Diamonds Are Truly Forever: An Agent Ex Novel 2 (26 page)

He was breathing hard, but she had him where she wanted him. She dug her spiky heels into his back.

He stopped moving and stared at her.

“Well?” she whispered, breathless and on the edge herself.

“A hot Cuban agent with a shapely butt who wanted nothing more than to play grab-ass with me.”

She squeezed him harder, in both places.

He gasped. He was barely holding on and, from the look in his eyes, it was killing him.

His discomfort pleased her. She was barely hanging on, too, and her legs were beginning to quiver. “And did you?”

“Stace, she taught me how to dance because I asked her to, for you. You taught me how to love. I’ve never wanted anyone else.”

She released the python-like pressure of her legs around him, eased up on the spikes in his back. He took that as an invitation and thrust so hard into her she nearly banged her head on the headboard. But she hardly cared. The climax of her life crashed over her. She moaned.

Drew grunted and held her close. He covered her moan with a kiss so hard and tight she couldn’t breathe, which heightened the gorgeous sense of pleasure washing over her. For a second. Until she really couldn’t breathe. She struggled beneath him to break free of his kiss. He was paying her back for punishing him.

Finally, she managed to push his mouth away and break free.

His eyes danced with malicious, teasing light. “Never say I can’t kiss you senseless. That was wicked, Stace.”

She took a deep breath. “That was nothing more than what you taught me.”

He grinned and bent to suck her neck.

“Stop it!” She wedged her hands against his chest and tried to arch away from him. “You’re going to leave a hickey.”

“That’s my intention.” He kissed her on the hickey she was certain he’d just made and pulled away.

“I meant, you taught me to get intel any way I can. All’s fair in love and spying.”

He stared down at her. “So, Mata Hari, do you think you got the truth out of me?”

Damn him,
she thought. She was sure her jealousy showed. “If not, I really made you sweat it with a lie.”

He grinned and rolled off her. They were both silent, catching their breath.

Finally, he got up and picked up his clothes.

She silently watched him walk to the closet and grab a pair of dark jeans. “You’re serious? You’re really going on a mission tonight?”

He looked at her as if she was crazy for asking. Then he went to the dresser, opened a drawer, pulled out a handgun, and tossed it to her.

Crazy, but she caught it. “A new Pocket Nine? I hope the safety is on.” She checked. It was.

He grinned as she stared at it. “It’s time you had a better weapon.”

Meaning what? The old one he’d given her after she’d learned he was a spy had always been ineffective? Or she was in more danger now? Which, given the events of the last few days, was probably true.

Her new gun was a petite little thing, definitely a purse pistol that would fit her hand. What did this mean? That he trusted her now? “What about my old gun?”

She had a gun at the house. Drew had taught her how to shoot right after he gave it to her, insisting she needed to know how to defend herself.

“Traded it in for this one.”

“My gun purse is still at home,” she said. She had a special purse with a built-in zippered holster. Drew had given it to her for her birthday one year. After he left, she stopped carrying it.

“We’ll get it tomorrow. I’ll take you to the range for some practice with this one. In the meantime, if you need to use it, remember to get close and aim for the right eye.”

She gave him thin, suspicious eyes.

“Sleep with it when I can’t be here. I’ll arm the system while I’m gone. Don’t go downstairs. Keep the bedroom door locked. The door’s reinforced and the lock is sturdy. This room and the connecting bathroom are where you live.”

She stared at the gun. “Do I get bullets?”

He tossed her a box of them.

“You’re showing a lot of trust. I could always shoot you.”

“Then who would you salsa with?”

The wine was wearing off and her head was clearing. She stared at him. He looked too hopeful. She had to set him straight. “You know this was a two-off, right?”

He returned her stare, his eyes going cold. “What are you talking about?”

“I said the last one was a one-off and we slipped up, too much wine and salsa, and here we are in a two-off. But this can’t keep happening. We’re almost divorced.”

He shrugged. “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

“Yeah, about those hand grenades—be careful tonight.”

The smile returned to his eyes.

“Just saying,” she said.

*   *   *

Staci was left alone to bask in the afterglow. Unfortunately, that was not an atypical situation. James Bond may have been “love them and leave them,” then they later turned up drowned in a vat of crude oil. But Drew had always been love her, leave her, and return. Duty called at the most inopportune times, but he’d managed to keep her safe from all manner of horrific deaths and return to love another day.

And now, while she was glowing, she was also worried. Drew had been too happy and bounced back too quickly from her two-off comment. Her husband was a confident man, but he wasn’t cocky, not about their relationship.

Still, he was also a man who knew how to pry intel out of the most belligerent, tight-lipped, opposing forces. He could read people’s minds as well as a mentalist. Maybe better. Which meant Drew absorbed intel through his skin. Just what intel did he think he had?

She tried to think back to what had changed between the spy store and now.

Mandy.
She’d only left Drew alone with Mandy for a dance and a half, maybe two and a half. She’d been having so much fun on the dance floor with Noe, she hadn’t been counting or paying particular attention to Drew and Mandy at the table. But when she had caught a glimpse of them, she’d relaxed. They’d each been engrossed in their own texting.

She grabbed her cell phone and called her. “What did you say to Drew while I was dancing with Noah?”

“You woke me up to get the scoop? Couldn’t it wait until tomorrow?”

Staci shook her head. “Don’t mess with me. You don’t sound a bit sleepy. And anyway, Drew’s out so now’s the only chance I may get until Monday.”

Mandy laughed. “I asked him,
Who’s, Noah, really?
”

“And did he tell you?”

“What do you think?”

