Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
I’m going to marry your brother.
Her words echoed in his head. No, no, she was not.
“It’s really the better choice,” Delaney added, sounding miserable as she twisted her hands in front of her body.
“Ryan explained the situation to me, and you are needed more in Berlin, and he said you didn’t want to be forced to stay with me, so, you’re not.
You can leave. You are free to hop on a plane to Berlin and forget all about me. You’ve already done more than enough.”
He spun on his heel. Yanked open the door. “Ryan.”
His brother rushed toward him.
And Nash clocked him with a punch in the jaw. Just like that, his brother was on his ass. “Stop trying to help.” Nash slammed the door. He whirled back for Delaney.
Her lovely mouth was hanging open.
“There are other agents who can handle the operation in Berlin.” Plenty of them.
“There is only one agent who has a documented romantic history with you.” He took a hard step toward her.
“Only one agent who can play the desperate and determined, former lover who came running so that he could stop your marriage ceremony.” Another hard step.
Her wide eyes were on him. “Only one who was consumed with jealousy and had to steal you away.” She’d backed up against the edge of a big, wooden desk in the room.
There was nowhere else for her to retreat.
So he eliminated the last bit of distance between them.
He leaned forward, slapping his hands down on the wood on either side of her.
“Only one who wants his second chance. Who will do anything for it.”
She wet her lips. That sexy, pink tongue. Those full, plump lips.
“That’s our cover story.” His gaze lingered on her mouth.
Because, yeah, he wanted her mouth. He wanted her.
“That’s our back story. It fits perfectly.
Much better that way. Less chance that Wellington will realize that he’s walking straight into a major trap.
He won’t know that I’m CIA. He’ll just know that I’m the man who took you away from him.
” He finally yanked his gaze up. Locked his eyes with hers.
“Our cover story,” she repeated. Her head tipped back as she held his stare.
“The cover story will have to look very, very real,” he warned her.
“We will look real. You won’t look real with Ryan or any other random agent because you won’t be comfortable with them putting their hands on you.
” I won’t be comfortable with them putting their hands on you.
I will want to break those hands. The same way he wanted to break Kurt Wellington’s hands.
“Kurt will know how you act with lovers. So he won’t buy the bait if you look too stiff. With me, you won’t—”
“He doesn’t.”
His brows shot up. “Doesn’t what?” She’d lost him. And he’d been trying to sell his case so hard.
“Doesn’t know how I act. Kurt and I were not lovers. So he doesn’t know how I act with a lover.”
His hands pressed harder to the desk. “Don’t tell me what you think I fucking want to hear. You were going to marry him.”
“Why would you want to hear that?”
Because he was insane with jealousy. Because the thought of Kurt touching her, fucking her, made him want to rip the man apart.
“Why would it matter to you at all?” Delaney asked.
He leaned in even closer to her. “It matters because I’ve never been able to stop thinking of you as mine.” Even as he said the words, Nash knew he’d crossed a major line.
A shake of her head. “I’m not—”
Aren’t you? Because I never stopped being yours.
“I’m not lying to you. We didn’t have sex. I’m not going to say that we didn’t—didn’t kiss, didn’t do other things but—”
His mouth took hers. Slammed down onto hers and devoured, and he should not have done it.
He should have held onto his control but ever since he’d gotten her back—I want her back, I needed her all this time—he’d been on a razor’s edge.
And he didn’t want her thinking about someone else’s kiss.
Didn’t want to hear about someone else kissing her or touching her.
Nash wanted to obliterate everyone else from her memory.
He wanted to kiss her.
He wanted to give her pleasure.
To claim her. To take and possess her. Forever.
Her hands were on his chest. Soft. Light.
One hand over his heart. The heart that has belonged to her for years.
Her lips had already been open when he took her mouth.
His tongue thrust inside, tasting the sweetness there, desperately needing it.
He knew how dangerous he was, knew that he needed to pull back, and Delaney was the only thing holding him in check.
Holding him in check even as his need for her pushed him to the edge.
His hands flew to her waist. He lifted her up. Sat her on the edge of the desk, and he stepped between her spread legs. His hands remained on her waist. He didn’t want to let go. The others were just beyond the closed door, and he didn’t care.
Delaney mattered.
