License to Love (An Agent Ex Novel) (7 page)

One way or another he was going to break this Lani and find out for sure whether she ever had, or ever could, love him.

Lani’s pupils dilated.

He pulled her into him, tugging her against his chest until she braced against him with her hands. He leaned down, lifted her hair, and kissed her neck, sucking as he went, hard, as if branding her with his desire and hurt.

He sucked and kissed his way over her collarbone to the tops of her bustier-clad breasts, breathing hard, barely controlling himself from taking her right there in the living room.

He reached to swoop her into his arms, envisioning carrying her up the swirling staircase to his room for a repeat performance of the fireworks they’d created there before.

She wrenched free with startling strength and speed and took a step back from him. “Not tonight, Rock.” Her voice shook.

He’d rattled her. Good. It was a start.

“Our marriage was a scam, really.” She didn’t back down from him. He admired her courage. “Our relationship is purely business now. Our mission is
everything
.”

Her emotional emphasis on the last word threw him. It was almost as if she was sending him a coded message. He stared at her, hoping she felt his gaze burning into her. “A scam? I have a certificate of marriage in my pocket that I got from Emmett that says otherwise. I’m entitled to my marital rights.”

She laughed softly and stroked his cheek. “Marital rights? What century have we just stepped back into, Lord Powers?”

He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Come on, Lani. I don’t remember signing any divorce papers. Can’t we mix business with pleasure? You did before.”

She eyed him warily and sighed. “About our marriage. Don’t get any ideas about it being a permanent thing. We’re magicians in our own right. We can expunge any records we choose, make anything disappear as efficiently as you do, including marriage records.”

His hopes soared. “But you haven’t yet?”

She could have at any time during the last two years, but she hadn’t.

“Because of the publicity and because of the mission, no. But when it’s over…” She held his gaze.

“Come on, Lani. When it’s over, you may as well try to divorce me and collect a big share of my millions as payoff for putting up with all of this bullshit. As the gossip blogs have reported for two years, there is no prenup.”

“
Try
to divorce you?” She arched a brow. “Are you challenging me? Is that a dare?”

He leaned in close to her. “What do you think?”

“I think if you want a public spectacle, I can give you one. Tell me this, Rock—what did you drug me with the night we got married?”

“What?” He was stunned. He hadn’t seen that right hook coming.

Her eyes narrowed and flashed with anger. She pointed at him. “If I hadn’t been under the influence of whatever you doped me with, I would never have lost my professional control and defied orders.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re serious? You think I drugged you? That’s low.” He leaned into her, grabbed her accusing finger and kissed it lightly, boyishly. “You married me of your own free volition, Mata Hari.

“We may have had a few drinks, but it was your love and desire for me that shot your professional control, as you call it, to hell, Agent
Silkwater
Powers.” He used what he supposed was her real name on purpose to rattle her.

She stared back at him with that damned veiled expression again. “You read my signature on the license Emmett showed you. Very good. That was an unintentional slip.” She wrenched her hand free from his. “And don’t call me by your last name again.”

“If you want to keep your maiden name I can live with that.” He took a strand of her silky hair between his fingers and thumb and let it slide through. “Some might say signing with your real name was a subconscious effort to make the marriage legit.”

“Some would be wrong. I made a mistake and violated Agency policy. Spouses and families, long-term partners, love interests—they’re all weak links, a way to get at agents. Liabilities. And ex-spouses, well, they’re simply security leaks waiting to happen.”

“I’m the exception. I’m a master at keeping secrets.” He grabbed her arm. “Consider this. Magician or not, hypnotic powers or not, I can’t force you to act against your will. Never could. Even if I
had
drugged you, I couldn’t get you to recite the vows.

“I didn’t brainwash or coerce you into marrying me. There was a part of you that wanted to, whether you’ll admit it, even to yourself, or not.”

She shook her arm free from his grasp and took a step back from him. When she spoke, she stared past him, not at him, looking over his shoulder out the window.