Staci blew out a breath, relieved. “That’s it?”

“I told him to dance with you.”

“So you’re to blame for that.”

“Guilty as charged. Hey, I was just on Facebook, trying to find the dirt on Noah.” There was a tease in her voice. She sounded as if she didn’t expect to find out his true identity. “Shouldn’t you update your status to ‘reconciled, back in a relationship with the husband’?”

“What?”

“It would give more credibility to your cover. You might tweet about it, too. Think about it. And now, get some sleep.”

Mandy hung up.

Update her social media status? What a ridiculous idea. Staci shook her head. She was not changing her status. What was the point?

She’d already been through the pain of the social media circus once when she announced her divorce. She couldn’t stand to go through it all a second time. And no way was she telling a public lie.

Staci stared up at the ceiling. Even her former boss, Bill Walker Junior, had IMed her, expressing how sorry he was. He’d introduced them and felt particularly bad about the way things ended up.

Poor Bill, his heart had been in the right place. He had no way of knowing he was setting up his most honest junior buyer with a lying secret agent. To this day, Bill still believed Drew had just been a common salesman.

Staci had worked for Bill at Walker Manufacturing, a small local plant on the Duwamish that made custom plastic moldings and parts. It wasn’t an exciting job, but it was a foot into the world of business and they paid half of her graduate tuition as she worked toward her MBA. Bill was a middle-aged family man who loved to play jokes and tease.

As a buyer, he wanted her to meet the suppliers and took her with him on supplier lunches to teach her the biz.

“Get to know your vendors and suppliers as people, and they’ll respect you when you go head-to-head in negotiations,” Bill told her. “I know the names of all my suppliers’ spouses, kids, boats, and pets. All their hobbies. The books they’ve read in the last year and the movies they’ve seen. You’d do well to follow my lead.”

Though supplier lunches were typically good old middle-aged boy-fests, the food was free and meant she didn’t have to cook after work. Bill teased her about setting her up with the single vendors who came by. And then followed it by saying, of course, that was a bad idea, probably leading to something unethical like getting his supplies for a steal. He always said it with a twinkle in his eye. “It never hurts to have a pretty girl along to distract them.”

For her part, after the first time, she was prepared to be disappointed by Bill’s idea of a hot match for her. A premier online dating service he was not. He had no grasp of her many points of compatibility, and chemistry was a failed subject for him.

“This is how you see me? As some old, fat guy’s girl?” she’d said.

“He’s settled and has plenty of money,” Bill said. “What more could a girl want?” Then he’d paused. “Oh, that.” He’d grinned.

She’d rolled her eyes and given Bill her specs. She told him she didn’t want a father figure. She preferred her men young, handsome, intelligent, and honest.

At last, the day came when Bill was ready to send her out to lunch solo. “This one’s a hot prospect. For both the company and you. He matches all your requirements. He’s the perfect man for you.”

She pretty much laughed in his face. “Right, boss. There is no such thing as the perfect man. Why are you
really
sending me into the line of fire?”

Bill grinned. “Because I’ve taught you well. And this is a prime opportunity for you to use those skills to find out everything you can about this young man. And maybe flirt a little, in a highly professional way, of course. So when we start to negotiate, we’ll have him in the palm of our hand. For this job, you’re better suited than I am.”

“I’m playing spy now?”

“You’re playing skilled buyer.” Bill’s eyes danced. “Twenty bucks says you’ll love this guy. He’s a great kid.”

“Oh, no fair. You’re just trying to throw me off by calling him a kid, right?”

Bill winked. “Are you refusing a sure bet?”

“Okay. Deal. You’re on. I’d love to make twenty dollars the easy way. You didn’t give him my number ahead of time, did you?”

Bill’s grin deepened. “I always give them your business cell number. Just promise you’ll name your first child after me.”

When she got to lunch, Drew was waiting for her in a round corner booth.

He looked up at her as she approached the table and her heart stopped—blond, the clearest, deepest blue eyes she’d ever seen, and dimples when he grinned at her. They started off sitting a wide berth apart. By the end of lunch, they were comfortably close, well into each other’s personal space.

She learned he was single, never married, had no children, loved dogs, but a pet was out of the question because he traveled too much, and his favorite color was blue. She told him way too much about herself. So much so, he probably had the material advantage over her in any negotiation. But she’d never tell Bill that.

Lunch flew by. All too soon she glanced at her watch. “I have to run.”

“So soon?”

She nodded and frowned, making an expression that showed she was sorry.

“Boss keeps you on a tight lunch schedule?” Drew asked.

“No, but lunch that spills into dinner is probably over the top. And I owe him twenty dollars. I’m sure he’s dying to get it.”

Drew’s brow creased in confusion. “You owe him twenty bucks—why?”

“He bet me I’d love you. And I just lost.”

His eyes danced. “You love me?”

“That’s just a figure of speech. I like you,” she said.

“Boy, you really can’t lie, can you? Not even for my vanity’s sake.” He made a look of mock hurt that was so boyishly charming she nearly melted.

She laughed. “I never lie. I can’t. If I even think about lying, I blush.” Though her cheeks felt hot as she spoke and she certainly wasn’t lying right then. “Besides, this is a business lunch and I’ve only just met you! How could I love you already?” Her heart pattered out of control.

“Ever heard of love at first sight?” He looked so sincere. “I’ve been searching for an honest woman all my life. When can I see you again?”

They married a year later. Everything was bliss at first. Until little things he said started not adding up. He wasn’t where he said he was when he was “on a business trip.” There were a hundred little inconsistencies. Which was why she was sympathetic to her mother’s concerns about Sam.