Codename: Romeo (11 page)

As she started down the hall, she caught sight of Roger strutting towards her with one of his physically endowed, but intellectually impaired, coeds at his side. She figured he’d planned a private tutoring session. “Victoria. What brings you here today?” He waved the young woman into his office.

“Hi, Roger. Just leaving.”

“Too bad.” He looked her over like one of his “grade A” students. She didn’t acknowledge his appraising grin, since he looked at her sweater instead of her face when he spoke. “Maybe we can meet up for lunch later.”

“I don’t think—”

“Are you ready, Tori?”

The deep voice from behind gave her a start. She turned to see Erik leaning against the wall, his long hair shining under the florescent lighting. He flashed a brilliant smile. Lord, he was gorgeous.

A ribbon of heat fluttered through her. She folded her arms across her chest to hide the physical reactions his nearness inspired. He had no right to make her body react in such a traitorous way. No right. He didn’t even have to do anything but look at her with that hungry gaze. It’s an act, she reminded herself.

Roger cleared his throat. “A student of yours, Dr. Jansen?”

“Ah … no.” Victoria mumbled.

Erik drew up alongside her, draping one arm across her shoulder and offering his hand. “Erik Sanders, Tori’s fiancé.”

She swallowed a cough. Roger’s expression alone was worth the deception. His forty-three years showed clearly in his frowning face.

After an embarrassing silence, he shook hands. “That’s quite a girl you have there.”

“Woman,” Erik corrected.

Roger puffed out his chest and self-consciously loosened his tie. “Are you in the same field as Victoria?”

“He’s in hydrodynamic engineering,” she answered before Erik could.

Roger’s insinuation that she could only interest another boring physicist didn’t bother her. She enjoyed seeing him on the receiving end for once. At least, until she realized that playing up the lie for her own satisfaction was no better than what Erik had done to her.

“We really should be going, Tori,” Erik said. “We’re already late.”

“I guess I’ll see you both tonight at the Whitehall reception,” Roger said.

“I’m not sure” Victoria began before Erik cut in.

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Her colleague tipped his head. Erik playfully tugged her towards the exit. She fought the urge to shove him away until they exited the building.

“You can remove your arm now,” she muttered though clenched teeth.

His fingers ran slowly down her spine and then cupped her backside in a gentle squeeze. “Better?”

A thousand volts of pure electricity shot through her. The jolt caused her heart to race and her breathing to quicken. “Stop it,” she said. “You’re embarrassing me at work.”

“Well, you’re my job, Doctor, and when you disappear on me, it’s just as embarrassing.”

Damn the man and his effortless ability to fluster her. She twisted away from him and ran across the parking lot before turning back. Where did she think she was going? The arrogant glint in his eyes said he could find her again any time he wanted. Why bother fighting him? She’d never win. Better to spend her time and energy keeping up her defenses so that when the case ended and he finally left, she would feel relieved.

As she fumbled with her purse, she watched him stride towards her with long, purposeful steps. He was a fine specimen of the male anatomy. Every muscle finely toned and working in homoeostatic harmony. Too bad the macho male mentality went along with his body.

“Keys,” he demanded when he reached her.

“Why? You already stole one set. Use those.”

“You’re right.” He withdrew the gold key ring from his jacket pocket and opened the passenger door for her.

* * * *

At the very least, Erik expected an argument. Instead, she slipped into the car without a word. By the time he came around to the driver’s side, she’d dumped the contents of her purse into her lap.

“Lose something?”

“No. But I think you did.” She picked through the loose change, credit card receipts and assorted make-up and found the small transmitter. “Yours, I believe.”

She dropped it into his open palm. No yelling, no histrionics, not even a frown. He missed the clumsy woman who had covered him in fruit punch, who couldn’t hold onto anything when he stood close, and who generally turned ten shades of red when he paid her a compliment.

“Tori?” He stared for several seconds before she became uncomfortable enough to answer.

“What?”

“Hydrodynamic engineering?”

