Page 6 of Duty Preserved

“Yes. I heard you tell him that.”

Donovan waited. He didn’t move toward me, didn’t reach for my arm. He just waited until I started walking, and then he fell into step beside me. His hand found my back. The touch was gentle, nothing like the grip that had just been on my arm, and I let it stay there because my legs were shaking and the ground wouldn’t hold still.

He walked me through the lobby, past the clerk who barely looked up, to the elevator. Pressed the call button.

“Which floor?”

“Three.”

The doors opened. I stepped inside and turned to face him. He stayed where he was, one hand holding the door. He looked at me with something in his expression akin to curiosity, then joined me inside. He stood a few steps away, arms loosely at his sides. We rode up and the doors opened.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked as we walked into the hallway and the elevator door closed behind him. “It’s not too late to get you medical care.”

I stared at his lips. “Um…” I didn’t want medical care. I wanted him.

I should have said that I’m okay, thank you. I should have said I’m fine, goodnight.

But I wanted to kiss him.

All I could hear was Alyson’s voice in my ear saying that was all she’d hoped for me tonight. Donovan, the only man I would’ve even considered, had suddenly shown back up. It had to be a sign from the universe, right?

I pushed up on my toes and put my hands on his chest. The same chest I’d crashed into on the dance floor. Solid and warm. For one suspended second, his hand came up and touched my jaw. I thought he was going to let me kiss him.

Then my stomach revolted.

The wine came back. The shots, the cocktails, all of it. With a vengeance. Everything right down the front of his shirt.

Oh God.

Oh God.

I turned and ran. Down the hall, keycard already in my hand, fumbling, dropping it, picking it up, jamming it into the slot. The light turned green, and I threw myself inside, slammed the door, and locked it. I stood there in the dark, shaking, with my hand over my mouth and my eyes burning.

Then I slid down the back of the door until I was sitting on the floor with my knees pulled to my chest and my shirt stained. My pride was in ruins.

I was not leaving this room until I could get off this continent.

Chapter 2

Donovan Hughes

I stood by the elevator with vomit all over the front of my shirt and watched Sarah disappear down the hallway. She fumbled a keycard, dropped it, got the door open, and slammed it behind her hard enough that I heard it from where I was standing. Room 312.

She was probably mortified enough without my walking down there to check on her.

She could sleep it off, but that hangover was going to be a bitch tomorrow. No way around it.

She’d crashed into me on the dance floor first. Knocked right into my chest, looked up at me with those green eyes, and for about three seconds, neither of us moved. I’d stepped away because I was working and couldn’t afford the distraction.

Citadel Solutions was here because a friend in French intelligence had asked us to help with a coordinated sweep against a trafficking cell that had been operating in clubs across Paris. The cell’s playbook was simple: find a woman who’d had too much to drink, isolate her from her friends, and move her out before anyone noticed she was gone.

The DGSI, France’s internal security service, had identified the players and built the case. They just needed people in the clubs to watch and wait.

My job tonight had been to sit at a table, nurse a drink, and keep eyes on a man who’d been flagged as one of the cell’s recruiters.

While I was watching him, Sarah walked up to my table.

Just walked right up, nervous as hell, and introduced herself. Tried to buy me a drink. She could barely get a sentence out, but she did it anyway.