“No one I know would do anything this crazy.”
He felt an unwanted twinge of sympathy for her. “We all like to think that the people we know and care about aren’t capable of great treachery and harm. Believe me, experience says otherwise.”
She stiffened, her gaze striking sparks off his. “That might have more impact if it wasn’t coming from you.”
He smiled. “You trusted me because I seemed harmless?”
Georgie looked away. He hadn’t looked harmless, then or now. He had looked tough and trustworthy, with a straight-up in-your-face hotness that set him apart from the crowd of other hunky men surrounding her that day. There was that nameless something about him that she could only capture in her photographs. He wouldn’t understand that. Worse, it wouldn’t make her any safer if he did. In fact, it would make her much more vulnerable.
He reached out and touched her lightly, his hands framing her shoulders with strength and determination. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
Georgie held still under his touch, willing herself to look into his gold-and-green-flecked brown gaze. The full power of his persuasion viewed up close seemed to back up that promise of protection. She needed to believe him, very badly, even if it was a lie. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
He unbuttoned a flap of the jacket pocket just over her heart and slipped the flash drive inside. “This is a sound device. If you take it out it will activate the camera, too. Never be without it. Never leave it behind. If you decide to lose the jacket, drop this in another place. Your bra, for instance.” He moved a finger to point out what should have been in her cleavage. His finger touched T-shirt-covered skin.
Shit. He forgot.
She wasn’t wearing a bra.
For a second longer he looked at her behind his lowered lids, aware of the smell of her, of the rise and fall of her breath fanning out over his face, and of the too-rapid pulse beating in her jaw.
Fuck it all.
He didn’t wait for reason to interfere this time. He backed her up against the door and kissed her.
The kiss was deep and hot, with nothing remotely reassuring or calming in it. It was a combustion of like meeting like, the claiming of an attraction as necessary as breathing. They both felt it. The kiss released all the hostility, uncertainty, and need that had been tangled up inside them from the moment they’d seen each other the night before.
Georgie heard him murmur something, and then his fingers were sliding into her hair at her nape as his other hand came up to cradle her chin as their kisses made promises that ignored the reality of their situation.
That lasted only seconds and then he was gently pushing her away.
Only then did Georgie realize her hands clutched his body. She dropped them but held his gaze, smoked now with raw urgent need. She knew he was seeing the same thing in hers. Okay, so they were both still attracted to one another. That was not news. But the intensity with which he watched for her reaction made her understand he was still calculating and judging her, still the Fed with a job to do.
She managed to find her voice, such as it was, first. “Am I supposed to be impressed?”
He gave her a little smile and pushed a hand through his dark hair. “I sure the hell am.”
Her sudden laughter surprised Brad. It splashed over him like water from a hydrant on a hot summer day. It was refreshing and cooling, and just what he needed. But playtime was over for now.
His expression reverted to professional. “This is the time for you to tell me if you want another agent assigned to you. Say it, and it’s a done deal.”
Georgie frowned. “Why would you say that now?”
“Because whatever this is between us”—he waggled two fingers back and forth between them—“it has to wait.”
She nodded. “Right.”
“For the record, I wasn’t acting as FBI Special Agent Brad Lawson from the time I crossed your threshold that night two months ago until I left the next morning.”
“What about just now?”
He didn’t answer but stared at her with the same intensity that had been in his expression when he kissed her. He had admitted all he was going to admit to for both their sakes.
She lifted her chin and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Zander, who had been watching the interaction with rapt attention, woofed and danced a bit on his leash, ready for action and another snack.
Chapter Seven
“That’s awful. Were you scared?” A little group of colleagues gathered around Georgie at the Associated Press building on Thirteenth St. N.W.
“Yes, I freaked. The police came but weren’t much help.”