Night Shadow (8 page)

game. Hel , her heart hadn’t a clue how to
play
that game.

He wasn’t going to give her instructions until he was good and ready. Lexi

spent the rest of their meal giving him facts and figures about Brazil,

South America, and Atlantic Ocean plant life. He stopped responding

somewhere around sea turtles. She thought the information was both

informative and interesting.

Obviously, Alex . . . didn’t.

After a much too long lunch, Lexi walked beside him down the wide,

flower-lined shell path toward Lucas Fox’s bungalow and the beach. It

really was paradise here. The sun baked her shoulders and the top of her

head. And even wearing boots her step felt lighter. The air smel ed sweet

and salty, almost intoxicating to someone who’d walked out of the deep

freeze of Montana two days ago.

The last thing she wanted to do was go inside the one-room bungalow and

wait for hours for the other operative to get back.

And the absolutely last thing she wanted was to be in that one small room

alone with Alex. Usually she was coordinated, but she felt like a bul in a

china shop around him. Worse, she felt itchy from the inside out. Not a

good way to feel about a fel ow operative. She wasn’t naïve. Lexi knew

exactly what her problem was. She had to nip
that
in the bud, PDQ.

Turquoise water, capped with lacy foam, lapped at the sugary expanse of

the beach for miles as they stepped off the path by silent agreement. It

was as though she and Alex were the only two people left on the planet.

“Did you know Brazil has over forty-five hundred miles of beach—”

Alex stopped, fal ing behind. “Lexi?”

She paused to glance over her shoulder. “Yes?”

“Shut up.”

She hadn’t seen him move, but he was right
there.
She glared up at him.

“Don’t tel me to sh—”

His mouth crushed down on hers, stunning Lexi speechless. For a

nanosecond, she tried shoving him away, both hands flat on his chest.

Then the thought evaporated like fog on a sunny day as the heat of his

mouth made her brain turn to mush. All she could do was feel. And savor.

And want.

His mouth was hard and demanding and tasted of the coffee he’d drunk

after lunch. The flavor of him, the feel of his mouth on hers was

everything she wanted, and everything that she didn’t. Helpless to fight

both him and herself, she met his tongue with her own and felt a rush of

liquid heat surge through her body.

Their kiss was stunningly elemental. Male. Female.

Lost in the taste and feel of his mouth, Lexi freed her hands from between

their chests, sliding them around his waist as he tugged her body flush

against his. She fisted the back of his ridiculous lime green T-shirt,

wanting to climb him. Wanting to . . . No. Wait—What—

She shoved at him—hard—until an entire
inch
separated them. Her mouth

felt swol en and it took a few seconds for her eyes to regain focus. Every

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Night Shadow

instinct inside her screamed to run like hel . The best she could do was

stiffly uncurl her fingers from her death grip on the back of his shirt and

suck in lungfuls of air and try to keep from falling over.

She had to be very clear in her reprimand at his unprofessional behavior.

“That was inexusab—”

“Incredible.” His eyes held hot green promise. She couldn’t look away.

“Against the rules,” she told him firmly. The rules were safe ground.

Familiar ground. “Section C, part four-A, clearly state—”

His mouth caught hers again. Hungry. Aggressive. He nibbled her lower

lip, making her whimper helplessly as she hung onto him as if her life

depended on it.
No. No. No. No!
She tore her mouth from his again, her

chest heaving, her breath raw. “Sexual harassment is defined as any loo—

”He took advantage of her open mouth, kissing her as if she hadn’t said

anything between one kiss and the next. She was sure she had. Hadn’t

she? His sneaky tongue made the heat in her bel y spiral higher, and

rational thought become impossible.

Squeezing her eyes shut against the agony of pul ing her mouth away

from his, Lexi sucked in a gasp of salt-laden air. The hard plane of his

chest felt so damned good against her now-sensitized nipples. She wasn’t

fighting him. She was having a battle royal with herself. She had to win.

“Any look, comment or action with sexual overtone—”

He blew out a breath, half exasperation, half laugh, then swooped his

mouth back onto hers, combing his fingers through her hair, cupping the

back of her head.

His kisses could become addictive. If she let them. Which she wouldn’t . .

. again, the thought dissipated like mist as he took a long, deep kiss that

had her helplessly responding. When he lifted his mouth from hers this

time, she fol owed him for a second before catching herself.

“Implication, subtext—” She was breathing as if she’d run a marathon.

Her breasts ached for the touch of his hands. Moisture pooled between her

legs. When his lips touched hers again, Lexi ripped her mouth from the

onslaught, then pressed her face against the curve of his shoulder so she

wouldn’t kiss him again. It was too much. Too little.

“Or
intent
—” Her fists were locked on his shirt, holding him more tightly

against the pulsing aches all over her body. She felt the bunch and stretch

of his muscles as he tightened his arms around her and took her lips once

more, giving no quarter.

She breached the kiss, sucking air into her starving lungs because when

his mouth was on hers she forgot the unimportant things like inhaling and

exhaling. “—makes an operative uncomfortable in the presence of another

individual within the Organiza—”

She only had time for a quick indrawn breath before he tilted her chin up,

and she caught a brief glance of laughing smoldering green before his

mouth plundered hers again.

This time it was Alex who broke the kiss. Lexi felt groggy when he lifted

his mouth from hers. Her knees dipped. His fingers curled against her

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Night Shadow

bare arms, holding her up. She’d shake off his hold the second she got

feeling back in her legs.

