“I know, Iknow,” he whined.
“Neverleave your drink unattended,” I finished anyway. He’d been on a stakeout and followed his target into a club. But that was his downfall. He was drugged, then mugged, and it almost sounded like he was nearly sexually assaulted before someone else came in as backup when they couldn’t reach him. “Seriously. That’s just Adulting 101.” I shrugged, using the gesture to stretch as well as toss him a sympathetic look.
“I know.” He blew out a deep breath. “And I only turned away from it for a moment. This gorgeous waitress was distracting me and?—”
“And, that’s also in Adulting 101. Don’t ever let a pretty face distract you.”
He furrowed his brow, almost scowling at me. It wasn’t an expression of angeratme, but likely more of self-loathing. “I know. But come on, we’re all only human.”
I huffed. “Yeah. But still.”
“But still nothing. What happened to me could’ve happened to anyone. We’re all only human. Even you.”
I shook my head. “No. Nope. No way, Aaron.”
“You don’t think you’d ever make that kind of a mistake?” he challenged.
“No.” I cared too much about being the best agent that I could be to ever let an attractive person persuade me away from my duty. Aaron would pay heavily for his mistake. He was seduced by a waitress, got drugged, had his cover blown, was almost raped, and his target left the country to hide even better. That wasnothappening on my record.
“Not even…” He stopped the treadmill, looking at me directly with that baby face he had. He looked so young. So naïve. Both things I wasn’t anymore. I'd spent too many years working here to be a rookie like him. I was only twenty-seven, but still, I had grown into my role more than he had.
“Not even what?” I asked, propping my fist on my hip.
“I’ve seen pictures of Dubinin,” he said with a shrug. “Even I can say—as a straight man—that he’s not bad-looking.”
I rolled my eyes.
He was wrong. So, so gravely wrong. I’d looked at so many photos of Emil Dubinin that the image of his smug face was branded on my retinas. And he was hot. Sexy. Drop-dead, unbelievably handsome. A hunk. A stud. A god among men. With a rugged bad-boy appeal, he was probably irresistible to many women—and men.
But he wasn’t going to distract me.
While I could absolutely admit he was good-looking, my confession would be nothing more than a visual appreciation of art. That was it. I was only a human, like Aaron was trying to convince me, but the difference was that I wouldn’t be swayed bya pretty face. A sexy assassin who practically oozed testosterone and confidence wouldn’t seduceme.
I shook my head, beginning the process of unraveling the wraps on my hands. “Nope.”
“Are you trying to say he’s not attractive?” Aaron asked, incredulous.
“No. He is. Objectively, I can agree to that. But his looks will not steer me from my mission.”
He laughed. Once, then twice, the second time with more irony. “I thought the same thing, Sadie. I took this job thinking nothing and no one wouldeverget the best of me.”
Yet, you fell. You caved.
“And I’m telling you…”He glanced around. “This is just between me and you, all right?”
I nodded, furrowing my brow.
“I still can’t believe it worked, that one hot woman could’ve tricked me away from my trick.”
I opened my mouth to reply with a platitude about not being too hard on himself, but he carried on.
“No. I’m not saying I wasn’t too weak. Yeah, I was weak to notice her, but she wasreallypersuasive. Really intent on getting my attention. It seemed too… coincidental. Too forced. Like she’d been planted there to distract me, then someone else was expecting me to be there so they could drug me.”
I narrowed my eyes, hating that he would beat himself up like this with what-ifs. We all did it when a mission flopped.
“And no one, I meanno one, knew I was doing that stakeout except for my supervisor.” He raised his brows. “No one knew I’d be there but him.”
“Maybe someone was tailing you and you didn’t know.” That was plausible.
