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“From the moment those assholes set my apartment on fire, I was on your side, Sophie.”

Shame crawled around in her belly. “I didn’t know that. I thought you’d dump me at the first opportunity. You were so angry…”

He shoved a hand through his hair. His eyes were red rimmed from lack of sleep, but that didn’t make him any less sexy.

“I was angry. I
am
angry. But I wouldn’t leave you to face this alone. That’s not who I am.”

“I know that now.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me sooner that this Madame Renard gets the mail?”

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. “I don’t know. Everything has been so stressful and unpredictable—and I guess I thought you might find a way to leave me behind if you knew.”

“You just said she would only give the mail to you.”

“Yes, but given enough time, you’d have charmed her. Or you could have gotten Tyler to call her or something.”

“Fuck me, Sophie,” he said—and her core reacted in ways that sent a delicious tingle through her. What was it about the way he said those words? “I can’t follow your logic half the time.”

“I also thought you might want me to call and have her forward the mail.”

He shook his head. “Definitely not. The sooner we get the fucking thing, the better. She’s in danger too so long as this thing is out there.”

Sophie’s chest ached suddenly. “But they can’t know she’s getting his mail. It goes to her apartment, not his—and I didn’t require a signature.”

He shook his head. “They’ll figure it out. Maybe not right away, but when there’s no mail at all, they’re going to know it’s being redirected. And they’re going to find out who’s getting it, especially when the tracking number shows that the package was delivered.”

Guilt speared her. “We can’t let that happen. Madame Renard is a sweet old woman. She doesn’t deserve that.”

“I’m not going to let it happen, Sophie. But swear to fucking God, you had better not keep anything else from me. You got that?”

It hurt to have him growl at her, but she understood why. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I’m not keeping anything else from you, I promise.”

“Good.”

Traffic suddenly started moving and he pressed the gas, whipping between a couple of slower cars and accelerating to the next snarl and then the next. It took over an hour to reach the street in the seventh arrondissement where their rental property was, partly because of traffic and partly because Chase didn’t go directly to the rental. He took side roads, backtracked, and circled before finally sliding into a space around the corner from their building. The building was old in a charming way—but the elevator was out of service so they had to walk up four flights to the garret on the top floor.

The property agent met them at the door. She was very French, elegant and refined, and so terribly excited they were on their honeymoon.

“We have champagne for you, monsieur and madame,” she said, leading them into the tiny kitchen with a window from which they could see the top of the Eiffel Tower. But that wasn’t the best part. The best was a small balcony off one of the bedrooms with a view of the tower.

“
Merci
,” Sophie said. “We are delighted, madame.”

The property agent spent another twenty minutes showing them every conceivable thing about the apartment before she suggested they make dinner reservations at a bistro down the street. Or, she mentioned, she could do it for them.

“Thank you,” Chase said, “but I’m not sure we’ll go anywhere tonight.” He put his arm around Sophie then and squeezed her to him. “It’s been a long night of travel, and I’m ready to be alone with my wife.”

The woman smiled knowingly. “But of course. I will bid you adieu now.”

And she disappeared with a wave and a smile, the door closing firmly behind her.

Chase blew out a breath as he let Sophie go and walked over to the bag of guns and ammunition. She knew he’d slipped the other gun into his waistband beneath his jacket.

“Do you really think you’re going to need those?”

He was busy stacking ammo boxes and laying out weapons. “Never know. Best to be prepared.”

She watched as he peeled off his jacket and his muscles bunched and rippled while he worked. It was mesmerizing in a way.

He paused in his stacking and looked up at her. “You should get some sleep.”

She hugged herself as she leaned back against the small dining room table. “And what will you be doing while I sleep?”

“I won’t leave you alone if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She swallowed. “I kind of am, yes. You left me in the tree stand.”

“That was different. This is a city and I don’t need to scout the perimeter. Besides, I told you what I was doing when I left.”

Sophie rubbed a hand over her eyes tiredly. “Fine. Which bedroom do you want?”

“The one nearest the door.”

For some reason, that answer disappointed her. As if he’d been going to say
Whichever one you’re in.

She’d kind of hoped he would, especially after what he’d said about sinking into her if they were still in the safe house in Maryland. But clearly he was beyond that now. If he’d ever meant it in the first place.

He confused her and she didn’t like it. She didn’t like herself much at the moment for caring what he meant either. She knew better than to put much stock in what people said, and yet she sometimes did.

Sophie grabbed the carry-on suitcase that had her clothing and rolled it to the bedroom where she shut the door and stood weary and unhappy even though she had the room with the charming view. She wanted a shower, and yet she wanted sleep even more. She walked over to the bed, pulled the covers back, and took off her clothes before dropping onto the sheets in her bra and panties.

19

M
endez loved the feel of Sam’s legs wrapped around his waist. She gripped him hard as he pumped into her body, her skin slick with sweat, her moans punctuating the air around them. Sex with Sam was still fucking hot, even after so much history between them.

“Yes, Johnny—oh God, just like that,” she said as he lifted her ass higher and plunged into her harder and faster than before.

And then she screamed as he found her G-spot, her body shaking apart in his arms as he thrust hard and deep before groaning his own release.

He rolled off her and went to take care of the condom. When he came back, she was sitting up and looking very pleased with herself. Hell, he was pleased too—he didn’t much care if she seemed a bit smug.

He reached for his uniform pants and started to tug them on again. Sam thrust out her lip. “Aw, leaving so soon, baby?”

“Have to get back to the office. Shit going down.”

