Page 24 of Untamed

“No. He’s just a junior analyst,” she said. “He was out with us the night I met you. We don’t talk at all outside of work stuff. That was weird.”

“Hmmm. There’s something off about him,” Antony said, frowning.

Lesley smiled. “Are you sure that’s not the special agent showing?” She gently poked him in the side.

He smiled and turned toward her, lifting her chin. “Better watch it. I might have to take you in for questioning.”

“Gonna cuff me, too?” she teased.

His eyes flared, and he sucked in a breath. “Not yet,” he said, biting her bottom lip and smoothing his tongue over it.

Lesley moaned softly and Antony deepened the kiss, but only for a moment, before pulling back. “We do both have to get back to work,” he said.

“Damnit.”

“Yes. And I need to be able to walk in public,” he said.

Lesley’s face flushed, and Antony laughed. “I enjoy that,” he said.

“What, catching me off guard?” she asked.

“Mmhmm. Such a delightful shade of red,” he teased. “Though I don’t know why you’re embarrassed. You know you get to me.” He trailed his fingers down the side of her face. “I also wonder where else you flush like that when you get going.”

Before she could answer, he got up to pay the bill. She watched him walk away and smiled. Yeah, dangerous.

He walked her to her car and hugged her close before she left. He wasn’t far behind her and saw her hand wave out the window as she took a different road back to her work. As had become custom, before he got out of his car back at the office, his phone buzzed.

I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.

His chest felt warm. He couldn’t wait, either.

***

Lesley floated through the gate and back into the office. She sat down at her desk and tried to concentrate on her work, eventually getting back into the groove. An hour or so later, Smith spun his rolling chair around the wall.

“Hey,” he said.

She looked up. “Hi, Smith. Need something?”

“Nah. But you do,” he said. “That guy you were with?” She nodded. “I’ve seen him before. At the Warehouse. And a couple other places.”

“And?” she said.

“You should know he always leaves with a woman. Always. Sometimes more than one.” Smith scanned her face, looking for a reaction.

Something cold crawled up Lesley’s spine and settled in her throat. She kept her face carefully blank and looked back at him. “Okay?”

“Thought you’d like to know is all,” he said. His face was a plastic mask, and his smile was almost feral.

“Thanks for the info, Smith,” she said. “If that’s all you needed?” She raised an eyebrow in question.

That glimpse of anger from earlier flashed across his features again, gone as fast as it had shown up. He shook his head and vanished back to his desk.

Lesley came crashing back to the earth. What Antony had done, and with whom, before now, was not her business. And while they hadn’t talked at all about being exclusive, hell, they’d only been on two dates, she knew he wasn’t seeing anyone else. Regardless, she had no right or reason to question him, especially since she was no innocent.

Lesley also believed in letting the past be. Mostly. But things had been progressing fast, more so than she was used to. Did he do this with all women? She shook her head. She needed to drop it. Parts of her own past weren’t pretty, and she wouldn’t want to be judged for them, either. Steven popped into her mind. What a shitshow that turned out to be, not just because she’d discovered he was cheating on her all along. She’d also behaved poorly, but never once had she gone outside of their relationship. Lesley recognized she had her own patterns of behaviour at certain points as a relationship progressed, and she’d been working on changing them. So far, so good. Antony was not Steven, not by a long shot. And she wasn’t the same person, either.

She took a gulp of water. She was officially annoyed. Smith was a little shit for bringing this up. He had established himself as some sort of player, and constantly had stories about his exploits at the clubs every weekend. She had her doubts since he’d spent most of the evening alone at their table. Besides, those who bragged the loudest usually weren’t all that. But she didn’t know Smith well. He’d come from a tour in Korea just a couple months ago, and she’d only just arrived at Huachuca a few months before that. They interacted little, and she was going to keep it that way from here on out.

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