Page 2 of Cheating the Devil

Smiling seductively, she set her hand on his thigh and squeezed. “Don’t worry, Shrek, you’ll remember how to enjoy yourself. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you do.”

“Yeah?” He asked while raising a brow.

“Uh-huh.” Leaning closer, she brushed her lips against his. “Everything.”

“Have mercy, woman.”

“Never.”

CHAPTER 2

When the hugeBoeing 777 leveled off, Avery hit the button that would recline her first-class seat a little bit and took another sip of the champagne she’d been given prior to takeoff. Having a friend who worked in the executive offices of the airline had its perks. Avery flew first class for coach fares almost every time she went somewhere, which wasn’t often. Back when she’d worked as a field operative for the CIA, and then Deimos, she’d traveled all over the world on a regular basis, but since her semi-retirement, she’d only flown within the fifty states, depending on where she was needed.

After burning out as an operative, which wasn’t uncommon after twenty years of service, she’d decided to go into nursing. Yes, it had been a dramatic turnaround, going from espionage and assassinations to helping people heal from injuries or deal with a medical issue, but it’d been time for her to move on. She’d had too much blood on her hands and saving lives instead of taking them gave her a sense of atonement. While she’d never killed an innocent person, she still regretted every time she’d had to end someone’s life, even if it was to ensure the safety of the citizens of the United States.

Glancing at Brad doing the Killeen Daily Herald’s crossword puzzle from yesterday’s Sunday edition, she smiled to herself. It was one of the habits she’d learned he had over the past few months. He didn’t do the smaller daily ones, saying most of them were too easy, but the Sunday puzzles were larger and more challenging. After he completed it, he’d move onto the Jumble and Sudoku puzzles, and then the cryptograms. Usually he did them after breakfast on Sundays, over a cup of coffee or two, but had saved this week’s puzzles for the trip. The man had brainsandbrawn, which, combined with a sense of humor, alpha presence, gentleness, and good looks, had drawn her to him the first few times they’d met, before he finally asked her to dinner one night. If he hadn’t, she’d been close to asking him out, but had held off as an unaccustomed shyness had come over her whenever he’d been around. Never in her life had she been tongue-tied in a man’s presence, nor did she blush often, but Bradly Barton gave her the butterflies in her stomach that hadn’t been there since she’d been a teenager. Every time he’d aimed his steel-gray gaze at her, her body responded in the way nature intended when two people were attracted to each other. And when he’d winked and smiled seductively at her, her knees had turned to jelly and she’d grow wet from wanting him.

Reaching up, she brushed her fingers across the nape of his neck, where his salt-and-pepper hair was barely an eighth of an inch long. It was longer on the top, but still Army regulation length. He hadn’t shaved this morning, telling her she should prepare herself for some whisker burns on her inner thighs this week. He usually didn’t shave on the weekends, but she’d never seen him with more than a two-day beard, which just enhanced his good looks, in her opinion. From the appreciative looks he got from females of all ages, wherever they went, Avery wasn’t the only one who thought he was a silver fox.

When he glanced her way, she asked, “What time are Lori and her boyfriend landing in Aruba?”

Brad let out a sigh. She knew he was happy his daughter had agreed to join them on the island—he’d wanted the two women in his life to meet—but he was also nervous about it. Throw in the fact the twenty-four-year-old was being accompanied by the guy she’d been dating for a few months—the one who was four years older than her—and Brad was not exactly looking forward to the awkwardness that was sure to come.

“They’re supposed to land about twenty minutes after us. While we’re waiting, I’ll get our vehicle.” He paused. “I hope this kid she’s bringing isn’t an asshole.”

“She still didn’t tell you anything about him when you spoke to her last night?”

He shook his head. “Nope. All I know is he’s twenty-eight and his name is Cameron. She wouldn’t tell me his last name because she didn’t want me investigating him before I met him. So, of course, I’ve got all these crazy thoughts going through my head about this guy. Does he have a prison record? Is he a drug dealer? Is he a bum that doesn’t even have a job? I mean, I know she’s a talented tattoo artist—not my first choice of a career for my only daughter, but it is what it is—but you never know who’s going to walk into the place. The clientele can range from frat boys, to skells, gang members, and criminals, or party girls and soccer moms.”

“Well, you said the place is in a nice part of town and the owner never leaves her there by herself, so it sounds like she’s safe enough. I’m sure her boyfriend’s a nice guy—and if he’s not, between the two of us, we’ve got plenty of people we can call to dispose of the body.”

Brad snorted then chuckled, the anxiety about meeting his daughter’s beau leaving his face. “Thanks, I needed that.”

“No problem. Now, finish your puzzles because when we get there, you’re all mine.”

The first few hours of the flight were pleasant with very little turbulence, which was the only thing Avery hated about flying. On a trip to China, early in her CIA career, she’d had a scary flight. While going through a storm, the turbulence had been so violent the aircraft had shaken and dipped up and down, overhead bins had popped open, the flight attendants had needed to be buckled in, and everyone had prayed. Avery, and every other passenger, had been white-knuckled, nauseous, and pale as a ghost until the pilot had finally gotten them through it. Ever since, at the slightest drop or shimmy of a plane, Avery’s heart rate spiked, and her gut clenched. She just kept telling herself the odds of becoming the President of the United States or being struck by a meteorite outnumbered the chances of being killed in a plane crash until the moment passed.

