“I’m not sure yet. Maybe I can pull the bracelet from the material or thread its stuck on. But come closer so you’re not tugging against the pocket so much.”
She drew closer but kept her head down, doing her best to concentrate on the intricate pattern of the carpet.
Her heart was pumping in all the places it shouldn’t—in her ears, she could hear it pounding; in her wrists, which made her hands tremble; even between her legs, where she could feel it throb.
Don’t look up.
Don’t.
Look.
Up.
But she did.
Her eyes met his. Her lips parted.
Could she do it? The way normal people did. Not as part of a con or pretending to be someone she wasn’t.
Just her and him. Because she wanted to. Hopefully because he wanted to too.
Maybe he will.
I will. If he will.
And then suddenly her bracelet broke free. She blinked and hastily pulled out her hand, forcing him to do the same.
Once her hand was free, she took a step back.
Right about now, she was hoping for a 9.5 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. With any luck, a hole would open up under her feet and swallow her so she wouldn’t have to face those eyes and that arrogant grin, not to mention that snake.
She remembered Charles telling her about a snake in Chile with both a slow- and fast-twitch tongue.
That’s the one. That’s the snake. The one with the slow- and fast-twitch tongue.
“I don’t have a key card,” he said matter-of-factly.
Nico’s eye’s ballooned. “What?”
Damn her voice. Even that trembled.
“I forgot it. But that’s okay. I don’t need it.”
He stepped around her and punched some keys on a panel to the right of the door. She hadn’t noticed the panel. She didn’t have one for her room.
The door clicked, and he pushed it open. She turned on her heels and made a move to go, but he grabbed her wrist.
“Aren’t you going to come in?”
“No.”
Why did he want her to come in? Stupid question. After everything she’d revealed, why wouldn’t he? She was here. She was available. And given what he’d learned about her, she was up for anything. Or just about anything. He was too drunk to think about the mess he might wake up to. Too drunk to realize she was a member of his team and all the possible things that could go wrong were they to hook up for one night.
She tried to yank free, but he held on. She might not have minded if the pounding in her wrists wasn’t so insistent. There was no way he couldn’t feel it beneath his fingers. And she didn’t like what it might be telling him. What she knew it was telling her.
“Not even to make sure I make it to my bed safe and sound?”
“I don’t think we have to worry about that.”
