Page 9 of Falling Fast

Her head was spinning. “How long do I have to think this over?”

“Not long. We need an answer so we can get moving on this, or find someone else.” His pale blue eyes delved into hers, his expression earnest. “I want you on this assignment, Charlie. Believe me, the agency and I wouldn’t ask this of you if it weren’t damned important. The intel on that laptop could be the key in bringing down the entireVenenocartel.”

Silence settled over the room, squeezing her from all sides. Everyone was staring at her expectantly. She glanced first at her brother, who was watching her, then at Jamie. That hot caramel gaze met hers unflinchingly and didn’t let go.

Studying her. Waiting for an answer. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, there was an unspoken challenge there as well.

You game, Trouble?

Yeah, he knew her too well. Agreeing to this whole thing was insane, but she never had been able to resist a dare and the wild streak in her was clamoring for action her desk job just couldn’t deliver. And that silent dare from Jamie clinched it.

Mind made up, her heart rate kicked up another notch. Before she could change her mind, she tore her gaze away from that magnetic stare and looked back at her boss. “Okay, I’m in.”

An almost proud smile broke over his face. “Okay.” Leaning back in his chair, he folded his arms behind his head. “We’ll get started on arranging an introduction between Spider and Baker on the dark net.”

Chapter Three

Their undercover partnership was off to an ominous start and they hadn’t even spoken a single word to each other yet.

As soon as the meeting ended, Jamie jumped out of his seat and hurried out the boardroom door after Charlie. Except for when she’d first entered the room and when her boss had sprung the news about working undercover with him, she hadn’t made eye contact with him.

Her unwillingness to even look at him was driving him crazy, almost an invisible itch skittering across his skin.

One, because he’d already tasted that luscious mouth and felt that lean body pressed to his. He’d thought about her nonstop these past seven months, kept tabs on her through Easton while trying not to seem overly interested in his best buddy’s sister. And two, because she and him were going to be working together closely over the coming weeks.

Real closely. And while they did, they had to set personal differences/friction—such as the intense attraction between them and their differing opinions on what to do about it—aside until the job was done.

Due to his position at the far end of the table, he was the last one out the door. Charlie was a few people ahead of him, talking to Easton as they headed for the elevator at the other end of the hall, and stepped inside before he could reach her.

Their eyes met briefly as he entered the crowded space, but she looked away quickly and stared straight ahead as the doors slid shut. He stifled a sigh and tamped down his annoyance. They were going to have to clear the air between them, fast.

At the first floor, everyone filed out into the lobby and Charlie immediately swept right past him without a word, spine ramrod straight, head held high. Cool and distant, the total opposite of the woman who’d all but melted in his arms that night at her family’s place.

Yeah, not going to work, pequeña.

He exchanged a loaded look with Easton, then went after her. “Charlie,” he called out before she reached the exit.

She stopped at the tinted glass front doors, facing away from him, long, coffee-brown hair spilling in a shiny waterfall down the middle of her rigid back. When he caught up to her she glanced over and met his gaze, her expression guarded.

“I need to talk to you,” he said, keeping his voice low.

She stared up at him with espresso-colored eyes for a long moment, then relented, her normally lush mouth compressed into a thin line. “All right, fine. For a minute.” She turned around and took a step toward the couches set in the center of the lobby.

Nuh-uh. They weren’t talking here where someone might overhear them and a half-dozen security cameras would pick up their every move.

He caught her elbow. “No. Somewhere with a little more privacy.” She huffed out an irritated breath but didn’t resist as he tugged her toward the doors.

Cool spring evening air rushed over them when they stepped outside, the chilly wind and ominous gray clouds promising rain and giving him the perfect excuse to usher her across the lit parking lot to his truck. He opened the passenger door for her, waited for her to get in, then rounded the hood and slid into the driver’s seat.

Her sweet scent seemed to swirl around the enclosed space, taunting him. She sat facing him at an angle against the plush leather seat, arms folded across her chest and her expression closed. “So? What do you want to talk about?”

So many things, most of which he couldn’t say. Wouldn’t. So that left only one safe option. “The op.”

She lifted a dark eyebrow, cocked her head slightly. “You sure? You wouldn’t rather talk about why you kissed me like that on my father’s back lawn after I’d just shot a man to death, then tried to sneak out without saying goodbye and dropped off the radar again for the past seven months?”

He withheld a sigh. Even though he should have expected it by now, her directness still took him off guard. So fine. He’d say it. “You know why.” He’d told her point blank that night in September.

I play for keeps.

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