After a roll of his eyes, Leese turned to fully face her. “Eavesdropping?”
“Yes.” She came out the rest of the way. “And good thing. Enoch doesn’t need more duties piled on him. Seems to me he already has a full plate.”
Protesting that, Enoch said, “Believe me, Sahara makes it more than worth my while.”
“I hope so. The scope of your job seems to cover...everything. I don’t want to add to it.”
“Sahara is the very best boss I’ve ever had. Always polite and caring. She gives me requests, but if I said no, she’d be okay with it. She wouldn’t fire me. So far, though, I’ve never even considered saying no to her. I love this job too much.”
With fresh curiosity, Leese asked, “Was her brother the same?” Of course he’d known about Scott Silver. The man wasn’t a secret. But Sahara had never really discussed him much.
“Scott was very similar. They were close and shared a lot of personality traits. Smart, motivated, considerate... Sahara, though, is far more driven, personally and in business. Around her, there’s never a dull moment.” He opened the main door, but hesitated. “She normally doesn’t talk about him at all. She keeps everything inside—she’s super private that way. If you don’t mind, it’d be better if you don’t ask her anything about him.”
Since Leese was the same, he understood. “Sure.”
“Thanks.” He stepped out. “I’ll be back in one hour.”
Soon as he left, Leese turned to Cat. She’d removed her sweater and now wore only jeans, socks and a pullover long-sleeved T-shirt that hugged her modest curves. Somehow, on her, at this particular moment, it looked like the sexiest outfit ever.
“You doing okay?”
She nodded, but it was a lie. He saw it on her face, in the darkness of her eyes and the pallor of her skin.
Taking both her hands in his, he pulled her closer. “Fibber.”
“I’m here,” she countered. “Safe. I’d call that okay.”
“You’re chilled.” Her fingers felt like ice. “Want me to adjust the temp?”
“Did you see that thermostat? It’d take a mathematical genius to figure it out.” She tipped her head back to look up at him. “Besides, my hands and feet are always cold this time of year.”
Damn, but it was tempting to kiss her, especially since she looked to be waiting on it. Instead he took a step back. “Since we’re going to be playing house, why don’t we go through the kitchen and see what groceries we’ll need? I’ll pick them up while I’m out getting us phones.”
In silent agreement, she headed that way. “Why do you need the phones? You don’t trust the landlines here?”
“They’re secure. Sahara would have seen to that.” But trust that no one in the building would listen in? There were a lot of people in an agency this size—too many to vet them all, too many that he didn’t know well. “But I’d still rather you not make any calls. If there’s anyone you want to talk to, let me know.”
As she stepped into the kitchen she trailed her fingers over the polished granite bar. “You called them burners.”
“Usually burners mean a phone you use once and toss. I won’t do that, but I will use different phones in different locations so I can mix it up, and once one runs out of minutes, I’ll be done with it. It’s just a way to up our chances of dodging them. That’s all.”
“I’m glad you’re more serious about this than Sahara.” She knelt to look in a cabinet, found big bowls and stood again. “I can use one of the phones?”
“Yes.” He watched her go on tiptoe to open another cabinet. Her body was slim but supple, looking leaner as she stretched.
This cabinet held staples like salt, flour, sugar and spices. None of that interested her though.
Curious, Leese folded his arms and asked, “Who do you want to call?”
She rolled one shoulder. “My brothers first. I don’t know if they’re worried or not, but just in case...” She opened a drawer and found a pen and paper. Drawing them out, she asked, “Can you cook?”
“Sure. You?”
“Pretty much.” She wrote on the paper, then went back to checking cabinets.
Leese stepped closer to read: cereal, milk, cookies, cola... He shook his head. “You’re going to kill yourself eating that—”
“Shush it.” After glancing in the freezer, she said, “Put ice cream on there too, will you? And maybe chocolate sauce. Or ooh, whipped cream.”
No, he wouldn’t. “Why don’t you let me take over meals?”
With an exaggerated shudder, she said, “Because you’ll have me eating tofu or something nauseating like that.”
“I promise that’s not true.”
She closed the freezer and opened the fridge. “I need my junk food in times of stress, and Leese?” Glancing over her shoulder, she emphasized, “This is definitely a time of stress.”
Gently, he wrestled the refrigerator door from her and closed it, then with his hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face him. “Who else will you want to call?”
On a groan, she said, “So many people.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“People at the school. The boy who usually shovels my walk and driveway. I have a neighbor who probably wonders what happened to me. At least he’ll be able to tell me if my house is okay.”
Every possessive instinct came to attention. Leese tried to ignore the unruly urges, even as he repeated, “He?”
“Mike. He’s like... I don’t know. Eighty-five or so. Scrawny little guy but real protective. Sometimes he’d walk over in the morning with coffee. See, he belongs to this coffee club and sometimes he likes to share.”
And she was kind enough to make time for her elderly neighbor. Nice. Hell, everything about her was nice.
Leese knew he wasn’t only attracted to her physically. So far, he actually liked everything about her.
He considered her a job. His responsibility. In some ways, he already considered her...his.
Dumb. Dangerous. But looking down at her, needing to protect her, wanting her, he couldn’t deny the truth of his feelings.
“If you call your neighbor, it’s going to lead to a lot of questions about where you’ve been. It could even put him in danger. So how about I go by your house instead? I can check it over, make sure—”
“What?” Eyes flaring, she insisted, “No. Absolutely not. Don’t even think about going to my house.”
Mystified by her reaction, Leese asked, “Why not?”
Her hands fisted in his shirt. “Promise me right now that you won’t.” When he didn’t answer fast enough, she tried to shake him.
Silly.
He untangled her fingers from his clothes. “Settle down, Cat.”
That earned him a punch in the ribs. Not that she had enough strength to hurt him, especially without room to really draw back.
Going on tiptoe, she said straight into his face, “They know what you look like, damn it! By now they probably know who you are. You can’t go poking your nose around places where they might be.”
Leese wasn’t sure if he wanted to kiss her or set her straight. He decided to go with setting her straight first. “I’m not worried about them.”