Free Special Ops Affair by Jennifer Morey Page B

faltering.”
    He did his own math. “You’ve been with TES what…almost six years now?”
    She stopped walking again, this time folding her arms, her dark eyes beaming with challenge.
    So, her husband had died about six years ago. “That’s a long time.”
    Her brow lifted. He ignored it. She needed to be pushed every once in a while.
    “Was that engineer the first man you’ve been with since then?”
    “And this is your business…how?”
    “I’m just curious. You don’t have to answer.”
    “I’ve dated other men over the last couple of years.”
    So for four of those years she hadn’t been interested in anyone. “But no operatives.”
    “I dated a couple of those, too. At first.”
    Was that why she’d cried in the car earlier? Had she been thinking of her husband? What had made her think of him? Being with an operative again? Kissing one and liking it?
    Had she felt it that much? He sure as hell had.
    He caught himself. “You’re right. It’s none of my business.” He started walking again. He didn’t want to desire a woman who kept secrets, especially one with Odelia Frank’s background. She could be dangerous. Why did it matter what she thought of him? It didn’t. At least, it shouldn’t.
    She caught up to him, her long, dark hair shiny and thick and swinging with her movement. She didn’t wear makeup but her dark eyes were striking on her smooth, proportioned face. She’d put on her leather jacket. One hand swung free at her side and she had her work tote hanging from her other shoulder. She had great thighs, long and toned in those faded jeans. She always wore hiking boots, too. He’d like to see her in high heels.
    Catching himself again, he looked ahead.
    It was a still night. No clouds. The stars were far away, not as bright as they were in Roaring Creek. The elevation here was so much lower.
    “Don’t take it personally,” she said.
    What did she think he was thinking? “Take what personally?”
    “I just don’t like talking about him, that’s all.”
    “That’s okay, I don’t like talking about my ex-wife, either.”
    “You were married?”
    He saw her surprise. “Do you think every man in my profession isn’t marriage material?”
    “No. Not if they work for TES. There must be something in the water in Roaring Creek.”
    “So, there is hope for you.”
    “I drink bottled water.”
    He chuckled. Damn, he liked her mind. He walked without saying anything for a while, but he could tell she wanted to know more.
    “When did you get divorced?” she asked.
    “Three years ago.” He really didn’t want to talk about this. Maybe he should have avoided the topic of her husband.
    “What happened? She get tired of you always being gone?”
    “No.” But he’d bet that’s what she hadn’t liked about her marriage.
    “What then? Is she the one who portrayed herself as someone she wasn’t?”
    He contemplated not answering. Out of fairness, he did. “She was arrested for a hit-and-run.”
    Odie whistled and looked at him with incredulous eyes. “She ran from an accident?”
    “One that killed a woman and her son. She went to prison for it.”
    “Oh, my God, that’s terrible.”
    “She was also into drugs. I didn’t know any of that until after I married her. I didn’t know about the accident or her drug dealings. Not until the cops came knocking one day.”
    “Didn’t you spend enough time to get to know her?”
    “She told me she was an English teacher who’d just moved to the East Coast and was looking for a job. She said her parents were killed in a car wreck and she didn’t have any siblings. The truth was her mother was a hooker who couldn’t identify daddy without a DNA test. She grew up in a poor suburb of Detroit. Her first husband abused her and was unfaithful. That’s when she got into drugs. I didn’t even know she’d been married before. She was running from the law when I met her. But of course, she didn’t tell me that.”
    “How long were