Free Single Lady Spy 01 - The End of Me by Tara Brown Page A

twenty-three.
    He sighed and watched me checking him out. I blushed as he smiled, "You seem afraid of me, Ms. Evans."
    I tried to nod, but it was more like a twitch. I steadied my hands and brought the flute to my lips. The champagne was perfection.
    "Is it alright?" he asked.
    I nodded, "It is. Thank you." The awkwardness of it all was bizarre. I was living like it didn’t matter my children were being flown into hiding. Guilt trickled down my throat with the next nervous sip.
    He licked his lips and smiled softly, "I'm sorry if I seem distracted, you're a very beautiful woman."
    I wanted to giggle nervously but I forced a frown, "You murdered my husband." The words came out, before I could stop them. He was making me uncomfortable, and acting like a grieving widow was harder than it looked.
    He laughed, "Did I?" He all but confirmed my suspicions with his statement, and his amused sparkly eyes.
    I shook my head, "I don’t know. Didn’t you?"
    His eyes narrowed as he brought the drink to his lips and sipped. He shook his head and chuckled, like he was laughing at something I didn’t know. Like there were jokes in the air that I couldn't see, well at least he didn’t know I saw them.
    My hands were shaking harder. I gripped the flute firm enough that I figured it would shatter. I lifted it and drank the champagne in one long gulp.
    His eyes widened.
    He stood and walked to the bar in the far comer. He grabbed the bottle from the ice bucket and brought it to me. He took my hand in his and lifted the flute with my hand. The warm strength of his grip, felt like it was burning mine.
    "Your hands are cold. You need to calm down. Stress is very hard on women. It ages you." He poured the glass but paused before letting go of my hand. He ran his fingers up my empty ring finger, "Over the marriage so quickly?"
    I shook my head, "I get dry skin." It wasn’t a lie but my voice broke slightly under his scrutinizing stare. It felt like a hot lamp.
    His eyes flashed, "You know about his infidelity, don't you?" He sat down.
    Jesus, did everyone know?
    Was I honestly the last person to know?
    Taking a breath, I spoke softly, "I know. I found out the other day. A friend was in town and felt like I deserved to know after all these years." I was panicking. If he had been watching me, he would know it was lies.
    He filled his own glass and put the bottle back. He sat again, watching me.
    I sipped the champagne.
    "Do you know anything else?" His eyes were like lie detectors.
    I focused on the fact, I was terrified of him and shook my head.
    "You seemed edgy." His eyes narrowed.
    "I am. You're scaring the shit out of me. I don’t even know if James was ever my husband, for real. He was fucking everything he could get on top of, except me. Which now I'm sort of grateful. I don’t know you and we're having a very private conversation. Not to mention, you killed James and Mel, and sent a lawyer to my house to tell me you've taken everything from me." My voice wavered. The champagne was just doing all the talking.
    He put a hand out, "Don’t cry. He isn’t worth a single tear." When he said the word tear, I caught the slight accent he hid. He continued quickly, "James was a bad man. He doesn't deserve a single tear from your beautiful eyes. You deserve someone who would cherish you and respect you, and make you more important than everything in the world." He paused and drank. Like he was stopping himself from the awkward moment. We were both just saying random things.
    I pulled at my sweater and looked around, was it getting hotter?
    He whispered, "You deserve a love like no other person has ever had."
    It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. An arms dealer had given me the best compliment, I had ever had. Just great.
    "Thank you," I said quietly. I was getting confused as to why I was there. I hoped it was the champagne, tequila, and general lack of food that was making me dizzy, and not the fact he was beautiful and I was