Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
“All right, everything is ready and you’ve got all your new ID that identifies you as Nina Banks, but we’ve hit a snag and we’re probably going to have to redo it all under a new name,” Big Tag was saying. “Did you get the email I sent out?”
Nina sat in the conference room at McKay-Taggart. Unlike the London office, this one wasn’t set in a gorgeous botanical BDSM club like The Garden. The Dallas office was sleek and modern, reminding her this was all business and she shouldn’t be thinking about the gorgeous man next to her as anything but a client. JT Malone had shown up long before she’d thought he would, walking into the conference room with his twin, Michael. His identical twin, though it was easy to tell them apart. Michael was grave and serious, where JT’s smile lit up the room.
She forced herself to focus on the authority figure. “Yes, sir. I got it this morning. I don’t think it will be an issue and it won’t require a new name. I think the best cover would be going in as Mr. Malone’s friend. From what I understand, plus ones are perfectly acceptable at this retreat.”
Charlotte Taggart sat next to her husband and a single brow rose over her intelligent eyes. “Really? I was going to go with journalist. You’re a reporter writing a story about young business leaders and how they’re shaking up Wall Street. I can put it out there that you’ve interviewed Andrew Lawless from 4L and a man named Seth Stark. They’re both willing to back up the story if anyone asks.”
That was an excellent cover. Truly bloody excellent, and she couldn’t use it. And she couldn’t tell Charlotte why she couldn’t use it. What was she supposed to say now?
The silence lengthened, and Nina fought the urge to stand up and walk out. Her brain was blank. She was better than this. The man next to her was short-circuiting all her best instincts.
“That won’t work.” JT came to the rescue. “Everyone knows I don’t talk to reporters. I’ve got a thing about it. Right, Mike?”
Michael Malone frowned and sat back, giving his brother what could only be described as the evil eye. “You’ve got a thing about sleeping with the wrong people. You see, my brother slept with the reporter who was supposedly doing a story on the family business. After he slept with her it turned into an exposé of how our family was disintegrating and wealth had ruined us all.”
JT groaned. “I was twenty-two and I was upset because my brother had run off and joined the Navy and left me all alone. I get chatty when I have a couple of beers, and she used me. And I don’t sleep with the wrong people anymore. I sleep with the right ones, even if they seem like they’re the wrong ones.”
She could feel every inch of her skin going pink, but she fought through it. “Mr. Malone knows his people best. I think we can come up with a good cover where I go in as his companion.”
“Fiancée,” JT corrected.
Now it was Big Tag’s brow rising. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Nina prefers keeping a polite distance in these kinds of operations. If she’s your fiancée, she’ll have to stay in the same room with you. Unless we’re pretending like it’s 1820 and Sandra is guarding her virginity. That might require a different wardrobe. How do you feel about turtlenecks?”
She should have told him the truth. Or at least some facsimile of it. She should have known nothing got past Big Tag. “I met with Mr. Malone earlier. We ran into each other at the hotel. Unfortunately, we also were accosted by several of the members of his leadership team who were there looking for answers about the senior Mr. Malone’s illness. We were seen together, and Mr. Malone introduced me as his fiancée.”
“I panicked.” JT had the earnest thing down. “I’m sorry I put Ms. Blunt in this position, but honestly, it’s for the best. I wouldn’t bring a new girlfriend to this retreat.”
“He’s never brought a girlfriend at all,” Michael admitted.
“I brought Dana,” JT said quietly.
Michael turned his way, a sympathetic look crossing his face. “Dana wasn’t your girlfriend. She was a friend. She was a girl.”
Oh, now she very much wanted to know who Dana was. JT’s jaw had tightened, his eyes going down.
“Well, she was the only friend I ever brought, so it would be odd for me to show up with someone I wasn’t serious about. I’ve had a couple of girlfriends over the years and I didn’t take them on the leadership family retreat because those girlfriends weren’t family,” JT replied, his voice perfectly even. “I’m not a spy, Mr. Taggart. I’m not good at this. I understand how to get oil out of the ground. That’s about it. If I screwed this up, then maybe we should think about scrapping the whole thing. I know trust is important in this business.”
