Undercover Lovers (27 page)

“
He found out I’m not who he
thought I was.”

Cade let his hands fall to
this lap. This couldn’t be good. “Who are you then?”

“
Undercover DEA.”

For an entire three seconds,
elation filled him. Pure, excited relief that he hadn’t gone off
the deep end for a criminal who may or may not kill him in his
sleep. But then he remembered who he was dealing with. Suuuure she
was undercover. He shook his head, going back to his work,
irritated. “You don’t need to lie for me to patch you
up.”

It wasn’t like he had a hell
of a lot of restraint when it came to Trina. The only thing he’d
been able to hold to was not giving into the unholy need he had for
her again. From the moment she first strode up next to him outside
the Sheriff’s Department, he’d been snared by her. By that devilish
grin and that spark of interest in her blue eyes. Her tall, curving
body that he’d known in an instant would wrap around his like she’d
been made just for him. But he wasn’t about to tie himself up with
a convict who refused to change her way of life. He hadn’t come
home with much from the war, but he did still have his ethics. They
might make cold bedfellows, but they kept his head up when damn
little else could.

“
I’m not lying, Cade. I’ve
been undercover in Carter’s crew for two years and it’s for fuck
all now that he knows the truth.”

He opened the packet of
butterfly bindings, his temper ramping up. “Why the hell should I
believe you? After everything else you’ve put me through, why
should I even care, Tee? Because if you’re telling the truth, that
means you’ve been lying to me for a year. If you’re not, you’re
just trying to twist me around your finger again. I’m done being
your toy, goddamn it. Give me one good reason why any of what
you’re saying should matter to me now.”

She wouldn’t do that to him.
Not the woman who had charmed her way into his life, who had seemed
as if she actually cared about him. As if she might even lo— He
didn’t let his mind finish that thought. It didn’t matter. If it
were true that she were undercover, she would have told him months
ago. She knew him well enough by then to know she could trust him.
At the very least, she would have said something before they’d
found themselves denting the shit out of his car hood, knowing
nothing else could ever come of it. Before she’d ripped out what
was left of his heart.

No, this had to be another
game. He was sure of it.

Absolutely sure, until she
opened her mouth again.

“
Because someone in your
department sold me out.”

Admittedly, Trina didn’t
expect Cade to believe her. He had every right to be hurt and
angry. She’d been lying to him for over a year. Using him, though
he didn’t know about that part. Yet. All the same, a twinge of
disappointment panged deeply because he didn’t have enough faith in
her. She just wasn’t sure if that disappointment was directed at
him or herself.

Maybe the real question was
who
most
of the
disappointment was directed at.

From the first moment she’d
seen him, a tall, dark haired beast of a man stepping out of a
truck in front of the Sheriff’s Department, his dark brown stare
already locked with hers, she’d known he was going to change
everything.

Who knew she was such a
master of understatement?

Even now, his head bent over
her stinging belly, she could feel the unrelenting thirst to touch
that he always inspired. To run her fingers through his too long
black curls. Slide her hand down the strong column of his tanned
neck to his broad shoulders and hold on for dear life. Her wounded
warrior. The hero she never expected to find, much less want. And
oh, sweet lord, she wanted Cade.

All her life, she’d insisted
on doing everything herself. Being dependent on no one meant not
answering to anyone either. Most men couldn’t handle that kind of
independence in their women. Cade Evigan was man enough to take her
on though, a fact she’d instinctively recognized that day.
Something in that dark gaze as it coursed over her, filing every
last detail without changing expression.

Man enough to turn her away,
too.

She remembered so clearly
how she’d walked right up to him, drawn like a satellite into his
gravity, her hand landing on his chest to feel his heartbeat. His
warmth. Everyone and everything else completely
disappeared.

“
You’ll want to be moving
that,” he said, his gaze steady on hers.

“
I like it there,” she
murmured, spreading her fingers wide over the unyielding muscle
beneath his tan-colored Sheriff’s Department shirt.
“
You
like it
there,” she added when that muscle ticked under her touch. When his
heartbeat began to thud. For a bold second she considered stroking
her hand down that impressive chest to the buckle of his gun belt
and maybe lower. If he was a good boy…

His big hand captured hers
at the wrist to pry her off him, the rough pads of his fingers
sending a shock through her that actually made her jump. His eyes,
ringed by thick, ebony lashes, widened and she knew that he’d felt
it too. The awareness between them instantly turned the open air
around them to a heated wall, solid with tension strong enough to
slam into.

Or sink into.

“
What I’d like,” he
murmured, voice thicker—deeper—than before, “has nothing to do with
it.”

“
Then that makes
you
the man of my dreams,”
she replied, an unexpected breathlessness surprising her when his
mouth quirked to one side. Not a grin, but almost. Enough of one to
feel comfortable stepping into his space. “Because I can think of a
thousand different things
I’d
like to do with you.” Her imagination split into a
dozen immediate directions. She could see herself fitting over him,
under him, wrapped all around him. Maybe even tied down, all
control gone, her pleasure completely at his disposal. Those strong
arms wrapped around her, holding her in place while he took her as
roughly or gently as he wanted. Or maybe he’d let her return the
favor. The possibilities were endless. “I’d make you my favorite
jungle gym if you’d let me.”

“
The operative word there
is
let
.”

“
You wouldn’t?” It hadn’t
occurred to her that he’d turn her down.

“
Depends. You coming or
going?”

“
For you? Hopefully coming.”
She breathed in his subtle scent. Aftershave, a clean redolence.
Nothing like the beer, sweat and shit smell of the men she had to
be around so often. “As many times as you can get me there,
sugar.”

Now his eyes narrowed with
clear frustration. “I meant, are you the type who keeps coming to
jail or the type that’s leaving it behind?”

