My lips twitch. “I thought your job was to help me?” I purr, pressing my body up against his. My heart is thumping wildly behind my chest cavity as heat travels south, pooling in my core. Just brushing against him has me overheating. Imagine what touching him would do? “What if I need to practice more seduction techniques?”
“You don’t need any practice,” he growls, scooting sideways on the couch to get away from me. He thrusts his cell into my face. “Looks like you’ve already hooked your prey.”
I stare at the pic on the screen as bile swims up my throat. Liam is ravishing me on the street outside the bar, in full view of passersby and the men Joshua has trailing us. I should feel proud, but I don’t. That itch is back, creeping over my flesh, and I have a sudden desire to take another shower.
I hand the cell back to him. “You look angry. Why is that when I’m doing what’s been asked of me?”
“Have you forgotten your research? He doesn’t like easy women. You letting him paw at you on a busy street doesn’t exactly scream sophistication, now does it?”
I bark out a dry laugh. “Jealous much, Joshua?”
His cold veneer shrouds his face, and his voice is lethally controlled when he says, “I don’t want to see you crash and burn, Gia. If you fail, it reflects badly on me too. You can’t afford to fuck this up.”
Now he’s seriously pissing me off. “You told me I needed to progress things, to move it along faster. How the hell did you think I’d achieve that?”
“Not like this!” His fingers dig into the armrest of the couch.
“Then tell me what I’m supposed to do, Joshua? Either you want me to continue acting demure and let this play out over months or I do more of what I did tonight so I earn his trust faster. Which is it because your mood swings are giving me a serious case of mental whiplash!”
“I don’t want you to compromise yourself,” he says in a composed voice as his fingers ease their death grip on the couch.
“Then you shouldn’t have assigned me to this job.” I stand and walk to the island unit, grabbing the half-drunk bottle of red wine and a wineglass. I don’t grab a second glass or intend to offer him any because I want him to leave.
Flopping down on the seat beside him, I pour a healthy measure of luscious red wine into my glass and then knock back a long mouthful. The instant I set the glass down on the coffee table, Joshua snatches it and greedily drinks from it.
My mouth hangs open. That is not a Joshua thing to do.
“What?” he asks after swallowing most ofmywine. “You clearly weren’t going to offer me any, and you’re not the only one who needs it.”
I rub at my aching temples. “Why are you here, Joshua?” I ask again. The stress of this evening is catching up to me, and I want to drink my body weight in wine and then crash.
His gaze falls over every feature on my face as he stares directly at me. “I wish I knew,” he whispers.
“Did something happen tonight?” I ask, thoroughly confused.
His eyes bore into mine, and a frisson of electricity crackles in the small space between us. “I didn’t like seeing you with him. I didn’t like him touching you.”
I open my mouth to speak, and he shakes his head. “Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t.” He grabs the wineglass and drains the rest of the wine. “Make of that what you want.”
“Joshua, I?—”
“Don’t,” he says, and my hand pauses in midair. “I shouldn’t have come here.” He stands, grabbing his jacket off the arm of the chair.
“Wait.” I don’t know what the hell is happening between us, but I want to put things back on a professional setting. He is my boss, after all, and my main point of contact. Tonight has been weird, and I don’t want things to remain weird between us. “I want to show you what I’ve been working on.” Walking over to the island unit, I hop up on a stool and open my laptop. I pull up the research report I was working on earlier today before I left for my date. “I was going to send this to you in the morning, but you might as well look at it now.”
He leans one hand on the counter as he peers over my shoulder, staring at the screen. “What am I looking at?”
“I’ve spent the past two weeks examining surveillance cameras on Staten Island and along the route back to the city. I’ve hacked into street cams and private systems trying to piece together footage from the night of the robbery, and it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Elaborate,” he clips out, and I’m tempted to flip him the bird.
“There is no trace of anyone getting onto the cruise liner or off it. I see you and Fiero and the men that were working that night but no one else, and nothing appears amiss.”
“The surveillance systems were tampered with, and Mazzone’s tech team has already investigated and reported on this.”
“Why do you think I wanted to take another look?” That and I’m bored hanging around this apartment during the day. I wanted to make myself useful. “There is something very off about this whole scenario that goes beyond us having a rat working with the enemy.” I angle my head to look back at him,spotting the confusion etched on his face. “You’re not getting my point.”
“Then make it more clearly.” His warm breath fans over my face, and it’s challenging to remain focused.
