ELEVEN
Con stood at the side of the bed, staring down at the woman lying there. The sheet was smooth as silk, pulled up over her breasts, but one bare arm extended above her head.
He pressed a fist to his lips. Sophie was a striking woman. Awake, her features came alive, her eyes sparking with intelligence and her face expressive. In sleep, her features were equally as stunning. Long lashes fanned across her cheekbones. Her plump lips pouted invitingly, and that small crease between her brows that she got whenever she was puzzling over something was smoothed flat.
For the past few hours that Con spent working, he contemplated the best time to wake her. They were on a mission, after all. He’d kept her away from her duties long enough, and they didn’t have time to spare.
She looked so peaceful, though. Shaking her awake to the harsh reality of deciphering a cryptogram, believed to be linked to a future act of terrorism, felt wrong to Con. He’d spent his entire military career keeping people like Sophie in the dark about the ugliness and cruelty of the world.
He reached out and touched her arm where it rested over her head. Her skin was cool. He inwardly groaned. He could guess how good she would feel against his own naked body right now.
He wasn’t going to find out. They’d had their fun. The previous night was a one-and-done. He only allowed himself one slip.
“Sophie.” He shook her arm gently but couldn’t stop himself from trailing his fingers over her skin.
Her eyes flew open wide and fixed on the ceiling. After a heartbeat, the fog in the depths cleared, and she turned her head to look up at him.
Swiping her tongue over her bottom lip, she rasped, “What time is it?”
“0500. I mean, five a.m.”
“I know what 0500 means.” She pushed into a sitting position, grasping the sheet against her nudity.
Knowing that all he needed to do was draw that silky sheet off her body to get her soaking wet and ready for him brought an ache to his groin.
“What’s going on?”
Her question jolted him back to his reason for waking her. He took a step away from that inviting mattress and the sensual woman on it.
“I didn’t want to wake you, but we need—”
“To get to work.” She started to slip a foot out of bed but stopped with her foot dangling midair as she realized she wore nothing but a sheet.
That feminine arch of her foot and ankle made him want to dive into bed with her.
Hell. If the guys ever learned that he was getting turned on by banal body parts like a foot arch or ankle, they’d harass him for the rest of his days. He’d have to leave Charlie team.
He moved to the door in order to escape the lurid images and lust crashing against his brain and groin in waves.
Sophie avoided his gaze, but the flush of roses in her cheeks spoke of her level of discomfort.
“I’ll just get dressed.”
“Of course.” He turned in an about-face that would have made his commanding officer back in basic cry. Hurrying to the coffeemaker, he made a mug for himself and one for Sophie. If they were going to work together after what they’d done the night before, they’d both need the caffeine to stay on their toes.
Carrying both drinks to the table, he carefully set them down and took his seat behind the laptop he was working on. Several screens were open with various information about the man detained at the airport. Several agencies in the US government had provided him with enough dirt on the guy to give Sophie that it should spark the insights she needed.
When she emerged from the bedroom in a pair of trousers and a Princeton T-shirt, he met her stare. Should he bring up last night? Would it be better to ignore what happened and throw themselves into work?
Should he compliment how beautiful she was the day after?
Fuck .
“You need to have a look at this intel.”
She dipped her head in a nod and hurried over. As she eased into the seat, he caught her natural feminine scent.
“Sophie, were you wearing the perfume last night?”
She snapped her head away from the screen and blinked at him. “Do you think I was trying to trick you into sleeping with me?”
He scrubbed his knuckles over his jaw, creating a rasping sound. “No. I mean…”
She sat back in the chair, arms folded over her chest as she studied him. Like she didn’t already have him figured out, dammit.
“You’re trying to find a reason for having sex with somebody you’re working with. I get it.”
She made him sound like a cad…because he was a cad.
Moving the other chair away from the table, he took a seat facing her. “Last night wasn’t like that, Sophie. I don’t know why I asked about the perfume. I know you weren’t wearing it.”
“How do you know?” She arched a delicate brow.
“I would have smelled it on you. I took you to bed because I wanted to. It wasn’t some hormonal urge brought on by a perfume.”
She dragged in a deep breath. “Thank you for that, Con. I enjoyed my time with you as well. Now we both better focus on what we’re here to do.” She leaned forward and set her fingers to the keys, dismissing him.
Con studied her face for a beat before he took over at the other laptop set up adjacent to her.
“I made you coffee.”
She looked around the desk, wrapped her hand around the mug and drew it to her lips with a soft, “Thanks.”
