Page 33 of Poison Evidence

She covered her nipples with her hands in what appeared to be a moment of self-consciousness, then gave up and took another sip from her drink and settled back on the cushion.

The sun beat down on the deck, and lying on the bench as she was, sheltered by the well, he could imagine the breeze skipping across her skin, a soft, warm caress.

He wanted to be that breeze. To forget Jack and Dimitri and lost technologies and spies. And just be a man with a beguiling woman. The bench was the perfect height for him to kneel between her legs, to lick open her flower petals, and feel her thighs curl around him as he brought her to orgasm.

“What are you thinking right now?” he asked.

“Honestly?” She let out a hard laugh. “I’m thinking sitting here topless in front of you was a stupid idea. I’m bored and tense at the same time. I’m scared the guys from the swamp will find me. That I’m going to prison. That I’ll be abducted from my abductor. And that I’ll get a sunburn and my nipples will peel.”

“That’s a lot on your mind.”

“That was just the last five seconds. Before that, I was worried CAM will malfunction, and we’ll never find what you’re looking for. I’ll rub up against a poison tree during the survey and get a rash, and then mosquitos will bite me and I’ll get dengue fever. I’ll die lost and alone in a mangrove swamp, and the world will believe I betrayed my country.”

“Now I thinkIneed a drink.” He couldn’t promise her the world wouldn’t believe she’d betrayed her country. Many already thought exactly that.

“Tell me who you’re working for, Dimitri. Make me understand why you’re doing this.”

He’d been expecting that question again and remained sorry he’d disappoint her. “I can’t tell you for your own protection.”

“But I can’t trust you unless I know what’s going on.”

“Trust is irrelevant. Just know that I’ll protect you from the others. No one will be able to come at you while you’re with me.”

She rolled to her stomach and hugged the bench pillow to her chest. “Maybe…maybe I can help you. I know people. I can talk to the attorney general. Maybe you can cut a deal. Maybe it doesn’t have to be this way.”

He could practically smell her, wanted to touch her sun-warmed skin. “Here’s one more truth for you: I’m going to die before this game ends. There is no future for me. No deal could ever save my ass.”

She tucked her head down. Her breathing was ragged through the microphone. “If you have nothing left to lose, then maybe a dealwould—”

“Oh, sweetheart, therein lies the problem. I have something left to lose. People I hold more precious than my own life.”

Her gaze zinged in his direction, seeking him behind the glass, but all she would see was a dark, reflective surface. “Are you married? Do you have kids?” she asked.

“No children, and I’m not married. No girlfriend. Not even a friend with benefits in the wings. You’re the closest thing I have to being involved with someone.”

Her body stiffened. “We arenotinvolved.”

He would argue that her decision to sunbathe topless before him belied that point, but she gathered the towel to her chest in a way that said she didn’t need the reminder.

She let out a deep breath; the puff of air hit the microphone and blasted his ears. “Who is it, then? Your parents?”

“I won’t tell you, Ivy. Don’t think I don’t know that you’ll hang me out to dry at the first opportunity. There will be no deal, and I’m not about to hand the FBI the weapon that will hang me and endanger all that I hold dear.”

Sophia and Yulian had been used against him enough.

Ivy grabbed her bikini top from the floor and hooked it behind her back. Good. Hopefully she’d go inside.

He grimaced, realizing her interrogation technique might not have gained her the answers she’d wanted, but he’d revealed more than he’d intended.

She was trying to figure out how to get the upper hand. If she only knew, she already had it. He’d given it to her when he admitted he’d never hurt her. Hell, he’d had to take her a hundred nautical miles out to sea because it was the only way he knew to scare her without actually touching her.

He was supposed to be a badass spy, but he’d frozen at the idea of physically intimidating her.

He wanted to tell her. Everything. He wanted to make love to her on the sundeck. He wanted to turn the boat around and head to Malaysia, to flee this life and start a new one.

Dammit.She needed to get inside before he did something stupid, like tell her about Sophia. “Go below. Build your drone. We’re going to start searching once we reach the Rock Islands.”

She glared at the reflective glass. “You don’t get to boss me around.”

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