“So is corporate espionage.” The last member of their group seemed to peel away from the shadows. He was lanky, with gray eyes and pitch-black hair that tumbled over his forehead in a very boy-band way.
Nina stared at him and then back to Tag. “You’ve vetted him, right? You actually talked to someone at Langley and made sure he’s not some operative’s teenager who went a bit wild?”
Big Tag gave her a genuine smile. So often the man smirked in that arrogant way of his. “I assure you, he’s the real deal. Mr. Magenta there is straight out of Langley. Gen Y is now in the house.”
JT seemed relieved to get to talk about anything but the way they’d screwed up. Though she had to admit he’d done everything he could to take the heat off her. “He’s the CIA guy? I thought he was like your kid or something.”
“My oldest kids are in first grade,” Tag said, his brows furrowing. “He’s at least a freshman.”
The young operative put his hands on his hips. “I’m twenty-three, asshole. And I’m not Mr. Magenta. I asked you to call me Mr. Black.”
“No can do. I already killed Mr. Black,” Tag shot back. “Blew his ass all over the Arabian Sea.”
Charlotte stared his way.
Tag put a hand over his wife’s. “No, baby. We share everything. Including our successes. I shared the unholy amount of money you brought into this marriage, all the children, and I share in your kills, too.” He slid a slow smile her way. “I’ll give you half the credit when I track down Levi Green and stuff his entrails so far up his ass they come out his nose.”
Charlotte appeared perfectly fine with that. “Deal, baby.” She turned back to the CIA employee. “And I think Mr. Magenta suits you. Your generation is very gender fluid. I applaud that heartily.”
The kid was staring at Tag in apparent horror. “You do know what entrails are, right? They’re kind of already attached to the ass.”
“Not after I get done with them, they’re not.” Tag started to explain his version of revenge in ridiculously over-the-top detail.
“Is this that thing where CIA agents don’t want you to know their real names, so they make one up?” JT leaned her way, his voice going low. “I’ve only met two in my time and they both called themselves Mr. Black.”
She turned slightly so she could whisper his way. “Sometimes an operative will go under a different name to keep anonymity. Mr. Black or Mrs. White or something like that. Why did you deal with the Agency?”
“I drill in some of the world’s hot spots,” he replied. “Trust me. I’ve met with Agency reps. I was working in the Middle East and they contacted me about putting a man named John Brown on the payroll so it looked like he had a job there. He’s still on Malone Oil employment files. Then there was a lady named Jane White who needed access to a conference we were attending.”
Michael leaned over while Tag and the Agency kid were arguing about murdering a CIA asset. “Did you sleep with her?”
Michael knew?
JT sent his brother a nasty look. “I did not.”
“Fine, call me Drake.” The kid sank down into his chair.
Tag actually gagged. “No. I will not call you Drake. Where did you get that name? From a bad soap opera?”
“From my mother, asshole,” the kid replied. “You know I might be young, but I’m a freaking genius, and I’m creative. I’m also really good with all the latest poisons. I won’t kill you, but I will make your dick shrivel up. Would you like a cup of coffee, man?”
Charlotte laughed. “Oh, you’ll do well, Drake. And I’m sorry, but go for it. I had our fourth kid recently, so I’m okay with not seeing his dick again.”
Big Tag was grinning. “Don’t be so quick to act on that. I’m going to get my balls scooped out and then we can play forever.” He turned to the kid. “Drake it is then. Drake, I know we’ve read the pertinent reports, but I would like for you to go over it all again since our primary has changed. According to his brother, JT is a himbo who doesn’t read much.”
JT sent his brother his middle finger.
It made her think about the fact that her sister had always casually tossed her under any bus she could. Alicia was petite and perfect, super feminine, and far more interested in her hair than her studies. She understood how JT must feel.
“I believe Mr. Malone understands the operation well enough,” she said. “He certainly understands his business, and the technology they’re trying to steal was something he helped develop, so how about we don’t disparage his intellect.”
That had every head in the room turning her way, but she wasn’t about to back down. It might be time to remember that she was a badass and he was her partner.
For now.
Tag gave her a nod. “All right. Drake…that’s so bad.” His wife’s hand came out, slapping against his chest, and he seemed to take her cue. “Please go over what you’ve found and why we’re doing this.”
