he had control over his reactions—both north and south of his belt.
Gabriel stood, grabbed their empty beer bottles and sauntered across the room. He didn’t head for the blonde, though. Instead he lost himself in the crowd around the pool table.
Less than a minute later he was back with four beers, a slight frown and the brunette with the broken halo and a body made to tempt Satan.
“Mitch, this is Tessa. She was nice enough to bring our food since my hands are full.”
Mitch arched a brow. He’d had to resort to a lame excuse like that to get the woman over? Romeo was losing his touch.
Ignoring Mitch’s grin, Gabriel took the plate of egg rolls.
“These are great. But you’re too gorgeous to be with catering,” Gabriel said, leaning back on his heels and giving the angel an assessing look. “How’d you get roped into playing waitress?”
The brunette matched him look for look, then shrugged.
“Roz asked, so Livi and I delivered.”
Mitch glanced at his watch.
“Livi? Isn’t that Roz’s niece?”
Mitch almost rolled his eyes. Damned if the man didn’t belong in intelligence. Of course, the only way he’d be any good there was if the US needed to infiltrate a harem guarded by women on an all-female island. But that was beside the point.
“You’re wanting to meet Livi?” the brunette said slowly, giving Gabriel a long look before turning those assessing eyes on Mitch. He was pretty sure those baby blues garnered as much info on him in that single look as the Pentagon had in their last security check. The military had approved his clearance. He wasn’t so sure the angel would.
No big deal. It wasn’t like he needed a wingman—or in this case wingman and winged woman—to get the girl. Before Mitch could brush off the sultry angel, she turned and gave a low whistle, waving her friend over.
While she did, Gabriel lifted his wrist to show he was on minute three of five.
But Mitch wasn’t paying attention.
His focus was the Twinkie, who after a moment’s hesitation crossed the room to join them.
Mitch knew there were words being said.
He was sure he was missing out on the fun of watching Romeo strike out.
But the closer the blonde came, the deeper into that fog of lust Mitch fell.
Brown. Her eyes were the color of melted milk chocolate. Rich, warm and inviting. Up close her face was even more striking in its delicacy. Especially the contrast of those dark eyes and brows against her pale skin and golden hair.
Those rich, hypnotic eyes met his.
Mitch could see interest there. And heat. Oh, yeah. A smile played at the corner of his mouth. He recognized that heat.
He opened his mouth to introduce himself. Before he could, Romeo snapped his fingers.
“Olivia Kane.”
The blonde blinked, frowned and pulled her gaze away from Mitch to look at Gabriel.
“Yes?”
Mitch grimaced. He didn’t have to look at his watch to know it had been just under five minutes.
“I’m a big fan. I’d love to talk about your training programs. Excuse me just one second, though.” Gabriel glanced at Mitch and grinned. “Thirty-six bravo, and out.”
“I’M MITCH DONOVAN. And you’re Olivia?”
Unable to find words, Livi simply nodded and nestled her hand into Mitch’s much warmer, much larger one.
It was like grabbing a live wire. His touch zapped a shaft of hot desire through her system with so much intensity, Livi wanted to lie down. On the nearest flat surface, preferably with him on top of her.
She could run a four-minute mile, lead an advanced interval-training class for fifty women while giving detailed verbal instructions, or handle herself in the kickboxing ring against a toothless bruiser named Bubba.
And she could do them all with a big smile, an average maximum heart rate of 120, and absolute faith her training meant that even if she got distracted by talking, muscle memory would get her through the workout.
But right now her smile was as shaky as her knees. Her heart was beating so fast and loud that she was light-headed, and her muscles were going into meltdown.
All it had taken was a single touch from Super Hottie.
Or...
Um, what had he said his name was?
Livi wet her lips, about to ask, when she realized she was still shaking his hand. No, it’d been so long now that she was just holding his hand.
Could she be a bigger dork?
Her cheeks warming, she let go and stepped back. It took all of her resolve, and the image of her mother’s glare, to keep Livi from turning heel and running out of the room. And she’d thought she’d overcome her shyness? Ha. Making a complete ass of herself with the sexiest man she’d met in forever pretty much burst that illusion.
Then she forced herself to stop. This was simply resistance. Maybe a dash of humiliation, but mostly resistance. Muscles weren’t built without it, she reminded herself. See it as a strength-training exercise.
Rallying to the self-lecture, Livi took a slow, subtle breath, pulling the air all the way down to her belly button. She let it calm her, soothe the edgy nerves. Another breath and she was able to pull on her meet-the-press persona, complete with toothy smile.
“Most people call me Livi,” she told him before inclining her head toward his friend, who appeared to be arguing with Tessa.
But... Men never argued with Tessa.
“I’m surprised he recognized me in this getup,” Livi said slowly, distracted by the other two. “Actually, I’m surprised he recognized me at all. That doesn’t happen very often.”
“Romeo has a special knack,” Super Hottie said with a friendly shrug. “I keep telling him he’d be a great spy, but his memory is pretty selective.”
“Romeo?” Tessa stopped whatever she was debating so fiercely to interrupt. She gave Super Hottie’s half-dressed friend an amused look then flicked her finger over the feather behind his ear. “And here I thought you were Tonto.”
“And here I thought angels were sweet,” the man called Romeo shot back.
Livi’s confused glance bounced between the two of them. Tessa seduced men. She didn’t argue with them. And the only guy Livi had ever seen go toe to toe with her usually charming friend had done so because he’d wanted
