Ben Parker stared at the gorgeous woman across from him and wished he’d picked a better alias. What had he been thinking? Brian Peters sounded like a dude who sat in his cubicle and did boring work no one could quite describe as more than paper pushing.
Oh, yeah, that was his cover, and Tim had actually selected the name since he’d been the one to do Ben’s cover. So it wasn’t his fault at all.
He was having a talk with Tim. No more Brians and Johnnys, and he absolutely did not look like a Harold no matter what that shit said.
“Sorry about the other night. I’m afraid I was a bit on edge. I was worried about Tash, you see.” Kara Trent had an accent that matched her background. Straight out of Sydney. There was some working class in there, but then he’d read the dossier on her and she came by it honestly.
When she’d walked into the bar a couple of nights ago, Ben hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. He knew he should have sat back and let Dare have his pick—after all, Dare was the boss and Brian Peters was his happy friend.
Damn it. He was Dare’s friend. He hadn’t meant to be, but Dare’s goodness had truly won him over. Spending months and months watching the man try to survive his father and all the darkness around him so he could save his siblings had proven to Ben that not everyone was terrible. Not everyone turned on him.
Shitty long-term assignment. He was getting in too deep, but it was almost over. The American CIA team was coming in to help facilitate finding the intel he needed to prove to the world that Dr. Emmanuel Huisman was a monster.
Kara Trent was nothing but a distraction, and one he should ignore. And he couldn’t. He’d looked up all her socials, found out she was going to be at the conference, and made damn sure he’d been in the breakfast meant for pharmaceutical reps this morning.
Because if there was a chance of spending even a night in her bed, he would take it.
Although he did actually come to Australia quite a bit. There wasn’t any reason he couldn’t check in on her from time to time.
He never thought that way. He had a mission, and women were lovely to spend time with but never for long and never exclusively.
He rather thought Kara Trent would demand more than he was willing to give.
And yet he couldn’t make himself walk away.
Although now he was worried. The last thing he needed was a couple of women to watch after while he finished up this op. He was on thin ice with his boss, and it would get way thinner if civilians got hurt. It was precisely why he’d convinced Dare not to look for Tasha after she disappeared the morning after their one-night stand.
Which would be a good reason to be a jerk to her cousin so Tasha stayed away.
Every time he opened his mouth to be an asshole, he closed it because she was heartbreakingly beautiful. She was somehow both delicate and strong. Both deeply feminine and yet he got the feeling she could handle herself in a fight.
Why did that do something for him?
“Dare’s a good guy. I think they had a nice time, but he needs to concentrate on this conference. I was surprised to see you here.” He was happy at the steady state of his voice since his every instinct told him to roll out all his moves.
Except his moves hadn’t worked on her that first night. She’d been surly and more than a bit rude. At some point he’d given up because he wasn’t a masochist. She was stunning and he kept up the conversation because by then it was clear Dare was into Kara’s cousin Tasha. He’d enjoyed the banter and talking to the other cousin…something with an L…but he’d given up on getting into Kara’s bed no matter what he’d told Dare.
But here he was jumping right back in at the first sign she wasn’t entirely dedicated to cutting his balls off.
“Oh, I’ve been gearing up for this for months. This is one of the biggest conferences of the year.” She toyed with her cup of coffee, which she’d taken black with one sugar when she found out she couldn’t get a flat white. “I wish it hadn’t been the only time my cousinscould come in. I was planning on sending them out to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days, but Tash changed her mind. Now I’m worried Lou’s stuck at my place watching daytime telly. Not exactly the holiday she wanted.”
Lou. Louisa. That was the name of the sweet-looking young woman with glasses and intelligent eyes. “Why wouldn’t Tash be with her?”
Kara’s gorgeous face turned impish. “Well, now that I’ve seen you again I’m hoping you’ll talk to Dare. Let him know she’s still interested. I think if he was interested, too, she would be up here in a heartbeat.” She reached out and touched his arm. “But maybe you could make her not seem so eager. I shouldn’t have put it like that. Maybe you could say you ran into me and I mentioned my cousin talked about him. Could you keep that a secret? She wants it to be a surprise. Well, I think what she really wants is to see how he feels. If you tell him…”
“He can prepare a reaction.” She had no idea how good he could be at keeping secrets. And he understood. After all, once he’d made a surprise visit to see his fiancée so he could judge whether or not she was having an affair with his best friend.
The fucker.
Manny had no reaction at all. He’d stood there in the hospital, and for the first time Ben had seen him for what he truly was.
He took a long breath and released it because the last thing he wanted was for this woman to catch his anger. It wasn’t directed at her, but it also never seemed to go away. For the last several years of his life he’d had one goal. Expose Dr. Emmanual Huisman for the fraud he was. And he was so close.
So close he should ignore the pull he felt for this woman. Two nights ago he would have told anyone who asked that it would be fairly easy. While she was gorgeous, he wasn’t an animal, and it had been obvious she wasn’t that into him.
Except maybe she was.
Something felt different this time. Maybe she was having a bad night when they met. Maybe she hadn’t felt good. It didn’t matter because it seemed like nothing mattered. His brain had already gone through all the reasons this was a terrible idea, and his dick wasn’t listening. Even to the part about her cousin climbing back into Dare’sbed and potentially distracting the hell out of him.
