Page 74 of Long Arm of the Cowboy

His buddy snorted. “I know what you’re doing, Lexis.”

He cocked a brow in question.

“Trying to get me to stay and work with you on Sentry.”

“You already said you’ve been giving it some thought.”

Quaide paused before giving him a short nod. “I just need a little time when I’m not thinking about bombs, bomb units being attacked and prisoners being broken out. There’s also the matter of who takes the leadership role in Sentry.”

“I do,” he said at once.

“But I formed the team in the first place.”

He shook his head. “And you granted me control.” He twisted his mouth. “But I might agree to go easy on you. I won’t give youallthe worst assignments.”

Quaide barked a rueful laugh. “I appreciate that. Who knows? It might be nice to give up some of the responsibility.”

Lark set her phone on the table. “When are you going to give me my next assignment?”

He inched his fingers toward the device. The slightest twitch in that direction had her slapping a hand over it. She slid the phone into her lap and cocked a brow at him.

“You weren’t seriously about to take my phone, were you, Clay?”

“Was thinkin’ about it.”

“You’re not getting it.”

All he had to do was haul her into his lap, touch her breasts and kiss her senseless to get the phone out of her hands. But he didn’t say that in front of Quaide.

The man seemed to be watching them close—too close for Clay’s comfort. He didn’t like being under scrutiny when he didn’t totally understand what was going on between him and Lark either.

His phone buzzed, and he brought it to his ear. “Lexis.”

Was it his imagination or did Lark just shiver?

His gaze landed on her, which was the worst choice of places to look, because she was wearing that come-fuck-me expression that had been his downfall from the beginning.

“It’s Julius,” came the deep voice into his ear.

“Everything okay? You’re late.”

“Yeah, there’s gonna be a delay.”

“But you defused the bomb?”

Lark and Quaide both zeroed in on Clay’s conversation.

“We got it done. It wasn’t easy. Did you know there was a backup power source?”

“What the hell? No.”

“Yeah, it could have detonated at any moment if the right trigger was hit.”

Clay held back a groan and rubbed a fingertip across his forehead. This conversation was bringing on one of his tension headaches, which meant he’d be grinding his teeth in no time.

“You got rid of the thing, though. Now you’re supposed to be here. So what’s keeping you?” Clay demanded.

“Ross needs our backup.”

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