Page 47 of Scarlet Mark
Except I didn’t feel fine.
Our purpose here was to track down Raoul and send a message to Amir. One I really didn’t want to deliver but Killian assured was necessary.
He joined me in the car, his tailored suit giving him an elegant look that paired nicely with his styled hair and aristocratic features. “In retrospect, I’m glad the tattoos are gone. At least for now.”
I frowned at my bare arms, exposed in my sleeveless dress. “What? Why?” I sort of missed the color.
“Because you’d stand out considerably in Cairo with ink on your skin, and we need to blend in, not call attention to ourselves.” He pulled on his seat belt, finished fussing over the controls, and shifted the car into gear. “You can breathe now, Amara.” He sounded amused.
“I’m breathing just fine.”
“Uh-huh.” His lips curled. “I thought you were going to pass out at customs.”
“Did you see all the machine guns?” I countered.
He snorted. “The majority of those guys are amateurs. They wouldn’t be able to hit a moving target.”
“Machine guns just require you to pull the trigger. Not much skill needed.”
“Sure, when up against an average person.” He pulled away from the terminal, his ease with navigating our surroundings confirming his familiarity with Cairo. “I’m not average, Amara.”
“I am.”
“No, darling. You certainly are not.” He reached over to grab my hand and brought it to his lips. But rather than kiss my skin, he nipped my racing pulse and chuckled when I jumped. “This is going to be fun.”
“No, it’s not. Amir isn’t someone we should be taunting.”
“Ah, but I want him to come out and play.” He placed my palm against his thigh, his hand returning to the shifter as he exited the airport. “A man like Assad needs to be inspired to venture outside of his safe haven. We’re here to inspire him.”
By assassinating Raoul.
Killian had an entire itinerary of activities lined up for us, all revolving around the other man’s perceived schedule. He wanted to identify the perfect time and location to take the man down. Then we’d move on to phase two.
I studied the scenery as we drove, noting the insanity of the highway system, the surrounding buildings with open balconies and busy roofs, and the yellowish sky beyond.
“Do you think we’ll see the pyramids while we’re here?” I wondered out loud, disappointed that we hadn’t seen them from the plane. Killian told me they were right next to the city, but the haze as we landed made it impossible to see.
“If you want,” he replied, his thigh tensing beneath my palm as he downshifted in the early evening traffic. “We can make it a celebratory trip after we handle Raoul.”
“I’d like that,” I admitted. He already knew this was my first time to Egypt, that while I’d visited Europe several times, I’d never ventured south to the Middle East. Over the last week, I learned there were not many places Killian hadn’t seen, his profession and background sending him all over the world, all the time.
Despite the flirtatious behavior and seductive words, he’d not done much more than kiss me. He was clearly taking it slow because of my previous experiences, or maybe he wanted me to make a move. But whenever I considered it, a new plan came up and we ended up talking it through until I could barely keep my eyes open.
Killian was definitely thorough.
And brilliant.
And sexy as sin in that suit.
I glanced away, but not before I caught the upward twitch of his mouth. He always seemed to know when I was looking at him. Which, I supposed, made sense, what with him being a skilled assassin and all.
“How do you know so many languages?” I asked, thoughts of his lethal talents reminding me of his proficient cover story at the airport.
“School. Life. Experience.” He shrugged. “I studied Latin as an adolescent, which made learning Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian easy. I’m not very proficient in French, but I understand it. German was something I studied in high school. Arabic is a language I took in college, as well as Farsi. I’d like to learn Urdu someday.”
“What? No interest in Russian?” I joked.
“Nah, if the case requires Russian, I just call Nikolai.”