Soon she became so engrossed in the information he provided about their suspect, he thought a bomb could go off in the building and she’d never lift her gaze from the screen.
He sucked down his coffee and made another, stronger this time. Every move Sophie made, he was too aware of it. How she shifted in her chair. How she leaned close and flipped her hair behind her shoulder.
With each move, he found himself trying to guess how her mind analyzed the information.
He wanted to be inside her head.
Hell. That couldn’t be good.
When his phone vibrated on the table, he snatched it up and brought it to his ear. “Con.”
“So did you score?”
He could almost see his second-in-command’s cocky smile. “That isn’t a matter of importance, and I know that’s not why you called me. What’s going on?”
Henner’s chuckle made Con smile out of reflex. The guy had a laugh so contagious that, once he got started, nobody on Charlie could resist laughing with him.
“Let’s hear it, Chickie.”
He felt Sophie’s focus on him.
“We have a little more intel on our shipping agent.”
“I’m listening.” He didn’t bother to pick up a pen or type it out on the computer. He could lock anything into his mind.
“Deniz is definitely married. There was a question about whether they were still together because nobody’s seen her in a while.”
“That sounds questionable.”
“Exactly. Turns out, nobody’s seen her in weeks.”
“Any clues as to her whereabouts?”
“We’ve checked out all her relatives. She isn’t staying with them and none of them have heard from her.”
“Someone’s holding her?”
Sophie gripped the edge of the table.
“That’s our guess. Which is why we’re on our way to Turkey.”
“I didn’t get word about any order from Barrett.”
“There wasn’t time. He just called and told us to get in the air. We’ll be at the safe house around 1200.”
“Got it.”
“Deniz has a routine we need to lock into. He wakes around 0600 and leaves the house by 0700. He stops off at his local coffee shop then arrives at his office at the shipping dock fifteen minutes later. He attends all five calls to prayer per the Islamic religion. He leaves the office two more times during the day. He meets with a childhood friend for lunch.”
“And the other time?”
“He walks the dock. Alone.”
Con let out a grunt. As Sophie listened to his end of the call, her eyes widened.
“Right.”
“Think he’s pining for his missing wife?”
Sophie let out a soft noise.
“Might be. Or he’s happy to be rid of her. We don’t know more than that. But now you have Deniz’s schedule, and you can pay him a visit.”
“Copy that, Chickie.”
“I’ll let you get back to that beautiful woman now.”
“Chickie,” he said, with a growl of warning.
More of that laughter sounded in his ear before they cut the call.
When he gave Sophie his attention, he waited for her to ask about Deniz’s wife. Instead, she asked, “Why do you call him Chickie?”
“It’s for his last name—Henner. Hens and chicks.”
“He’s the one with the blue eyes?”
Con didn’t like that she had noticed his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Who said anything about a plan?”
She tipped her head to the side, giving him an exasperated look. “Why else would they call?”
He pushed air through his nostrils. “We’ve got Deniz’s routine.”
“We’re going to follow him?”
He shook his head. “You’re not doing anything but staying right here, working on that cryptogram. Did any of that intel help you get in the suspect’s head?”
She nodded. “I have enough of a history that I can make some guesses that will help me decipher the cryptogram. And there is the matter of this email that just arrived in his inbox.” She pointed at the screen.
He gave her a sharp look. “You didn’t mention an email.”
“It arrived right as you answered your call.”
“What’s it say?”
“It’s another cryptogram.”
He leaped up to look at her screen. Sure enough, the email only contained a single long line of code.
“Who sent it?”
She wagged her head in answer. “That’s the thing. The IP address is hidden by a VPN. The email address was a disposable temporary one that deletes after it’s used. The sender also used an encrypted, secure account. There’s no way of tracking it.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
“Right.”
“I’ll make sure the appropriate people get control of this guy’s emails. It’s not what we hired you to do.”
She didn’t answer, absorbed in what she saw on the screen again, leaving Con to study her profile. Feminine. Lovely.
And that Princeton T-shirt was driving him crazy.
When he and Charlie team went to intercept Deniz, Con had to make certain that Sophie was left with an armed guard. He wouldn’t take any chances that she could be snatched.
It was protocol—not personal. While he didn’t want any harm coming to a woman on his watch, it definitely was not because he cared about her.
Definitely not.
* * * * *
When the knock came at the door, Sophie jumped. Con automatically reached out and touched her arm.
“That will be one of my guys.”
