Free The Russian Seduction by Nikki Navarre Page B

dead on, challenging her to deny it. “Won’t they?”
    “And what about you?” She challenged him right back. “What orders did you receive about turning me? I’d have to check, but I’ll bet I’d be the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat your government has compromised since the fall of the Soviet Union.”
    “Only the highest-ranking diplomat your government knows about,” he murmured. Joking?
    “I’d be quite the coup for you, captain.” Screw the bug, and screw him too. “They’d probably award you another medal for it. They might even forgive you for your father.”
    The minute the words left her lips, Alexis wished she hadn’t said them. Victor Kostenko was not a man to be pushed around.
    A muscle flexed in his jaw as he pushed away from the wall and indulged in a bit of pacing himself. He prowled before the window, his movements leashed tight against brooding anger. Searching his pockets, he dug out his cigarettes and lighter.
    “You can’t smoke in here,” she pointed out. “There’s a Clean Indoor Air Act—”
    “Tell me, Ms. Castle,” he muttered around his cigarette, lighting up anyway. “Were you a hall monitor in that elite preparatory school your mother insisted you attend?”
    Heat climbed into her face. No doubt about it, the man knew how to push her buttons. Deliberately, she took a breath and modulated her voice. “Don’t go through the ceiling, then, when you set off the smoke alarm. I’m warning you now, it’s a deafening claxon.”
    He slanted her a sardonic glance, but at least he swung the window open. An edge of ice-cold air, sharp as a stropped razor, sliced into the overheated room. Alexis was still warm enough—after kissing him like that—to welcome it.
    Facing the window as he smoked, his broad back toward her, he spoke abruptly. “You’re going to make me raise the stakes, Ms. Castle. If you want to keep the focus on your damned job, then I can accommodate you.”
    “Oh?” She eyed him cautiously. Where was he going with this?
    “What would you say if I told you,” he said, exhaling smoke, “that I have new information for your government regarding the so-called aggression in Ukraine?”
    Riveted, Alexis stared at his back. He was too damn inscrutable, even when she could see his face. “Are you saying you have documents for my government?”
    “I am saying I have oral points,” he said curtly, flicking ash through the window. “Which I am instructed to deliver at an appropriate level of my discretion. I was considering addressing the matter to your former husband.” He allowed a calculated pause. “But what a token it would be of my ministry’s regard, Ms. Castle, if you were to receive this breaking news instead.”
    Alexis’s thoughts raced, a current of excitement zinging through her. He was right, of course, and he knew she was ambitious enough to be tempted. Getting the jump on Geoff wouldn’t cost her any sleep either.
    But it would be a grave tactical error to react too eagerly. Let him sweeten the deal. Besides, she still didn’t know what was going through his head. She sealed her lips and counted silently to five.
    He chuckled under his breath as if he’d read her mind. “I assure you this information will be worth your while, Counselor. Just think of the reporting cable you’ll get.”
    “You have my attention, Captain Kostenko,” she said briskly, fishing a pen and notepad from her purse. “What would you like me to convey to my capital?”
    He swung around to face her, his gaze shuttered, lounging against the sill as he eyed her through a veil of smoke. “Give me an hour of your time, outside the confines of your Embassy and starting right now, and I’ll brief you in detail.”
    “I beg your pardon?” She stared, incredulous, certain she had to be misunderstanding him. Surely, her fleeting sexual fantasy was getting out of hand.
    “You heard me.” His eyes locked on hers with laser-like intensity—all but saying I dare you