Free SLEEPER (Crossfire Series) by Gennita Low Page B

martial arts. She will kick you if you drop her.”Damn. He’d forgotten there was a mic on him. Reluctantly, he slowly straightened up, keeping her leg imprisoned, his hand gliding back up to the back of her neck. Her face was flushed and her eyes sparkled. Another time, another place, he would have finished this dance and they would be naked. The image of Llallana Noretski naked came too easily.
    Reed gave himself a mental shake. He shouldn’t have danced. It brought out too much of himself.
    “Now we’ll look for a table,” he said.
    They weaved around other writhing couples. She pointed to a booth in one corner and he nodded in agreement. T’s voice came through the mic as he headed in that direction.
    “Reed darling, she’s tied up Johnny Chic like a hog, with his pants in a knot at his feet. The man isn’t happy with her treatment of him.” T laughed huskily. “He swears, though, that he told her exactly what we wanted him to say, so you can do everything as planned.”
    Reed moved back to allow Llallana into the booth. Instead of sitting across from her, he joined her on the same seat. She turned to face him, her eyes glaring a warning now.
    He smiled at her for the first time. He was really enjoying the way her eyes were so expressive. Despite the cold, hard facts he had read about her, there was so much contradiction about this woman. He certainly couldn’t see any sign of the calculating woman who had led her friends into a trap. And she hadn’t given in to Johnny Chic’s sexual demands, which, for some reason, made him feel lighthearted all of a sudden.
    He could sense the anger coming from her, as if she was impatient about all this but needed to bide her time to get what she wanted. That was okay. He understood waiting. He did it a lot in his real job.
    The booth blocked out a lot of the noise from the music. After all, this club was also a place to discuss business. “Something tells me you’re going to dash out on me right after I give you what you want,” he said as he slid in a little closer. “This is just insurance, Miss…?”
    When she remained silent, he lifted a brow inquiringly. “Usually I do business with people who have names. Besides, you obviously know mine.” He put out a hand. “Hi, I’m R.C., but you can call me Reed. What can I do for you tonight?”

CHAPTER 5
     
    Maybe it was because she had just been in his arms, or because it’d been a few months since she’d allowed herself to be this close to another man, but Lily was keenly aware of Reed sitting so near. She suddenly realized how much she’d avoided this kind of proximity with a man—it hadn’t been difficult, as she’d been on the run with a bunch of teenagers and young women. But she knew it’d been mostly out of fear of her own memories.
    She’d been running from herself and it’d been easy, because as long as there was cash to see to all her charges’ needs, she hadn’t needed any contact with anyone from her old life—the friends she’d abandoned or her shady business “acquaintances.” In the back of her mind, she’d known she would have to deal with her own fears sooner or later, but she had been willing to make it as late as possible.
    But now, because of this passport situation, she’d had to go back to her old life, which included dealing with the kind of people who reminded her of what she was. And what she was, no matter how she avoided the truth, was very simple. She was Llallana Noretski, a woman of dubious background with shady motivations. Just like everyone around here. She drank down the glass of wine she’d picked up on the way to the table.
    “You can call me…Ambrosia.”
    She almost gave him her real name. That would have been stupid, since she was sure she was on several wanted lists.
    However, the rush of just being the old Lily while dealing with Johnny Chic had brought back a bit of her old swagger. She knew how to deal with people like that. At that moment, when she