“We spent a lot of time playing in the woods when we were younger, a lot of paintball, archery, and camping. Dad made sure we all knew how to shoot a gun and survive in the woods if we needed to, but I’ve never cared for the ranch life.”
Trying to imagine Kinley doing anything that might break a nail makes me smile. “Then why do you stay? I’ve seen your work, you have talent, why not leave the ranch?”
She looks over my shoulder and sighs. “I love my family, and I like my space, so the cabin is perfect. Dad would never ask any of us to leave, he likes to have his family around him.” Her eyes meet mine again with a chuckle. “He comes across as an old curmudgeon, but he loves us and will do whatever hehas to do to protect his family.”
Setting her cheek back on my chest, her fingers are alternating between tracing the edge of my pec and swirling around my nipple. Sliding her hair off her neck, I trace the edge of her jaw. “Are you trying to find a ticklish spot? Because you’ll be disappointed.”
“No.” She sighs quietly, her breath sliding over my skin. “I’m just wondering when you’re going to tell me what’s going on.” Her fingers stop moving, and she tips her head to look up at me again. “Why was one of your men at my house telling me you sent him?”
The pillow I just fluffed earlier behind my back is suddenly hot against my skin. I try to hide the tension that grips me when I think about Sanders trying to get her to leave with him.
Where was he planning to take her? And how did he know she was at the ranch?
“Rhys?” She pulls on my chest hairs, making me flinch, and I grab her hand.
All the covers on the bed were pushed onto the floor hours ago, except for the sheet, it’s twisted around her slim body, exposing the soft skin of her hip. Thinking about what I want to tell her, I slide my palm across that skin and over the globe of her ass.
My ass.
“Hey.” She props herself on her elbow next to my side and looks at me.
Her eyes are more green right now, and it makes me wonder what that means. I’ve noticed that when she’s angry, the gold hides almost all the green. Maybe more green means she’s happy.
Sliding my thumb across her lip, I take a breath. “I don’t want to scare you.”
She sets her fist on my chest and rests her chin on it. “Ittakes more than you’d think to scare me, Special Agent.”
Taking my time to formulate what I want to tell her, I look at her face. Her golden skin is glowing in the warm light of the setting sun, she’s so fucking beautiful I could stare at her all day.
“The day I came home late and was planning to tell you we should take a step back,” She tenses, and I grip her hip and hug her body to me, “I found out we have a mole on my team, everything we’ve done for the past year has been one step forward and two steps back. I’d just found out that day why it had been happening.
“One of our undercover agents from a different team had somehow been discovered, and they almost killed him. I was at the hospital the entire evening. That was when he told me it was a mole that outed him.”
Her body tenses again, and she sucks in a breath. “You think the mole is the guy who came to my house.”
“I suspect, but I’ll need to find out more at work tomorrow. But that means that you need to be extra careful. I don’t know why he was at your house, and I don’t want you by yourself until I do.”
She moves one shoulder closer to her ear in a half-hearted shrug. “Okay.”
Taking her hand again, I press her fingertips to my lips and then hold her hand over my heart. “I need to ask you about some things you told me last night.”
“Shoot.”
“He said my name? He told you I sent him to your house?” I tap my finger on my chest.
“Yes, he said, ‘Agent Abbot sent me to check on you,’ and then he said you wanted him to ask me if I could go in with him to give a report on anything new. I remember thinking that the whole encounter felt odd, but I was so angry at you for sending him I was distracted.”
Sliding my hand into her hair, I tug just enough to get her full attention, and her eyes lock on mine. “But you know I wouldn’t do that, right?”
She doesn’t hesitate. “I know.”
I look over her face, her smooth skin and full fucking lips. I have to swallow my anger as the same question scrolls through my mind. Where was he planning to take her? To do what? “Anything else?”
Her eyes fall to my chest, and she shakes her head while keeping her chin on her fist.
“Hey.” I slide my knuckle down her cheek, and her eyes meet mine again. “I really am sorry that you were put in that position.”
Her smile comes back before she pushes up on her elbow again. “Are you going to confront him?”
