Page 31 of Hidden Attraction

At the door, she caught him staring at her and stilled. “Why are you looking at me that way?”

He approached her with slow, measured steps. “What way, Alyssa?”

Her breasts rose as she filled her lungs with air. “Like you want to forget all about going to the base and spend the morning in bed.”

He reached out, stroking a fingertip down the curve of her cheek, his stare fastened on her beautiful mouth he couldn’t get enough of kissing the night before. “I do want that.”

She sucked in a sharp breath.

“And I think you do too. But that isn’t part of the plan…yet.” He couldn’t resist leaning in to brush his lips across hers.

Before he could steal that kiss, she ducked out of the way. “Let’s get this over with. And we need to find some coffee on the way.”

Coffee sounded good…but Alyssa wrapped around him was far better.

He forced his thoughts away from the ambassador. The woman offered too many distractions—ones he never saw coming.

But Denver had. His words of caution about not getting involved with the ambassador now sounded less like a warning and more like a prediction. Maybe he’d seen right through something Chase himself wasn’t even aware of.

He could still back off, return to his strict modus operandi and never lay a hand on her again.

I can. Doesn’t mean I will.

A different car was waiting for them to use today. She arched a brow in question, but he didn’t offer an explanation. This was how ops worked—they did whatever it took to stay on the down low.

After locating a small café off the beaten path and getting them both a caffeine fix, they rode in silence to the base. Once they parked, he reached for the door, but Alyssa stopped him with a hand on his arm.

He met her gaze.

“My plan is to ask the commander for a private tour of the base. I’ll tell him it’s for relations between the US, Syria and Mexico.”

“Solid plan. Are you ready?”

She took another fortifying sip of coffee. “As I’ll ever be.”

Due to their clearance, they entered the base with ease, moving through security without delay. Despite the plan in place, Chase’s muscles remained coiled, and his instincts hummed uneasily.

He reminded himself that he was more than capable of pulling this off—and so was Alyssa. He’d seen her in action. Read her file and knew her achievements. If anyone could tie up the commander long enough for Chase to get into the system, she could.

He didn’t trust the quiet in the base or the stares that followed them as they made their way to Commander Thorne’s office.

Inside the main building, the air-conditioning hit hard, and Alyssa’s shoulders sagged with a sigh of relief to get out of the boiling Middle Eastern heat.

A junior officer stepped out to greet them. “Commander Thorne is free to see you. This way.”

Alyssa slanted a sideways glance at Chase before entering the commander’s office. The space was neat, spartan, like the commander himself.

He was broad-shouldered with neatly trimmed gray hair and a gray mustache to match. His face was lined from hard choices and desert wind. When he shook their hands, his grip said,I’m in control here,and his smile was professional but not at all warm.

“Commander Thorne,” Alyssa breezed out with her bestI call the shotssmile. “How nice to see you again. Thank you for agreeing to see us on such short notice.”

“Of course. I’m happy to.” His hawk eyes shifted between her and Chase.

“Commander, we’re here for a couple reasons,” he began.

Thorne waved a hand for them to sit in the military-issue seats in front of his desk, not unlike those that Alyssa had made fun of at the Charlie base.

Chase urged her to take a seat first and then faced Thorne across the desk stacked neatly with files and paperwork. A single picture frame that probably held a photo of his wife and children sat in one corner.

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