Page 30 of Love Undercover
He noticed though. “What is it?”
She cringed. “Well, I need to shower. And change.”
“Okay,” he said slowly, not understanding. “I can get you a change of clothes while I’m out. Unless you need handmade organic cotton or something. Not sure how much of that the local Walmart carries.”
Her cheeks flamed hotter. “No. . .” The word dragged out, almost a question. She picked at the hem of her top, finding a loose thread she was tempted to yank on. “I only have one set of. . .”
Oh crackers. She was a grown woman. She could say the wordunderwear. Nothing to be embarrassed about. But maybe because of the way she felt around him, the way he reacted to her, it felt inappropriate.
It must have finally clicked, though, because his eyebrows shot up when realization dawned, and he straightened as if someone had jabbed him in the spine.
“Oh.” The one-word answer dropped into the air like a stone into still water, the ripples of silence enveloping them. “What, um, kind? Um, size?” He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, which had turned a nice shade of crimson.
It oddly made her feel less embarrassed about it. Seeing him uncomfortable gave her a shot of satisfaction, like she had the upper hand for once in this scenario. One of those urges came over her, the impulse to play with fire.
“You don’t want to guess?” she teased.
His gaze jerked to her face, and that emerald edge came into his eyes again.
It sent a thrill through her down to her toes, and she laughed.
10
Spontaneous Combustion
Chase muttered to himself as he looked at the list in his hand, grumpy as hell after barely sleeping the night before. He’d been incapable of shutting his brain off after they’d chatted during dinner and afterward, like they were old friends.
At least he’d gottenherto relax, falling into an easy pattern as she’d told him about moving all over the country and even overseas while her dad was in the Marine Corps.
The way she lit up while talking about going to new places and meeting new people, the constant adventure of it making her smile and laugh. It had kept him from thinking of that one little flirtatious question. But as soon as they’d settled in for the night, his mind rolled each of those words around until he knew the edges and angles, the subtle dips and curves in her tone. Which only made him think of the ones on her body.
Big problem.
He was almost glad to be out of her presence, the miles from his house to the town a much-needed buffer between them. Not to mention the tangible task the list presented.
Except. . .
He didn’t want to read past the first two items—the toothpaste and soap he needed to hunt down. It was bad enough that he already knew what else was there on the paper.
She’d written her sizes for new underwear and a bra with specifications on style and color in her chaotic, looping handwriting—so like the woman he’d begun getting to know. But he didn’t want to think about the details any more than he needed to.
Because he was going to combust. Go up in flames right here in the middle of a Walmart. Thank God they had a clothing section, so he didn’t have to go to a lingerie store or some shit. That would have been a kind of torture he wasn’t sure he could endure.
As it was, he was in a special level of hell already.
And, damn it, Sadie knew it. She’d teased him, sending his mind down a path that was a veritable death trap, riddled with hidden pits he would surely fall into. He was going to break his neck.
He’d absolutely made the wrong decision here. He should have left her in her apartment, focused on the job, and moved on.
No. No. He couldn’t have done that. Any time he thought about what might have happened if he hadn’t gotten her out of that apartment, a twisting sense of dread filled him.
Santiago wouldn’t have been gentle with her, let alone stuck to any sort of moral code. Because she was pretty—too pretty—and shapely. The kind of curves that made Chase forget there was a protocol, could make a man forget his own name.
But those goons had no rules to follow. Zimmerman wouldn’t care what they did with or to her in their search for the information he wanted. When they found out that she didn’t know anything at all, there would be even less holding them back from doing any and everything their twisted, black hearts desired.
And that set Chase’s blood on fire, his rage at the hypothetical scenario chasing out the remaining lust he’d been trying, unsuccessfully up until then, to extinguish.
He snatched the toothpaste off the shelf and grumbled his way down the aisle to the soap, finding that one easily enough.
