“It’s from Ethan, all right,” she breathed.
I had a dream you were unhappy and unable to sleep. My prayers are with you. Please feel free to visit me. I can help you. I can heal the hurt.
When she didn’t read it aloud, Nate shoved away from the wall and took it from her. “He thinks he can heal your hurt?” he said, glancing up after reading it himself. “What, with a climax or two?”
“We need to talk.” Reclaiming Ethan’s note, she set it on top of the TV and gestured at the sofa. “Care to take a seat?”
“No.” Frowning, Nate scratched his chest. “We don’t need to talk. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you last night. It won’t happen again.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“That’s it. We’re fine.”
“Then why aren’t you acting like it? The fact that Ethan has noticed me and is going out of his way to include me is exactly what we want, isn’t it?”
“It might be what you want.”
“I’m pretty sure Milt would look at it favorably. You said yourself that I’m the bait. This note is an invitation to return, which means we don’t have to guess when to make our next move. I can go up there right away and continue developing a relationship, which will make it easier for me to eventually pull you in. You should be excited.”
“It’s the eventually part I’m having trouble with,” he said. “I don’t like being left out, wondering what the hell is going on. Especially when this note leads me to believe it might’ve been the Covenanters who broke in. How else would Ethan know you had a rough night? Don’t you think the timing of this note is more than a coincidence?”
“Yes. But at least you had your gun with you. They didn’t find anything.”
“Still, you’ve been to one meeting, one. And they’ve already broken in here? They’re already asking you back? What the hell went on up there?”
“I told you.”
“You told me he was dangerous.”
“Information that first came from you! You said it when you showed me his picture in the conference room before we left California. We knew what we were getting into.” That wasn’t completely true. Milt had held out on them. But they’d known it wouldn’t be easy.
“He’s not all there, Rachel. He’s trying to isolate you from me and I don’t like it.”
“What are you talking about? We’re lucky he’s interested in me.” She waved at the note. “We always knew there’d be an initial setup period. That I’d be going in first. I’m just doing my job. Does it bother you that much to have to depend on me? Or is it the fact that I’m being more successful?”
“What kind of crap is that? Of course you’re more successful. He wants to get in your pants!”
Remembering the way he’d reacted to her skimpy attire last night, she moved toward him. “Why don’t you tell me what the real problem is, Nate?” A warning flickered in his eyes, but she ignored it and took a step closer. “It’s not that he wants to get in my pants, it’s that you do. Isn’t that right?”
His hands whipped out to grab her arms, and the intensity in his expression made her heart race, told her he was running on the far edge of control. That was unusual for him, but she liked it. She wanted him to lose control. She’d wanted it ever since he’d lost control the last time.
“Is that what you want to hear?” he asked.
“Would it kill you to admit it?”
“No.” He grinned. “It would just mean we’d get a later start on the day.”
“You’re saying I wouldn’t refuse.”
His eyebrows rose. “Are you saying you would?”
She shouldn’t have challenged him. She realized that now. But she couldn’t back down. Maybe if she faced the temptation he posed and overcame it, he’d lower his defenses and treat her like any other coworker. Something had to happen to release the tension between them. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Will you give me a few seconds to change your mind?”
The word no should’ve come out of her mouth right away. But shutting him down that quickly would only make her appear weak. And she knew better than to appear weak to a man like Nate. “Five seconds, ten seconds.” She shrugged beneath the weight of his hands. “Twenty minutes wouldn’t make any difference.”
“I’m glad you think so,” he said, then his fingers tightened and he bent his head to kiss her.
She braced for one of the passionate open-mouthed kisses they’d shared six months ago, the kind she’d craved from him ever since. But that wasn’t what she got. The kiss he gave her was disappointing. Far too light. Too miserly. And far more effective against her than anything else he could’ve done. There was no question he possessed the ability to kiss her properly. He wasn’t even worried about proving himself. He was putting a price on that kiss, demanding her capitulation before he’d satisfy her.
“Bastard,” she whispered when he lifted his head.
He chuckled. “I’m not the one saying no.”
She narrowed her eyes. “With that lousy kiss is it any wonder I’d refuse?”
“It gets better. I think you know that.”
“If only I could remember.” She mustered a cocky smile.
“So you were faking it in January when you begged me not to stop? When your nails scraped my back and I heard you gasp my name?” His voice, barely a whisper, conjured up the memories she’d been fighting ever since. And what he said embarrassed her.
She suspected that was as calculated as the disappointing kiss. She’d been so open with him that night in January, had given him all she had. And he’d walked away without a backward glance.
“I was just passing the time, playing around, like you were doing,” she said. “Why didn’t you send me home? I was there so you figured you’d go ahead and initiate the new girl?”
She’d managed to upset him. She could tell by the muscle that jumped in his cheek. “I’ve never slept with anyone else at Department 6.”
“So I’m the only stupid one?” She managed a laugh.
“Are you that angry I didn’t call?”
Apparently, he could give as good as he got. “Not anymore. But neither am I interested in a second helping.”