“I would definitely like to know why you think my admin is a spy,” JT said. “She’s a major bitch, and I actually say that with respect. She’s smart and she takes absolutely no shit off anyone, which given that she’s a female in the petroleum industry, she kind of has to. And no, I’ve never slept with her.”
“Not because she hasn’t tried,” Michael said under his breath.
Well, that cleared up a few things. She needed to treat JT like he was any other partner she was going to go into an op with. Especially one who didn’t have training and was absolutely above reproach. JT wasn’t trying to sell his own tech. He was a man who’d been thrown into something he wasn’t ready for.
He was a man who wouldn’t understand how badly this could go because there was a core of goodness to JT Malone that wouldn’t allow him to see that dark side. He was shoved into a world where everything and everyone had two faces.
“I believe the team discovered a connection between a few of the suspects,” she said. “I can go over the whole report with you later, but a man named Greg Hutchins has been working with Mr. Drake here.”
“Just Drake,” the CIA agent corrected. “And yes, I’ve been working with Hutch.”
“I know him. He’s a good guy,” JT said.
“Where do you know Hutch from?” She was curious. According to everything she knew, David Malone was their primary contact with Malone Oil. The Dallas office provided the company’s security here in the States, while they worked with former CIA agent Tennessee Smith in the more remote locations of the world. But as far as she knew, Malone Oil had in-house cybersecurity, which was Hutch’s specialty.
“I know him from the club,” JT replied.
“The club?”
“Sanctum.”
The room seemed to get much, much hotter. He was a member of Sanctum? He belonged to a damn BDSM club? He would be a Dom, an indulgent one. He would be the kind of top she’d always dreamed of.
“Of course,” she replied, praying her voice hadn’t gone up a notch.
“Hutch hasn’t spent any time at Malone Oil,” Big Tag explained. “He’s done some consulting with their IT department, but they don’t know what he looks like. It’s why he’s on a plane right now. He’s going in as the resort’s IT guy, but don’t think he can’t handle himself. Like Sandra, he’s there to back you up if you need it.”
“He’s a very smart guy. I don’t understand why he left the Agency.” Drake looked thoughtful for a moment. “He could have gone places.”
Hutch had been one of Ten’s men, as her boss Damon Knight referred to them. Michael had been on Ten’s team as well.
Michael leaned forward, giving the CIA agent his attention. “I left at the same time. We didn’t like how the Agency treated our boss.”
Drake shrugged one broad shoulder. “You were on a Special Ops team. You were good cannon fodder. Hutch was on track to be an agent.”
JT snorted slightly. “Well, I’m sure you were the best cannon fodder, Mike. Now someone tell me who you think stole my prototype. I’ve been working on that material for years. I was worried it was my chief engineer.”
“Your chief engineer is dead,” Tag said flatly.
“Yeah, he was in a car…” JT stopped. “You think someone killed him. You thought he was the one, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Drake acknowledged. “We discovered William Murphy was meeting with a man we believe works for the Reconnaissance General Bureau.”
Nina leaned toward JT because the only reason she knew what Drake was talking about was years of intelligence work. “North Korean spy agency.”
He gave her the most intimate smile. “Thanks.”
She was not going to go gooey. “But we’ll be looking for a Westerner. His name is Joe Hall. He formerly worked for the embassy in South Korea, which is where the North Koreans likely recruited him. He’s the go-between. He’s the one who met with your engineer.”
JT shook his head. “Bill and I worked together for years. Why would he do this?”
Charlotte took that question. “He was diagnosed with terminal cancer six months ago. I believe he was looking for a payout to help his family.”
The expression on JT’s face made her heart twist. “He didn’t tell me. He’s got two kids and his wife…she quit her job to stay home with them. I went to his funeral and they didn’t say anything.”
“Probably because I could arrest the wife if I could prove she was involved in his decision,” Drake mused. “I haven’t been able to yet.”
“Leave her alone.” JT pointed his way. “She’s going through enough. You leave her out of this.”
Mike put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m sorry about Bill. I know he was a friend of yours, but he was spying.”
“No, he was in a bad place and didn’t know how to get out of it.” JT sat back, looking weary. “I should have known.”
