Free All Things Pretty by M. Leighton Page B

embarrassed. And she can’t face me. Or at least she
doesn’t want to.
    With that, she turns around and walks away,
the only sound in the room the receding clack of her heels on
marble. I look to Barber who tips his head in her direction.
“Doesn’t matter what she wants. Lance said eyes on her at all
times. Just keep your distance.”
    I nod and stand, giving Tommi a minute’s
lead before I take the elevator to the garage to tail her. I don’t
expect to find her waiting by my truck, but that’s exactly what I
find. She’s leaning against the driver’s side with her ankles
crossed and her head bowed. I take a spot beside her and just
wait.
    After a full two minutes at least, she
speaks. “You don’t know me.”
    I don’t skirt the real issue. “No. But I
know you’re worth more than that,” I say, hiking my thumb
toward the ceiling, toward Tonin.
    “I wish I was. But life has a way of making
some choices…irrelevant.”
    I turn to my side to face her, leaning a hip
against the truck door. “No one is that stuck.”
    Finally, she lifts her eyes to mine. They’re
tortured. “I wish that were true.”
    Her sadness bothers me. Draws me closer. I
reach out and stroke her silky cheek with the backs of my fingers.
Her lips tremble open.
    I’m not thinking. I’ll give you that. It’s
nuts to take an undercover assignment, boast that I can handle it,
and then risk it all by screwing around with the boss’s girlfriend.
Yet here I am, screwing around. Luckily, she is a big part
of my assignment. I need her help. And this could go a long
way toward getting it.
    At least (again) that’s what I tell
myself.
    I straighten my fingers and slide them along
the side of her neck, into the thick wave of her hair. I press my
palm to her skin. I can feel her pulse tapping against it, wild and
fast.
    She wants this. As much as I do. It’s been
building between us for weeks, since I stopped to help a beautiful
blonde stranded on the side of the highway.
    I bend my head slowly, giving one of us time
to stop this. But neither of us does. And when my lips brush hers
for the first time, I know it won’t be the last.
    Her mouth is soft and warm under mine,
pliant. Willing. I don’t press too hard. She doesn’t back away. We
just meet in the middle.
    When she sighs, her sweet breath floods my
mouth. It’s hard to pull away, but I do. My face is less than two
inches from hers. I watch as her eyelids flutter open. The green
pools suck me in. Deep, like a siren that beckons me to follow her
down. Down, down, down.
    “Let me take you to get your brother.” I
don’t know why I offer. Or why I want her to let me.
    Her eyes search mine for several long
seconds and I think she’s going to agree, but she doesn’t.
“No.”
    “Why? I’m good with kids.”
    “Travis isn’t like other boys his age.”
    “I’m not sure there’s a normal standard for
boys that age.”
    “He’s, um, he’s on the autistic spectrum.
Asperger’s. He’s highly functioning, of course, but…”
    Damn, this woman never ceases to amaze me.
On top of Lance and the lady in the back room, she also takes care
of her brother, who is autistic. Yet she doesn’t complain, never
says a word about it. Just carries the load all by herself, hidden
beneath her polite smile. “Let me try.”
    She peeks up at me from beneath her lashes.
I can see the indecision in her eyes, like she’s been burned.
Probably by Tonin, that asshole. “He doesn’t even really talk
much.”
    “I like the quiet.”
    She sighs again, reminding me of the kiss we
just shared. Making me even more determined. “Why? Why do you want
to do this?”
    One of the first rules of thumb in
maintaining an effective and believable identity is to keep your
every fabrication as close to the truth as often as possible,
without compromising your alias. So, I’m honest. “I don’t know. I
just…want to.”
    I see the pearly rectangles of her teeth dig
into her lip. Without meaning to, I reach