Trained for Seduction (14 page)

“You can’t keep your mouth shut?”

Chase sighed as Jake grinned wider. Jesus, Jake knew everything, even when he was being discussed. “You didn’t tell him? I’m sure he’d want to know all about your weekend.”

“We don’t talk about you, and we definitely don’t talk about sex.”

Chase shook his head and glanced back down at her. “Well, I didn’t have to say a word. You jogged over here on your own, all hot to trot to be near me. The other day, you hid behind a tree.”

She glared, the smudge of dirt making her look like a pissed kitten in need of a wash. “That doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with you.”

Chase sighed. “Will you go to dinner with me or not?” The prospect of dinner made him almost physically ill, since their hostess was his aunt and there was no way out without being rude.

He had Kate to blame for this dinner arrangement. That hot, fast fuck this morning had made him fifteen minutes late to work with no time to shave and no contacts. He was never, ever late for work, never disheveled, blind when it came to reading documents, never unprepared.

His secretary, Helen, had known immediately that he’d been up to something with a girl, had jumped to conclusions that this was the one to replace his ex, Diane, and had called his aunt, who was her best friend. By nine, his aunt had demanded he bring Kate for dinner; his uncle wanted to meet with him anyway.

The loss of control made him break out in a cold sweat. He should be introducing Kate to his aunt and uncle at his discretion, when he was ready, not being called on the carpet. His uncle was extremely judgmental and was the only person in the world who terrified him. His uncle was also his boss, and he’d want a report about the weekend, which made Chase even more nervous.

Chase groaned internally. He shouldn’t have allowed Kate to lure him into morning sex when it wasn’t in the schedule. He loved his secretary, but now she thought him ready to settle and hoped Kate would help him relax from his stressful schedule. He definitely didn’t need Jake leering at him over his water bottle, his friend taking in every nuance of their body language, knowing if Chase had the time, he’d drag her into the woods or the back seat of his vehicle and fuck her senseless.

“I don’t have anything to wear,” Kate said, bringing him back to reality.

“Call my secretary, Helen, and she can tell you where to go to find a dress. We’ll have to leave from the office, so it will be a suit for me.” And God help him, because Helen would just love this motherly task. He was doomed.

“Where are we dining?”

“The home of a general and his wife. Very nice people. The general is one of my bosses, so to speak.” And also his uncle, but Chase didn’t want to scare her witless. Better she thought this was a simple, business dinner, not an inspection by the equivalent of his parents. “I hate to ask you for a favor, but would you bring me my contacts from the house?”

“When do you need those?”

“ASAP. Please. I can’t read without them, and I can’t see a damned thing out of these sunglasses. The whole office thinks I was ripping drunk last night and I’m hiding bloodshot eyes. It’s hard to be a hard-ass when they’re all snickering.” Chase thought for a moment. That request sounded too…relationship like. He waved to Jake, who jogged over with a grin.

“Jake, take Kate to the house and show her how to get around the security system. Just make sure it works when you’re done.”

Kate looked from Jake to Chase. “He can get around the security system?”

“Of course. It will only keep out the riff-raff.”

Jake grinned. “Can we take the ponies out for a joyride?”

“Ponies?” Kate asked, confused.

Jake gave her a wicked grin. “Three hundred sixty of them, darlin’, wanting Uncle Jake to take them for a spin with a pretty blonde sitting shotgun.”

“Oh.” Kate nodded, giving Jake a conspiratorial smile. “He won’t take me out in it. I’d love to go for a ride.”

“Don’t touch,” Chase said with a glare. Jake coveted the car, a ‘66 in deep red with white stripes, all original, with a supercharger. His one gift to himself to take away the sting of divorce papers. “I have the keys.”

Chase closed his eyes on his stupidity. As if that would stop his buddy.

Jake laughed. “She needs to hotwire something.”

“Mile away, Jacob,” Chase warned, hoping he wouldn’t hotwire it. Please. He’d beg, but it wasn’t boss-like. “Don’t mess with my shit. And bring me a coffee.” He slid into the SUV, pleased as he slammed the door. He was the boss. She meant nothing.

“Bossy, aren’t you?” Kate asked as she leaned into his unrolled window.

“It’s my job.”

