Chapter 50
FIFTY
Reese felt like cat woman. She was hovering in a back stairwell of the Hilton hotel in downtown Auckland, waiting for Knight while wearing a black stretchy top and black leggings.
He had called her on her cell phone a half hour earlier, on his way to the hotel from the airport, and they had arranged to meet. She had no idea what time it was, having lost all sense of time zones somewhere over the Hawaiian Islands, but her stomach was telling her it was dinnertime.
When Knight came around the corner a minute or two later, she was seriously disappointed to find he was wearing khaki pants and a navy blue golf shirt. Not only did he not look covert or FBI-ish, he didn’t even look like himself. He looked like an accountant.
He gave her the once over and raised an eyebrow. “Going to the gym?”
“Where’s your disguise? Geez, I thought we agreed to keep it quiet that you’re here.
” Knight had nixed her original idea to have him be there as her fiancé.
“I thought you’d be like in one of those skirts and T-shirts that all the Pacific Islander guys wear here.
If Chatterton sees you like this, he’ll recognize you. ”
“He won’t see me.”
Oh, please, that whole special agent arrogance got old quick. “Well, he won’t see you if you get over here. You’re just hovering in plain view.”
Reese grabbed his arm and dragged him under the stairwell, where cobwebs were dangling from the steel under beams of the steps. Dusty, but dark, just what she needed.
Knight’s lip twitched. “How was your flight?”
“Fine.” She brushed the question off. “Our room is 1212, and here’s a key.” Handing him the key card, she added, “Make sure you take the stairs. Chatterton will never climb the steps.”
He took the key without a word.
“Did you bring your gun?”
“No, I can’t be armed. We had enough trouble getting the New Zealand government to cooperate with our recording these meetings. They weren’t about to allow me to be armed.”
“Well, if you get into any trouble, Maddock should be able to handle it.”
“Hey! I can handle it.”
Reese had forgotten how fragile his ego was, distracted as she was by the excitement of the whole project. Added to that was the dark stairwell, the impending danger of getting caught, the way his hair fell in his eyes, and the fact that she hadn’t seen him in over twenty-four hours.
“Knight, you forgot to give me a hello kiss.” Reese fisted her hand over the three buttons on his shirt. She’d never had sex on foreign soil. Maybe it was time to change that.
He gave her a smile, the one she loved, the one that said he saw right through her, and was ready to play the game.
“Missed me, huh? And you’ve been really demanding lately. Hello kisses, good-bye kisses…what’s next?”
“How about you make me come?” Right here, right now. She pressed against him.
“Sorry, Peaches. I’ve got work to do.” He gave her a kiss on the forehead.
On the forehead.
“Oh, come on, just five minutes.”
He laughed. “Reese, shame on you. You can wait a couple of hours.”
“No, I can’t. All this stealth activity is arousing.” Mission Impossible always got her going. This was like the real-life version.
He bent down a little, easing his legs around her. Sucking her bottom lip, he murmured, “I’ll make it up to you later.”
Stiffening her body so she wouldn’t stick herself to him like a leech, she decided to torture them both. “I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t we go the whole trip without having sex, just to see if we can?”
He pulled back in astonishment. “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. I already know we can’t go three days without touching each other. ”
“You’re probably right. But wouldn’t it be fun? I’m getting horny just thinking about it.” Of course, even grocery shopping with Knight could probably get her horny. Him squeezing the melons, all those cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots just staring at her, reminding her of…
It was confirmed. She was crazy about him.
“I don’t care. I’m not going to share a room with you and not touch you, so forget it.” And to prove his point, he went up her shirt and cupped her breast, all while nibbling on the corner of her mouth.
If he insisted. Reese reached for the button on his pants, relaxing her body, shifting back to her original idea of here and now.
But Knight jerked back and shook his finger. “Uh-uh-uh. I see what that was. It was a trick to get me to do it now. I almost fell for it. Forget it, Reese. I’ve got to go, and this is a stairwell, for God’s sake.”
It had been worth a shot. But maybe he was right. Later that night they could go out to dinner, stroll down to the harbor, and make out under balmy moonlight. It was spring in Auckland, and the temperature was a gorgeous seventy degrees, perfect for romance.
“Fine.” She sighed. This was really the problem with Knight, and exactly why she had known being with him wouldn’t work.
No matter what he said, he liked rules.
Derek had tossed his things on the king size bed in Reese’s room, then along with Schwartz, their equipment guy, he had gone to the conference room where the meeting was scheduled for the following day.
“How’s it look, Schwartz?”
Special Agent Schwartz was a gum chewer, and his jaw moved as he studied the room, walking around, checking outlets, touching here and there.
“It’s alright. Not great, but alright. A little too big for good sound quality, so we’ll have to go with multiple recorders. One on the CW, then one with the camera, of course, and we’ll need another one, maybe in a briefcase or something.”
“Where are you going to put the camera?”
“In this ugly flower arrangement.” Schwartz picked up the pot from the console table by the sofa and shook his head. “This thing looks like my mother’s bathroom wallpaper.”
Maddock came into the room, closing the door quickly behind him. He was grinning.
“What? You met some local girl already?”
“No. But you should hear the recording Markson made of the flight over here.”
Derek caught his enthusiasm. “What? Did they say something incriminating?”
“No, but Reese asked Jenkins if he was spending all his money on Botox.”
Derek felt a pain behind his eyebrows, and he sighed. “Somehow, I’m not surprised.”
“Don’t you want to hear it?” Maddock waved his phone in his face as Schwartz let out a laugh.
“No, I’ll pass.” If he wanted to hear Reese say something outrageous, he could just go upstairs to their room and do it in person.
Maddock looked disappointed. “Don’t you even want to hear the part where the guy comes on to her and she tells him she has a boyfriend?”
A boyfriend? She’d said the word boyfriend? That was really damn hard to believe. Not that it mattered.
It didn’t mean she thought of him as her boyfriend.
He’d look like an ass if he listened to it now.
Like a moony-eyed teenager.
Whipped.
“Maybe just real quick.”