Page 53 of The Agent
“I’m going to get the key to the tenant’s apartment from Natalie.” Tully finished his coffee and walked through the archway into the main salon, where he stopped, his gaze drawn immediately to Natalie despite the swirling motion of stylists and customers in the busy room.
Her chair was in the center of the inside wall, a position that would allow her to keep an eye on everyone in the room either directly or via the mirrors in front of her chair. He gave her kudos for good surveillance strategy.
Then he forgot all that as he watched her move around her client like a ballerina, her movements precise and graceful as she lifted swaths of hair with a round brush and aimed her blow-dryer at them. Like the rest of the stylists except the guy, Gino, she wore a lavender smock belted over her navy trousers and cream blouse. The wide sleeves accentuated the sinuous movements of her delicate wrists and hands.
A surge of desire raced through him, settling in his groin. He started toward her just as she did a scan of the room, her eyes widening when she saw him. She smiled, a private, meant-only-for-him smile of welcome and—he’d swear it—seduction. His cock hardened even more.
As he approached the chair, Natalie’s customer saw him too. “Well, hello!” she said with a flirtatious note. “Do I know you? I’d like to.”
Natalie choked on a laugh. “This is my friend Tully Gibson. Tully, one of my most loyal customers, Marta Cipriani.”
Marta held out her hand and Tully shook it with a wink. “Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”
“Absolutely,” Marta said, eyeing him with appreciation. She was probably about twenty years older than Tully and had a curly cap of dark-brown hair that Tully suspected owed its rich color to Natalie’s expertise.
“Would you excuse me just a moment, Marta?” Natalie asked.
“Take all the time with him that you want, honey,” her client said with a knowing look.
Natalie coughed before she led Tully partway down the hall. She lifted her hand to lay it against his chest, sending a zing of pleasure through him. “How did it go with Dobs?” she asked.
“I guess I can’t kiss you at your place of business,” he said, his eyes on the sweet curves of her mouth, “but I sure as hell want to.”
“If I didn’t have a client in the chair, I’d take you to my office and we could do more than kiss,” she said, the blue of her eyes burning.
His cock got very happy at his vision of bending her over her cream-colored desk and coming into her from behind. “You are one surprising lady.” He snaked a hand around her waist to give her gorgeous rounded butt a squeeze. “And I like that about you.”
“It’s Marta’s fault,” Natalie said, a delicate flush tinting her cheeks. “She put ideas into my head.”
“She said to take all the time you wanted,” Tully teased. “And frankly, right now, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take either one of us very long.”
Natalie gave him a slanted smile that made him want to kiss her even more. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Did you ask a question?” he joked. “Oh yeah, Dobs.” All the fun went out of the conversation. “He’s bad news but I’ll tell you more later. Right now, I’d like to get the key to Deion’s apartment. He gave me permission to check the video from the security cam he set up in the window. He caught a car running surveillance on the salon.”
Natalie’s elegant brows drew down into a fierce scowl. “Someone’s watching the salon? Why? I hope my staff and clients aren’t in danger.”
“I did my own surveillance before I came in. The SUV didn’t show, so it’s probably gone now.” There was no point in worrying her any more. “By the way, I officially hired Deion to work at KRG.”
The scowl disappeared, as he’d hoped it would. “You’re so kind to take him on.”
He shook his head. “I don’t do ‘kind’ when it comes to business. I want that sort of initiative on my team.”
She beamed him a grateful look before saying, “Wait here.” She went to the reception desk, knelt, unlocked a drawer, and pulled out a ring of keys. Returning, she handed it to him with a gold one separated from the rest. “Here you go. There’s no alarm up there.”
He let his fingertips brush across her palm as he took the keys. She inhaled sharply at his deliberate touch.
“You’d better get back to Marta,” he said. “Or I might be tempted to throw you over my shoulder and take you to your office anyway.”
“Well, that would provide the salon with some really good gossip.” Natalie flashed him a wicked look before she sashayed down the hall.
He stayed long enough to enjoy every last swing of her hips before she disappeared into the main room. Tonight was going to be real good.
Natalie slipped out of her lavender smock and dropped it in the laundry bin. “Good night, Bianca,” she called to the receptionist as the young woman left the now-quiet salon. Natalie rubbed a hand over the back of her neck and then jumped when two big hands came down on her shoulders and began to knead them. “How do you walk so quietly in cowboy boots?”
“Training at Quantico and practice.”
His strong fingers pressed against the knotted muscles in her shoulders, balancing on the precise edge between pleasure and pain. “Oh, God! That feels amazing. Did they teach you that at Quantico too?”
