Zane’s palm pressed against her bare lower belly, and he splayed his fingers, sending tiny tremors of heat all through her body. His other hand reached around for a yellow pepper from the cutting board. “Don’t cut me, beautiful.”
He popped the pepper in his mouth and chewed, and a chuckle vibrated at her back when he kissed her nape again. “Tasty. But not as tasty as you.”
He eased away, and as she heard the sizzle and pop of the wok at the stove, she closed her eyes and tried to tell herself she hadn’t just fucked things up royally by sleeping with him again—correction, by making love with him. But a tiny voice in the back of her head said she had. That if she’d hoped to save his life, it was going to be near impossible now.
“Are those almost ready?”
His voice dragged her out of her wandering mind and back to the moment. Setting the knife down, she lifted the cutting board and took it over to him at the stove. “Here.”
She wasn’t the least bit hungry, but she knew she needed to eat. Plus, making a meal kept her hands busy and her mind off her sister and Carter and everything else she couldn’t change now.
“There’s wine in the cellar,” Zane said, stuffing one hand into the front pocket of his low-slung jeans, using the wooden spoon in the other to stir the steaming vegetables. “Why don’t you go pick one out?
“Really?” Eve wiped her hand on a dishtowel and lifted her brows. “The owner won’t care?”
Zane chuckled. “Trust me, he won’t even notice it’s gone.”
Curiosity got the best of her. She leaned a hip against the granite counter. “What kind of guy has women’s clothing in different sizes hanging in his closet? Whose house is this?”
Zane lifted the pan and shook the vegetables around. “You listen to much rock music?”
“Some.”
“What about reality TV?”
Eve’s brow lowered. “Not much. Not a lot of it overseas.”
“A few years ago there was this guy on one of those singing shows who tore up the charts. Really made a name for himself. He didn’t win, I think he placed like third, but he was the big story of the season.”
Eve didn’t watch a lot of TV in general, but she did like to page through magazines in the airport. She thought back to what she knew about those voice competition shows, and when she realized who he was talking about, her eyes flew open wide. “Tate Kendrick. You’re saying the front man for Kendrick, the wildly popular rock band that’s exploded these last few years, owns this house?”
He nodded. “Aegis did some security work for him. After his success on that reality show, his band totally took off. He’s got a place on Whidbey Island. This is just his ski chalet.”
“His ski chalet.” Eve glanced around the enormous great room with its great everything. “I can’t imagine what his real house looks like.”
Zane chuckled and stirred the veggies again. “He likes Ryder, though why, I don’t know. Gave us free reign of the place, including the wine cellar.” He pointed toward a door at the far end of the kitchen. “Why don’t you go see what you can find?”
If Eve expected to find a couple bottles of chardonnay in the basement, she’d thought wrong. When she flipped on the light and climbed down the cool, polished wood stairs, she found herself gasping at the four full walls decked out in rows and rows of racks, each one filled with a different bottle.
Holy cow. She turned a slow circle, not knowing where to look first. This kind of money wasn’t even something she could comprehend. As she stared at the collection, something Zane had told whispered through her mind.
After he’d been injured in Guatemala, he’d gone to Mexico to recover. To some compound. She hadn’t thought much about it then, but now she couldn’t help but wonder who it had belonged to and how well he knew these people with money coming out of their ears. His life now was completely different than it had been before. He hobnobbed with the rich and famous. Aegis had to pay him well. A lot of guys who left government work went on to make a killing in the private security field, and he’d inherited a good chunk of change when his grandparents had died. By staying with him, she wasn’t just jeopardizing his safety; she was jeopardizing a future that could be extremely successful for him.
Her chest tightened. Hand shaking, she grabbed the first red she came to, pulled it off the shelf, and headed back up the stairs.
The kitchen was empty when she stepped out of the cellar and closed the door. The vegetables hissed in the pan, but the wok sat on a cold burner, and the stove was turned off. Voices echoed from the front of the house. Voices Eve didn’t recognize but immediately guessed had to belong to Jake Ryder and whatever people he’d brought from Aegis.
Her stomach knotted, and she immediately thought of the failed op in Guatemala. Of Zane’s menacing voice when she’d called to make sure he was still alive. Of the hate she’d heard in his words. Others at Aegis had to hate her too. For over a year they’d believed she was a traitor, just like Zane had.
He doesn’t believe that anymore. He loves you.
That knot in her stomach twisted tighter, and perspiration broke out all along her skin. Hate she knew what to do with, but love . . . ? Love was a foreign emotion she knew she didn’t deserve.
“You look like shit, Archer,” a man’s voice said from the foyer. “I suppose it wouldn’t be fair to kick your ass right now, so I’ll save it for later.”
“Let’s not destroy Kendrick’s house, shall we?” a woman said. “He was nice enough to let us use it. I think the least we can do is make sure it’s still in one piece when we’re done.”
“See what I have to put up with?” the man said. “She’s no fun at all. Where’s Wolfe?”
“Through here,” Zane answered.
Eve stiffened. Seconds later, Zane appeared in the great room, followed by a dark-haired man wearing jeans and a blue button-down, and a woman in black slacks and a pale yellow sweater, with blonde hair tied back in a neat tail and wire-rimmed glasses perched on her small nose.
“Eve,” Zane said, “this is my ex-boss, Jake Ryder, and Marley Addison, his conscience.”
Marley snorted.
Ryder frowned. He crossed the floor and held out his hand to her. “Current boss. Jackass over there never formally submitted his resignation.”
His grip was solid, his eyes a dark brown, almost black, and Eve recognized the edge he held, marking him as former special forces. Eve released his hand. “Archer doesn’t seem to do anything anyone wants him to do.”
The corner of Zane’s lips turned down. He rested his hands on his hips, then looked toward Marley. “I think they’re ganging up on me already.”
Marley chuckled and set the bag she’d had slung over her shoulder on the ground at her feet. “Don’t look at me. He was in a mood all the way out here. I’m not getting in the middle of this one.”
Ryder glanced toward Eve at the stove. “You cooked? Oh man, a chick with a gun who’s not afraid of a kitchen. Forget about all the terrorist crap and you might be my fantasy woman yet.”
Marley snorted as she pulled a folder out of her bag. “Your idea of the perfect fantasy woman changes every five minutes.”
Ryder shot Marley a perturbed look, and as Eve glanced from face to face, she relaxed, just a touch. While she could definitely feel the tension between the two men, they were both working hard to keep things civil, and Marley was a good buffer. Plus the fact that Zane’s boss—ex or not—had flown all the way out here from Kentucky meant he was committed to helping. And that he cared. Which was a hell of a lot more than she could say for her superiors.