She’d opened her mouth to
speak again, not at all sure what she was about to say to that,
when Frank Carter’s crotchety snarl broke through their haze. “KK,
knock your shit off.”

Five concise words that
reminded Katrina exactly who and what she was supposed to be. An
obedient underling only there to report his condition back to his
right-hand man. An agent with a mission and, unfortunately, that
mission did not include getting laid.

It took all her strength to
break that honest gaze and turn to meet the blazing stare of her
enemy, an asshole who thought she was his subordinate. Her lips
curled on their own as she caught sight of Frank, three inches
shorter than her, his greasy brown and gray hair in disarray around
his leathery red-brown face, four scratch marks down his cheek.
Shana had fought back this time. Good for her.

Frank pointedly raised an
eyebrow at the other officer, the one holding him in place with a
two-handed grip on the metal cuffs. They’d all learned a while back
that plastic bindings weren’t going to help them with the
knife-laden Frank Carter.

Her smile faltered only a
millisecond, but she had no doubt Undersheriff Rick Trelane caught
it. Not a lot got past Trelane. He wasn’t as tall or handsome as
the man still holding her hand to his chest, but he was still
physically imposing. They needed their law enforcement guys big up
here in Marketta. What with the loggers, the bikers and the
truckers using the old mountain highways for short cuts, the
officers had their hands full when anything went wrong. In Trelane,
they also met their quota in cold, unforgiving bastard. Carter had
him on payroll, but he didn’t fully trust the undersheriff. Neither
did Katrina, but it was her job to get something on him to make him
solidify his loyalty to Carter. If only Frank knew…

“
Hey there, Rick.” She made
herself smile, wishing there were something she liked about him.
From brown hair with the streaks of silver running through them to
his strangely adept hands—he was the only one she’d ever met who
could hold Frank in a firm grip —to his oversized shiny black
shoes, he made her itch and not in a good way. “I haven’t seen you
all week. What have you been up to?”

“
Keeping my eye on you.”
Those icy blue eyes of his bordered on reptilian. “I think the
better question is what’re
you
up to?”

She only realized her
fingers had curled into fists when a warm, rough thumb gently slid
back and forth against her palm, where no one could see, somehow
soothing her. Startling, really, that he even wanted to. At her
intake of breath, he abruptly let her go, dropping her hand like a
guilty teenager caught with his first girl.

Still, that momentary
support gave her enough confidence to sass herself out of the
situation. “You just keep on watching then. You’re a smart guy, I’m
sure you’ll figure it out sooner or later.” She turned her
attention back to the disturbing officer she would later find out
was a former Marine Staff Sergeant named Cade. “You can look too,”
she said, meaning it this time. She always wondered after that day
if he noticed that her voice had dropped to little more than a
husky sigh. “In fact, I’m going to have to insist on
it…”

“
Trina, you’re wandering on
me.” Cade’s gruff voice interrupted her memories, bringing her back
to her current dilemma. Sliced up. Beat up. On the run. Hopelessly
wanting a man that didn’t trust her and had no damn reason to. In
other words, royally fucked.

Yup. That about covered
it.

“
Just remembering.” She
sighed. Remembering was better. Thinking back on those fleeting
times she’d run into him near the station. In town. At his house.
On the lonely mountain road… Just the thought of that last one was
enough to make her wet again. God, she was wet already, trying not
to squirm under the feel of those coolly professional touches. He
wasn’t even stroking her. Wasn’t running his hands over her breasts
as he’d done that day, squeezing them as if he were claiming them
for Spain or something. Or cupping her neck to lift her off the
hood of his car to devour her mouth in a kiss that had set her on
fire like nothing else ever had. He certainly wasn’t grasping her
thigh, pulling it higher over his hip as he fit his cock to her
entrance and drove into her until she thought he might as well just
move in there for the rest of their lives.

But if he wanted to, she
might just weep in relief.

Cade yanked off his gloves
with a vicious snap of latex. “You keep remembering like that and
I’m not going to be responsible for my actions.”

Katrina lifted both brows in
surprise. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“
It means you’re doing that
purring thing in the back of your throat and you’re making me
fucking nuts.”

Ah, yes, the purring. He’d
liked that well enough when he had his cock halfway down her
throat, hadn’t he? “Hey, the abstinence thing was your idea,
Mr-I-Don’t-Date-Convicts. I had every intention of satisfying all
your sexual fantasies and even a few things you haven’t thought up
yet, remember?”

“
My fantasies didn’t include
taking you to jail every week because you didn’t want to quit
working for Carter.”

She refused to let his
bitterness win that argument. “Oh, now you’re just lying through
your teeth. We both know you can’t wait to get me in your
cuffs.”

He closed his
eyes—Cade-speak for needing five desperate seconds to get his
control back. If she were at her usual strength, she’d take
advantage to steal one of his mind-blowing kisses. The kind he only
gave when she pushed him completely out of his reserves, which she
tried to do as often as humanly possible.

The strange thing was…only
she made the effort.

No one else got past his
frosty armor and everyone seemed to like it that way, which made
absolutely no sense to her. Cade Evigan was the best thing to
happen to a town like Marketta and the dumb bastards here couldn’t
see it. It hadn’t taken five minutes to realize the other officers
in the department were somewhat afraid of the silent and lethal
giant in their midst. Not just them, either. The locals gave him a
wide berth as well. No one teased him, no one but Rick seemed to be
his friend—hearsay as far as she was concerned, since the cold
bastard kept his distance like everyone else—and no one thanked him
for the dozens of things he did every day to make them safe. He
only spoke when he had to and usually that was softly. That
menacing growl when he did raise his voice made sure people didn’t
want to make him do it again.