She’d always mattered.
Her tongue slid against his. Her body shuddered in his grasp. He wanted, he needed, he—
Her mouth pulled from his. Her breath came too fast.
“This is why I’m the man for the job.” He had to say the words. Had to make her understand that no one else was going to do. “You react to me, and it’s real.”
A shiver slid over her body.
I react to you, and it’s consuming. He swallowed. “It’s not going to be the same with someone else. Kurt will see the lie. He’ll smell a trap and think you went straight to the cops.”
“I did go straight to the cops.”
No, you ran straight to me. She hadn’t known he was CIA.
“I called Agnes because I knew she was a Fed.” Whispered.
Technically, Agnes was a former Fed. Currently, his sister was a small town sheriff hiding out with her very dangerous husband. But this did not seem like the moment to reveal all those details. “Next time, you call me.”
Her long lashes flickered. “You hated me. I couldn’t call you.”
Had she thought about calling him? He would have come running in a heartbeat.
Would always run to her. “Hate never enters the equation when I think of you.” Never had, never would.
“Maybe you hate me, though.” Hadn’t he feared that?
The love she’d once felt for him must have turned over the years.
Twisted. That was what betrayal would do. Twist and destroy.
She pulled in a quick breath. “I didn’t even have your number. I didn’t know where in the world you were.”
“You’ll always have my number from here on out. You need me, you call, and I’ll come running.”
“Nash…why?”
Because it’s you. Because it’s always been you.
“I’m the best agent for this job.” Safer words to say.
“I will fit better with you because we have a history. Our bodies know each other. That works for us.” He stared down at her beautiful face.
“You won’t react this way to someone else.
” Damn well not to my brother. “We need to put on a show, and, together, we can do it.”
He’d said the wrong thing. He could see it in her expression. The minute the words slipped from his mouth, Nash knew he’d made a colossal mistake.
“A show. Right.” She dropped her hands. “Because nothing you feel for me is real.”
Screw that. “Touch my dick and you’ll feel how real my desire is for you.”
“Lust.”
Yeah. He had plenty of that. But when it came to Delaney, there was so much more involved.
“Lust is fleeting. It doesn’t last.” She rolled back her shoulders.
“Really? That’s weird. Pretty sure I’ve been lusting after you for years. Do tell, though, because I’m curious, when will it stop lasting? When will it finally end?” Because he was thinking he’d still want her when he was ninety.
Before Delaney could reply, a fist pounded into the door.
“Jez is leaving! She has to get the trap in motion.” Another hard bang of Ryan’s fist. How many times would Ryan interrupt?
“Before she goes, Jez has to get Delaney’s consent.
That means Delaney has to get her sweet ass out here and say what she’s going to do. ”
She’s not going to fake marry you, Ryan. That’s one thing she will not be doing.
Nash realized that he still had a grasp on Delaney’s waist. His fingers flexed against her. “I will keep you safe. I will play the lover who could not let you go.” I am the lover who could not let you go. “I want you to trust me. I am the man you need for this job.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
He laughed at those fun words. “Sweetheart…”
She flinched.
“I’ve been hurt plenty. Hell, a few months back, I took a bullet to the side while I was protecting my sister. Before that, I got a knife to the stomach.” A shrug. “Danger, risk, being hurt? That’s all part of the job. None of that shit scares me.”
A little furrow appeared between her eyebrows. “You were supposed to be a doctor. How did that change? How did you change?”
He looked down at his hands. Once, they had been all about healing. These days, they were far too good at killing. “I will keep you safe. I will help you to trap the man you were going to marry. And then…” His words trailed away.
“Let me guess. Then you’ll walk away once more? Just vanish? Go off on another secret CIA mission and I’ll never see you again?”
Not exactly. More like…Then I’ll keep fighting for you. I’ll keep protecting you until the day I die, and I will do whatever it takes in order to convince you to fall in love with me again.
Because she’d loved him once before. Surely, he could get her to love him again? Maybe?
She still wanted him. There was no missing the response of her body. And he could use that physical desire. He would use anything and everything in order to reclaim her.
But it was probably better not to say all of that, not yet. He was still just trying to get her agreement for the case. Having him pose as her lover would work for Nash in so many ways.