(2012) Evie Undercover (19 page)

At the edge of the dark groves, she stopped suddenly and glanced down at her feet. Tom gripped her hand more tightly. ‘There are no snakes here now, Evie, if that’s what you’re thinking. They like the sun, and that’s in short supply when it’s
almost
midnight.’

She started walking again. ‘I hope you’re right
.
I’ve got open-toed sandals on.’

‘
I’m
confident
that the colour of your toenails would scare them away, if nothing else.
Trust me.’

She looked at him in amusement. ‘Oh, I do, Tom,’ she murmured. ‘I wouldn’t be here alone with you in the dark, with you clutching my hand so hard that I couldn’t escape if I wanted to, if I didn’t thoroughly trust you.’

‘Don’t say that!’ he cried out
, looking at her
in feigned alarm. ‘You’re laying a moral responsibility on me to live up to your trust
by doing the right thing,
and I’m not entirely sure I want that.’

Huh! What did he mean
by that
? He didn’t want the moral responsibility or he didn’t want to do the right thing? Jeez, please let it be the latter! With difficulty, she switched her focus back to what he was saying.

‘There’s something in human nature that makes one keen to do the very opposite of what one ought to do, and I think I’m about to find out that I’m no exception to that rule.’ He stopped walking
,
turned to face her
,
and took a step closer.

Ohmigod, she knew what was coming! And it
wasn’t more talk. Her heart started to race
.

‘Is that so?’ She tried to in
fuse
a touch of – more accurately, a huge dollop of
–
bouncy provocation in
to
her words.

She
’d
obviously hit the right note
;
he took another step towards her. He was only inches from her face.

She tilted her head slightly upward, positioned her lips at an inviting angle and slowly ran her tongue along her lower lip. Moist, glistening lips,
Glamour Puss
had advised, were unmissable and sure-fire kissable. She’d often wondered if two sets of lips, one of them
over-
moist
ened
, ever skidded off each other
. W
ith luck, she’d soon find out. Motionless, she stood with her eyes half closed, waiting.

‘Unfortunately, it
is
so.’ God, was he
still
talking
?
There was a limit to
how long she could hold the position
. ‘I feel I have to finish something I started a few days ago, but
didn’t complete
. And if I don’t do it now, I’m afraid I never will.’

Dar
n! Her eye mus
cles were about to go on strike
– she’d have to change her pose. S
he o
pened her eyes to their full size and assumed an air of wide-eyed innocence. ‘What do you mean?’

He smiled into her face.

‘I think you know very well what I mean, Evie.’

Behind him, moonlight filtered through the trees
,
defin
ing
every angle, every plane
of his features.
She stared
up
at him. H
er breath caught in her throat and her mind went blank.

‘I do?’ she croaked.

‘Yes, you do. From the moment I saw you standing on that bed, I’ve wanted to do this, and you know it.’ He slid his hands up her bare arms and pulled her to him. ‘Somehow I’ve held off till now, but I’m not going to hold off a minute longer. I think you want this, too.’

She looked
deep
into his eyes
. A thunderbolt struck her, and s
he gasped
from the
shock
of it.

S
he did
;
she really did
.
A
nd it was
nothing to do with any story
.

She moved imperceptibly cl
oser. H
e
gently
cupped her face in his hands,
lowered his head and
brushed
his lips
against
hers
.

‘Tom,’ she whispered, and he brought his mouth down
hard
on hers.

S
he sank into his arms, h
is raw scent surround
ing
her,
his heart poun
ding against hers
.
Oblivious to everything but
her need for
him, h
er
arms wound
behind his head
and
she
pressed
closer
still
, h
is body
hard against hers.

He pulled
back sharply
.

‘I shouldn’t be doing this,’ he said, his voice thick.
‘You work for me
; i
t’s taking advantage; it’s
all
wrong.
’
He took a step back.

S
he put her hands out to him, but h
e moved out of her reach, and her hands fell helplessly to her sides.

She stared at him
in panic
. She had to come up with something, and quickly. They couldn’t stop
now
, not now that she knew
how much she
wanted him.

An idea
came to her
.
She felt a burst of hope
.

She
wrinkled her brow
and cocked her head to one side
. ‘But I don’t work for you, Tom. I work for the agency
,
don’t I?
’

A sl
ow smile crossed his face. ‘Why, so you do.’

O
pen
ing
her eyes wide
, she
gestured with the upturned palms of her hands. ‘
And as for what you were doing that you thought you shouldn’t be doing, I don’t know what
you mean
.
I think I must have blinked and missed whatever it was.’