“He should have told you, but he didn’t, and we’ll leave his wife out of it. Somehow I don’t think a housewife from Houston will be doing any spy work,” Tag offered. “Now the reason we believe one of the workers on this retreat killed him is the fact that they all had contact with the engineer in his final days.”
“We have an office in Houston,” JT explained. “He worked out of there. I would expect a lot of people came in contact with him.”
Drake was studying JT as though trying to figure him out. “But only three of them are going to the retreat.” He pulled a tablet out of his bag and flipped it around to show JT something. “Your assistant took a vacation to Hawaii a few weeks ago.”
It was a screen capture of one of Deanna’s social media pages. She was wearing a bikini, a fruity drink in her hand, with the caption “loving life in Oahu.”
JT nodded. “Yeah, she takes two weeks a year and almost always goes to Hawaii. I’m afraid my business isn’t great for fun travel. We’re in the Middle East a lot. And North Dakota. It’s not so surprising she’s goes to the islands with her friends. Friend. From what I can tell she’s only got the one.”
“There’s a problem with this picture.” Drake moved his finger over the screen to zero in on the sign behind her. The Beach Bar, established 1972 . “The Beach Bar burned down six months before she posted this shot. All the other shots of her vacation appear to be from different times as well. Except for this one.”
He switched the picture to one of a plate of sushi with the caption “time for dinner.”
“I would think sushi is pretty popular in Hawaii.” There was a frown on JT’s face, like he knew something bad was coming but he didn’t want to hear it.
“I tracked down the plates and the presentation of the sushi along with the silverware and flatware and table linen. There’s only one restaurant that has all of those in combination and that’s Harold’s,” Drake explained.
Drake was a desktop investigator. She would bet he’d been recruited for his hacking skills, or he’d designed some software the Agency was interested in. She would also bet all of his experience was technical, which was exactly why Big Tag was sending in Sandra and Hutch—both military vets. But the kid was good.
JT sighed. “Harold’s is in Houston.”
“And the particular sushi she’s eating was a special from a night two days before your engineer died and the prototype went missing,” Drake explained.
“There’s a reason I stay off social media,” Big Tag said with a shake of his head.
“And the rest?” JT asked.
It was easy to see that this whole discussion was bothering JT. She wasn’t sure what to do about it. “According to the reports I’ve read, the other two were in Houston that week for a conference. The truth is all you need to worry about is giving me cover. I’ll handle the mission once we get to the island. I assume Mr. Drake will be coming with us.”
“I will,” Drake acknowledged. “Because the whole resort has been bought out by Malone Oil, my only choice is to go in as staff. I’ll be working as waitstaff. Hutch assures me we’ll be able to have eyes on the suspects at all times. I believe the North Korean asset will likely try to make the drop someplace outside the resort. You have a few activities planned off site, correct?”
“We have deep-sea fishing one day, and there’s a beach on the other side of the island where we’ll go for a picnic. There’s also hiking pretty much every day. It’s not hard to get away from the group,” JT admitted.
Tag pointed his way. “That’s why we’ll need everyone to take shifts. I would like to have Nina in a less high-profile position, but it seems like that option isn’t on the table.”
She didn’t think JT needed more guilt. The poor man had been through a lot this morning. He’d found out his one-night stand was going to turn into a week-long nightmare, and that people he’d trusted had betrayed him. She knew what that felt like all too well. “I can make it work. I can certainly keep an eye on the admin. Or rather, she’ll keep an eye on me since she’s already accused me of being a hooker.”
Big Tag looked right at Drake. “A hooker is a woman who sells her sexual services for cash. Although some might take credit cards now.”
Drake’s eyes rolled so far back Nina was almost certain he could see inside his own brain.
“And we should call them sex workers,” Charlotte added.
“That’s what I thought, too.” It was good to know they were on the same page. Girl power. “She seemed very rude.”
“She is. You’ll have a time with that one,” Michael said. “I’ve never understood why JT didn’t fire her.”
JT pushed back off the table and stood. “Is that all? Because Nina and I should probably get to work. What’s your wardrobe like?”
“It’s like clothing. Normal amount of cotton blends. I brought a nice pair of trainers,” she admitted.
