Page 36 of Wyoming Cowboy Undercover

He wanted her to be his.

But he held very still, absorbing her nearness, even though his body vibrated from the effort of holding back. This was more than an itch to be scratched. He’d scratched itches in the past and had been fulfilled.

This was different.

Shewas different.

Finally, his better sense took over. Rocco broke the kiss and lowered her hands away from him. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

She closed her eyes. “Why not?” Her voice was barely a whisper. She looked confused, ashamed and it made his heart hurt.

That moment of physical connection, as slight and tender as it had been, was more than enough spark to jump-start his engines. Swearing silently, he cursed that Charlie was right.

He’d thought about being with Mercy, like this, alone and away from the USD or the compound, but in his wildest dreams he never imagined he’d be the one sayingno.

“Mercy, look at me.” He waited until she’d opened her eyes, and he saw desperation tangled with raw yearning. “There are things I need to tell you.”

Soberly, she nodded. “Just tell me.”

He dreaded saying the words, knowing that she was going to hate him for it. “I’m an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. I used you to get onto the compound to investigate your father and the Shining Light.”

Chapter Ten

Unable to breathe, Mercy listened to the jarring words tumbling out of Rocco’s mouth. The more he said, referring to her as anasset—talking about ghost arms, explosives, something horrible happening on the full moon—the stronger the brutal sensation inside her, like she had walked unsuspecting into the street and a truck had slammed into her, shattering every bone and breaking her heart into a million pieces.

He stopped talking. Or had finished.

It was quiet in the room for a long time. But everything hadn’t quite penetrated. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak.

He stepped forward into her space, the delicious smell of him strengthening, and her body tightened to guard against it. “Mercy, are you all right?”

She blinked once. Hot tears streaked down her face.

He reached for her. She scurried back and to her feet. Moving away from him, she kept shuffling in retreat until her spine was pressed into a corner. “None of it was real. Everything you told me was a lie.”

Rocco got up. “What I feel for you is real. It has been since I first laid eyes on you.” Blowing out a heavy breath, he raked a hand through his hair and paced around the room.

She cataloged the breadth of his shoulders, the damp strands at the nape of his neck, the way the tendons in his forearms shifted. She felt so much for him that she’d endangered herself to spare him any pain.

While she meant nothing to him. He’d only been using her. To betray her family.

“I omitted more than I lied, but so much of what I’ve told you is the truth,” he said. “You have to understand why I couldn’t be transparent.”

“Because you think we’re domestic terrorists.”

She’d let him into the compound, shared their secrets, showed him they were peaceful and only interested in making the world a better place and the entire time her father had been justified in not trusting him.

“I don’t think that you or most of the people in your commune are.”

Horror filled her at the implication. “But my father?”

“What does he need with all those weapons?”

“To protect us. From people like you. In the event one day you decide to attack us.”

“Don’t lump me in with every other agent.” His voice turned gentle and his eyes pleading. “There are laws preventing such a thing. The task force would never lay siege to the compound without just cause.”

Oh, no.There was a whole task force? “Tell that to all the people who didn’t make it out of the Waco massacre.” The siege left seventy-five people dead, including women and children.

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