Flirting With Intent (12 page)

‘It’s this heady life of crime. It’s frying my brain.’

‘It’ll pass.’

‘The pertinent question still being
when?’
‘Soon.’

‘You have no idea how
alive
I feel at the moment,’ she said. ‘Do you feel alive too?’

‘Yes.’ With more than a hint of amusement about him.

‘Does it ever get old for you? The ha—your work?’

‘No,’ he said and finally his smile came wide and unguarded. ‘No, this never gets old.’

They made it back to Ruby’s apartment eventually. Damon insisting they only take a short train hop and then a taxi the rest of the way home. Perhaps he wanted to make sure no one was following them and a tail was easier to spot in a taxi, but Ruby didn’t ask and Damon didn’t say. She asked him if he wanted a drink once they reached the kitchen—manners, Ruby—and when he said yes she asked what would he like and he said Scotch if she had it.

‘Good choice,’ she murmured and poured one for herself too, before setting a bowl of peanuts on the counter, and eyeing the backpack he’d placed on the stool next to him with a mixture of apprehension and longing.

‘I may not be ready, Damon, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to settle until I know what those files say about my father,’ she told him, and he nodded and unzipped the pack and pulled out the computer and set it up to go before turning the computer around to face Ruby.

‘Have at it.’

‘Okay, Ruby,’ she said more to herself than anyone else. ‘You can do this.’ And opened the first file.

Fifteen minutes later she was none the wiser as to where her father was or what had happened to him.

‘The bank’s investigation team got called off by the FBI. The Feds referred it to the British, and as far as British Intelligence is concerned they’re not pursuing it at all. And what the hell is an A48?’

‘Road map co-ordinates?’ Damon offered. ‘The AK 47’s second cousin? A road in Britain?’

‘Is it really?’ ‘I think so.’

‘Maybe he’s there,’ she said glumly and handed him the computer. ‘Read them or delete them. There’s precious little there that I didn’t already know.’

‘We can search again.’

‘No,’ said Ruby emphatically. ‘I don’t think I could stand it. I did what you asked of me, Damon, and I don’t regret it but I certainly don’t ever want to do it again. I’m a felon but I’m free. I haven’t found my father but at least no one’s found him dead. That’s
good
news. I’m willing to embrace the no-news-is-good-news policy today. As for you and me …’ Ruby’s whiskey-coloured eyes reflected a guardedness he’d never seen
in them before. ‘I overheard something I shouldn’t have about you, Damon, and I paid the price and now we’re square. Aren’t we?’

‘Yes.’ They were square.

‘And as much as I’ve enjoyed getting to know you, the work you do scares me, Damon, and the life you lead you lead alone. I will think of you with pleasure and I will think of you with hunger but it’s time for you to leave.’

‘Hunger?’ he queried softly.

‘Don’t dwell on it,’ she told him wryly. ‘Hunger’s manageable. You’re not.’

He knew it. ‘Mind if I get changed? My suit’s in your bathroom.’

‘Chameleon.’ But she said it with a smile. ‘Go. Get changed. Break my heart all over again when you come back out wearing a Savile Row suit and a gotta-be-going smile. I’m a felon. Tough. Worldly. Brave. I can handle it.’

She was making it easy for him again. Easy for him to do what he knew he should do. Walk away.

Just him and a hatful of regrets.

‘I’m heading to Australia in three days’ time,’ he said.

‘Enjoy.’ She didn’t know why he was
telling her this and it showed. Time to enlighten her.

‘Come with me.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Come with me.’ Nothing but impulsiveness on his part and astonishment on hers. ‘I have a house on the beach and a few weeks free. You could stay there while you figure out what it is you want to do next. We could just … swim.’ Or sink.

Probably the latter.

Ruby eyed him narrowly. ‘You just want to keep an eye on me. Make sure I don’t go spilling your secrets where I shouldn’t. You’re obsessing about me knowing what it is you do.’

‘Only a little.’ Only a lot.

‘Well, stop it or you’ll go blind,’ she told him heatedly. ‘You. Can. Trust. Me. Which is more than I can say for you.’

He took a step towards her and watched her scramble off her barstool fast and put out a hand as if to ward him off. ‘Damon,’ she began warningly. ‘We are so close to finishing this. Don’t mess with the plan.’