“Shit is always going down,” she said, reaching for her electronic cigarette and taking a puff. She lay back against the pillows, her naked form lush and lovely.

She looked decadent lying there with vapor curling above her head and her legs spread wide enough for him to see the slick pinkness he’d just been enjoying. She lifted a hand and slid it over one nipple. His cock started swelling again.

“You’re a bad girl, Sam.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Maybe you’d like to spank me?”

He tugged his T-shirt on and followed it with the camouflage shirt, buttoning it quickly before sitting down to lace up his boots. And, yeah, his cock was about to tent his pants.

“I’d love to spank you—but it’ll have to be later.”

When he stood again, she got to her knees and came over to the side of the bed where she put her palms on his chest and ran them up to his shoulders before hooking them around his neck. “You are so damn hot, Johnny. Still amazing in bed. And still so damned difficult to understand.”

He kissed her, his hands cupping her breasts, teasing her nipples into stiff peaks. “What is this? I thought you wanted a fuck buddy, not a potential life partner.”

She arched her back and thrust her breasts into his hands. “You have a way of messing with a woman’s head. And maybe I sometimes regret what could have been.”

“No regrets. That’s what you said at the beginning of this, remember?”

“I remember.” She sighed and let him go, leaning back on the bed with her legs open. So tempting. “I wish I’d married you instead of Dan. You were much more exciting.”

He picked up his hat and keys. A memory flashed through him, bringing with it remembered bitterness. “Too exciting, I believe. Or so you told me at the time.”

She shrugged. “You were always dashing off somewhere, not calling for weeks at a time, returning with that wild look in your eyes. It was too much for me back then.”

He snorted. “And then you left the Army and joined the CIA to become a field officer. Pretty exciting stuff on its own, don’t you think?”

“What choice did I have when the Army wouldn’t let me try out for the Rangers, much less the Green Berets or Delta?”

That much was true, but the Army had come a long way in the past twenty years. Women were trying out for Special Forces now—and getting in. Still, that wasn’t what they were really talking about here. “We wouldn’t have lasted, and you know it. We were always like oil and water—except in bed.”

“You asked me to marry you.”

“And you said no.” He didn’t think he was bitter over that anymore, but maybe he was. And not necessarily because of her. If he’d married Sam, maybe he could have avoided the resounding heartbreak that came later. The woman who had come later and who had been taken away when his feelings for her were still so new and overwhelming.

Sam blew out another cloud of vapor. “I did. My bad.”

Mendez couldn’t help but laugh. “You aren’t in the least bit broken up about it either.”

She grinned. “No, I guess not. I’m just pissed off at all the great sex I could have been having if I’d said yes.”

He leaned down and kissed her, then licked a nipple while she gasped. “Look at it this way—if you’d said yes and we’d gotten married, we’d have ended up divorced and not speaking to each other. And we definitely wouldn’t be fucking now, would we?”

“No, we wouldn’t.” She brought her foot up and rubbed it over his crotch when he straightened, laughing as she discovered his hard-on. “We could go another round before you leave.”

He sighed. “Wish I could, but I got to get back.”

“You’re still worried about your operator, aren’t you? Daniels, right?”

“Yeah.” He knew Fiddler and the girl had made it to Paris and that Hawk had set them up with everything they needed. But he didn’t know what Androv was up to other than the typical intel he had on the man. He couldn’t send assets into the mix right now, and it was killing him not to be able to do so.

He’d asked Sam, but she’d been uncertain she could do anything from her end. She grabbed her robe from the bed and stood up, putting it on and belting it. Her eyes were sympathetic as she gazed up at him. “This thing with Congressman DeWitt has really got you wound around the axle, hasn’t it?”

DeWitt shouldn’t be anyone important as a junior member of the House Armed Services Committee, yet he seemed to have made it his personal mission to turn a critical eye onto everything HOT. He’d been busy whipping up interest in Congress for an investigation into HOT’s operational scope. One wrong move right now and DeWitt would have all the ammunition he needed.

Not to mention that Mendez hadn’t forgotten what Ian Black had said to him once.
DeWitt… watch him closely.

“It happens with every administration,” he told Sam. “Remember when the president and the joint chiefs kept the NRO a secret from Congress back in the seventies? Now they’re paranoid about everything the Pentagon does.”

She set down her e-cigarette, put her arms around him, and hugged him tight for a second. “Let me try again, okay? I’ll see what assets we have in Paris that can help.”

He pushed her hair back from her cheek. “What do you know about Ian Black?”

She seemed to hesitate for a second, but then she frowned. “He was disavowed a few years ago. He’s gone rogue from what I understand. But how do you know him?”

Every instinct he had told him to be cautious here. If Sam didn’t know that Black was still with the agency, it wasn’t his place to tell her. “I ran into him in Qu’rim. He’s an interesting character.”

“He’s a traitor.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“You sound as if you don’t believe it.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You know as well as I do that nothing is as simple as it seems in this business.”

“If the agency tells me he’s a traitor, then he is.” She picked up her e-cigarette and put it to her lips. But her fingers trembled slightly as she did so. It surprised him and puzzled him.

But he didn’t mention it. He’d learned as a Special Operator that some of the smallest things were often some of the most important. Instead, he smacked her on the ass and grinned.

“Good-bye, Sam.”

She returned his smile. “Bye, Johnny. I’ll call you if I have any news.”

I
T WAS
dark when Sophie woke. It surprised her that she’d slept so long, but she didn’t remember getting up even once. She went and took a quick shower, then put on the robe hanging on the back of the door. When she opened the bedroom door, she fully expected to find Chase watching television or cleaning guns.