Free Spy Games: Lethal Limits by Mia Downing Page B

her, it was to size up what he was going to do her first, how he’d use her, what pleasure or pain he’d extract or deliver.
    Clothed in jeans and a floral print, button down shirt, she looked suspiciously like girlfriend material—pretty, classy yet casual. A woman his mother would love to be introduced to, and that made him happy and nervous at the same time. His mother hadn’t met a woman of his since he’d brought Charlotte home, and his odd relationship with her wasn’t the least bit romantic. Tia smiled at him again, and his heart did that funny leap thing, a maneuver that hadn’t happened before with her, not at the club or in Paris.
    It was hard to gauge what sort of agent she’d be. She looked fit, and as she bent to pick a handful of grass for Jessa, she moved with a grace that would translate into speed and agility. But this was vacation. He’d learn her skills later, and he’d teach her what she needed to know to save both their asses. Right now, he wanted to learn more about Tia as a woman.
    “You ready to go in?” he asked,
    She nodded but looked a little uneasy. He didn’t like that. She should be as happy as he was. It was home, after all.
    Jake stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Come here.”
    She turned, and he folded her lithe form into his arms and hugged her close, hoping to ease her discomfort. She smelled so good, like flowers and chocolate, since they’d shared a candy bar on the way to the house. He wanted to taste her mouth, to see if she tasted just as good, but he resisted. Something told him to wait.
    His inner sense was usually on the mark. It’d kept him alive this long, and his last boss had been a bastard to work for. Always forgetting to cross the t’s and dot the i’s, and Jake would end up in trouble more often than not. And though he and Tia had had sex many times, his inner senses told him this was different.
    Tia was no ordinary woman, either. He knew she had issues. Normal women didn’t capture men in Parisian hotel rooms. At least, he didn’t think they did. He didn’t know many normal women. But the way she had stared at that purse so longingly spoke of other issues, ones that were just as important to him for some reason. He’d felt like a king when she smiled up at him after purchasing the kit for her. It was obvious she’d never been treated to something like that before. And it touched him.
    He ran a hand over her loose curls, loving the texture under his hand. She was beautiful. Smart. Cunning. She deserved diamonds and silk. She deserved pampering and spoiling. Yet he sensed those were things just out of reach for her unless she got them herself. A woman shouldn’t have to do that. Not all the time, and he vowed to make the weekend special for her.
    He kissed her forehead and released her with a smile. “Welcome home.”
    She looked baffled. “That’s it?”
    “What?”
    “You’re not going to grope me or kiss me or…I don’t know. You just wanted a hug.”
    “I’d like to stretch my legs before I bind you and take punishment out of your sweet flesh if that’s okay.” He laughed at her worried expression. He couldn’t help himself. “Tia. I’m home, and I’m one happy man. If you don’t want to have sex this weekend, then fine. We’ll get to know each other, and hopefully, become more than friends with benefits, though I like the benefits you offer. But I’m not a lecherous pig. I’m just a man whore, home for a weekend of normalcy.”
    A small smile played across her lips, and she shaded her eyes with her hand to look up at him. “I didn’t realize there was a difference.”
    “Big difference.” He smirked at her expression, one of suspicion, as if she thought he was pulling the wool over her eyes. He arched a brow. “Am I not meeting expectations?”
    “You’ve always exceeded expectations, but this time you’re blowing everything I ever assumed about you out of the water.”
    “Is that good?” From the look on her