“I’m so sorry,” Avery mumbled.
The plan. He’d had a plan before he’d lost his damn mind. She’d insulted him. She’d tried to put walls up. He’d blown past them, but sometimes to get through a wall it was best to go under it instead of drilling straight through. He wanted Avery’s walls to crumble so badly she couldn’t put them back up again. “Are you sorry for falling or for calling me a whore?”
She gasped, the sound very nearly sending him into apology mode, but this was the plan and he was going to stick to it. He didn’t apologize.
“Is there a problem here, Avery?”
Fucking Adam. He stood by the door to the building, a grocery bag in his hand. He looked on with concern on his face.
Avery pushed away, sniffling a little as she did. A sheen of tears pooled in her blue eyes and that lower lip trembled slightly. Fuck, how had he ever thought she was plain? She was stinking gorgeous, and it hit him straight in the gut to watch her cry. “No. Not at all. I’m fine. I was just saying good-bye to my…friend…uhm, to this guy I met.”
But for a moment today, it had felt like they were friends. Just for a couple of minutes, he’d stopped being an agent and felt like the Liam he’d been before he’d lost Rory.
But he was an asshole agent, and he needed her to get close to a man who might or might not be a terrorist. No matter what happened, he couldn’t forget that. She was a job and nothing more. He’d put out his hook and baited it with sex, but a little guilt couldn’t hurt.
“Think about that when you go to sleep tonight, sweetheart,” he growled her way. “I wanted you. Not money. You, and you treated me like crap. Sweet dreams.”
He turned and forced himself to walk away. The next time he saw her, he would have the high moral ground, and he would use it to his advantage.
He got on the Tube, hoping and praying the next battle wasn’t far away.
Chapter Four
“Do you want to talk?” Adam asked as he swiped the key card to the door. “What just happened?”
What had happened? Avery wasn’t exactly sure except that she’d totally screwed up, and she’d do just about anything to apologize to the poor man. He’d been perfectly lovely, and she’d been horrible and suspicious. “I think I just accused that man of being a prostitute.”
That man. She was trying to distance herself. His name was Lee.
Adam nearly dropped the bag he was carrying. “Are you serious?”
Avery nodded.
“Holy shit balls. Why didn’t I get here sooner? All I saw was the two of you going at it in the middle of the street. Had you like settled on a price or something? Come on. Let’s get inside and go up to my place. You look like you can use a drink.”
She could use more than one. She turned to see if she could find Lee in the crowd, but he’d disappeared down the escalator into the cavernous Liverpool station. He wouldn’t have been held back by her bad leg this time. She’d been very impressed with how patient he’d been. London was a fast city. Unlike the States, almost no one viewed an escalator as something to ride. It was a tool to get a person to their destination that much more quickly. She’d nearly been trampled on escalators many times before since she couldn’t move fast.
Lee had simply moved her to the right and stood behind her, an arm around her waist to balance her against the rushing commuters. “Always stand on the right,” he’d whispered to her.
And she’d brutally insulted the man.
“He’s gone, Avery. Come up with me,” Adam offered. “You can tell me all about it while I cook some dinner.”
Or she could go and hide in her room and eat a nasty microwave dinner. No. If she’d proven anything to herself today, it was that she needed to be more sociable. Maybe then she would learn when it was proper and right to accuse someone of trying to seduce her for cash.
She followed Adam inside. The concierge looked up from his desk. The building was a mix of residences and condos purchased by large corporations for employees to stay in. The concierge was used to an ex-pat community.
“Nice day at the museum, Miss Charles?” He was dressed in a perfectly pressed suit.
She nodded. “Yes, thank you, though I fear it’s time for me to move on. Perhaps you can suggest some more excursions for me tomorrow?”
He nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll keep you right entertained, miss. Mr. Kelly, welcome back. Hope the market was good.”