“I won’t let him hotwire the sports car.” She smiled, reached in, and grabbed his tie. She yanked him to the window and kissed him full on the lips. “I’ll see you later, boss.”

Over her shoulder Jake grinned in a you-are-fucked manner and then wrapped his arm around his girl—asshole—and turned to his truck.

Yeah, he was fucked. Chase swallowed as she sauntered away on Jake’s arm. Screwed. In so many different ways.

Kate stood at the doorway next to Chase as he knocked later that evening, fidgeting nervously in her new little black dress. It was weird to be here in this capacity, but she supposed it would happen as those around the office learned of her existence, that they’d want to meet his newest agent. This was professional. Not a date, because he didn’t date, and neither did she.

He looked down at her and smiled, trying to give her confidence. “They won’t eat you.”

The door opened, and an older woman smiled at them. She was in her late fifties or early sixties and very pretty in a simple yet elegant blue dress. “Chase, and this must be Kate. Welcome. Come in.”

“Thanks, Aunt Sophie.”

“Aunt Sophie?” He was raised by his aunt and uncle. She was about to meet the equivalent of his parents, with absolutely no warning. Her heart had been beating a bit briskly before, but now it hammered in her chest.

He stiffened as he realized his mistake. “I wasn’t going to greet her that way. I’m so sorry, Kate, I should have just told you.”

Why would he lie to her? “You said we were going to dine with a general and his wife.”

“My uncle, the general and my aunt, his wife?” Chase had the decency to look sheepish. “I didn’t want you to be any more nervous than I know you are. It’s bad enough he’s a general. He’s my boss, if that makes you feel any better.”

“No, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” She smacked him on the chest, hard. “You should have told me.”

Aunt Sophie laughed. “I don’t think you hit him hard enough, dear. Really, Chase. You could have disclosed us. We’re not classified information in your life. She is your girlfriend.”

A blush crept up her cheeks, and she didn’t dare to glance at him as they followed his aunt into the other room. She wasn’t a girlfriend. She was a work project. And Chase didn’t disclose anything to anyone, girlfriend or not.

“You’re a jerk,” she hissed under her breath.

At least his secretary, Helen, had given her the name of a perfect boutique where she’d purchased the little black dress she wore. Chase’s gaze had been more than appreciative when he had seen her, but it was still an appropriate meet-the-parents dress.

“This is your fault,” he whispered back. “If you hadn’t made me late for work, Helen wouldn’t have known and wouldn’t have assumed we were dating now and wouldn’t have called my aunt.”

And then his uncle was there, a tall man in his late fifties, still incredibly handsome with gray at his temple, reminding her of Chase when they’d aged him to be Alexander Bishop. Chase would get even better looking with age. This man was proof.

Chase’s uncle smiled down at her “Kate. So glad to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you in meetings. It’s nice to place the face with the name.”

She shook his large hand, and the dimple in his cheek was the same as Chase’s, only on the left side. “Thank you, General Sanders. I hope I do the chatter justice.”

“I’m sure you will. I’m sure you will.” The general nodded to Chase. “Ladies, will you excuse Chase and me? We have much to talk about.”

Judgment time. Chase despised leaving Kate, knowing the following meeting would be hell. He nodded to Kate, giving her reassurance as his aunt swept her away, into the kitchen. His aunt would love Kate and would be just as enthusiastic as Helen had been. Lucky for Kate, unlucky, as usual, for him.

Though he schooled his features to hide his nervousness, the butterflies fluttering in his stomach, the anxiety growing with every step toward his uncle’s back office, a secure place they could chat. He had his uncle to thank for that talent, being able to hide behind the mask of doom, as Jake so fondly referred to it. His uncle had a nose for weakness, and like a shark out for blood, if there was a hole in Chase’s armor, he would circle until he could attack.

It was a hard relationship because his uncle was a hard man. Chase worshipped him, loved him, and hated him all at the same time. He’d raised Chase since he was one, offered him the best of everything money could buy—education, travel, cars, guns.

But nothing Chase did was ever good enough. If he sniped at under two thousand meters, then why couldn’t it have been more? His uncle wanted faster, harder, stronger. His best, not better, and his best was always second best.