Halfway through the flight, Brad had closed his eyes and fallen into a light sleep after eating his gourmet meal—or what passed as one on the thirty-passenger, commercial plane. Having finished Susan Stoker’s latest romance-suspense novel, Avery shut off her Kindle and reclined her seat further as the flight attendant took their empty lunch trays. Reading was a luxury Avery had always treasured, finding time to dive into the latest releases by her favorite authors, or even someone new she’d discovered, whenever she had the chance. Like many readers who used fiction as a way to get away from the routine grind of daily life, Avery had long been an avid reader, especially during her active agent days. Books calmed her. After spending a mission wondering if she’d make it out alive or after she’d had to do something unpleasant, like kill someone. Then, as she’d worked her way through nursing school and her new assignments tending to the injured or ill agents from Deimos orthe CIA, reading helped her escape into someone else’s world for a few hours, where happily-ever-afters existed.

The one thing Avery regretted about going into the world of covert ops was not being able to find a nice guy to settle down and have children with. There had been plenty of men over the years—several one-night stands, a few agents like herself who couldn’t afford to trust many others with the details of their lives, and the occasional target who had no idea Avery wasn’t a clerk at the American embassy in Tokyo as she’d claimed. Hell, even her parents and the few friends from her former life thought she’d had a desk job, translating documents for the CIA—a nice, safe job, as far as they were concerned. Over the years, though, her parents had both passed away, and Avery had lost touch with her high school and college friends.

When she’d first started nursing school, it had taken her a few months to come out of the shell she’d unconsciously tucked herself into. She’d spent years constantly on guard and always assessing someone’s motives for approaching her for any reason. Anyone could’ve been a foreign spy who’d figured out she wasn’t who she’d portrayed, or, God forbid, an assassin sent to take her out. She’d forgotten what it was like to just have girlfriends to chat with and maybe go out for a bite to eat. During nursing school, she’d forged several relationships with some of the women in her classes. In fact, she’d become so close with one of them, Judi Perkins, that her daughter, Callie, called Avery her aunt. Not long after Avery had taken the position of helping Haven, about a year ago, Judi’s husband had been transferred to Fort Hood, so the two friends had been thrilled they could see each other whenever they wanted again.

“Passengers and flight attendants, please prepare for landing.”

With that announcement, Brad woke up immediately. Being in the military, and special ops at that, he could fall asleep andwake up completely refreshed at the drop of a hat. Avery used to be able to do the same, but her body had lost that conditioning over the past few years. She could if she needed to, but her catnaps were few and far between now.

It didn’t take long after the announcement for them to land at the main airport in Aruba. Unlike the terminals back in Houston, the planes here did not pull up to a gate with a passageway connecting them. Instead, a long staircase was wheeled up to the cabin door, and the passengers descended into the fresh air and walked a short distance across the tarmac to the terminal. It was eighty-five degrees, sunny, and humid, and Avery was grateful she’d used her favorite anti-frizz hair cream that morning. If she hadn’t, her hair would be twice as full as it was.

When they reached the tarmac, Brad reached over and took Avery’s hand in his. As always, when this man touched her, the nerves under her skin tingled. In some ways, she wished she’d met Brad years ago, but then he might not have been the same man she was falling in love with. The notion that she loved him had startled her when she’d realized it about a month ago, and she still didn’t have a clue if that love was reciprocated. Neither one had said the word to the other, but she knew he felt something strong toward her since he’d told her he’d never introduced a woman he was dating to his daughter before. Avery hoped she and the younger woman liked each other because she knew, even though they rarely had a chance to see each other, Lori and her approval meant a lot to Brad.

As they entered the terminal, a blast of air conditioning cooled the perspiration that’d formed on Avery’s skin during the short walk from the plane. The building wasn’t large, compared to its US counterparts, and everything—car rentals, waiting areas, check-in counters, and baggage claim—were all in full view. To their right, there was a VIP lounge. Large mirrors on thewall next to the door were probably one-way glass—those inside the lounge could see out, while those outside could only see the main area of the terminal reflecting back at them.

Avery and Brad joined the rest of the passengers from their flight at baggage claim. They could see out on the tarmac that the plane’s cargo area was still being unloaded. Avery looked up at Brad. “Why don’t you go get our car? I’ll wait here for the bags. Then we can load them up and come back in to wait for Lori and Cameron.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be right back.” Before walking away, he leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss, which Avery felt all the way to her toes. Damn, he turned her on.

It was a few minutes before the carts with their luggage arrived, and after finding hers and Brad’s, Avery added them to their two carry-ons. A few feet away was a row of stationary chairs, and she wheeled the four pieces over to them and took a seat to wait for him. She took a few moments to people watch—something she always did, but not for the same reasons others did—it was instinct for her to assess who was around her and to look for anyone or anything out of place.

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