Dangerous Secrets (10 page)

“Mallory?” he said, the question there in his
voice.

“It’s silly,” she whispered. “We just met, barely
know each other, and yet it all feels right. But I know with us getting this
drive and working at figuring out what’s on it and therefore who’s behind
coming after me...” She had to stop and swallow hard around the lump building
in her throat. “You’ll be going back to your own life soon,” she said, her
voice cracking toward the end.

She felt him moving on the couch. His hands cupped
her cheeks a moment later and tipped her face up. He didn’t say
anything,
instead he just leaned in and kissed her softly.
Oh, so softly.

Whimpering, she leaned into the kiss and let him
pull her into his arms, and onto his lap, as she wrapped herself around him.
Holding onto him, she poured everything she couldn’t seem to make a coherent
thought about into the kiss.

She wanted him, needed him and was desperate for
him. Fisting her fingers in his short hair, she pressed closer.

He drew her in even tighter to his body. The ridge
of his hard cock pressed to the seam of her jeans with the perfect amount of
friction. Rocking her hips slightly, she let out a moan that perfectly melded
with the groan he let loose.

“Mallory,” he said as they parted, both sucking in
air. He thrust his hands into her hair and held her still as he stared into her
eyes.

She could see need in his gaze, want, desire and so
much heat it was a miracle she wasn’t melting away into a puddle right there.

“I want you,” she whispered.
“So
much.
I’ve wanted you from the moment you showed up on my doorstep. I’ve
been fighting the urge to tear your clothes off every other minute.”

“You really should have just given into the urge,”
he said with a smile.

Chewing on her lip, she smiled a little. “I was
afraid you might not feel the same. Or that you just viewed this as a job. You
know, do the job and at the end walk away without a backward glance.”

That had him frowning at her. “You are not and
never were just a job. You are amazing, Mallory, and a woman I want to know
more about. A woman I want to have in my life and to also be a part of your
life. I don’t know where this might go, I don’t know if it will last, but damn
it, I really want to give a shot. So, just for the record, I don’t plan on
going anywhere when the job is over unless you tell me to go. Even then, I will
put up a struggle, kick and scream a little and fight you over it, hard.”

“Promise?” she asked, hope blossoming inside her
chest.

“Absolutely,” he said with a firm nod. He lifted a
hand and ran a finger lightly down her cheek, a shiver creeping over her body
from the gentleness of the touch. “I’m not going anywhere, Mallory.”

Feeling an exorbitant amount of relief, she wrapped
her arms around his shoulders tight and hugged him. Burying her face in his
neck, she let out a shuddering breath and closed her eyes.

“I’ve just found you, too, Mallory,” he whispered
softly, his arms closing around her.

Chapter Twelve

For the last hour, they’d been sitting, wrapped
around one another. Trent was fighting to behave, when all he really wanted to
do was get naked with her. He was attempting to behave himself, hard as it and
his damn cock were, since she seemed to want just to be held. Trent honestly
didn’t care. He’d sit there with her for the rest of time if he could.

But Mallory lifted her head up and looked at him.
“I think I should make dinner.” She peeked at him before her gaze darted away.

He didn’t know what to make of her. But he also
knew he couldn’t push too hard. She was coming to terms, he figured. With him
and with what she felt for him. Trent, on the other hand, knew just how he felt
for her. He wanted her, bad.

He wanted her under him naked for hours upon hours.
He wanted to lock them into a room, and the rest of the world out. Not exactly
practical, but he truly didn’t care one iota.

“I’d offer to help, but you tend to get twitchy
when I do,” he said with a grin.

She made a face and pushed her hair back off her
face. “I know I’m a control freak about my kitchen. I can’t help it. Even those
I work with know my quirks and know better than to mess with my space when I’m
doing my job.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I could totally get
used to be waited on by you.” His grin got bigger at the look that got him.

She smacked his chest and slid off his lap. Not
exactly what he wanted, but he let her go. “Seriously, though,” he said. “Do
you want a hand with anything? I may not be up to your
standards,
maybe I could manage to be mildly helpful?”

For a moment, he was absolutely sure she’d refuse.
But she gave a nod after a moment more. “Yeah, you can help,” she said. “I’ll
even try not to be my normal controlling bitch of a self, too.”

Grabbing her hand to stop her as she turned to walk
away, Trent stood up and tugged her back to him. “Who said that to you?” he
asked. He didn’t know how he knew it, but the words had obviously hurt her.

“Doesn’t matter,” she muttered.

“Hey, yes it does. Especially since it hurt you,”
he said. Dipping his chin, he brushed a kiss to her cheek. “Tell me, Mallory.”

“Why?
You planning
on
going over there and beating him up?”

“Not a bad plan, actually,” he said with total
sincerity.

Her chin jerked up to look at him, obviously trying
to gauge if he was messing with her or not. “Trent, no,” she said, stepping in
closer. Mallory pressed her hand to his chest and shook her head. “It was a
long time ago and doesn’t even matter anymore.”

“It obviously does if you’re still saying it,
sweetheart.”

A stubborn look settled on her face and she shook
her head again. “No.”

He’d get it out of her eventually. What he’d do
about it he honestly didn’t know. But he wanted to know who would hurt her. She
was the sweetest woman he’d ever met. To say something like that to her was unforgivable.
Grunting, Trent let out a slow breath. “Fine, I’ll drop it,” he said. “For
now,” he added when she went to step back.

Looking up at him, she squeezed his hand and didn’t
push for more. Mallory was learning. She did tug on his hand, though, and led
him into the kitchen.