His uncle hated that Chase was attractive and pointed out many times what a weakness it was. Chase couldn’t go deep under cover because the fucking women remembered him. Jake had no problem blending despite being easy on the eyes. Jake could go anywhere, do anything, and if he chose to not be remembered, he wasn’t.

But Chase couldn’t walk across a goddamned parking lot without someone remembering him, and that was a fate worse than death for a spy. If someone remembered you were there, then they could very easily connect two and two, and you were a dead man.

“Pretty girl,” his uncle observed as they entered the room. He gestured for Chase to sit in one of the two chairs before the mahogany desk. His uncle poured himself a glass of the amber liquid from a crystal decanter behind his desk. “You did a good job coordinating her plastic surgery. I didn’t recognize her at all.” He lifted the decanter in Chase’s direction. “You?”

“You know I hate Scotch.” Chase sat in the chair closest to the door and grabbed a paper clip from the holder in front of him. He began unbending it. “Kate passes all facial recognition scans. No one would know who she was.”

His uncle nodded. “I was surprised when Sophie called me about having you and the girl over for dinner. You realize she has jumped to the wrong conclusion?”

“Yes, sir.” He bent the paper clip around his finger.

“I’m surprised at you, Chase. You’re usually a hell of a lot more discreet.” His uncle sipped and then studied the glass in his hand appreciatively. “So. Has her problem been taken care of? Does she have enough training?”

Kate’s virginity or lack thereof shouldn’t be part of the discussion, but there wasn’t much Chase could do about it. He cleared his throat and crossed his ankle over his opposite knee. “Yes. She’s set for the mission. On all accounts.”

“Taking one for the team, eh, Chase?” His uncle laughed and took another a sip of his drink. “That’s a hell of a government-issued birthday present.”

“I know you’re not my dad by blood, but this discussion is just as uncomfortable for me as if you were, sir.”

“Right now, I am your boss.” His uncle looked hard at him and then set his drink down. “Son, are you truly aware of what this girl is going to face in a couple of weeks?”

“I’ve been in on all the meetings, sir.” Chase shifted in his chair, the bile bubbling up in his throat from the stress. He bent another section of metal around his finger, the end pressing in to the side of his finger, the pain biting.

He knew all too well what she was facing. He had been the one to plan it, down to the last detail, and he still hadn’t found a solution. And when she found out, she was going to hate every bone in his body.

“Then as your boss, I’m telling you—not asking, but telling you to stop whatever you’re doing before this goes too far and put some distance between the two of you. You know the chances of her returning are slim.”

“It was a weekend. That’s it. Helen jumped to conclusions.”

“I know how you lived your life before she came into the picture. A weekend of sex didn’t put you to work late and looking like…Jake.”

“No, sir.” He shoved the metal deeper into his finger, wishing the pain would take away the churning in his stomach. His uncle hated Jake.

“You don’t need to feel responsible for her.”

Here, Chase had to put his foot down. “If she hadn’t run that night, we would have closed in on her father, and she’d be here under different circumstances, not because she was a victim. She’d be in witness protection somewhere, living a quiet life, not roped into being something she isn’t because the powers-that-be wish to utilize her as a sacrificial lamb for their cause. Sir.”

His uncle raised his brows, and Chase realized that was probably the most outspoken he’d ever been. Jesus, what was Kate doing to him?

“It’s not your fault she ran.”

“It’s not her fault she’s the product of a mission gone wrong, one I was in charge of. You don’t need to send her off on some kamikaze assignment because I fucked up.”

His uncle sighed. “Just walk away, son. You did what you were told to do. You made her able to fulfill her part of the job. You gave her the tools to get into that wacko’s bedroom and destroy him.” His uncle leaned forward. “She’s just what that man likes, Chase. She’s perfect for this job. You know it, I know it. She’ll get in deeper than any other agent has been able to. Don’t you want this, for America’s safety?”

Chase wanted to scream, fuck America, but he couldn’t. He loved his country too much. Instead, he motioned for his uncle to give him the decanter of Scotch and a glass. He knocked the first one back, ignoring the burn, welcoming the fire down his throat. The second one was smoother. He set the empty glass down on the desk and leveled a gaze at his uncle. “Yes, sir.”

“Now she’s driving you to drink, after one weekend? You can’t continue having a relationship with her if you know damned well she’s low on the totem pole when it comes to priority. She’s expendable.”