JT shook his head. “We’re going shopping. You’re supposed to be the fiancée of a billionaire. I assure you Deanna will know exactly how much your clothes and shoes cost. We’ve got a week until we go to the island. I have to do some work at the office, but with my father being sick, they can’t expect me in every day. However, I’m going to assume it might help for them to see you coming up to the office to spend some time with me. You’ll need to be dressed properly, and by properly I mean expensively.”
Charlotte sighed. “I like the makeover part best.”
Makeover? But he did have a point. Her clothes were perfectly fine for an assistant coming to her first retreat. Not so great for a coddled and indulged fiancée.
“I think you two should spend a lot of time together between now and the retreat,” Big Tag announced. “You need to get your stories straight. I mean it. I want you to speak in one voice when someone asks you how you met. You need to figure it all out right down to where you proposed. One person is already dead. I’m not going to lose Damon’s newest operative because of chemistry.”
“Our chemistry is…” she began.
JT put a hand on her arm. “Of course. We’ll work on that this afternoon. Maybe I can make her like me by buying a shit ton of expensive shoes.”
Charlotte sighed. “It always works for me. Go to Nordstrom and ask for Helena.”
“We’ve put three of Helena’s children through private school with Charlie’s purchases.” Big Tag stood and gave his lady a hand up. “Come on, baby. I can hear Travis from here.”
Sure enough, a low wail was coming from the hallway. Charlotte Taggart had recently given birth to her fourth child, a son they’d named Travis Taggart. There was a daycare on this floor, so the employees didn’t have to be far from their children. Damon was talking about expanding the nursery they kept at The Garden for Oliver Knight and Nathan Carter. When Hayley went back to work, her and Nick’s daughter would be joining the boys.
She liked the daycare, liked having the children close.
“Mrs. Taggart, he woke up hungry.” A young woman strode in carrying a tiny bundle in her arms.
“He’s always hungry.” Big Tag held out his arms and took the baby. “Come on, son. Let’s go to my office. I’m not going to miss a chance to see your mom’s boobs. Now remember, you’re only renting. I bought.”
Charlotte laughed as she followed them. “Have fun. I’ll expect all the Pretty Woman -like details the next time we talk.”
“Yeah, I suspect we’ll definitely have a talk very soon.” Michael was watching his brother like he didn’t want to let him go.
But she rather thought JT’d had enough of his brother’s opinions for one day. She reached for his hand. “We should probably get used to showing each other some affection in public.”
His fingers immediately tangled with hers, sliding in like they were puzzle pieces. “Yeah, we should. I’m known for being pretty affectionate with my girlfriends.”
“You are?” Michael’s brow had risen.
He squeezed her hand. “I am. You’re not around much so you wouldn’t know. Come on, baby. I’m going to call you baby.”
It’s what he’d called her the night before when he’d held on to her so tight she thought he would never let go. Just the word coming out of that man’s mouth sent a shiver of desire through her.
“Ms. Blunt, could I have a moment of your time?” Drake asked.
JT took a step back, and she hated that she felt colder without his hand in hers. “I’ll go pull my truck around. I’ll meet you out front.”
Michael followed his brother and she was left alone with the CIA agent.
“I know I’m young, but don’t underestimate me.” There was a hint of steel in Drake’s gaze. “This is my op. I don’t care what Taggart says. If I’d had my way, I wouldn’t have called any of you in, but Malone wouldn’t work with an Agency team.”
“Good for Malone.”
“I have to wonder about that. Given that his son used to be on an Agency team, I would have assumed he understood, but we all make do with what we have, I suppose. I checked into you.”
She stood up a little straighter. “I would expect nothing less.”
“I read about the situation that led to you leaving Interpol. I will assume you’ve learned from your mistakes.”
“I hope so. If you have a real problem with me, I can get on a plane back to England this evening.” It might be for the best. But she also hated the idea of JT going in alone. He was obviously out of his depths, and one person had already been killed over that prototype. JT wanted to believe in his people, and he would need someone to look out for him.
It had nothing to do with the fact that she could feel his hands on her body.
