Page 50 of Between Love and Honor

Quinn got to her feet. “What’s so damn funny?”

“You are.” He wiped his eyes with his fingers. “You have no idea how easy you are to read. I always know when you’re lying.”

“I wasn’t lying,” she argued.

“That right there,” he pointed at her mouth. “You lick your bottom lip every time you lie. It’s been your tell since you were seventeen and it’s still your tell now.”

Damn. She had just swiped her tongue over her lip.

Still, she wasn’t going down without a fight. “Two men tried to kill you today, you idiot. Obviously, I would want to check on you.”

He stepped deeper into the room. “About that. Why don’t you tell me everything you know about Alexi Ronoff, Agent Darby of MI6.”

A powerful tingling raced from the tips of her fingers up her arms and into her lungs where it seemed to freeze her breath. How did he figure that out?

Ben took another step closer stopping a few inches away from her numb limbs. He had the nerve to cock an eyebrow at her.

“I—” She tried to find words among her scattered wits.

“Don’t!” he commanded before wrapping his fingers around her elbows and yanking her body flush with his.

“No more lies. No more games, Quinn. People are dying and time is running out. Ronoff has something that belongs to the US government and you’re going to help me figure out how to get it back.”

Anger warmed her numb body giving her the strength to jerk her arms from his grip and take a giant step away from him. “He doesn’t have it,” she shouted. “Why do you think I’ve been looking all over for it?”

He wore a perplexed expression. “What do you mean he doesn’t have it? He took it from the Seas the Day last night.”

“What? It was on the boat? Are you an imbecile!” She was beginning to feel light-headed. How had she missed it?

“If you knew what it was, how could you leave something like that just sitting out?”

“Hey,” he snapped. “I didn’t know a group of Russian thugs was going to storm my boat. Perhaps you can share with the class why they targeted me in the first place?”

Alexi has the list.

She sank down onto the bed to stop her head from spinning as the enormity of the situation settled into her stomach like a rock. “I need to get word to my handler. To my parents. This is a catastrophe.”

The mattress dipped as Ben plopped down beside her.

“Your parents? Why would they care about some Russian stealing my micro card?”

“Your micro card?” She glared at him. “For such a smart man, you really are a dolt. The information on that card could cost my parents their lives! Don’t you get that?”

Unexpected tears burned the back of her eyes. Not only did she not have the list, but it seemed her legendary composure had disappeared as well. She’d failed not only her government, but her family. And to make matters worse, Ben was scrutinizing her wearing a genuinely baffled look on his face.

“No,” he replied. “I don’t get it.”

His ignorance ignited a firestorm inside of her. She shoved at his shoulder. “How could you let this happen!”

Jumping to her feet, she recklessly swiped at his head with her fist. Before she could connect, however, he grabbed her arm, yanked her flat onto the bed and pinned her there with his body. She pounded his chest in an effort to push him off.

“Ow!” he protested when her fist met his wounded shoulder. “Can you just relax and listen for one damn minute?”

He grabbed her wrists and placed her hands above her head. Her belly quivered remembering when he’d had her hands above her head earlier. Damn body. How could it so easily forget she was angry?

“I mean it, Quinn. I’m not the enemy here. Ronoff is.”

He was right, of course. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t make Ben suffer a bit longer. As usual, he had other ideas. He touched his forehead to hers. Their noses brushed together and their heavy breaths mingled between their lips. It was the worst kind of torture he could deliver. Her body thrummed with desire and she couldn’t douse it. She held herself still beneath his warm weight to keep from exploding with want.

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