He got out of her way as she went to the fridge and
bent over to dig around. His eyes dropped to her sweet ass and he smiled. That
was a view he could get used to, preferably with her naked, but it was still a
stunning sight.

“Here.” She held out some vegetables to him. Moving
in, he took them and set them on the counter as she continued to root around.
More things were held out until she straightened and turned to face him.

Looking at the assortment of items he frowned.
“What exactly are we making?” he asked curiously.

“Not a clue,” she told him with a grin.

“Oh, good,” he said.
“So glad
that one of us knows just what we’re doing.”

Mallory laughed and gave his arm a light punch.
“Have a little faith. I do this for a living, you know. Besides, some of the
best things can come out of throwing a few pieces together in a pot.”

“Yeah, that’s never worked well in my experience,”
he told her.

“Ah, but I know what I’m doing. I know what flavors
work well together and complement one another. Just because I’m not sure what
it’s going to be in the end, doesn’t mean that it won’t taste good,” she said.
“Besides, I do have a vague idea, just not sure if I want it to go there or
not.”

He was confused, so he just gave up. “All right,
lead forth then. What do you want me to do?”

She grabbed a knife and cutting board and handed
them to him. “I need you to chop up an onion, a pepper, three stalks of celery
and dice up the tomatoes. Big chunks for the hard items, about the size of the
pad of your thumb, little chunks for the tomatoes that end up about the size of
the pad of my pinky.” She held the finger up to show him the size.

“Hard items first and then the tomatoes last,” she
continued. “I’ll do up the other items and get the meat browning at the same
time.”

Figuring he’d asked for this by offering, he moved
down the counter to a clear spot and got to work as instructed. As he chopped
he could feel her watching him from time to time. But he wasn’t anywhere near
as skilled with a blade, for cooking anyway, as she was, so he kept his eyes on
his fingers. He did kind of want to keep them all attached.

Every now and again she’d come collect whatever
he’d chopped up and then went to the stove with it. Whatever she was making was
starting to smell really good.

When he finished, Trent washed his hands and rinsed
the board and knife off. He was tempted to peek into the pots she had going,
but resisted. He didn’t know what she’d do if he did, so he leaned a hip to the
counter to watch her instead.

“You’re staring,” she said with a smile.

“Yup, I am.” He chuckled.

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Trent?” she muttered, shooting him a look.

“You’re damned sexy,” he said in a low, intimate
tone. “I like watching you while doing your thing. It’s hot.”

She rolled her eyes at him as she stirred the one
pot. Stepping back, she looked to the clock. “Dinner should be ready in about
fifteen.”

Nodding, he reached out to pull her into his arms.
Wrapping her up, he lowered his head to nibble on her lips. “Whatever should we
do to occupy ourselves?” he asked her.

“I don’t think we have time for that
, ”
she said with a laugh. “At least, I hope it won’t only
take fifteen minutes.”

It took him a second to catch up with her thought
process, but he reared back to glare at her when it finally clicked. “It will
damn well take more than fifteen minutes,” he promised. “I intend on having you
at my mercy for hours, at the very least.”

“Hours, huh?
Didn’t think it was possible,” she teased, wrinkling her nose up
slightly.

“Listen here, woman,” he said, before laughing.
“Damn, but you’re horrible for my ego.” Hugging her close, Trent rested his
chin on her hair.

“Just trying to keep you honest is all,” she told
him, slipping her arms around his waist.

He liked the idea of her keeping him, period.
A lot.

Chapter Thirteen

“We have a problem, sir.” Those were not the words
the man wanted to hear and they weren’t the words he’d expected upon answering
the call.

“What do you mean, we have a problem?”

“The device has been found, and not by us.”

A cold wash of fear and dread slid down his spine.
Turning so his wife didn’t notice, he pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Who?” he asked.

“A security group by the name of
C&M Security.
We’re not sure who located it exactly
or where, but C&M has it in their offices. Newton saw a man leaving Thompson’s
apartment with the drive in hand. He followed him, figuring it was the wiser
option over remaining on watch. The man went in to C&M Security. When he
came out twenty minutes later he no longer had it. Newton remained to watch the
building and called me in to watch the back doors. I got Richard doing some
digging on the company and found out that the man, Vincent Bradley, is on the
payroll as a bodyguard. We also discovered that Thompson’s boyfriend is
actually one of their bodyguards.”

“How did this happen?” he asked in a harsh voice.

“Unknown sir,” the man said. “We didn’t even
realize they were on the case. We do know they do a lot of work with the SFPD.
Best guess is they were called in because of manpower shortages and budget
cuts.

“Son of a bitch,” he snapped out. Glancing around,
he checked to ensure no one had heard his outburst. He didn’t need any of these
people thinking he was on edge or losing it, even though he was. “This is a
disaster, Dave. We need
it
back
before they get anything off of it.”

“Understood, sir.
I have a team assembled and we’re just going over the blueprints for
C&M now. We should be in motion within the next hour. We will get it back
and eliminate anyone that may have viewed it. The hope is that we’ll be in and
out while everyone’s home in their beds.”

“Good, do it, I don’t care what has to happen. Get
that fucking thing back and into my hands by tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

The line went dead. Turning off his phone, he slid
it into his pocket and took a moment to calm himself. When he was sure none of
the stress that call had created showed
,
he went back
to schmoozing with the big boys.

****

Mallory, with a bit of reluctance, left Trent to
clean up after dinner. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust
him,
she did, completely and fully. It was that he was in her kitchen. It was very
nerve wracking for the control freak inside of her.