The Espionage Effect(49)
I’d only just begun to learn that, exercised cautiously, the dance between man and woman could be quite rewarding—thrilling even.
Alec interrupted my line of sight, right after Miguel scooped Anna into his arms and vanished out the front.
He handed me a tall crystal glass. “One still water. Smart Water, actually.”
“Oh, good. I need a synapse boost tonight.”
His gaze shot to my lips, then slowly raised to my eyes. “There you go with that smart mouth of yours.”
“My electrolyte induced neurons are stimulated into hyperactivity,” I drawled out.
He bit the right corner of his lower lip, eyelids falling as if he’d been half-drugged. “Tease.”
“Provocateur,” I corrected. I took a few swallows of the water, then slid from the barstool back onto the four-inch Jimmy Choo heels Anna had loaned me. Gifted dress, borrowed shoes, at a ball replete with powerful dignitaries from across the land in a glitzy castle atop a hill, it seemed on the surface that I’d stumbled into a fairytale. Awash with devious plots. And heinous agendas.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I led Alec back into the noise-shielding vicinity of the waterfall so we could speak without risk of being overheard. Even so, I kept my volume to a bare minimum. “It seems like you’re waiting for something.”
“I am.” His gaze held mine for a moment more, then scanned the room.
I turned slightly, analyzing the scene in fresh perspective. “What?”
“For the optimal time to leave.” His hand slid around my waist, then he exerted slight pressure until I yielded, tucking closer against him.
Unsteady in the stiletto heels, I leaned into him, letting his solid strength support us both. “When will that be?”
He leaned down until his lips brushed the top of my ear. With his slow exhalation, warm breath feathered over the delicate skin, causing goose bumps to erupt. “Soon,” he whispered.
A sensual heat flared, warming every nerve ending. I had to inhale a deep breath to steady myself.
To distract me from sensation overload and keep my Smart Water-charged head in the game, I focused on looking at the room before us through Alec’s eyes. From the viewpoint of a spy.
The guests were spreading out, migrating toward the fringes. The same security who’d been posted along the perimeter and guarding the exit points remained. Only this time, the guards no longer held a relaxed vigilance, zeroed in on the center of the room where every guest had earlier been docile. For every guard, there had to be a couple dozen inebriated guests. The guards’ focus had now been scattered, their energy somewhat drained.
“You’re waiting until two more ‘drunken’ guests can stumble into a quiet corner, without focused attention.”
His deep chuckle reverberated against me, causing a fresh riot of goose bumps. A gentle kiss pressed to the upper shell of my ear. “You were right. You are a quick study.”
He’d just unofficially acknowledged my capacity as trainee, a different category than when snorkeling and catamaran cruising. Did that mean… “Am I no longer cover?”
At the question, he pulled back, his nearly black eyes staring hard at me. Then he narrowed them. A muscle clenched in his jaw. Like he’d allowed my participation in tonight’s event to flow unchecked, but now a decision had to be made.
“You tell me.” His expression was unreadable.
Before I had time to register the words beyond their basic command, he bent down and crushed his lips to mine.
The kiss fired hot at first contact, igniting every nerve ending to roaring life. His words tumbled somewhere into the far reaches of my mind, beyond comprehension or analysis, exactly where they belonged when hit with a 9.5 body-shaking quake.
When he broke away, nearly as fast as he’d hit me unaware, I sucked air into my lungs. The clear answer to the question I’d asked boomed into my mind. “No longer.”
No longer. More contact. My words and his from earlier echoed into my thoughts, both weighted with innuendo. No longer mere cover. No longer held at arm’s length.
We’d crossed the line he’d so vehemently drawn in the sand.
Was I an unofficial agent, then? More than a one-night stand?
My head swam.
The lines identifying everything had blurred.
“Come.” Alec bit out the short word against the column of my neck, as if his restraint was flagging and he needed me to do just that.
Soon… His sensual promise echoed back into my mind, rippled across already heated nerve endings.
My thoughts drifted back into the moment when he slipped his warm hand into mine, easing his body away. “We have just under an hour.”
“Before what?” Fuzzed as my mind was, I furrowed my brow, trying to concentrate and follow along.
“Shift change.” They were his last words before he guided me from the noise-cancelling domain of the waterfall and down a hall that led deeper into the center of the house.
We wouldn’t be able to talk freely anymore. And since Anna and I had arrived shortly before 9:00 p.m., and a couple of hours had passed, that meant midnight would be shift change—a golden opportunity when the security coming off detail would be tired and distracted, having chased down one too many drunk guests wandering hallways they hadn’t been granted access to. Like we were doing now.