‘There’s a plan?’ Damon reached out and touched her hair, wove silken strands of it around his fingertips, and finally, as if she
would break beneath his touch, set his lips to the edge of her mouth. ‘Come with me,’ he whispered. ‘Forget the plan.’

‘You scare me, Damon.’ But she kissed him as if she was starving for him and he kissed her and knew he was insatiable for her in return.

‘I’ll try not to.’

‘And you’ll fool me into thinking that you care.’

‘Maybe I do,’ he whispered and slid his hands to her buttocks and picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around him and made him groan. ‘Come with me.’

Fifteen minutes later, as she climaxed round him for the second time, he said, ‘Ruby,
please.’

And she said, ‘Yes.’

D
AMON
tried to slip back into his father’s apartment unnoticed. No chance of that with two older sisters sitting in wait for him as they watched whatever they were watching on the TV. That was the problem with sisters who’d done double duty as substitute mothers over the years—they saw everything. Especially those things he didn’t want them to see.

Poppy spotted him first as Lena was sitting with her back to the door, but Lena turned around and called him over and offered him a glass of wine.

No point trying to avoid them for they’d only follow him, so he anteed up and he sat his butt down.

Lena would take point, she always did, but only a fool would discount the effectiveness
of Poppy when it came to stripping him bare.

Lena waited until he had his wineglass in hand and his thoughts in order before starting in on him, which meant she was either very tired or going soft.

‘So,’ she said, and fixed him with the mother stare. ‘You and Ruby Maguire?’

‘So?’ he said in turn. ‘Neither of us are in another relationship. Why shouldn’t we?’

‘You’ve known her for all of
two days.’

‘Five.’

‘Does she know what you do?’ asked Lena caustically.

‘Well, she does
now,’
he replied in kind. ‘Which part of
later
did you not understand?’

‘Which part of stop being so bloody secretive do
you
not understand?’

‘It’s just habit.’

‘No, it’s a convenient way of keeping people at a distance, is what it is. Your whole way of life is designed to keep people away. Even family. Even me. I won’t have it.’

‘I’m getting that.’

And all of a sudden Lena looked close to tears.

‘We failed you, didn’t we?’ she murmured. ‘Jared and Poppy, and me. We let you pull
away, and stay away, for far too long and now you can hardly find your way home.’

‘I’m home,’ he said desperately. ‘I’m right here.’

But she shook her head and the smile she sent him was strained. ‘No more lies, Damon. Not when it comes to Jared and whatever you might find out about him. Promise me.’

He did not want to promise that. ‘Lena, I—’

‘Promise.’

‘All right.’ He shook his head. ‘All right, I promise. Satisfied?’

‘Not quite,’ she said as if moving on to the next insurmountable object. ‘What happened with Ruby?’

‘Nothing much.’ Give or take a momentous decision or two.

‘Can you trust her?’

‘Put it this way, if I can’t, I’m f—’

‘Got it,’ said Poppy primly and he and Lena shared a smile of amusement.

‘Good,’ he said blandly and set his wine down on the coffee table. ‘Is that it for the interrogation?’

‘Not quite,’ said Poppy and Damon sighed. Poppy’s turn.

‘How much do you like her, Damon? Maybe this unanticipated openness with Ruby can be a good thing. Room—if you want it—for a relationship to grow.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘What would I do with a relationship? Besides destroy it. Drag Ruby around the world with me? Pull her into the life? No.’ He stared broodingly at his wineglass. ‘Ruby started out as a distraction, nothing more. Now she’s even more of a distraction, but as for anything permanent? No.’

‘That’s three nos in a row,’ murmured Lena. ‘That’s a lot of nos.’

‘She’s coming to the beach house with me,’ he offered reluctantly. No point trying to hide it. They’d find out soon enough.

‘That’s interesting,’ said Lena. ‘Has Damon ever taken a woman to the beach house to your knowledge, Poppy?’

‘No.’

‘No. That’s two more nos, just in case anyone’s counting.’

‘I have to be able to trust her,’ he said grimly.

‘So how does that work?’ asked Lena. ‘You’re just going to keep her there until you do? Could take a lifetime, Damon. Knowing you.’

‘I think it’s a good idea,’ said Poppy. ‘Give them more time to adjust to Ruby knowing that little bit more about Damon than she should. Besides, the trust will come. I’m sure of it.’

