Page 102 of Irresistible
When he joined her, she acknowledged that would be nearly impossible. But shewouldtry.
Chapter22
After they regained their senses for a second time, they lay entwined amongst Jess’s bedclothes perfectly content. At least that was how Dougal felt. He ought to tell her so.
“This is lovely,” he murmured, kissing her temple. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”
She turned her head to look him in the eye. “That is a surprising admission. You don’t normally wear your emotions on your sleeve.”
He grimaced. “I’m going to change that, starting now.”
“It sounds as though I shall have to thank your father.”
“He could tell that I’d been hiding behind something.” Dougal did more than grimace now. He winced. “I’m afraid I broke my oath to the Foreign Office. Again.”
She leaned up on her elbow to look down at him. “You didn’t! Forgive me, I understand why you did. I’m just surprised. And what do you mean, ‘again’?”
“Robbie has known about my position since I was recruited. He was in the Black Watch with me. He’d puzzled it out on his own, really, so I only confirmed what he’d already determined to be true. I’d always kept it from my father—and my brother. I suppose I was simply tired of hiding. From my father, from myself, from you. I wasn’t doing it on purpose. It had just become second nature.”
She grinned. “You couldn’t resist me.”
“I could not. I am in complete surrender.” He pulled her head down and kissed her.
When they broke apart after a long moment, she frowned, the familiar pleats forming between her brows. “I hope you won’t think poorly of me, but I am also going to break my oath. Frankly, it’s been torture to keep quiet. Actually, I hope you won’t be angry.”
Alarm spread through Dougal, icing his veins. He sat up, situating the bedclothes at his waist. “What is it?”
Jess also sat up. She pulled the coverlet up around her chest. “When the Foreign Office asked me to go on this mission, they also tasked me with investigating you.”
Dougal stared at her in disbelief. “Why would they do that?”
“I had no idea, and I was terrified. What did I know about being a spy, let alone investigating another spy?”
That anyone would ask that of her made him incredibly angry—not just because they doubted his loyalty. They’d put her in an untenable position. What if he’d discovered her investigating him?
He thought back to Dorset and couldn’t recall her doing anything that would indicate an investigation. “What did you do to accomplish their request?”
“Very little,” she said wryly. “As I said, what did I know about any of that? I looked through your things, I watched your behavior. I found nothing suspicious, of course, and everything you did was above reproach—as far as I could tell.”
“I can’t believe they would ask that of you.”
“Apparently, they believed I would unsettle you, that because you’d never had a partner, you might expose yourself.”
“Who told you that?”
“Torrance.”
Bloody Kent? Dougal’s insides blistered. The man he’d looked up to had doubted him. He stared past Jess for some length of time.
“Dougal?” she whispered, gently touching his forearm. “Are you all right?”
He blinked, then refocused on her. “I feel a bit betrayed, actually. Torrance is Oliver Kent, my superior. I’m hurt that he would question my loyalty.”
“I don’t think he wanted to. He gave me a cipher to solve, saying it would exonerate you, and he seemed eager for it to do so.” Jess slipped from the bed and went to her desk. A moment later, she returned, handing him several pieces of parchment before resettling herself while he read.
He looked over the cipher as well as her notes, smiling slightly at her method. “How long did this take you?”
“Most of yesterday,” she said. “I’d only finished it just before you came to see me.”
