“Well, I assure you I won’t do it again.”
“Yes, you will, and so will I, and one day I won’t be so lucky and I’ll have that on my soul for the rest of my life,” she said with a sigh.
“Somehow, I think you’ll be fine. You’ve got a good team.” He needed to focus on the op. She would be gone tomorrow, and then he might never see her again. They ran in the same circles but that didn’tguarantee they would work together. She could get reassigned. He could get reassigned.
She could die.
He could die.
“What’s our cover?” Ben asked, desperate to change the subject. Since the Americans had done the work of getting the invite, he’d let them pick the cover.
She stared for a moment like she didn’t want to let go of the conversation and then sighed and sat back, crossing one long leg over the other. The high slit in the evening gown she wore showed off toned legs and perfect skin. “We’re recently married. You’re a tech investor and I’m your trophy wife. Easy peasy. I included a hefty check in the envelope with your ID and papers.”
Naturally, she’d put him in a position where he had to have his hands on her. “You didn’t think work colleagues was a good way to go?”
He opened the envelope and there was the invitation and all his papers, including a check written out to the foundation holding the gala this evening. The European Children’s Fund was supposed to help children in war-torn parts of the world, but they were in bed with another organization. Manny’s organization.
“I think recently married is something people will buy,” she replied. “We have a certain chemistry, you and I.”
She wasn’t wrong about that. “And Cooper doesn’t mind?”
An enigmatic smile crossed her lips. “Cooper genuinely doesn’t care what I do with my body since I’ve never touched the man. Would never touch the man.” She frowned, suddenly seeming to catch on something. “I mean outside of an op. Obviously we needed to look like a D/s couple in Australia. I should point out that you wouldn’t know about that if you hadn’t been running around with that fucker Whittington.”
“I wasn’t running around with him.” That time had been a clusterfuck of a situation. Her team hadn’t known he was Canadian intelligence. His team had no idea there was another Agency team on the ground. And that was how he ended up tied to a spanking bench in an Australian sex club. “He was literally assigned to help me with an important operation. I work for CSIS. The agency doesn’t send us work rosters, you know.”
She shrugged slightly, the diamond necklace around her throat sparkling in the low light. “Surprise, Ben. They don’t send them to us either. Look, if it had been up to me, I would have sat you down and talked to you. I knew you weren’t mob.”
“They thought I was mafia?” It was ridiculous.
“My team can be suspicious,” she admitted. “But I knew you were intelligence. I knew you were one of the… I want to say good guys. I guess what I should say is one of the guys we can work with. Sometimes what we do doesn’t feel like good.”
It was in the long run. At least it was supposed to be, and he needed to hang on to that fact. He needed to focus on that and what the intel tonight could produce if they played their cards right.
Her hand suddenly ran over his, and he practically jumped away from her.
A brow arched over her eyes. “Benjamin Parker, how are we going to pose as a married couple if you can’t stand my touch?”
“Maybe we’re one of those arranged marriage couples who actually hate each other but stay together for the family.”
There was no way to miss the hurt in her eyes. “You hate me?”
This was what she did. She drove him insane pushing him away, and then she went all soft and he got gooey. He was fucking gooey on the inside for this woman. “No. I don’t, but I sometimes think I should.”
“But only half the time, right?”
She was weird. “I’m talking about the incidents when you fuck me over, and not in a physical way, although leaving me in that rice paddy was a dick move.”
She turned all that charm on him, and he felt an actual dick move. His own. She smelled like citrus and sunshine, and the smile she gave him threatened to rock his whole world. “I made sure you were face up.” She scooted over, and her voice went low. “Ben, I’m sorry. I sometimes get way too involved in an op and forget how to be polite. I think you should understand that. How about we call a truce? You’re so uptight right now I’m worried about you.”
He wasn’t… His shoulders were up around his damn ears, and every muscle was tense because she was here. “I’ll be fine.”
“He won’t,” a voice came over the intercom. “He’s not great when he’s all pent up and shit, and he hasn’t had sex in like a year orsomething, so it’s a lot.”
Tim was a fucking asshole. Ben reached down and shut off the intercom.
She was looking at him with the sexiest smile. “Ben, we need to get comfortable with each other. I know this is a big gala, but the head of the organization is known for being a stickler about who comes to his parties.”
“I would think that check would be enough.”
