Easy as.
She whipped out the sparkly credit card. “I always buy all my clothes at my destination!” she declared, waving the card around. “It’s the only way to travel! One simply doesnotbother packing!”
Oh my God. What am I doing. What am Idoing.There’s a reason why I went into nursing instead of going to drama school!
Death by cassowary was starting to sound pretty damn good right now.
The guards were suddenly alotmore interested. As were a number of passers-by.
I’m going to jail.
She opened her mouth again, not sure what was going to come out.
“Well, that must be nice – make sure you have a great holiday,” the first security guard said, laughing and waving her through.
For a moment, Maisie blinked, not sure whether or not she’d heard correctly – but then her brain caught up with her, and she realized that if she didn’t move soon, she was going to miss out on the golden chance she’d just been handed by the universe,which, just this once, had decided to overlook what a complete jackass she was making of herself.
“I will!” she chirped with a smile that hurt her cheeks, trying not to make ittooobvious that she was hurrying away as fast as she possibly could. She strode away without looking back until she found a handy pillar she could hide behind, and then she flopped back against it, trying to catch her breath.
I am never, ever letting anyone upgrade me illegally ever again. It’s not worth the stress! I’d rather ride in the cargo hold!
She wasn’t really cut out for this cloak-and-dagger spy stuff, she decided. Regular life might have been boring and frustrating, but at least it was predictable.
Then again, regular life had brought her Brent instead of Rhys, so she supposed that there were some definite upsides to the secret agent lifestyle.
“Not bad.”
She almost jumped out of her skin at the voice that suddenly came out of nowhere, before realizing that it was just Rhys.
Speak of the devil.
She clutched at her chest. “Don’t scare me like that! And itwasbad! It was very, very bad!”
“You got through, didn’t you?” He shrugged. “The key to these things is to just make sure you commit to the bit, instead of half-arsing it. Which you did. I’m sure that wasn’t even the most outrageous thing those guards had heard so far today.”
Itwasnice to hear some praise for her terrible acting, no matter how undeserving it was. Still, it wasn’t something she wanted to have to repeat. She was here to relax, after all!
Rhys was still up close in front of her, his golden eyes intense. She suppressed a shiver.
“Look,” she said, trying to resist the sudden, crazed urge to grab his face and kiss him silly. “We’ve still got some time to kill,and I really need to get something else to wear. You mind if I do some shopping?”
Rhys stared at her a moment longer, before nodding. “Sure. I’ll keep watch outside.”
“Keep… watch?” she stammered, though she supposed it made sense. Someonehadtried to kill him yesterday, after all. “I’ll be quick, I promise.”
He nodded again, and the two of them walked along until they found a clothing store. It wasn’t half as fancy as the luxury brands she knew were being sold in the international terminal, but it was still a definite step above what she normally wore. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t even remember the last time she’dboughtclothes.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, and she meant it.
It was the quickest shop she could remember ever doing – just grabbing the first few things that caught her eye and doing a cursory check for fit, as well as a pair of sandals. Still, theywerepretty nice, and if she didn’t quite feel like anewwoman as she stepped out of the store in a long, flowy blue dress, bag of new clothes (and old scrubs) in hand, she at least felt like an appropriately dressed one.
Rhys was waiting near the store entrance, leaning against a wall, looking for all the world like a guy idly scrolling through his phone… but she could see how he was taking in everything around him, alert to any possible danger. Tension ran through his body, like a coiled spring ready to release at any moment.
Like a wild animal, she thought, heat running through her body. It was closer to the truth than she supposed literally any other person looking at him would know, and it only made the pooling warmth in her stomach burn a little brighter.
It was a secret only the two of them knew about – the fact that Rhys could, at any moment, turn into a massive, winged, mythological beast.
He looked up as she approached, and his eyes widened, his mouth dropping open.
