knowing about his criminal past didn’t put a damper on her lust, she needed to find something physically wrong with him and latch on to it. The one physical flaw she could find was that his secondhand clothes lacked style. She needed to mentally harp on that point and banish any sensual ideas of him. He wasn’t someone she was planning to date. He wasn’t part of her personal life. He was the con man skilled in fraud, counterfeiting and high-tech crimes, brought in to help in an important investigation. He had an abundance of confidence and he was an untrustworthy criminal, a dangerous combination.
“I am not asking you in,” she said. “I don’t fraternize with my coworkers in my home.”
He laughed. The gun at her hip tingled against her skin. Were her instincts sending her a warning? Cash was remarkably bold and she was tempted to close the door in his face. She clamped down on the urge. She wouldn’t have an emotional outburst and let him know he’d gotten to her. Unacceptable.
“Benjamin wants us to make nice,” Cash said.
Lucia gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to make nice with Cash Stone. She wanted him gone. “Benjamin has not advised me of that.” She was out of the loop on matters concerning her team. With Cash joining today, she was the second newest member, but she was supposed to be Benjamin’s right hand. As the assistant special agent in charge, or ASAC, she should be consulted on matters affecting the team. In reality, her new job duties were paperwork and spending extralong hours at the office.
“Check your phone,” Cash said.
Lucia left the door and grabbed her phone from the counter. Sure enough, there was a text from her boss: Cash on his way over. Make it work. We need him.
Annoyance caused a rush of heat to flame up her neck. Lucia set the phone on the counter and shook the irritation off her face. When she turned around, she smiled. “We don’t have a problem. As long as you don’t break the law or run a con on me, we’ll be fine.”
“I think you’re forgetting that Benjamin hired me because I can read people and I know you’re lying. I piss you off and I need to know why.” Cash was darkly good-looking and maybe he was accustomed to every woman falling at his feet. He’d have to learn she wasn’t every woman and she didn’t throw herself at men.
“Benjamin cut a deal with you because you have connections to a criminal we’re hunting, and catching that criminal will make him look good for a promotion he wants.” There. That should set Cash straight. He had skills they could use, but she wasn’t giving his ego a boost by acknowledging them.
Broad shoulders lifted. “He hired me for both reasons. Tell me why you can’t stand me. No one else on the team has a problem with me.”
That her team had welcomed and embraced him added to her agitation. They hadn’t been nearly as warm with her. Lucia shouldn’t have a problem with Cash. She didn’t know why he got under her skin. She dealt with criminals on a weekly basis. She’d been on stakeouts and watched scumbags commit crimes. She’d been undercover and lived with the lowest of the low. It hadn’t taken a personal toll.
But Cash Stone grated on her. “You shouldn’t have been released from prison. You need to serve your time. With you at my back, I’ll be waiting for you to put a bullet in it.”
What she’d said was blunt, but that was how she rolled these days.
His eyes sparkled with amusement. Was he enjoying this? If she’d hoped to get a rise out of him, she’d failed.
“I am serving my time. For the remaining three years of my sentence, I’ll be chained to you.” He lifted his pant leg to show her the ankle monitor. “You can trust me to do my job. If I don’t, I’ll earn myself seven more years in prison.”
“Unless you skip town before you’ve worked your three years,” she said.
“Won’t happen,” he said. “I want you to give me a real chance and treat me like everyone else on the team.”
Lucia rolled her eyes. He would run the first chance he had. Men like Cash didn’t change. He was a con man and a felon. He was probably conning her now, saying what he thought she’d want to hear. She wouldn’t mince words with a known liar. “You can count on me to behave professionally.”
“I don’t know what it’s like at the FBI, but in my world, professionally doesn’t include showing your colleagues you hit the gym six days a week.”
“What are you—”
He gestured at her and she looked down. In her anger, she’d set her hands on her hips, which had opened her jacket and given him a view of her white lace bra and bare stomach. Fantastic. She’d flashed a convict.
She refused to show remorse or embarrassment. “You came to my home. Deal with it.”
His eyes were wide and a smirk played across his lips. “Gladly.”
Lucia pulled together the jacket. He was infuriating. “How did you get in here, anyway?”
Cash tipped his head to the side. “Do you want me to point out the security weaknesses in your building? It won’t help you sleep better at night.”
“I sleep fine at night next to my gun,” Lucia said. The words weren’t intended as a threat. They were the truth. Lucia worked hard to practice constant vigilance. In her line of work, she made enemies. She wouldn’t be someone’s victim.
“Benjamin wants us to move past the hostility.”
It wouldn’t happen. At least, not until she’d had time to figure how to get Cash kicked off the team. They didn’t need him to crack this case. She could find Clifton Anderson and the hundreds of millions he’d embezzled. She’d return the money to the people it belonged to, people who were counting on that money. She didn’t need a felon to help her.
“Stay out of my way in the field and we won’t have a problem,” she said.
“Then you won’t mind if I join you for happy hour tomorrow after work?”
Lucia felt the familiar sting of rejection. Someone had already invited him to the weekly happy hour. Lucia hadn’t been invited to it, although she’d overheard others talking about it. She was an outsider on her own team. Again.
Cash was too charming for his own good, but she pegged his laid-back, easy demeanor as hiding something dark and dangerous. “You should do whatever you want,” Lucia said.
“What’s that scent?” he asked.
She didn’t smell anything, but her condo was over that of a gourmet chef and she had grown accustomed to the tantalizing smells that wafted to her place. “Maybe it’s trash.” She might as well dump on the conversation. She didn’t want to have a gourmet-food discussion with Cash.
“It’s not trash. It’s something delicious. Earthy. Sexy.” He leaned forward and inhaled. “There it is.”
Outrage jolted her at the same time her legs tightened and heat pooled between them. “You cannot speak to me like that.” Boundaries. They desperately needed boundaries.
Cash frowned at her. “I can’t pay you a compliment?”
“You won’t win me over
