Page 11 of Locked In Ice

“I’m not buying you chocolates.”

“Yeah, you are.And I’m always serious.But it’s easier to catch people off guard if they don’t think you’re a threat.They see me as harmless, flighty, whatever—it puts them at a disadvantage.People won’t be as careful with what they say or do around me if they think I’m not dangerous.Take you, for instance.You’ve seen me in action, yet you still doubt me.And you let yourself slip when you shouldn’t.”

Do not change expressions.“How did I slip?”

Her bow-shaped lips tipped up in a faint smile.“The caress along my wrist.The flash when your pupils expanded.You forgot to act like I was a general annoyance to you, and you let the desire you feel for me peek through.”

Fucking hell.

“And there is also the fact that you lost your shit—not literally, of course, but you get where I am going—when Thomas Bass knocked me down.A necessary test I had to perform in order to see your reaction.I wondered…would you care if someone you viewed as physically weak was in danger?”

Anger stirred inside him.“You were testing me?”

“Youcared about whether or not I got hurt.So while you might pretend to be some unfeeling robot slowly walking around the vast void that is life, you’re not.In fact, your reaction to me being in danger was quite primitive.Primal.It’s the primal responses that I think are the most important.You can’t fake instinct.”

Primitive?Okay, sure.“If by primitive you mean…did I want to rip the bastard limb from limb?Then, yes, guilty as charged.”He wasn’t sure it could get more primal than that.

Her long lashes flickered.“I suspected that Memphis wanted me to work with you.He hinted as much to me previously, so when our paths crossed in the, uh, rather unusual way they did earlier, I took the opportunity to—”

“Run an experiment on me?Because I’m what—your science project?You’re Frankenstein, and I’m the monster?”He did not like this.Not at all.I don’t want her poking beneath the skin to see what hides inside.

“Is that how you see yourself?”Husky.“You think you’re a monster?”

Fuck this.His nostrils flared and that just had him pulling in more of her heady scent.The woman smelled too good and his dick did not get the message that she was off-limits.“I noticed some things about you, too.”

“Do tell.”Her right hand stroked over the neck of the beer bottle.

He really wished she’d stop doing that.Those long, slow strokes… His gaze flew from her hand to her face, and he found her watching him far too closely.

A former Fed who’d trained at Quantico?Yeah, he could see that.Now.He could also see that she loved for people to underestimate her.“You look like a wet dream.”

Her eyes widened.“Pardon?It’s loud in here.Why don’t you say that again?”

You look like my wet dream.“You use the fact that you’re attractive—sexy—to disarm those around you.”

Now her head cocked.That long, dark hair shifted over her shoulder once more.“Are you feeling disarmed by me?”The prospect seemed to delight her.

“You like to play games.”

“Well, I don’t want to walk around and be bored all the time so…”

“You want me.”

No mocking comeback.Just another flutter of those long lashes.Lashes that framed her pale blue eyes so perfectly.

When she remained silent, he pushed, “Your pulse raced beneath my touch.”

“I could be afraid of you.Trembling in my boots.”

Hell.She could be.Maybe he’d just read her all wrong.Maybe—

She leaned toward him.“But I’m not scared of you.Because when the chips were down, you were focused on protecting me.That’s something I won’t forget.It’s something that matters.It’s the whole reason I decided to give in and help you on whatever path it is that you seem hell-bent on taking.”

It was his turn to fall silent.

“And you are absolutely right.I do want you.”

What.The.Hell?Shock surged through him.She’d just admitted it?So casually?Like it was nothing?

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