Page 21 of Operation Heartbeat

She grabbed the shawl and wrapped it around her shoulders once more. “What happens when we land?”

“You always respond with a lot of questions. You know that?”

“A trait of a lifelong learner. Shall I rephrase my thoughts?”

He sucked in another breath, then another. What was that smell she was wearing? It was driving him crazy.

“When we land, there’ll be a car waiting for us. We’ll go to the hotel and settle in, but we don’t have time for sightseeing or anything like that.”

“I’m not here to be a tourist, Con.” Her brows pinched. “I mean…Jeremy.”

The name on his ID had been his father’s name, and for that reason, was easy for him to remember.

“That’s right,Sydney.Good.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t require a pat on the back, but thanks. When can I get back to work on the cryptogram?”

“Once we land, I’ll set you up on another secure connection. Meanwhile, I’ll be doing my own footwork to find our guy.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder, and he caught the scent again.

It was perfume. On her, it smelled friggin’ amazing.

If she smelled this good with an aisle between them, he couldn’t imagine how she would smell when he took her in his arms and enacted step two of his plan.

Acting like newlyweds in public.

FIVE

“Edgars. Jeremy and Sydney.” Con slapped a sappy smile on his face and stared down into Sophie’s eyes. “Mr. and Mrs.”

The woman at the hotel desk made a sound of appreciation for his little performance. Sophie looked shell-shocked. Who could blame her? Besides telling her that she was posing as his bride, he hadn’t warned her how far he’d go to pull this off.

While the clerk checked them in, Con slipped a hand around Sophie’s back.

She stiffened at his touch but allowed him to lean in close. He dipped his nose to her throat and took a big whiff of that perfume he couldn’t stop thinking about.

She squirmed but that only played to the amorous moment.

“You smell amazing,” he murmured, suddenly unable to stop breathing her in.

When she lifted a hand and cradled his jaw, a dart of desire hit him square in the groin. And why should he be surprised? Sophie was a beautiful woman. She was single. And it had been a long time since he had a woman in bed.

He brushed his lips across the pulse in her throat, and she issued a low humming noise that only amped up…well, whatever she was doing to his body.

She tipped her head up to his and darted a little sideways look at the clerk. “Honey…we should take this to our room.”

“Of course, doll.” The words rolled off his tongue with far too much ease. Considering that he’d been watching her sleep and thinking that she had doll-like features, his choice of endearment wasn’t surprising.

He stepped back but kept his hand on Sophie’s spine. The minute he dropped his face to her neck, his cock was throbbing hard. The urge to yank her into him—and show her just how this could be—became an internal struggle.

Damn, he needed to ask for extended leave ASAP. Acting for the sake of this op was one thing. Acting on his own desires? Quite another.

He twisted to look at the clerk. She smiled and nodded at him, pushing a card with an access code across the desk to him.

He thanked her and shifted the strap of his duffel bag over his shoulder in a secure position before he bent to pick up Sophie’s bag. “This way, my bride!”

They didn’t take two steps before Sophie was calling out his behavior in a hiss. “Don’t you think that was going a little far?”

---