“Spies lie,” she said simply. “Innocent people sometimes get hurt by friendly fire. Sad to say it’s an occupational hazard of keeping the free world free.”

Her voice became soft, sounding more like the Lani he knew. “I never wanted to hurt you. I never
meant
to hurt you. We had fun together. Let’s leave it at that. I haven’t returned to make things worse for you—”

“Then why
did
you come back?” Call it vanity or denial or instinct, but he didn’t believe she’d never loved him. He didn’t believe her now. He knew his business well enough to recognize real magic when he saw or felt it. What he and Lani had had was magic pure and simple. The electricity rippling between them now, heated, frustrated, and denied, was simply more evidence of it.

“To save the world, Rock, just as the chief said.”

“And I’m collateral damage.” He stepped away and turned his back to her, setting his jaw as disturbing images from the night she’d disappeared came flooding back to him. “Do you know what that night was like for me?”

“I can imagine—”

“You can’t.” He took a deep breath, trying to wash the visions away. “No one can.” He swung back around.

She started. Good, he’d caught her off guard.

“Do you know how worried I was when Clara showed up in the prestige? I nearly botched the act. Something in her eyes told me she was worried about you, too.” He shook his head. “Clara wasn’t reassuring, Lani. You scared her. I had to finish the show worried sick about you. I was crazy trying to figure it out, thinking maybe a sudden case of food poisoning, or hell, nauseous headache. I don’t know.

“I didn’t in my wildest worries think for a minute you’d disappeared on a dangerous mission for the CIA.” He ran his hands through his hair.

Her laughter stopped him short. “Listen to yourself, Rock. You’re implying I’m all about my career, but
you had to finish the show.

“It didn’t occur to you, I suppose, to take a quick break to check on me? Your beloved new bride who for all you knew might have been mortally ill.” She shook her head, looking almost as bitter as amused.

Her expression caught him up short. Maybe there
was
hope.

“Good luck for me, I suppose.” She leaned forward and whispered. “Or was it? Maybe I knew you well enough to know you’d finish the show, even if you were the one dying. And I was in no danger of being caught as I escaped and ran for my life. You wouldn’t leave that stage until the last encore was over. Not even if the world was ending.”

“Damn it, Lani!” He clenched his fists again to keep from grabbing her. He wanted to pull her to him, make her see reason. Hold her to his heart. Make her his again.

She was staring at him, but it was his turn to look past her for fear of giving himself away. “Don’t accuse me of putting my career before you. I
was
concerned about you, but I trusted my staff to take care of you. You of all people know how well-trained they are. You know I have medics waiting in case of an accident. I believed you were in good hands. The best.” He took a deep breath, struggling to maintain some control over his ragged emotions and hang on to his dignity. What was left of it.

“You left me in the worst possible state a woman can—not knowing what’s happened to you. Imagining the worst. Nightmares so terrible—”

He swallowed hard. “Unable to move on with my life. The moment the show ended, I rushed backstage, screaming to the crew, asking them about you, wild for information. The police stopped me. Pulled me aside. Delivered the news.

“A member of the hotel staff had seen you run out the back door by the loading dock. Someone else reported hearing gunshots near there and called the cops.

“They found puddles and a trail of blood. One of the cops held the scraped, bloodied, broken heel from your white shoe, the one you wore in the show, out to me in an evidence bag.
‘Recognize this?’
he said.

“My heart stopped. I went cold. I couldn’t piece it all together for a second. And then I realized you were missing, presumed murdered or kidnapped, and even though I’d been on stage at the time you disappeared, I was suspect number one.”

He made himself look at her, watching her closely for any sign of regret or sympathy. “That’s just the beginning of the nightmare for me. They found tire skid marks in the lot, but no body. It looked to the police as if a car had peeled out in a hurry.

“They interviewed the crew, stagehands, and Clara. They all said the same thing—you looked frightened, as if you were running from someone. For your life. And the natural assumption was it was me. That I’m a monster. A wife killer. A Bluebeard who disappeared his wife for good.

