Page 18 of Summer with a Ranger

Fuck me if the leech wasn’t hitting on her right in front of me and telling me he’d fuck her while I drank his boat dry.

It’s an assignment.

She’s a summer fling.

And summer felt like it was already nearly over. Maybe a little too fast for my liking.

The truth was that I didn’t want this thing with her to end, though it likely had to if we were to remain partners and not end up hating each other. I foresaw a whole lot of nights alone in my new place in Texas with my hand as company while she partied hard on yachts with this crook.

Cover job or not, I wasn’t ready to let her sell herself just for a case that, like she said, was going nowhere. But it might in future. I knew the Ranger unit worked to feed information to various police precincts on different cases and helped out as an umbrella to pass down information.

On the other hand I understood the need to close up a test case like this as fast as possible and earn a few hat feathers like Skye wanted.

It just wasn’t going to be on this job. And I didn’t have to like another man touching her, cover story be damned.

“I’m sure we can make time. After we find our accommodation and...break it in,” I said baldly, squeezing Skye until she squeaked and shot me a sexy as hell death stare.

“Definitely.” She ignored me pointedly when I kissed along her shoulder, overplaying the enamoured honeymooner. She dug her blunt nails into the back of my hands until I was certain they would bear little crescent moons in perpetuity. “What time tonight, Marco?”

The smile she gave him was nothing like the tight ones she offered me the entire trip.

“Shall we say nine o’clock? Or a little later. I don’t mind waiting.”

I’m sure you don’t, asshole.

“We’ll make good use of the time,” I promised her, mentally adding a pink peachy ass into that equation.

“We’ll see you then,” Skye promised.

“Make sure you wear something...nice.” He smiled at her, and it turned slimier if such a thing was possible as he glanced at me, amusement lighting his eyes. “Something suitable.”

“Can do,” I said softly, meeting his gaze and letting a little of my own fire through the mask I donned the moment we stepped out into the main street of Love Beach.

You wanna play hard, motherfucker? I’ll play hard.

“I can’t wait,” Skye oozed, letting me tow her away before I blew something, like my temper.

Or the case, before it started.

CHAPTER SEVEN

SKYE

I slithered into the dark blue dress after my shower in the main bathroom while Hudson muttered away darkly to himself in the ensuite. The room at Garden House—the entire hotel—was amazing. Everything was colour coded. Everything was neat, tidy and looked brand spanking new. The honeymoon suite was more like a presidential suite and I didn’t want to know how much the unit shelled out for this little project. Mind, I also didn’t know the budget and expectations Archer set, and any new piece of tech could cost more than a week’s stay in a place like this.

The bedroom was filled with lace and gold and pinks, with a real fake pink bear rug on the floor, like some sixties or seventies flick regurgitated brand new décor. The effect was fun and flirty, and the amount of details did my head in.

Not that Hudson said much as he towed me inside the room, making sure to kiss me thoroughly on the threshold before pushing me inside with a hard hand that promised naughty things later on.

Naughty things I might or might not crave even if indulging him was a really bad idea.

It seemed smart to get out of his reach until he cooled a little after our chance encounter with our target for the week. Not that I thought getting the required information would take half as much time as Archer expected. My hand brushed the screen of my phone while I contemplated asking for extra duties.

Marco might be a leech, but he was a simple one though dirty in more than the sexual sense, though I knew that was true of him also. Closing up our assignment part B meant heading back to Texas post haste, and maybe going our separate ways. I agreed to partnering with Hudson to get into the unit. Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to also extract myself from him.

Hudson showed himself to be possessive, which meant little freedom, more judginess from Mister McSook, not only too passionate in his...work, but also impractical. Partnering with a constantly green eyed monster was along the lines of my worst nightmare. At the least it meant constantly dealing with possessiveness and the lack of independence which I fought so freaking hard for.

Shaking my hair out, I curled it and left it hanging half down my back, fixing sapphire and diamond earrings to my ears. The dress, one from a different life that Archer suggested might be the sort of attire I’d need on this assignment as though he knew and was still testing us like an overbearing father figure, fit as well as it did the last time I wore it.

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