With a thumb, I rubbed the unobtrusive, hidden switch along my finger and activated my com device. “Heads up, Callum. I might need a bit more time to complete my objective.”
I scanned the crowded room where the party was in full swing, but it wasn’t hard to spot Daria gliding through the masses. They parted for her and greeted her with smiles and handshakes.
Males hovered around her eagerly and touched her bare spine above the low-cut line of her bright red dress. Females were rubbing elbows with her just as eagerly, and she took it all in stride, smiling, talking, laughing. She belonged in that crowd, and yet… I knew she didn’t. Then she made contact with the Four-Star General I’d come here for and my hackles rose, metaphorically speaking. What was she up to?
She had him as charmed as the rest of the high-profile people at this party. He greeted her with a warm smile that bordered on fatherly, but I felt a sourness settle deep in my belly anyway. Jealousy. I wanted her attention on me, not on any of these silly humans, especially not the males. I knew what it meant; a Terafin only responded that way to a female for one reason.
Cursing under my breath, I forced myself to focus on the job I’d come here to do. First, observe, then capture. This was supposed to be easy, and I could do it in my sleep.
“Trouble?” Callum asked, his low voice filtering into my mind through my translator implants. It was the latest technology, not yet released to the public on Afir, but operatives like us had access. It certainly came in handy on missions like these.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I replied, suppressing the unease that shivered up my spine. There were many reasons for watching Daria. She was stunning, and she had dressed to draw attention. She was vivid and friendly. But the male watching her now wasn’t doing so for any of the reasons one would expect. No, this was different.
Then I spotted another and another. She was being watched by the unobtrusive guards who wandered the party to keep an eye on things. Even the males stationed at the exits had her in their sights. Not good, and I had a feeling she was after the same thing I was.
Sweeping into the large room, I ignored a waiter offering me a pale drink in a tall, oddly shaped glass. Imbibing Earth’s strange drinks would cloud my judgment even further, I couldn’t have that. It was obvious that the freely poured drinks were making people lose their inhibitions.
I ignored the large screen hung against one wall with a glaringly bright countdown. Only an hour till midnight and the changing of the year, a celebration much loved on Earth. I didn’t understand why they hailed the passing of time with suchenthusiasm, but it was an admirable way to celebrate the brevity of their lives.
As an unknown face in a crowd where everyone regularly rubbed elbows with one another, I knew I stood out. More than a handful of females caught me in conversation as they tried to ferret out who I’d arrived with, who I was. My cover story rolled easily from my lips. Just an attaché to an ambassador. Sorry, I’m no one important, just an assistant.
It slowed me down, and as a result, I didn’t reach the general until Daria had managed to convince the older male to dance with her. He was about to sweep her onto the dance floor when I intercepted them. Good thing too. From the corners of my eyes, I could tell several guards had tensed and were moving closer. Whatever Daria was up to, they were wise to her plan, and if she stole that valuable data chip pinned to the male’s lapel, she’d find herself in a world of trouble.
I couldn’t let that happen. For various reasons, the most obvious being that I needed that data chip myself, but that wasn’t the reason that mattered to me. I couldn’t let her get hurt. It made my head spin to realize how much danger she was putting herself in. And why? Why was she after this data? Did she know what was on that chip?
“Ah, there you are, darling,” I drawled as I blocked their path. I dipped into a gallant bow for Daria, offering her my attention first. Then I reached out to shake the General’s hand with a firm grip. This military man did not have the same customs that the Terafin Army had instilled in me, but we recognized each other for what we were in an instant.
“Ian,” Daria said, surprised. Then her delicate brows lowered over her eyes in suspicion, a look she smoothed away almost immediately. Our target never caught it. The silky brown of her eyes sharpened when her expression became calculating instead. I could practically see the gears spinning in her head as she tried to figure out what I was up to, and how she could use that to her advantage.
