Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(29)

“When are we going to talk about earlier?” She’d rather have field surgery on her arm again than go down this path, but if they were going to work together they had to sort things out.

“I’d rather not get into it with you right now.”

“Rand, we have to talk about it.”

“How about not?”

“Will you grow up all ready?” Sarah rolled her eyes and reconsidered the idea of strangling him. “We had sex, Rand. We also have to work together.”

“I’m aware of that.”

She flopped back in her seat. The man hadn’t grown up one bit. They were one blessed second away from yelling at each other, if his tone was any barometer. This whole problem was ridiculous and stupid and out of freaking control. He drove her batshit crazy. Not that it was an excuse, but him telling her where to go, what to do, and giving her no choice in the matter grated on her nerves. She hadn’t let anyone make her decisions since the day her mom stopped picking out her outfits. Rand and Matt had never been able to convince her to play in her own proverbial sandbox, so why did Rand think she would be any different as an adult?

Fuck it.

He couldn’t get away from her, and it wasn’t like he could stop listening. He might not want to hear what she had to say, but he was a captive audience until they got to wherever it was they were going.

“If you’d stopped for five seconds before running out in the hall like an idiot, we could have talked. Just because I had sex with you doesn’t mean there’s an us. I meant what I said back there. Being in a relationship is the sort of thing people talk about. You decide it together. Besides, now isn’t the time to go all caveman on me. This situation is not normal. We are not normal.” She pushed her hands through her hair. “It’s not that I don’t care about you. I do. I think we can both admit we’ve been attracted to each other for a long damn time, but that doesn’t mean a fairy godmother is going to wave her magic wand and it’ll work out for us. That’s what I wanted us to talk about, but you don’t listen to me and that’s what’s so frustrating.”

The car eased to a stop, right there on the two-lane road.

Rand turned to face her. Was his face stuck like that? It’d serve him right to have a permanent scowl to wear around.

“That’s not what I meant at all,” he said.

“You’re going to have to be a lot more specific.”

“Everything’s happening so fast, I can’t stop and hold your hand.”

“I don’t expect you to, but at least treat me with respect.”

“I…do.”

“No, you don’t. You got mad at me because I said there was no us, and I was right. Not now, not yet, but maybe there might have been. You know, when we aren’t playing this cloak-and-dagger crap. If we still like each other. We might not even want to be around the people we’ve become. Had you thought about that? It’s one thing to look at you and see the guy I daydreamed about as a teenager, but it’s another to be who we are now.”

The silence grated on her.

This was where he should apologize, but Rand wouldn’t. He was a guy. He couldn’t be wrong. It wasn’t like he was hurting her heart, or anything.

Damn.

What had she gotten in her eye?

Sara rubbed at her face. The exhaustion must be wearing on her. That was the only reason for the way her eyes were watering.

A car horn blared.

Rand muttered under his breath and gassed it. The car fishtailed a bit before it got traction. Rand whipped off the road onto the shoulder and shifted into park.

Goddamn it, couldn’t they just move on already?

“I’m sorry, Sarah. I just… I fucked up.”

“Yeah, you did.” Shit. She really was crying. And why shouldn’t she? This wasn’t just some guy. He was Rand. Her Rand.

“Hey. Hey, look at me, please?” He grasped her hand and tugged her around to face him.

The early morning light made his hair look redder, his hazel eyes gone a smoky green-blue. “I’m sorry.” He squeezed her hand in his.

“Who are you?”

“What?”

“Rand doesn’t apologize.”

“I just did.”

“Exactly. Who are you?”

“Sarah…” He caressed her hand, and her soul trembled.

“Drive, please.” She wiped her cheeks, tugging her hand from his. “Tell me about Wei. Why is he here? Why are we going toward him?”

“Honestly, we don’t know why he’s here. The Chinese are about to throw a big party for the new Secretary of State, and all the prominent political figures are expected to show up. There’s not enough room for them all at the embassy, so some are staying offsite at a couple hotels. Intelligence indicated that one group in particular has their finger in some covert work, so we’re going to shadow them. I’d prefer if we could hand this off to someone else, but we don’t have that many people on hand who speak Chinese as fluently as you do.”

“Mandarin.”

“Yes, sorry. Mandarin. Besides, if we get the chance to get the case, we can open it, extract the documents, and leave them with an empty toy to mess with.”

“It’s really risky.”

“Would you rather hide? I could find somewhere to stash you.”