stumbled, and Janos caught her instantly. His move was so slick, so graceful, it felt inevitable that she should end up in his arms, kissing him again. His lips were so pleading and soft and hot, his body throbbing magnetic male energy at her, through her.
Panic cramped the sweet swell of longing, and she fought free of the kiss. “No,” she said breathlessly. “Don’t push your luck.”
“My luck?” He grinned, and she was dazzled by the devastating white teeth, the deep dimples. “The luck was yours, bella. I want to push your luck. As far as it will go, and I think it can go very far.”
She pushed at his chest. “No. Stop,” she said shakily. “Enough.”
“Let me.” He sank to his knees, sliding his hands under the loose black silk of her blouse. “Let me please you. For hours.”
She shuddered as the warm, rough rasp of his calluses scraped over the sensitive skin of her belly, and pushed at his face, feeling the strong bones, the hot velvety skin of him. “You are not going to get lucky tonight, you oversexed son of a bitch, so back off!”
He rose gracefully to his feet, looking resigned.
“Tell me your real name, who sent you, and what the hell you want from me,” she demanded. “That’s all I ever wanted from this meeting. I’m not leaving until I get it. And neither are you.”
All the playfulness went out in his face. The energy of the room changed. It felt colder. Darker.
Oh, no. Oh, shit. Whatever it was that he had to tell her, it was something she would not enjoy hearing, she realized with a sickening flash of insight. Her belly began to hurt.
He tried to smile, but the effort was hollow. “Promise me you won’t kill me,” he said.
She did not smile back. “I make no promises.”
He stared down at the remainder of their meal. “I don’t have any name other than Val Janos to give you,” he said. “The name I was born with means nothing to anyone, so you might as well stick with Janos. It’s one of several identities that I use. In my work.”
She swallowed and braced herself. “Fine, then,” she said tightly. We’ll stick with Janos. What work? Who sent you, Janos?”
His Adam’s apple moved, as if he were trying to speak, but couldn’t bring himself to get the words out. Her neck prickled, her skin crept. Suspicion hardened into cold, blunt certainty. She knew.
The two people who had most cause to actively search for her were Daddy Novak and Georg Luksch. Novak wanted her dead. Georg wanted her, period. This man was not here to assassinate her, of that much she was sure. Which meant…
“Georg,” she whispered.
His face did not change, his eyes did not drop. And he did not contradict her. The stony coldness spread.
“I am an operative for PSS,” he said. “Prime Security Solutions. It is a—”
“A private army for hire. Yes, I am familiar with PSS,” she said, tonelessly. “So Georg hired you? How did you find me?”
It took him a long time to reply. “The McClouds,” he finally said. “I planted cameras outside their homes weeks ago. One day you showed up at Connor McCloud’s house. I got there in time to put a GPS locator on your SUV. It was a stroke of luck.”
She put her hand over her eyes. “I can’t believe this.” She wanted to shoot herself for being so sloppy. Putting everyone in danger, especially Rachel. She’d just wanted so badly for Rachel to have a semi-normal life. She might have known that it wouldn’t be possible. Not with Tam Steele and her reality-warping force field anywhere nearby. Forget normality. Forget anything clean or healthy. Just give up the effort.
“It took a while,” he offered, almost if he were trying to console her for fucking up. “If it weren’t for the McClouds—”
“Shut up. Just shut up,” she said through clenched teeth, and another unpleasant thought jolted her. “Hey. What about Erin?” she demanded. “You involved Erin. Stay away from my friends, understand? If you mess with my friends, I will cut you into bloody little pieces.”
“I will not bother Erin, or any of your other friends,” he soothed.
A worse thought occurred to her, with a wrench of stomach-turning fear. “Rachel,” she whispered. “Oh, no. I’ll kill you. I’ll gut you, put out your eyes, break every bone if you’ve done anything to my—”
“No, no,” he said hastily. “I have not touched her. And I will not. Though those were my original orders. To use her as a bargaining chip.”
“Oh yes? We’re not bargaining, Janos. Whatever Georg wants from me, the answer is fuck you very much, but no. I don’t want to see you ever again, you scumbag pimp. Get lost.”
She slapped the door open and confronted a stupefied Davy and Nick. “Escort this lying piece of walking shit off the premises,” she ordered them, her voice shaking. “If you ever see him again, kill him.”
She stormed out of the room, eyes full of furious tears. She despised herself for wanting him. When all he intended was to pass her over to Georg, that slobbering pervert.
After sampling the goods himself first, of course. Why ever not?
If there was one thing she hated more than anything else in the world, it was feeling stupid.
Chapter
8
He’d failed. The world as he knew it had ended.
Val stood in the middle of the room, staring at the hole in which she had just stood. She’d left abruptly, distorting space, sucking the air out with her. Leaving a vacuum that made his lungs burn. The one time in his life as a professional liar in which he gave a shit, and the woman had seen right through him, effortlessly. Smoke and mirrors. A gutted hole. A lifetime of training good for nothing. Now what?
McCloud came in, looking baffled. “Hey, Janos,” he said gruffly. “Look alive. You heard the lady. Move it.”
He just looked at the man stupidly. His throat ached. His brain stalled out.
McCloud made an impatient gesture. “Your business here is finished. Go on back to where you came from. And don’t come back.”
Val roused himself, retrieved his briefcase. In the anteroom, Nick Ward silently handed him his coat and knife. He shrugged the garment on, sheathed the knife, moving stiffly, like a robot.
Ward cleared his throat. “Hey, uh, don’t take it too hard.”
Val looked at him, utterly blank. “I beg your pardon?”
“A woman like Tam…” Ward waved his hand helplessly. “That’s, like, her way of showing that she likes you.”
Val felt a crazy urge to laugh. “Likes me? Me, the lying piece of walking shit that you have been ordered to shoot on sight?”
“Oh,
