“Indeed,” he murmured.
Still no kiss. Instead, he reached behind me and switched the lights to low, until the room was nothing but the shimmer of the city bleeding through glass and the hush of that old jazz song looping quietly through the room with us.
“This is the part,” he said, his voice rougher now, “where you decide how much truth you can handle.”
I smiled the kind of smile that hid more than it revealed. “You should know that I don’t scare easily.”
“Good.”
He held out his hand again. “Then dance with me, Kara-with-a-K.”
And I did.
Not because I wanted to.
Not because of the soft way his thumb stroked the small of my back or how the rhythm of the song matched the beat of my heart.
Not because my body was already betraying me in a dozen small ways.
I did it because it was part of the job.
Because ARCHEON needed me to get close.
Because sometimes, the only way to learn a man’s secrets was to let him believe he’d already learned yours.
“Relax,” he dictated, his voice soft enough that it felt like it wanted to make a home inside my skin.
“I am relaxed.”
He smiled against my temple. “No, you’re waiting to run.”
I forced a laugh that sounded too light. “You think too much.”
“It’s my occupational hazard,” he returned. “I learned to read people long before I learned to trust them.”
“That sounds lonely.”
“Efficient,” he corrected. Then quieter, “You understand efficiency, don’t you?”
My throat tightened. He didn’t know how close he was.
I dropped my gaze to the open collar of his shirt, to the smooth column of his throat. A pulse beat there, slow and strong. My fingers twitched with the urge to trace it, to see if his heartbeat would quicken the way mine had.
Don’t.
Don’t blur the line, Kara.
ARCHEON’s voice whispered like static in the back of my mind, all clipped consonants and discipline.Never let emotional entanglement compromise operational integrity.It was practically tattooed behind my eyelids.
Roman’s thumb drew small circles against my spine, each one erasing another inch of training.
“You’re somewhere else,” he said quietly.
“Just thinking.”
“About what?”
“About how you like to win.”