“Ah, Daria. Is this your young man? Why don’t you introduce us, my dear?” the general said gruffly. His weathered face was decorated by a bristly gray mustache, but all his other hair had fallen out. More impressive were the many, many medals that decorated his dress uniform. When his sharp eyes narrowed on me in warning, it felt like I was meeting Daria’s father for a moment, and he wasn’t certain if he liked what he saw.
“General Darryl Mullberry, this is Ian,” Daria said politely, not disputing the General’s assumption that she was my female. “Ian, this is General Mullberry. A family friend.” Ah, so that was her connection to this man, she knew him even outside parties such as these. She knew this male personally, which made it all the more interesting that she’d come here to steal from him.
The general shook my hand firmly, his fingers pinching around mine in an attempted show of strength. It was instinct to squeeze back, but human strength was no match for that of a Terafin like me. When I saw a paleness flash across his face, the only hint of his discomfort, I let up with a hint of shame curling up my spine. I shouldn’t have squeezed back, I shouldn’t have let my possessive instincts get the best of me.
“Nice to meet you, sir,” I forced out. “I hope you don’t mind if I steal my girl for a dance?” Ah, another slip-up, my instincts atthe forefront. If Callum could listen in, he’d be both concerned and amused. He’d call off the mission, and that I couldn’t allow. This was a vital point in our investigation. It could be the turning point, we needed this.
Daria shot me a fierce glare that she did not bother to hide. It did not matter because the General didn’t see it. He started to smile widely, apparently pleased and turned to tuck Daria’s hand into mine with a fatherly pat on her shoulder. “Of course! Go dance. We’ll speak later. Too bad your father couldn’t make it tonight…”
I didn’t give Daria a chance to respond, even though thiswasanother interesting topic and I was dying to know more. Curiosity was a spy’s purview, naturally. Sweeping her curvy body into my arms, I thanked the General and spun us onto the dance floor just as the live band struck up a cheerful tune.
Chapter 3
Daria
I was fuming as Ian twirled me in his arms, but my body was on fire for him at the same time. Our bodies brushed tantalizingly close and then parted as we dipped and twirled in a slightly unusual dance style that matched the music nonetheless. A cross between a waltz and a foxtrot maybe, and then he did this thing with his feet, sliding a leg between my thighs sensually. Nope, that was definitelynota move from any of the ballroom dances I knew.
“Why did you do that? We don’t even know each other!” I hissed beneath my breath at the infuriating man holding me. I had beenthisclose to getting the pin from my target’s lapel; a dance would have been the perfect cover. Good old Darryl wouldn’t have suspected a thing. He always had a soft spot for the daughter of his closest ally.
My stomach soured thinking of my father, an even higher-ranking general. I could have gone to him to steal this information too, maybe, but it would have been much harder, and much more dangerous. He would have suspected in a heartbeat that his disappointment of a daughter was up to no good.
“Don’t we?” Ian drawled at me in his sinfully dark voice. His gray eyes were even more impressive this up close, sparkling inside their black rings. The dual colors of his iris, black and gray, made them exotic with their sharp contrast. His gold lashes framed them, the fine hairs long and delicate, too pretty for a man.
“No, we don’t,” I said firmly, but that just made him smirk, and a dimple popped in one cheek that made my stomach swoop. Damn it, I wasn’t a wilting virgin. I was a woman of the world, dating handsome men by the fleet whenever I felt like company. They were atmybeck and call, not the other way around… A man had never affected me the way that this one did, and I didn’t like it.
“I think we do,” he retorted, still smiling that sexy smirk with the dimple. He was completely unaffected by my scowl, and it jerked me back from that edge of anger. The general would notice if I wasn’t happy dancing with Ian, and he’d investigate because he now thought this man and I were dating. I should have corrected his assumption, I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t.
“You’re in danger, that’s why,” he added after another twirl in time to the music. I’d spun away from him, then straight back into his arms, colliding with his chest, too close to him to be decent in this kind of company. “You’re being watched. Whatever you have planned, you must abort if you value your safety.”