“A sample of the blood came back as yours. And then the rumors started to fly. I’d mistakenly gotten drunk and married you without a prenup. The crew was lying for me. I had you murdered to protect my assets.” He snorted. “As if I’m that kind of man.”

He imagined his eyes were bores and he could somehow pierce the truth out of her. But Lani remained placid and unreadable.

“What really happened that night, Lani?” he said. “I deserve to know that much.”

CHAPTER FOUR

This mission is going to be harder than I thought.
Lani hadn’t anticipated that hearing what Rock had gone through the past two years from his own lips would tear her up so badly or bring up such an almost irresistible urge to reach out and comfort him. And she’d forgotten that next to a crack secret agent, Rock was probably the most observant and intuitive man on the planet. Which was partly why she fell for him in the first place. And now might lead to their downfall.

Lani forced herself into spy mode and composed herself as she sat down on the sofa, still wondering what magic Rock had worked to convince her to marry him. If it wasn’t drugs, what was it?

She changed tactics. It no longer suited her purposes to be professional and distant. Better to beguile and charm the enemy, if that’s what he was. “Yes, I suppose you do deserve to know as much of the truth as I can tell you. Most of what happened that night is classified, but now that you’re with us, I can give you the basics.”

They were still standing. She walked to the sofa and took a seat, patting the cushion next to her.

He took the chair perpendicular to the sofa.

But at least he sat, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his thighs as he watched her with his magician’s eyes that missed nothing. Good thing she wasn’t going to try to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Well, not literally. Maybe humor would work?

“As it turns out, I didn’t quite make the clean escape of it I’d hoped for.” She put a smile in her voice and spoke lightly, trying to diffuse the tense mood. “RIOT had the hotel covered. An assassin waited for me as I came out of the building.”

She didn’t care to remember the details and she didn’t want to shock Rock too badly. Surprisingly, she didn’t want him to believe she shot at people without conscience. But she had to be honest.

“I had a fellow agent, a sharpshooter, covering my back and waiting for me with a car in the lot out back. Unfortunately, he’d been shot at and fired back, killing one of RIOT’s men.

“Originally, I was going to leave before the show. I swiped the intel just prior. Until I realized I was being followed and there was no way out except to go on with the show and make a break for it in the middle, hoping I threw them off my scent. That’s the beauty of magic. It’s all a gorgeous diversion, isn’t it?”

She’d said it playfully, but he didn’t smile back.

“You should have come to me,” Rock said. “I do gorgeous diversions better than anyone.”

What he said was probably true, but—

She shook her head. “I did what I did to protect you. You have to believe me. Besides, how crazy would you have thought I was if I’d come to you seconds before the show with some crazy story about terrorists chasing me? And that I’m a secret agent working for the CIA? You’d have had me committed.” She smiled at him.

Rock shook his head, but he looked less angry. “Maybe not.”

“
Maybe not
isn’t good enough. I only take reasonable risks. Too many lives hung in the balance. Besides, terrorists can’t torture out of you something you don’t know.” She paused to let the seriousness of the situation sink in with him. “Come on, Rock. I’m not the bad guy. Give me a bit of a break here.”

He scowled. “What happened next?”

She shrugged. “The usual spy stuff. Murphy’s Law. As I came out of the building and sprinted for the car, I hit a pool of the dead terrorist’s blood at full speed. Didn’t even see it until I nearly slid onto my ass in it. Tunnel vision. No one expects a dead terrorist in her path, right?” She tried to coax a smile out of him, but he remained stone-faced.

She shrugged again. “Hindsight. Anyway, bam! I was suddenly windmilling and skidding in the blood slick.” She made a face and pantomimed the motion, trying to get a smile out of him. “And do you know what I was most worried about right then?”

“Your lovely hide?”

She shook her head. “Nope—my costume and how blood would never come out of that skimpy white dress that you’d specially designed just for me. And whether I’d gotten blood on the marriage certificate tucked in my shoe.” Her voice broke unexpectedly. Since she’d become a mother she’d gotten emotionally soft and sentimental.