“Because the lieutenant wants him to get the flash drive.” Jake’s heartbeat sped up as her closeness infused his blood with warmth. “He knows Tex wouldn’t do that if he knew the guy is a double agent.”
“Why not?”
“Because Tex doesn’t work with other agents. He’s a lone wolf.”
“What about the woman at the beginning?” She shifted. Her shoulder brushed his.
“That was his fiancée, but she’s been kidnapped.”
“By whom?”
“That’s what he’s trying to find out.”
“Well, all he has to do is look at her phone.” Callie ate a few kernels of popcorn. “She was using it right before that guy in the BMW grabbed her, and she dropped it.”
“Tex isn’t that smart.”
“This really is a bad movie.” Amusement threaded her voice.
“Told you.”
He reached for more popcorn, and their hands touched again. So much for him thinking the movie would be better than dinner and drinks with her. That he’d sit in his seat, isolated and immune to her presence.
Just sitting beside Callie was an exercise in awareness. He was attuned to every shift of her body, the crunch of her teeth into the popcorn, her scent that still filtered into his nose. His blood warmed when her knee or elbow bumped against his, and he fought the urge to take her hand or even put his arm around her.
He tore open the bag of M&Ms and held it out to her. She eyed it like he’d offered her poison.
“I don’t eat candy,” she whispered.
“This isn’tcandy.” He shook the bag impatiently. “It’s nectar of the gods.”
“I’ll haveone.” She plucked a single M&M out of the bag.
“No, you won’t.”
He was right again, as she snuck her hand into the bag numerous times over the next two hours. When the movie ended—kidnapped fiancée found, double-agent discovered, drug cartel villains eradiated—they made their way back to the lobby with the rest of the small crowd.
“That wasn’t the best movie to break your decade-long cinematic drought,” he said.
“What would have been better?” She pulled on her jacket and grabbed her hair to tug it away from the collar. He resisted the urge to help her. “AFatal Glorymovie?”
“Fatal Gloryis better than that, but no.”
As they walked to the doors, she shook her hair out, the long thick curtain falling past her shoulders. His fingers itched to touch it. No, he wanted to drive his fingers into all those heavy strands, to wrap her hair around his fist and tilt her head back while he devoured her mouth and—
Heat rose to his chest. He didn’t want this evening to end. He was even starting to think he might be in no hurry at all to leave Bliss Cove.