She rolled her shoulders in an indifferent shrug. “Well, I couldn’t tell him the truth. It seemed appropriate at the time.”

“Is that the politically correct term for a plumber, now?”

A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, despite her obvious effort to fight it. “Something like that.”

He started the car and backed out of the parking space. “So what’s this Whitehall reception?”

“It’s a party for the science department. I’ll call when I get home and send our regrets.”

“Don’t. If we’re going to pull off our cover, you have to live your life as if nothing’s changed.”

“Your cover. Not mine. You’re not the one who’s going to have to live with all the pity for being dumped after you leave.”

“When it’s over, you can tell them you dumped me for being a jerk.” He left the campus lot and pulled onto the main road. “Where to?”

“The supermarket. Since I won’t be going to Burlington for the holidays, I’ll have to see if I can find a turkey. Present company excluded.”

“You don’t have to cook for me.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

“I meant I would take you to dinner.”

Her eyes clouded over with sadness. “If I’m going to eat out in a restaurant on a holiday I might as well just stay home and have a bologna sandwich. It’s the same sentiment.”

Erik knew when to dig in his heels. This wasn’t one of those times. Despite the fact that he hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours, he nodded and drove to the supermarket for a turkey.

* * * *

Victoria dropped a package on the kitchen counter, and Erik, right behind her, left two more. His male scent caused an unwelcome heat in her stomach. She jabbed with her elbow to move him away. He’d gone into the store with her and followed her around like a devoted fiancé. Although she blushed furiously every time she saw someone she knew, she couldn’t say she minded the attention. She should have.

To Erik, this was an act, a cover to draw out a criminal. She knew this, yet her body still reacted to his touch with a yearning borne of too many years of loneliness.

“Excuse me,” she said and took a wide step around him to put groceries into the refrigerator.

He shook his head and walked around the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. His partner was watching one of the pre-Thanksgiving football games. “I need to sleep. If she tries to give you the slip, cuff her to the sink.”

Victoria pounded a can of cranberry sauce on the counter. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Daniels grinned. “Don’t worry, Dr. Jansen. I know you won’t try to skip out on me.”

Erik arched his eyebrow in warning. “Don’t turn your back on her. She has carving knives in there.”

Daniels sent her a sly wink. “I’m sure the professor and I won’t have any problems.”

“No, sir, we won’t.” She smiled. “Would you like some coffee?”

Erik grunted and stalked down the hall grumbling, “He gets room service, I get grief.”

She lifted her shoulders in a gesture of confusion. “Gee, I wonder what his problem is?”

Daniels chuckled and ambled towards the counter. “Why don’t you give him a break?”

She looked up from her task of scooping coffee into the machine. “He lied to me.”

“So did I.”

“But he—” She broke off abruptly. What could she say? He kissed me? He made me believe he cared about me? When she thought about her naiveté, the pain still cut deep. “You never lied. When I met you, I knew who you worked for.”

“For the record, Professor, he thought you were innocent from day one. I had my doubts. And he has firsthand experience dealing with scheming women.”

Erik probably thought her too comically gullible to work as an industrial spy. Perhaps she was. Many child prodigies suffered from arrested emotional development because they spent so little time interacting with people their own age. “If he asked, I would have told him about the flower. Instead, he put listening devices all over my house.”

“If you were the courier, we would have tipped off Becker and you.”

His argument made sense, but that didn’t lessen the pain. For too long she’d let people walk over her instead of fighting back. She let her colleagues believe her weak because she couldn’t make them understand why she’d left the research center.

They expected her to put her personal ethics aside, take the money they paid her and do what they asked. However, she didn’t get into physics to devise new and better ways to build a weapon of mass destruction. She saw physics as a way to make the world a better place.

She’d lost her idealism while working for the research center. Everybody had an agenda. She would do well to remember that fact and shield herself from further hurt.

“What do you take in your coffee?” she asked.

 “Black is fine.” Daniels took the cup from her. “Listen, Dr. Jansen—”

“Call me Victoria.”

