Page 45 of Her Tempting Traitor
“You were a spy for the Crown, yes?” She didn’t look up from his leg. “You were deep undercover. What was it like?”
How did she…och, Aunt Zilphia must have told her, of course, during one of their many meetings for tea. Well, what was the harm in telling her? His career was over.
“It’s like…dancing on a fuse. Ye have to keep moving—no’ yer body, but yer mind. Ye cannae rest, or ye’ll allow something to slip.”
She hummed, then peeked up at him through curious lashes. “It sounds exhausting.”
“It could be.” Itwas. “I dinnae think I’ll miss it.”
“Since you have been at Inverlochy, have you been resting? Allowing yourself to just be…yourself?”
Lips twitching, Cassian propped his temple against the chaise so he could watch her. “Aye. It’s been my goal to reconnect with Gus. I would never do that under the guise of someone else.”
“You must be truthful to yourself and to him.” Nodding slightly, she bent over his knee again, and he studied the top of her head.
Gabby Butcombe was intelligent, bold, insightful, and witty. Beautiful, aye, but honestly, her beauty wasn’t the first thing he thought of when he conjured her in his mind. The last two weeks, becoming closer, flirting, dancing around one another…he’d learned her mind.
Herheart.
And what he’d learned was far more valuable than any superficial beauty.
“How much research did you do before you began each undercover job?” she suddenly asked, her fingers stroking his leg. “To go from St. Petersburg to Paris to Belfast must have been difficult—did you ever get your identities confused?”
Frowning slightly, Cassian slowly pushed himself from the back of the chaise. How had she known his assignments? Guesswork, likely—shewasbrilliant, after all, and those were some of the hotbeds of anarchist activity. The newspapers were full of it.
“My handlers made certain I had an exit strategy,” he confessed, “and months of rest in between assignments. I needed time to debrief, time to study everything we knewabout the organization. That’s when I was allowed to visit the Highlands—and Gus, as well.”
Gabby hummed, still bent over his leg. She was no longer massaging him, but lightly stroking his muscles. It was unlikely this had any medical benefit, but it was confusing as hell to his body.
His cock was hardening, his chest was tightening, but there was also a sense of unease settling over him.
“And your team?” she asked lightly. “The men who worked with you? You had worked with them for years, had you not?”
“Nay,” Cassian rasped, staring down at her, dread slowly building. “We were only assigned together on that last mission.”
Her hands stilled, but she didn’t look up. “Then you were not as loyal to one another as you could have been?”
Fook.
Dread pooled in his stomach. Dread and…disappointment?
Should have fooking realized.
She was asking the same sort of questions he’d been expecting from someone else. Aspy.
How had he misjudged her intentions so drastically?
Cassian sighed in defeat. “They were myfriends. I’d only worked with them for the one mission, but we’d been together for nine months straight by the time it all went wrong. I knew them better than I knew my wife and son. I wouldnae hurt them.”
He saw her shoulders expand as Gabby took a deep breath, then she raised her gaze to his. He saw no pity in her eyes; he sawnothing. She was keeping her thoughts hidden from him on purpose.
“They are dead now,” she stated, coldly and succinctly, and he knew the truth.
And so did she.
“I’m a fool,” he muttered, looking away. She’d tricked him. “Christ,fook.”
He pulled his leg from her grasp in one swift movement and sat up straight, digging his fingertips into his left thigh, well aware of how vulnerable he was, reclining on a chaise with only one leg.