His eyes crinkled in
amusement
as he gazed down at her
.
‘And what do you think I might have been up to, temptress Evie?’

‘Oh, I don’t know
–
something to add to my list of favourites, maybe?’ Her voice was playfully teasing.

‘Now that’s
a challenge if ever I heard one,
and as you know, I can never resist a challenge. Right, so I’ve got to replace the peaches and
prosciutto
, have I? Well, here goes.’

He
moved
closer to her
. His eyes staring into hers, he ran his thumb very slowly along first he
r upper lip, then her lower lip,
then he leaned over and gently kissed her on the forehead.

She felt his breath hot on her face, and a shiver ran down her spine.

Lowering his head, he kissed the tip of her nose, then lightly grazed her lips. Pressing his mouth harder against hers, his tongue prised her lips apart and slid into the moist warmth of her mouth.
H
is arms tightened around her
, and h
er toes curled in delight.

He pulled away.

She gasped in shock and disappointment.

He stared down at her, his chest rising and falling with his heavy breathing. ‘And what was the verdict that time?’

She nibbled her lower lip and made a massive effort to lo
ok as if she was weighing up his efforts
.

‘I’d say
that
you’ve knocked the
prosciutto
off the list,’ she said finally. ‘But I’m afraid those peaches are still right up there at the top.’

‘Coming second to a peach!
That will never do.’ His voice shook with mock horror. ‘I’ll just have to see if I can do better. If you’re up to it, that is.’

‘I think I’ll risk it.’

Their eyes met.

He stepped forward,
ran his fingers through her hair
and crushed his lips on hers. The he
at from his body spread through her. S
he put her hand against his chest to steady herself
,
and
felt the solid muscle beneath his shirt.
A streak of
electricity
shot
through her
. Her e
very nerve
was on fire
.

He pulled away.

Drawing
their
breath in ragged gasps
, they stared at each other.

‘That’s gone to the top of the li
st,’ she said at last. ‘Peaches?
What are they?’

He shook his head. ‘No, Evie
,
we’re not at number one yet.’ He held out his hand to her. ‘Let’s go back to the house and work at hitting that top spot.’

She stared at his hand. Then she raised her eyes to his face and took the hand that he offered. Without speaking, they
turned and
began to walk back
through the olive groves.

By the time that they reached the house, they were laughing and running.

Chapter Thirteen

A
s
for
the nitty-gritty

They lay on the large bed, staring up at the rafters, which had been
cast
in dense
shadow by the shaft of
silver
moonlight that fell through the small skylight into the centre of the room.

‘Seeing those
wooden
bea
ms reminds me how much I owe
that scorpion,’ Tom said. He tightened his arm around Evie’s shoulders and pulled her closer to him. ‘Thank God it found its way into your room that first night. If it hadn’t, you might still be wearing thick specs, mannish suits and sensible shoes, and I’d have missed
out on
one of the best weeks of my life. It doesn’t bear thinking about.’

‘Agreed.’ She stretched her arm across his bare chest and nestled into the crook of his shoulder. ‘You’re absolutely right. We wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun as we’ve had, and we certainly wouldn’t be here like this now
. S
o thank you,
Mr
Scorpion, wherever you are.’

Tom leaned over and kissed the top of her head. ‘Talking of suits and sensible shoes, the real world is coming horribly close. Starting on Monday, I’ve got two weeks of relentless preparation before
my
next case opens. My only comfort will be know
ing
that you’re beavering away back at the house, a sight for sore eyes if I
’m
able
to get home early enough to see you.’ He turned on his side and smiled at her. ‘But n
ot a sight to make my eyes sore.
I want the new Evie at home
–
not the old.’

Oh,
hell
! Panic shot through her
.

For several scrummy hours, she’d totally blanked out why she was there. Not why she was in his bed – she was in his bed because she wanted to be in his bed and for no other reason at all – but why she was with him in Italy.

She’d let herself get
so
carried away
,
almost literally
,
by a bloke who was sex on two legs,
that
she’d completely forgotten that she was there on a job.
The
fact that she fancied Tom like mad
must
n’t be allowed to
get in the way
.

They
’
d had fun in Italy, but it would come to an end back in England – he’d go back to doing his job and to dating the sort of women he usually dated, and she’d go back to her career. And if her career
was going
to be that of a journalist, she
ought to be
focus
ing
on what she was meant to be doing, not on how luscious he was.

Yes, that
was what she ought to be doing
.
She glanced up at him, and her heart gave a lurch
.
But s
he couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t use
what they had
between them to wheedle out of him something he’d never want the world to know.