“Only the fact that I’ve done it a bazillion times before,” she said, still scrolling Reuben’s socials.
“Tenley can flirt with anyone.”
Hadley envied the confidence with which Ren said that statement.Flirting was an art and Hadley was pretty sure she hadzeroartistic ability.
“Oh, bummer,” Tenley murmured, turning the phone in Cole’s direction.“Looks like I’m not his type.”
“How can you tell?”Hadley asked, because she would’ve sworn that Tenley was everyone’s type.
Cole sighed.“His socials are pretty sparse, which is smart, given his job.What I’m seeing here—the charities he supports, his hangouts, almost everyone he’s photographed with andtheirpages—suggests that he’s gay.”
“Oh.”Hadley frowned.“Well…maybeyoucan flirt with him.”
“He’d remember me,” Cole said.“He’d instantly be suspicious if I approached him.”
“Maybe Eric, then,” she suggested.
“I think it’d be safer for him to steer clear.If I was able to detect his Russian accent, Reuben probably could, too.Meeting a Russian and then getting an anonymous tip about a Russian sleeper agent would be a red flag.Reuben’s too smart to believe in coincidences.”
Ren’s sigh was long, drawn-out, and positively world weary.“I’ll do it.It’ll cost you, though.”
Cole snorted.“No offense, Ren, but based on what I’m seeing here, you’re not his type, either.”
“Ren is for sure hot enough,” Tenley said.
Hadley would have to agree.Tenley had shown her a picture and Ren could walk into any romance novel in the role of hero (or morally grey villain) with ease.
“But he’s shit at flirting,” she added, giving Ren a pointed look.
He scowled at her.“I do OK.”
She rolled her eyes.“You kidnapped your wife.That doesn’t count as flirting.”
“She married me, didn’t she?”
Cole interrupted whatever Tenley’s reply to Ren was going to be by saying, “ImeantRen has resting serial killer face.This guy seems to favor prettier men.Male model types,” Cole said.
Hadley felt deflated.Where the hell were they going to find a male model who was willing to flirt and commit espionage on their behalf?
Tenley smiled.It was a slow smile.An evil smile.A smile that chilled Hadley to the bone.Then, she said, “I’ve got a guy.He’sperfect.”
Chapter34
Cole wasn’t a man who’d ever thought much about how other men looked.
Sure, he’d noticed that Jensen Ackles was an unusually…aesthetically pleasing dude when he’d caught the occasionalSupernaturalepisode.Anyone with eyes could seethat.But otherwise, he’d never looked at another man and thought about his attractiveness.He’d certainly never felt at all bad about hisownappearance in comparison.
Until today.
The man Tenley brought in to flirt with Reuben was, without a doubt, the prettiest man Cole had ever seen in his life.Not unmanly in any way.Just unnaturally attractive.If someone told Cole this guy was a vampire, he’d buy it.
He was tall.Maybe only a half inch shorter than Cole.Muscled but lean.Moved like he could handle himself in a fight.Features that looked like they’d been carved with precision rather than hacked out with a hatchet like Cole’s.
And he obviously didn’t have a single fucking fear in the world, because this dude?He was married to Tenley.And anyone who hadwillinglymarried Tenley was not a man who should be underestimated.
Tenley bounced out the door when her husband—Knox Wilder, as Cole had been told—pulled up in his beat-up Land Rover.And after stepping out and giving his wife a kiss that made it look like he’d been off fighting for his country instead of just chilling in his mansion one state over, Tenley looped her arm through his and led him into the house while Cole watched through the living room window, eyes narrowed.
What right did any motherfucker on the planet have to be that attractive?It was rude, frankly.Fucking disrespectful.