“Not at all.” Drake was roughly six foot four, with a muscular build that hadn’t completely filled out yet. “I prefer to work with experienced agents, and there’s no better experience than failure. At least that’s what everyone tells me. I think a woman who’s been burned before likely will play a relationship cover with care. She won’t get caught up in a handsome face and miss the clues.”
“Clues?”
“JT Malone was in Houston, too,” Drake pointed out. “JT Malone is the only one I know of with the mechanical expertise to have done the job on the engineer’s car. It was quite a professional job. I doubt the admin would know how to do more than hook up her smart phone.”
“Why would JT do something like this? It’s his company.”
“And he feels trapped. He blames his brother for leaving him behind. I’ve made a study of the man,” Drake stated. “I believe this could be some revenge on his part. This would be the ultimate betrayal of his brother’s beliefs.”
“Do you have any family?” Despite the fact that he was an operative and obviously brilliant, he was still only twenty-three. She had to treat him like the young adult he was, and that meant educating him when he needed it.
“No. I’m an only child.”
“Then you can read all you like about JT Malone, but you can’t understand him in this. I can. I have a younger sister. She’s horrible. I mean she’s the worst human being on the face of the planet. And if someone tried to hurt her, I would stand in their way. Because I am her older sister. Because it’s what we do. She’s awful to me in social situations and yet when everything went down with Interpol, she was there for me. She’s the one who found Damon Knight and pushed me to interview. What you witnessed here today was irritation. Nothing more.”
“I’m going to ask you to keep an open mind and open eyes,” Drake said.
“Always.” But she didn’t believe for a second that JT had anything to do with the theft and espionage. The kid might know how to figure out a mystery, but he couldn’t read people yet.
“And it’s obvious Mr. Malone is trying to charm you. I suggest you keep a cautious distance.” Drake’s eyes came up. “If you find yourself needing company, give me a call.”
She stared at him for a moment. “Are you seriously telling me to call you if I get horny, little boy?”
The right side of his mouth kicked up in a grin that made her think one day the kid might have some game. “Spying is a stressful business, Nina.”
She turned and walked away. It was going to be a long op.
JT ignored the buzzing of his cell. He knew exactly who it was, and he did not want to talk to his brother right now.
He was going to have a hard enough time talking to Nina, since he was almost completely certain she was going to try to pull away.
He wasn’t going to let her. He was going to have one good damn thing come out of all of this, and it would be getting a chance with that British honey.
Oh, and she had tasted sweet. He should have had most of the morning to get his mouth on her again, but no. Someone had to be an asshole.
Someone had to be a traitor.
There was a knock on the window and there she was. He unlocked the door and she slid in beside him.
“We should talk.”
“Of course.” He pulled out onto Pearl Street. He’d known she was going to want to talk about how everything had gone sideways, but that wasn’t where he was going to lead the conversation. He liked to keep things positive. After all, that was how he dealt with almost everything. “First off, you’re going to need at least three bikinis. I think you’ll look gorgeous in blue. It will totally distract the bad guys.”
“I didn’t mean we should talk about what I’m going to wear, JT. I mean we need to talk about the fact that we didn’t know we were going to work together when we slept together.”
He wasn’t going to argue with her about that. “Well, now we know we’re totally compatible. It probably would have been awkward if we’d been thrown together and told ‘hey, now you’re engaged.’”
She sent him an adorably irritated frown. “Well, for one thing we wouldn’t have to pretend to be engaged if your employees hadn’t caught me in your bedroom. And why did you go straight for engaged?”
“I thought it was easier than saying we’d actually gotten married.” He snapped his fingers as he remembered something. “We should stop by Tiffany and get you a ring. At least three carats.”
Her eyes went gorgeously wide. “Three carats? As in diamond?”
“Of course,” he replied. “Unless you’d rather have a sapphire. It’s up to you. Anything you want. But I’m serious about the blue bikini. Also, you’ll need at least three cocktail dresses. It’s not too formal, but the women do tend to dress up.”
She shook her head as though forcing herself to focus. “I don’t need an engagement ring.”