She twisted her lips the same way she did while she worked on those cryptograms—as if she was trying to puzzle him out too.
“What’s going on?” She didn’t miss a thing, did she?
“He’s going to stay with you while the team and I pay a visit to the shipping agent.”
Under his fingers, her arm tensed. Then he realized he was still touching her long after he needed to be. Or should be.
He slowly drew his hand away and clenched his fingers to keep from reaching out and caressing her again.
“How long is this going to take?” she asked.
“I can’t say for sure. We’re making initial contact with him.”
“What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?”
He didn’t like the worried wobble in her voice. He walked over to the mini fridge and got her a water. “Stay hydrated while you work. Take breaks. Okay?”
She took the water with a nod. “I’m close on the latest cryptogram sent by the CIA. But I think it cross-references the big one we received.” She bit down on her lip in a way that had his gut clenching.
Another rap on the door jerked him out of his absorption with a woman he had no business fantasizing about. He already had his one shot. He wasn’t going to touch her again.
In a few strides, he reached the door. When he opened it to find Henner standing there, he groaned.
“I don’t know how comfortable I am leaving Sophie in the hands of Mr. Blue Eyes,” he muttered.
“Come again?”
“Nothing. Get in here.” He pulled the door wider to allow his teammate’s bulk into the room.
Henner was dressed in street clothes and looked rested, while he had been up all night.
Didn’t matter. Con was always going to be better.
As soon as he turned to see Sophie on her feet, a pleasant smile on her face, Con liked leaving her in Henner’s hands even less.
He closed the door a little too hard. “Sophie, you remember Henner.”
“Hello.”
“Ms. Edwards.” To Con, he shot a glance over his shoulder. “The guys are waiting for you in the car.”
“Got it.” He didn’t budge.
Sophie’s stare shifted to Con. “I’ll be fine.”
Great—now he felt like he was hovering.
“She’s in great hands, boss man.”
It wasn’t that Con thought Henner would make a move on her. Or that Sophie would end up in his teammate’s bed the way she had his. So what was stopping him?
With no good reason to stand there anymore, he walked out.
Once outside the hotel, he dragged in a gulp of the breeze that carried notes of exotic things on it—spices, flowers and the sea. Sophie needed to get outside more and soak all this in.
God, he was really losing it over this woman, wasn’t he?
He found the car waiting right where he expected it to be. As soon as he slipped into the front seat, Mason and Steele greeted him with big-ass smiles that made Con feel like he was coming home to his family.
“Are you gonna tell us what happened after you shut off the glasses?” Mason asked.
“No.”
“Come on. Share with the class.”
“Just drive.” He fought the urge to smile even as a growl rumbled up his throat. What he did in private with Sophie was his business. It was bad enough that the guys had known something was about to go down between them. If he had to do it over again, he would have ripped those glasses off long before they ever came close to the point of no return.
As Mason navigated the streets of Istanbul, Con asked Steele for an update. Meanwhile, he swung his head left and right, taking in everything they passed. The market—Sophie would love the brightly colored fabrics and ripe produce on display. The modern architecture of a library—oh, she’d adore that.
What was wrong with him? He needed to get a grip.
They parked outside of the mosque their target was known to frequent. The low chant of the prayer echoed across the square. They’d timed it well—the chant ended just a minute later. Con scanned the group of faces leaving and immediately picked out Deniz.
“I’m on him.” He took off through the crowd of men returning to work, knowing his teammates were on his six.
As he stepped up to Deniz, the man stopped walking. His gaze flicked past Con to the others.
“Can I help you, gentlemen?” Deniz asked in impeccable English.
“This is about Zehra.”
On the surface, he didn’t react to his wife’s name. But the flicker in the depths of his dark brown eyes told Con that he understood the significance behind the words.
Deniz held his gaze. “Come to my house. After dark.”
He nodded.
“You know where I live, I assume?”
Again, Con gave a nod.
“You have to come in over the water so you aren’t followed.”
“We will.”
Without another word, Deniz continued walking. Con watched him until he reached the end of the street and turned the corner.
Tonight. At dark.
Mason stepped up beside him. “We could be walking into a trap.”
Con scoffed. “I don’t think so.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“The man loves his wife. I saw it in his eyes. He’s going to do anything he can to get her back.”
Con didn’t have a wife or even a girlfriend. He wasn’t allowed to have anybody in his life. The closest he’d gotten to having someone in his life was his one night with Sophie.
What would he do if somebody got to her? His chest grew tight at the thought.