“Do I make you uncomfortable, Alexis?” he asked, voice smoky.

Breathing was difficult. Her lips were numb, her heartbeat manic as she

pushed out one word, “Yes.”

“Good.” He brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Because FYI? You make

me damned uncomfortable, too.”

Five

Lexi wondered if Alex and Lucas Fox knew how alike they looked. They

were both tall, broad-shouldered, dark-haired, and green-eyed, the green

of their eyes almost identical once the two men stood side by side. The

odds against al of those physical characteristics coming into play were

astronomical. Add the fact that the two men worked together, and had

been brought up together . . .

She’d have to reference the percentages before she said anything, of

course. But it struck her as extremely odd.

She suspected Dr. Knight had had more of a friendship going with Alex’s

mother
than with his father. Same went for Fox’s mother. And since Lexi

wanted to be fair, she had to consider there was always the possibility the

two couples had used an insemination process to conceive their children.

And then both chosen the same sperm donor?

She’d check the odds of
that
as wel .

She and the men were walking through a small, empty warehouse on the

grounds of the medi-spa. Since the forensic team had conveniently left

their high-powered lights behind for them, the three of them could inspect

every inch of the place at their leisure. Lexi liked that they were going

over the site with a fine-tooth comb, even though their forensic teams had

left with samples, as wel as the two huge tanks.

She couldn’t conceive of so many people, male and female, wanting to

change their appearances. Sure, she’d cut her hair and had Lasik, but that

was for her career. Everywhere they walked, people were sporting

bandages on some body part or another.

She also couldn’t imagine having some overpriced doctor wielding a

scalpel on
her
body unless surgery was imperative and lifesaving. But to

each their own.

After Alex left the bungalow she’d spent several hours reading Fox’s

report. Chatty, he wasn’t. But she got the gist. He’d materialized three

feet in front of her while Alex was out taking a swim. His sudden,

unannounced arrival had surprised them both. They’d both frozen like

deer in the headlights, with Fox recovering only an instant before she did.

She made a mental note to report to IA that the members of the psi unit

were clearly not fol owing the teleport restrictions listed under Alternative

Travel in the protocol manual.

She knew of Fox’s reputation, but they’d never met before today. His

favorite researcher was Carrie Anne Munroe, a close friend of Lexi’s.

Carrie Anne thought the man walked on water, and like Carrie Anne, Lexi

liked him on sight. He was straightforward and very businesslike. But even

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Night Shadow

though he looked so much like Alex, without the annoying irregularities of

his behavior, her heart didn’t do the kind of calisthenics it did when Alex

was within a mile of her.

It made no sense, if she cared to analyze it.

She didn’t care to analyze it.

This would not do. Not at all. First, she was trying to prove herself as an

operative, not to get heatstroke from being near the most irritating man

on the planet. Second, both the men she’d had long-term relationships

with had been very much like herself. Organized perfectionists. Anything

worth doing, was worth doing exceptionally wel .

Alex Stone was
—Lexi narrowed her eyes as he and Fox walked a little

ahead of her.
The exact opposite.
He was a sloppy rule-breaker. With

really bad taste in clothes.

Fox wore black pants, and a black close-fitting T-shirt. Alex was back to

wearing the garish outfit he’d worn before his swim.
Perhaps he was color-

blind?
Two percent of females were color-blind, and eight percent males.

No, he wouldn’t be part of the Organization if that were the case.

He desperately needed a haircut, she decided; all that dark hair would

look very nice with a neat trim. Of course that didn’t explain why her

fingers itched to comb through the too-long, silky strands. Stil , better to

keep her attention on the back of his head instead of on his rather

spectacular butt in those ridiculous shorts.

Lexi pul ed her gaze away from the men and did a visual sectioning off of

the warehouse, trying to picture it as Fox had described the scene before

things had been moved.

He’d gone and called Alex in from his swim half an hour ago, and the two

men had talked on the beach for eleven minutes, seven seconds.

Effectively leaving her out of the loop.

Not protocol.

Annoying.

But it had given her uninterrupted time to observe their similarities. Wel ,

she’d observed the similarities in the last
two
minutes, because she’d

been looking at Alex for the first
nine.
With the exception of his behavior

on the job and his innate ability to ruffle her feathers, everything about

him appealed to her. Which was no excuse for her against-the-rules

behavior.

And if kissing him back hadn’t been enough of an infraction, Lexi was

pretty darn sure practical y climbing the man’s body should be. Her

cheeks now went hot with embarrassment, and she wasn’t a woman who

embarrassed easily. It had taken several seconds after he’d stopped

kissing her for her to realize that she’d had one leg looped around his

thigh.

Which had taken the “do not fraternize” rule to a whole new level of

violation. Clearly, she’d spent too much time on the underground third

floor at HQ than was good for her.

Damn, she really had to focus.

Since she was part of Alex’s team, she picked up her pace to catch up

with them.

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Night Shadow

“The two metal tanks were here.” Fox indicated a pair of large stained

areas on the cement floor about halfway back from the door.

Alex inspected a tangle of thick electrical cords hanging down from the

ceiling. “Big guns,” he observed. “Generator?”

Fox shrugged. “Could be. But I’m still running with my computer theory.”

Alex tilted his head for a better look at the power-station-sized cabling.