“You do. Look, I’m fully willing to leave all the spy stuff to you, and you leave all the fancy stuff to me. I know I look like I rode in off the range, but I have excellent taste. I get that from my mother. She’s British, too. Why she married my ornery old dad I have no idea. My momma is a lady of the highest order, and she taught me to appreciate the finer things in life.” He needed her unfocused, or rather focused on him. “See, we can start a new tradition. In this relationship, the women shoot and the men make things pretty. Don’t discount making things pretty. I’ve spent months at a time on oil rigs, and I would have killed for some decorative pillows.”
“I don’t want to talk about clothes or jewelry,” she insisted, though there was a huff in her breath that told him she kind of did want to, but she was going to be all business. “Obviously you know best how to help me fit in with your people. We need to talk about the fact that we slept together and now we’re going on an op.”
That was a perfect setup. “And sharing a room, so again, I think we’ve made things far less awkward. You will like our room. It’s the presidential suite.”
“Does it have separate bedrooms?” She asked the question like the right answer could solve all her problems.
“They can connect several rooms when the resort isn’t full, but Dad likes to keep everyone close, so we’re all in one wing of the resort.” She wasn’t getting away that easily. He stopped at the red light and turned her way. “Are you saying you don’t want to sleep with me? Did I snore?”
“No.” Her face fell.
Oh, this was exactly how to deal with the gorgeous operative. She might be good at killing the bad guys, but she didn’t want to break his heart. He’d noticed her compassion while they’d been in the meeting earlier. She hadn’t liked it when Mike had put him in a bad position. She was a woman who picked sides and was inherently loyal. He knew exactly how to work her. “Was it…was it bad for you?”
She groaned and her head fell back. “It was fabulous and you know it.”
He did. He gave her a grin. He knew he was being a manipulative bastard, but he fought for what he wanted, and he wanted her. “It was good for me, too. It was kind of the best.”
She’d gone a delicious shade of pink. “Really?”
“Really.” He turned onto the access road. It was good to be alone with her again. The conference had unnerved him. His brother constantly said he was na?ve, and now he might have to agree with him since it appeared someone had been murdered on his watch. “It was one of the best nights of my life. Followed by one of the hardest afternoons.”
Her hand came out, covering his own. “I know it was rough. You need to remember that none of this is your fault.”
It was difficult to think that way. He was the boss. His dad might walk into the office and everyone bowed down, but he’d left the day-to-day operations to JT for the last few years. His father was getting ready to retire. “It doesn’t feel that way. I should have seen that something was going on with Bill. I need to figure out how to take care of his family without making his wife uncomfortable. Bill’s wife is very proud. Not in a snooty way, but she’s not one to take handouts, which is why I would be shocked if she knew what Bill was doing. He was desperate. I can’t imagine what that must feel like.”
Nina was staring at him, a sheen of tears in her eyes. “There aren’t many people in the world who could find out an employee committed an act of sabotage and still find a way to care about him.”
He put his eyes on the road. “I believe my twin would say I’m na?ve and inexperienced.”
“Is he right? Have you been sheltered all your life?”
“Sheltered from certain things, yes. I’ve never had to worry about money, so I don’t think much of it. But I’ve been out in the world. In my brother’s eyes, because I’ve never been a part of a military unit, I’m soft. He’s never been on an oil rig when pirates decide to show up. They’re real, you know.”
“I do,” she replied quietly. “They’re troublesome and violent.”
“And I was in charge of that rig. I’m in charge wherever I go.” He could still remember how scared he’d been that he would lose his workers. He was responsible for their safety. “Did I want to shoot the fuckers? Hell, yeah, I did. But I had to sit there and negotiate because we were outgunned.”
“That was the smart thing to do,” Nina assured him. “You took care of your people.”
And then he’d worked with some locals to take the pirates down. “I’ve had to deal with mobsters, and I didn’t speak their language. I didn’t have a team of badasses behind me. I had engineers and geologists. I’ve also seen some of the worst poverty in the world and known that everything I have would be a drop in the well of trying to cure it. But I can help Bill’s family. I can make a difference to them.”
“You could always tell her the company took out an insurance policy on him because he was so important and replacing him would have been costly,” she suggested. “It was an outdated policy from years ago. But now you realize that money should go to them.”
She was good at this. He wasn’t the only one who could manipulate his way around a situation. “That could work. She shouldn’t have to worry about her future when she’s in mourning. I’ll put that into play. Thanks, baby.”
