“Xavier Harrington is definitely a supernatural,” Brielle announced softly over the radio, as if reading Caleb’s mind. “Though I’m not exactly sure what his abilities are yet. He gets visions. In fact, he’s getting them right now. But they’re only a blur of random images coming so fast I can’t tell what they mean.”
Caleb looked across the atrium to see Brielle watching Harrington out the corner of her eye. McKay had gotten Brielle assigned as an interpreter for the French delegation, which had to be the most perfect cover ever. She was even wearing a glamorous black cocktail dress that let her blend right in with the other fancy people. Except she didn’t really blend in at all. On the contrary, she stood out like a rose among weeds. Hands down, she was the most exquisite woman here.
It took Caleb a few minutes to realize he was staring. It wasn’t his fault. Brielle was so damn beautiful. It was hard being close enough to see her but not able to touch her. Actually, hard was an understatement. A better word for it would be painful.
It had been like that since they’d made love in the safe house outside of Moscow. While his nose was as crappy as ever, for some reason, he still found himself able to pick up her honeysuckle perfume. Even now, he could smell it across a room this large. But while touching her was pure heaven, being separated from her when they were in the same room was agony. It seemed he couldn’t go five seconds without thinking about what it had been like sleeping with her.
He clenched his jaw as a member of the French delegation leaned close and whispered something in Brielle’s ear, then laughed at his own joke. It was impossible to miss the slimy bastard’s interest in her, and it was all Caleb could do to stop himself from striding across the atrium and ripping the guy’s face off.
“Dude, you might want to chill out a bit,” Forrest said from beside him. Crap, he hadn’t even realized his teammate was there. “Your eyes are starting to glow. That might be a bit hard to explain if someone sees.”
Caleb dragged his gaze away from Brielle, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to focus on Forrest and the small plate of hors d’oeuvres his teammate held, hoping it would calm his omega side.
“What was that all about?” Forrest asked after it seemed like the impending bout of berserker werewolf had been forestalled. “Not that I really need to ask, considering all the noise the two of you were making the other night.”
Caleb grimaced. “You heard?”
Brielle would be mortified if she knew Forrest had overheard them having sex.
“You kidding me?” Forrest let out a soft snort and turned slightly away from him so it wouldn’t be obvious that a diplomat was talking with a security guard. “Dude, half the neighborhood probably heard you growling and her screaming. Hell, Genevieve almost pounded on your bedroom door more than once, worried you’d gone all werewolf and were devouring poor Brielle.”
Caleb almost chuckled. Yeah, Genevieve seemed like the shy type. She probably would have blushed so hard she passed out if she knew what he and Brielle were doing in his room. “I’m surprised nobody said anything the next morning when we came down for breakfast.”
“We wanted to,” Forrest admitted. “But we decided as a group that Brielle wasn’t ready for teasing like that, so we agreed to bite our tongues for now.”
“Thanks,” Caleb muttered, not sure what else to say.
He and his teammates ribbed each other about pretty much anything and everything. The fact that they’d decided Brielle and her night of loud, wild sex with him was off-limits was definitely surprising.
“Don’t mention it,” Forrest murmured. “Besides, when the time is right, you better believe we’re going to remind you and her of that night. It would be irresponsible of us not to.”
Forrest walked away to help himself to more hors d’oeuvres from the bar area. Caleb would have loved to eat a few dozen of those pigs in a blanket right then, but security guards weren’t supposed to eat on duty. So he couldn’t.
Instead, he turned and glanced at Brielle again, a growl slipping out when he saw another Frenchman talking to her.
“So, you and Brielle, huh?” Forrest said, coming back over to him, casually eating a tiny pastry-wrapped hot dog. “Gotta say, while I didn’t see it coming, you’re good together.”
Caleb started to say that, yeah, he thought so, too, but he stopped, the words getting mixed up somewhere between his head and his mouth.
“I’m not sure we’re going to keep seeing each other after this whole thing is over.”
The thought of never seeing Brielle again hurt so much he could barely breathe, and he actually swayed a little on his feet.
Forrest looked his way, surprise on his face. “Why would you say something like that?”
Caleb suddenly felt stupid for even opening his mouth. When the hell had he suddenly become thesharingkind? But it was too late to backtrack now. Forrest would never let this go. Besides, if he didn’t talk to someone about it, he’d go frigging insane.
“We’re too different,” he said, finally putting words to the doubts filling his head. “She’s a beautiful woman who could have any man on the planet. I’m a soup sandwich with anger management issues, a criminal record, and one screwup in STAT standing between me and a ten-year prison term. I mean, seriously, why the hell would someone like Brielle ever want to have anything to do with me?”
“Don’t ask me,” Forrest said with a chuckle. “You’re right about her being way too good for you. But considering the fact that you two are sleeping together, it’s obvious she sees something worthwhile in you.”
Caleb shifted from one foot to the other, rolling his suddenly tight shoulders. “That was just sex,” he mumbled even as a part of him hated to think that was the case.
Forrest frowned. “You honestly don’t believe that, do you?”
Caleb didn’t say anything, mainly because he wasn’t sure what he believed. He wanted to be wrong about this but…
“Look,” Forrest said. “Even if you are right about it not meaning anything to Brielle—which I don’t think you are, by the way—I can tell that sleeping with her obviously means something to you or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Am I right?”
