He walked out of her room, surveyed the dimly lit hall but she was gone. If he wanted to, he could find her. She wouldn’t be far away. Maybe in the kitchen or behind one of the closed doors right here in this hall. But he couldn’t do that. He had to respect her needs.
Coming here had been his first mistake tonight. He wasn’t about to make another. Oddly he couldn’t bring him self to regret making love with her. Mistake or not, he refused to regret it for a single moment.
Not in this life time.
He stole out the rear exit of her brown stone and into the concealing darkness of the night.
Right now he didn’t have time to work this out. He had an assignment that couldn’t wait another day.
But when he got back one way or another he intended to sway her to his way of thinking. What ever it took, he wouldn’t give up.
They belonged together.
All he had to do was survive this mission.
He had as many of the facts as were possible to glean from the sparse details they had uncovered. He had the face Elizabeth had given him—his ticket into Maddox’s seedy world of betrayal.
He would get this done. He would return to Elizabeth and then he would make her see that he was right.
Maybe she didn’t feel as strongly about their relationship as he did, though he suspected she did. But that didn’t change a damned thing as far as he was concerned.
He was definitely in love with her.
Chapter 11
Elizabeth stared at the tousled sheets on her bed. She’d done it again. Made a huge error injudgment.
She hadn’t been able to sleep in here last night. Not with the smell of their lovemaking having permeated every square inch of the room. Even now she could smell the lingering scent of Joe. If she closed her eyes she could recall vividly the way he’d touched her in the dark.
And now he was gone.
She steeled her self against the fear and worry. This was exactly why she hadn’t wanted to fall for a man like him again.
Who was she kid ding? She’d fallen for him before she’d even known her relationship with David was over. She’d lied to her self, pretended she hadn’t felt the things she felt for Joe. Denial was a perfectly human reaction to any thing confusing or fearful. Just because she was a trained physician didn’t make her any less human.
Or any smarter, it seemed.
Elizabeth quickly dressed, choosing her most comfortable slacks and a pale blue blouse. She needed all the comfort she could get today, including a light hand with makeup. Not that she wore that much any way, but she just didn’t feel up to the extra effort today.
As she exited her bedroom, she refused to think of Joe and the idea that he’d likely begun efforts to infiltrate the enemy. If she did she would only start to worry about where he was and what was happening to him.
Today was the pivotal test of all her work. His face, his mannerisms and speech. All of it would be scrutinized by the group of assassins he needed to fool.
God, what if these evil people had already heard some how that David was dead?
She couldn’t go there…just couldn’t do it.
Work. She needed work to occupy her mind.
When she reached the door she remembered her blazer and she hurried back to her room to grab one.
Again the tangled mass of linens tugged at her senses. She got out of there, took the stairs two at a time.
Determined to put last night completely behind her, she opened her front door and stepped out into the day.
The sun gleamed down, warming her face, giving her hope that this day might turn out all right after all. A new beginning. Another opportunity to do something good and right. Maybe she would never be as smart as she should be in her personal life, but her career could be enough. It had been for a long time now. Why change a game plan that appeared to work?
“Are you ready, Dr. Cameron?”
Elizabeth smiled at Agent Dawson. Nice, safe, quiet Dawson. Like Dr. New man. The kind of man she should be seeking, but some how never gravitated to ward.
“Yes, I am, Agent Dawson.” And it was true. She was ready to move on. And she could as long as she didn’t stop long enough to think.
“There’s been a change in plans this morning,” he commented as they moved to ward the vehicles parked at the curb. “I’ll need to drive you to the clinic this morning if you don’t have any objections.”
She shrugged. “No problem.” It wasn’t like she had plans to go any where during the course of the day. If she had lunch she usually ate in her office. Most likely she’d spend what time she had available between patients going over files and finishing up reports.
That was the least glamorous part of her job—paperwork. Not the insurance forms or billing statements prepared by the clinic’s accounting staff, but the detailed reports on patient history and recommended procedures as well as results of those performed and updates on follow-up consultations. Lots and lots of reports and analyses.