nefarious individuals who never trusted anybody. Yet, hearing it from his lips, those gorgeous full pink lips, she couldn’t hold back her reaction.
“Marcello sent you here. To track me?”
After running through the different possibilities to get out of this situation again, she decided the best one would just be to stick to the truth, or as close to the truth as possible. So, though she hadn’t been able to speak earlier, she did speak now. “Yes.”
He slammed one hand against the cabinet and whirled away from her. He ran one hand over his face, his palm resting briefly over his mouth, and he shook his head. His arms fell to his sides, his hands in loose fists, and he turned back to her. His eyes, those dark pools of intensity, were now furious for a different reason, and she could guess the betrayal he felt. “Why is he tracking me? What exactly was your mission here?”
She had to tread carefully. She wanted the truth from him, but he may not give it if she guessed it before he spoke it. Her words were measured and methodical. “He was concerned about activities on this ship.”
His eyes narrowed. “Activities. Such a vague word full of possibilities. You thought I was doing something illegal, which is bullshit.”
He paused, but she didn’t verify what he just said.
He continued as if she had confirmed his beliefs. “Not just something illegal, but something I was perhaps being forced to do, because he knows I would never do anything to harm another person intentionally. Yes, I can see that’s it. Hmm. What could a doctor do illegally on a ship? Research? Illegal experimentation?”
He was too perceptive for his own good. Marcello had never mentioned how quick his brother was.
He watched her for a long minute, then nodded as if he’d come to some decision. “So, I seem to know a secret about you. You’re a spy.”
She froze again at the words so bluntly stated.
“Shall I tell you a secret about me?”
Her eyes widened. “A…royal secret? Should you be sharing that kind of thing?”
He stepped closer, crowding her but not boxing her in as he’d done before. “I know your secret, and you need to trust me to believe that I won’t share it with anyone, not even my brother who sent you here. In order for you to trust me, I’ll tell you a secret that I know will help you.”
“Why do you care?” she blurted out. “Why does it matter if I trust you?”
“I have my reasons.”
“Do you want me to trust you so that I’ll go back to Marcello and tell him everything’s fine?”
“Not really.”
What else could he want? Her mind wove through different possibilities until it landed on an obvious and annoying one. “You want me to trust you so that I’ll let you sleep with me. Is that it?”
He shook his head. “I’m not going to lie and say I don’t find you attractive. You’re fucking gorgeous, of course I find you attractive and intriguing and wouldn’t mind getting to know you. And, no, as a patient I didn’t think of you that way. When I’m a doctor, your body is just a body. But that doesn’t mean I’m not a man when the coat’s off. You must understand that mentality; as an actress and as an agent you must slip in and out of roles all the time.”
He was honest, but she still didn’t understand why he was being so honest with her. Spilling some kind of state secret…would that make her trust him? She’d need to verify the facts first, if possible, and without Marcello knowing. “Yes, I do understand slipping in and out of roles, but that still doesn’t explain why you want me to trust you. What’s your end game?”
“I think we can help each other. There is something happening on this ship. I’m willing to share that information with you in exchange for your help resolving the situation, and your passing along some information to Marcello.”
Alarm bells started going off. “So, you want me to be a double agent of sorts against your brother? No, thanks.”
She took a step forward, ready to move past him, damn the fucking mission, but he held a hand up to halt her and just shook his head, his rumpled hair becoming even more disheveled. Damn him. “I don’t work against my brother, even though he’s trying to work against me. I just want you to pass along that I was not involved in this shit, except to stop it.”
There was a lot in his words, and his relationship with Marcello grew clearer. She’d originally thought, based on Marcello’s comments, that Ethan was the black sheep in the family, or on his way to becoming that. Now, it was clear that Marcello was just acting like an older brother who thought he knew what was best and could control his sibling. She didn’t have any siblings and couldn’t relate, but in past missions she’d played siblings against each other during power struggles of a different sort. Hearing the yearning and resignation in Ethan’s voice made her realize this was a completely different situation.
