She arched into him, tangled her fingers in the fabric of his T-shirt, and kissed him back while her mind replayed what they’d done this morning. Behind her, the security guard sighed. The door opened and closed, and voices bounced off the store walls, but Eve was suddenly too light-headed to care.
Minutes passed—or maybe it was only seconds; she couldn’t be sure, since her brain seemed to short out every time Archer kissed her—and then he eased back. A twinkle lit up his hazel eyes when he smiled down at her. “Crotchless panties? Oh baby, I’m all over that. Come on.”
He let go of her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her back to the middle of the store, then turned down the aisle that led to lingerie. A quick glance over her shoulder told Eve the security guard was no longer watching them and had moved on to staring at another man, lurking near a display of men’s belts.
Eve followed Archer into the lingerie section and glanced around. Another security guard—this time a woman—was walking through this end of the store, but her gaze skipped right over them as if they weren’t even there.
“These?” Archer held up a pair of black boy-short panties, open along both hips, with crisscrossed ties holding them together.
Eve’s brow lowered. “For you? I doubt they’d fit.”
Archer picked up a second pair from the table display—this one in red. “I can’t wait to see you in these.”
He pulled her toward another register, and Eve’s adrenaline kicked up again—but this time not from being caught. “Hold on. I was kidding about the panties.”
“I wasn’t.” He set their bags on the floor, pulled cash out of his wallet, and slapped it on the counter, careful to keep his head tipped down so the clerk couldn’t see his face. Not that she would notice even if he looked right at her. The girl was barely eighteen and bored out of her mind. The place could probably get robbed and she’d barely notice.
She bagged the panties, then handed Archer the receipt. “Thanks for shopping at Macy’s,” she said in a monotone voice, without even looking their way.
Archer took the bag and muttered thanks, then herded Eve toward the unguarded exit. “Friendly girl.”
“I’m not wearing those,” Eve said as they stepped out of the store and moved into the parking garage.
“You were right.” Archer nodded up toward the ramp. “You need underwear. Should have thought of it when we were grabbing new clothes.”
“Not those kind,” Eve huffed. “I was just trying to fool the security guard.”
Archer shot her a wicked grin. “I bet you’ll look totally hot in these.”
They stopped behind a Ford Taurus parked on the third level, and Eve crossed her arms over her chest while he opened the trunk. “Well, then you’ll lose the bet, because I’d rather go commando than wear those.”
That spark flared in his eyes all over again as he glanced sideways at her. “Oh, baby. Stop talking like that or you’re gonna make me hot.”
Eve’s skin grew warm, and she glared at him under the orange parking lights. Why was she letting him get to her? The Archer she remembered had a wicked sense of humor, and it was clear he was just razzing her like he’d once done. And she’d obviously started this by kissing him as a cover, so she needed to suck it up and deal with it. So why was she feeling so . . . frustrated and out of sorts?
It wasn’t because of this morning. She wouldn’t let it be. Yeah, they’d screwed each other in a moment of complete insanity, but life-and-death situations often pushed people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. They’d both been trained on the effects of adrenaline, and she was smart enough not to fall into the relationship trap again anyway—any kind of relationship for her was a dead end. So that’s not what this was about.
He closed the trunk and turned toward her. And a frown cut across his lips when he said, “Relax. There are security cameras out here too, you know.” Then he moved in close and rubbed his thumb across her cheek. “You’ve still got some dirt or blood there from earlier.”
Warmth spread across her cheek where he touched her and shot a wicked blend of heat and need straight to her abdomen. And in an instant, she knew what was bothering her. Not just the fact he was staying and helping her. Not even the fact he’d admitted earlier that he cared. What was freaking her out was this feeling growing in the center of her chest, the same one she’d had in Beirut and which had ultimately caused her to walk—no, run—away from him the first time. This sense of security telling her she could have this. That there could be more. That if she reached out and just took, she could have him and everything she’d stopped wanting so long ago.
The air clogged in her lungs, and the walls seemed to close in around her. Turning away from his touch, she moved around the side of the car and reached for the passenger door. “We need to go.”
She felt him looking after her, wondering what the hell was up with her, even after she climbed into the car and closed the door, but she didn’t care. As she breathed deep and tried to steady her racing pulse, she reminded herself that crazy thoughts like that were the reason she’d ended up with a broken heart in the first place. And she wasn’t going back there again. Some people weren’t meant for happily ever after, and she’d learned long ago that she was one of them.
Archer climbed into the driver’s seat and closed the door, and she steeled her nerves and looked his way. “I need to call ADD Roberts.”
He started the car and glanced into the rearview mirror. “I want you to wait until we hear back from Carter.”
They both trusted Carter. When someone put his life on the line—like Carter had done for both of them more than once in Beirut—it solidified that trust. Eve knew Carter would do whatever he could to help them, but she didn’t believe that about the organization he—and she—worked for.
“Carter isn’t going to be able to help us the way Roberts can.”
He backed out of the parking spot and shoved the car into drive. “And what if Roberts is in on all of this?”
“In on what? This conspiracy you’ve cooked up?”
He frowned sideways at her as they wound through the parking garage. “Someone leaked my name to the press. Someone sent a wet team after us. And your security clearance has been revoked. I think it’s safe to say I don’t have to cook anything up.”
She looked out the front windshield and frowned herself. None of this made sense. “You yourself said that wet team probably wasn’t government sanctioned. There could be a logical explanation.”
“Yeah. That the Agency wants us both dead.”
Archer’s cell phone rang before Eve could tell him he was higher than a kite. He glanced at the screen, then lifted it to his ear. “Dude. Tell me this is a secure line and that you have good news.”
He was silent as he listened, and Eve found herself digging her fingernails into the seat while she waited.
“When?” Archer asked. Then, “And you’re sure about that?”
They pulled out of the parking garage and turned right onto the city street. Eve had no idea where Archer was heading, and right now she didn’t care. She just wanted answers.
“Okay,” Archer said. “We’ll do that. Yeah. Thanks. I’ll tell her.”
“Well?” Eve said as he hung up.
“That was Carter.”
“Duh. I got that. What did he say?”
“He said not to piss you off.”
“Smart man. Keep going.”
Zane sighed. “Your contact? Smith? He’s been linked to a Chechen terrorist group with ties to al-Qaeda. And that laundry list of compromised agents he was supposedly selling you? It wasn’t a list. There was something bigger on that drive.”
“Like what?”