DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(139)

“Why aren’t you?”

“Because it’s not appropriate.”

“That’s what Rachel’s wearing.”

“Yeah. I wanted to tear it off of her and trade.”

I laughed. I could almost see that, this tiny wisp of a woman yanking the clothing from my sister who had, probably, four inches and thirty pounds on her. There was no doubt in my mind that Adrienne would be successful.

“You were really in the Army?”

“I was.”

“For how long?”

“Until about ten months ago.”

I rolled onto my side and propped my head up on my hand. “What was that like?”

She shrugged. “It was the same as it would be for anyone. A lot of hard work. A lot of sitting around waiting. A lot of wondering if I was going to get out of there alive.”

I laid my hand on her knee. “You are a complicated creature, aren’t you?”

I don’t think that’s what she expected me to say. Half a dozen emotions rushed through those gorgeous, pale eyes of hers. I was curious to see which one stuck around the longest, but then she looked away.

“Most guys don’t know what to do with me. They look at me and see that I’m small, so they think they can do whatever they want, say whatever they want. But then they see what I can do, and they either treat me like one of the guys, or they run the other direction, preferring to be with a woman who is more feminine than I am.”

“I can’t imagine there are many women out there who are more feminine than you.” I leaned close and kissed her knee. “And I can’t treat you like one of the guys. Even if you can beat the shit out of me.”

“I probably could,” she said. And then she laughed, the sound the sweetest thing I’d heard all day.

I sat up just long enough to push her down against the pillows, catching her lips as we both fell. Her arms came around my waist, her hands sliding under my shirt the moment she found the bottom edge. And mine seemed to know just where they wanted to be. One rested on her hip, tugging at the impossibly long skirt of that infernal dress, the other loving the feel of her hard nipple against my palm.

When I first saw her sitting in that bar, I told myself it was a mistake. The whole thing had been Ruben’s idea. Pretend we’d just met. Pretend that she was just a girl I’d met right there in front of my brother, a girl who got so far under my skin that I couldn’t help but invite her to hang out with me at work. It seemed like the perfect solution to the fact that our hiring practices at Callahan Biomedical were so intensive that the patent would have been granted before any of his investigators could pass muster. But when I saw her, I thought, that girl is so not my type. She’s too small, too dark. I like my women tall, a little more on the sturdy side. And blonde. I don’t think I’ve ever dated a woman with dark hair. Some guys have a type, and I’m one of them. But then she smiled at me, and I think I was gone from that moment forward.

And the taste of her lips…

“You’re so beautiful,” I said as I pulled back and studied her eyes.

She touched my jaw, her thumb rubbing against my bottom lip.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said.

“Do what?”

“Lie to me.”

She started to pull her hand away, but I grabbed her wrist and pushed her hand back against my face.

“I know you don’t know me well, but I don’t make a habit of lying.”

Again, that parade of emotions that made such a habit of dancing through her eyes appeared. Then she reached up and kissed me again, deeply. It felt like she reached inside of my chest and touched my soul, the way she kissed me. And then she pushed me off of her, catching me off guard. I rolled, and she slipped off the bed.

“It’s six thirty. We should probably get ready to go.”

I buried my face in the pillows and screamed. This woman was going to kill me while trying to protect me from the threat that had brought her into my life in the first place.





Chapter 12


Adrienne

I felt like a complete fraud.

There were heels on my feet. Not three-inch heels like both Rachel and her mother were wearing, but heels. I had never worn heels. I didn’t even know how to walk in heels. Yet, I’d allowed Theresa, my father’s receptionist, to talk me into buying them and Lucien to talk me into wearing them. And now I was clinging to his arm for dear life, because I knew the moment I tried to take a step without his support I would fall flat on my face.

“You’re doing fine,” he whispered against my ear.

But I wasn’t.

Not only were there these shoes to contend with, but the dress I was wearing was surely made as a torture device. The bodice was so tight that I could barely breathe; the belt that came around just under my breasts was like the vice on my father’s workbench back home. And the skirt was so long that I was sure I would trip over it, but it had this split up one side so that one leg just wanted to pop out of no matter how careful I was in my movements.

Lucien liked it. He said it was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen on a woman. But I was pretty sure that was just because I’d left him high and dry.

Then again, there was the way he looked at me. I had to admit, it felt good. Really good.

The restaurant where we were having dinner was fancier than anything I’d ever seen before. The lobby was filled with marble and brass and I don’t even know what else. The dining room was huge and clean, the décor simple but clearly expensive. I was almost afraid to sit on the simple chair Lucien pulled out for me. I didn’t belong here, and I was convinced someone was going to figure that out sooner than later.