“Victoria. You’re mad at him? Fine. It’s probably better for both of you that way. But listen to what he tells you. Unfortunately, this isn’t a joke.”

“I realize that.” Daniels had every right to chastise her. Erik deceived her, but he was not the one threatening her life.

“We want you alive so you can happily kick us the hell out of your house when this is over.”

She would live for that moment.

* * * *

Erik staggered down the hall, stretching to relieve the tightness from his limbs. A host of delicious aromas mingled together. His stomach rumbled. He checked his watch. Six o’clock, and he hadn’t eaten today. As he entered the living room, Daniels rose from the chair.

“About time you came back from the dead.” He grabbed his coat and headed toward the door. “I gotta take a shower and change at the hotel and get back before you leave for the reception.”

Erik followed. “Any problems?”

“From the professor?” Daniels said with a chuckle. “Any quieter, and I’d swear I was alone. Doesn’t talk much, but damn, she sure can cook.”

Erik waited until his partner left before making his way towards the kitchen. Although he knew Victoria saw him, she remained with her back to him, ignoring his presence. Two pies, apple and pumpkin, sat on the counter. He inhaled deeply and reached for an edge of the crust.

“Don’t you dare.”

He noticed her watching him in the reflection of the kitchen glass. She chopped vegetables, hitting the cutting board with strong, angry strokes. He cringed when he saw how close she came to her fingers with the sharp blade, but surprisingly, she finished without mishap.

“Tori?”

She stopped working but didn’t turn towards him.

“Would you accept an apology from me?”

“No.”

“How about my first born?”

“No.”

He grunted. “What do you want? Blood?”

“It’s a start.” She punched a button on the microwave oven and gave her attention to the contents inside.

“Would that make you happy?”

She exhaled slowly and pivoted around. “Look, you were doing your job. You did it well. Forgive me if I don’t applaud your stellar performance.”

“Not all of it was my job and not all of it was an act.”

Her eyes widened. “You expect me to believe you?”

“Is that so inconceivable?”

“You wouldn’t be the first man on the NSB payroll assigned the hazardous task of amusing me.” Raw pain echoed in her words. Obviously her past with the agency was very personal.

“What happened?”

“Don’t pretend you haven’t seen the file.”

He took a step toward her. She cast him a warning glare. Since she held a skewer in her hand, he thought better of ignoring her. “I didn’t see the file. It’s sealed.”

“I’m sure Steven filled you in.”

He shook his head. “No, he didn’t. All he said was that you left the research lab and two years of NSB protection followed.”

“More like house arrest. And I’ve fought too hard for my freedom to lose it again.”

“Unlike before, this is short-term and, unlike before, the danger is real, not only a possibility.”

She shrugged as if she didn’t see a distinction. The bell on the oven rang. She took out the contents and removed the protective cover. An aromatic steam rose from the plate of lemon chicken, roasted potatoes and broccoli she placed in front of him.

“For the record, kissing you wasn’t part of the job. In fact, it’s against policy. At least in the branch of the NSB I work for.”

Skepticism caused her eyes to narrow slightly. “Then why did you?”

“I think you already know the answer.”

“I don’t.”

“You’re the genius, Tori. Figure it out.” He sat on a stool. “And while you’re at it, ask yourself why you made me dinner tonight.”

She raised her chin in haughty defiance. “I didn’t make it for you.”

He gave her his most seductive grin. “No, but you saved it for me, didn’t you?”

“Of all the conceited, testosterone-based carbon units I have met, and there have been quite a few over the years, you take the cake.”

“You flatter me.”

She let out a yelp of frustration. Erik preferred her anger to her stony silence. He had a healthy respect for anger, especially when directed at him. Introspection made him wary, and Tori was far too introspective in the best of circumstances. A brilliant mind and a wicked temper. He shuddered to think what schemes her scientific mind would devise to get even with him.

“A testosterone-based carbon unit?” he repeated with a laugh. She did have a way with words. “That’s a new one.”

She glowered at him. “I’m sure you’ve been called something similar.”