Page 24 of Hidden Attraction

“Let’s keep walking.”

They moved on, their steps slow and unhurried. That look Julian just gave her made her nerves rattle, and she found herself filling the dead air space.

“You asked about my experiences earlier. My family spoke mostly Spanish at home. I was always bilingual.”

The fall of his boots on the cracked pavement was quiet for such a large man, and he said nothing.

She continued. “I took German in high school. And my love of languages just continued from there. I attended the Monterey Institute for psychology and sociology. Having the ability to get into someone’s head and ask the right questions, paired with an aptitude for linguistics, made me useful to the government.”

“You ever wonder what you’d be doing if you hadn’t been promoted after negotiating that hostage standoff?”

She let out a soft noise and smiled faintly. “I bet you would have shot them both.”

“Hey! I can appreciate a peaceful resolution. As someone who’sbeenshot, zero out of ten stars, do not recommend.”

She chuckled. “Fair.”

They headed to their safehouse tucked at the end of an alley. The gold-pink of the setting sun blended into violet beyond the rooftops.

“Do you ever regret your career path?” she asked him.

Julian’s head swung side to side as he sought out danger. Finally, he spoke. “There are moments of regret. But then someone like you shows up, and you do what the rest of us can’t—you get people out alive without pulling a trigger.”

She wasn’t sure what to say to that. The praise was there, quiet, sincere—and coming from him, it meant more than she could afford to admit out loud.

They reached the door. He paused with a hand inches away from the lock. But he didn’t open it.

Alyssa’s insides tightened as she braced herself for…something.

She swallowed hard and asked one of the most difficult questions she ever had to ask in her life. “You haven’t mentioned that I’m under investigation too. You’re trying to figure out if I’ve been compromised.”

He didn’t deny it. “I am.”

“So why”—her voice dropped—“are you looking at me like…”

He didn’t deny it, nor did he fill in the blank of her claim. His hand came up to touch her arm just above the elbow. The contact sent a shiver up her spine, but she didn’t pull away.

Then he leaned in.

Lips that looked impossibly hard were actually incredibly soft. He smelled manly, like spice and musk. At the brush of his mouth over hers, she sucked in a gasp.

The kiss wasn’t hurried. It wasn’t hungry or forced. Special Operative Julian Chase didn’t do anything on a whim. His kiss was a decision.

It was soft. Warm. Unexpectedly tender, like he wanted her to feel every single second of it.

She did, right down to the tips of her toes.

Her insides coiled as she returned the caress, applying pressure to his lips in return and drinking in the scent of spice from their meal mingled with the masculine scent of the man.

When he pulled back, her heart was thudding in her chest.

“Why did you do that?” she husked out, darting a look around as if someone might be watching.

His stare fixed on her mouth. “Not for the parts we’re playing, if that’s what you think. I kissed you because I wanted to.”

For a long beat, neither of them moved. The quiet of the alley wrapped around them, cradling them in the moment. The world still turned outside, the mission still waited, but here—in this breath—they weren’t an ambassador and a special operative on a mission.

They were something else.

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