Her shoulders went straight. “You can’t call me baby.”
He had an answer to her denial. “I thought I was supposed to call you that. You’re really more of a baby than a sweetheart. My dad calls my mom honey, so that doesn’t work. Not that you aren’t sweet.”
She shook her head, obviously flustered again. “See, that’s what we can’t do.”
“I thought that was what I was supposed to do. We’re getting married.”
“We’re getting fake married.” She thought about that for a second. “No, we’re fake engaged. We’re not actually getting fake married.”
“You’re going to leave me at the fake altar?”
“There is no altar. Fake or otherwise.”
“All right. You want a non-conventional fake wedding. I can make that happen.”
A frustrated groan came from the back of her throat. “JT, we have to work together.”
He smiled her way. “I know. I think we’re going to be good at it. I feel way better knowing you’re going in with me. Though we should talk about a couple of things. You know about Sanctum, right? It’s a lifestyle club.”
“I work in a lifestyle club.”
He’d been curious about this part of her life. “Are you in the lifestyle? I have Master rights at Sanctum.”
“I have Master rights at The Garden,” she replied.
He knew damn well that was a lie, and he wished he had the right to spank her pretty ass. “No you don’t, sub.”
She kept her eyes on the road, but there was some humor in her tone. “How do you know I’m not a top?”
“Because I topped you last night. I took control and you responded beautifully.” Knowing that she was in the lifestyle actually explained a few things to him. She had responded when he’d taken control, and she likely would enjoy more dominance when it came to the bedroom.
“What if I told you I was a switch?”
He wouldn’t have guessed she would like to ever top anyone during sex, but he could give it a go. After all, being a top was all about giving a bottom what they needed. “I would ask if you needed a real sub to top or if I could learn how to do that for you because I think I would have trouble watching you with someone else.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Are you for real?”
“Last time I checked.” He drove in silence for a moment, trying to figure out how she was feeling. “I’m not perfect. Far from it.”
“From where I’m sitting you’re pretty close.” She shifted in her seat. “So we should talk about how this needs to go.”
“Yes. I think we should start with some minor impact play.” He wasn’t going to have this conversation with her. Not the one about all the reasons they shouldn’t continue to sleep together. There wasn’t any reason they should stop. In fact, it would help their cover if they were sleeping together. She was clinging to some rule that didn’t need to apply to them.
“I take back the part where I said you’re perfect. You’re obviously very thick.”
He could turn that around, too. “I’m glad you noticed. I thought it worked well lengthwise, too.”
She stared at him. “You think I’m talking about your dick, don’t you?”
He did not in any way think she’d been talking about his cock, but he’d learned that hiding his intelligence could help him out in numerous ways. It was always good to be underestimated. “And I appreciate the compliment. Now let’s talk lingerie because there’s always some asshole who shows up in the early morning hours and I can’t have them thinking I force you to wear my old shirts. They’ll start to worry about my finances, and then they talk to a reporter and suddenly my stock tanks. I think there’s a La Perla here.”
“La Perla?” She sat up straight, smoothing back her hair. “You’re not going to be serious about this, are you?”
“I’m perfectly serious about giving you the best cover possible.”
“It’s not going to work,” she said quietly.
“Yeah, it will.” He was talking about exactly what she was. It would work. They could work. But she wasn’t ready to hear that yet.
Nina went stiff, and for a moment he was worried she was going to insist they have this fight here and now. That was something he wasn’t ready for. Not even close. “JT, do you see the SUV behind us?”
He glanced in the rearview mirror. Sure enough, there was a gray SUV behind them, a single male in the driver’s seat. “Yes.”
“Take the next exit. I want to see if he follows.”
He did as she asked, getting off of 75 and turning left on Mockingbird. The SUV followed close behind. “What do you want me to do?”
“Let’s stop and have some lunch and see if he picks up after we’re done. I’ll send Big Tag the plate number just in case.” She was on her phone, texting. “I could use some Mexican. It’s the one thing I can’t get in London. I mean, obviously we have Mexican restaurants, but it’s not the same.”
Mexican it was then. And then he would show her exactly what he had to offer her.