Poppy was a sweetheart and an optimist. Damned if Damon knew how she’d come to be part of this family.

‘And maybe we can help. Maybe if we sat down with Ruby over a drink or two and some girl talk we could make it seem more … normal. Nothing to concern her. You never bring your work home. You never let us near it. You’re really very noble and protective where that’s concerned.’

‘I took her hacking with me,’ he said curtly.

‘You what?’ said Poppy incredulously. ‘You
idiot,’
said Lena. And the conversation was mostly downhill from there.

A week and a half later Ruby made her way to Sydney and from there to Ballina near Damon’s house on the coast. Her work for Russell was done. She’d left the little cat in the care of her next-door neighbour’s six-year-old daughter in exchange for letting her neighbour’s
parents use her apartment during their two-week holiday stay in Hong Kong. It was an arrangement that seemed to suit everyone, including one tiny standoffish cat.

Nothing to hold her in Hong Kong now and nothing planned except for a week or two of sand, sea and Damon, and she didn’t know what to expect from him, other than surprises. She didn’t know why she was here except that somewhere between meeting him and agreeing to this, she’d lost her brain.

What kind of woman flew halfway around the world to visit a man who’d enchanted her and then warned her not to expect anything from him? A man for whom secrets and hacking and blackmail were everyday events? Or at least regular events.

Why had she
ever
said yes to this?

You’re in love with him,
said a little voice but Ruby rejected the notion outright.

I am not!

Then you’re besotted by him,
said the little voice, and this much she had to concede.

The sex is very good, yes.

You’re going to try and change him. Turn him into a good boy.

Not sure that’s possible. Anyway, he’s not
entirely bad. Espionage is a time-honoured profession. Heroic even.
He’s a thief, Ruby.

He works to preserve the power balance between nations. He aims to protect. He was trying to protect
me
from the consequences of knowing too much. That’s very honourable.

Silence from the stalls. Win for Ruby.

But as she stepped through the arrival doors of the small regional airport and spotted Damon and her body melted and her wits turned to water with nothing but a glance from those midnight-blue eyes, the little voice spoke again.

You are so utterly gone on this man. Accepting him for what he is. Defending his less-than-stellar decisions. Not even wanting to tweak him. Put your own life on hold just to be with him. What’s that if not love?

It’s not
love.
It’s just … exploration.

And you’re irrational. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.

But Ruby wasn’t listening any more, she was too busy walking towards Damon.

He stood well back from the crowd, with his back to a wall and his hands in the pockets
of a pair of calf-length cargos. He looked more tanned than he had been at Christmas. His white T-shirt—like his cargos—had seen better days.

Beach wear, one supposed. Casual and comfortable.

Ruby’s wardrobe rarely ran to casual, comfortable beachwear. Tennis garb on Rhode Island was about as casual as she got. Mainly because, without fail, across all the years of her upbringing, she’d never not been on show. At her father’s side. As her mother’s daughter. Appearances mattered.

She had a feeling that appearances didn’t matter much to Damon.

‘I like your headband,’ he said when he reached her.

Or maybe they did.

‘It’s very restrained for you,’ he said next.

Which was true, because she’d gone for a plain white band to match her uncrushable white travelling shirt and jacket and her equally uncrushable lemon-coloured miniskirt. Sometimes synthetics were the only way to go.

‘I like your tie,’ she said in return, and his eyes warmed and he leaned down to greet
her with a casual kiss, the kind that got bandied about between friends.

‘You came,’ he said next. ‘I wasn’t sure you would.’ And suddenly the air between them crackled with everything they
weren’t
saying.

‘I said I would.’

‘Still …’ Damon shrugged. ‘People change their minds.’

‘Have you?’ Best to get it over with, if Damon had indeed changed his mind about the wisdom of her visiting him here.

‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m in if you are.’

‘I’m here,’ she said simply. ‘And I’m not here under duress.’

Damon’s smile came slow and sweet. ‘Welcome to Australia, Ruby. How are you liking it so far?’

‘Sydney Harbour’s far more beautiful than in its pictures and the vibe so far is—’ she spared a glance for his superbly fitting T-shirt ‘—relaxed. I may not have packed the right clothes.’