Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(12)
Author: Gena Showalter

"That doesn’t mean you should go running back to your ex, either. And just a word of warning." Glaring, I tossed the ball into the air, caught it. Several grains of dirt scattered over the tabletop between us. "If you go near Lexis again, you’ll soon find her wearing one of these. And my name is not Weather Wench.

Call me that again and you’ll be wearing one of these." Rather than upset him, my boast seemed to amuse him. His lips twitched.

That twitch looked good on him; maybe because it was so Rome. The old Rome. My stomach quivered in delight. Could he be losing his animosity toward me? I decided to push a little more. What could it hurt?

With a backward-forward swing of my wrist, I launched the ball over his shoulder. It crashed into the far wall, instantly covering the entire surface in steaming mud.

At the whoosh of air, Rome’s head had whipped around to survey the damage. When he faced me again, shock and admiration bathed his features.

More. Push more."After that," I said, "I’ll seek comfort from your friend Cody. You remember him, right? Dressed, he’s sexy as hell. Undressed, I’m sure he’s every woman’s downfall." Okay, now I was lying. Only one man could tempt me to fall, and that was Rome. But what if Rome goes back to Lexis?

Bile rose in my throat. Just finish this. "I hear he’s an amazing lover, that he won’t let his partner leave until she’s so sated she can’t even speak. It’s been a while since I had that kind of experience." Low blow – and untrue – but he deserved it.

If Cody was listening, he was probably patting himself on the back and smiling smugly.

Rome’s nostrils did that flare thing again.

Was he…could he be jealous at the thought of me with another man? Even though he didn’t remember me? Please, please, please.

"Do it," he said, his voice low, gravelly. "Go to him."

O-kay. Maybe not. I tried not to wallow in crushing disappointment. "I will," I lied. Damn him. "You’ll see."

He leaned back in his seat and rubbed two fingers over his jaw. "Answer a few questions for me first."

"Sure. Unlike you, some agents are actually happy to help a coworker in need." My heart skipped a beat. What did he want to know?

"I brought you into PSI, correct?"

"Yes." He’d done a whole lot more to me, but whatever.

"Because you ingested some sort of chemical, you now control the four elements. Earth, wind, fire and water."

I shrugged. "Sometimes yes. Sometimes no."

"What does that mean?" He glanced again at the mud-caked wall behind him. "That sometimes they control you?"

A nod. "You call me Four Elements Girl. Or Homicidal Tendencies Wench." What I would have given to hear either of those stupid monikers again. Spoken with affection, that is. He’d made "Weather Wench" sound like "Heartless Bitch." "Sometimes you even call me Wonder Girl because, well, I’m wonderful. And in return I call you Cat Man, and you like it." His teeth ground together. In irritation? "I would never allow a woman to call me Cat Man and I would damn well never like it. You’re lying."

Oh, yes. He was irritated. Why? "Why would I lie about something like that? What would I have to gain? What would anyone have to gain?"

"My secrets."

I rolled my eyes. "I already know your secrets." He cried during romantic comedies when the couple had their black moment (if only he’d cry during this one! I only prayed it wasn’t a tragedy). He was a cheap drunk. And he’d once told me that he couldn’t sleep when I wasn’t in the bed with him. "Besides, we’re on the same team."

"Are we? The others, yes. I know them, know they wouldn’t hurt me. You? Not so much. You’re a blank canvas in my mind. You could have all of them fooled. You could be a mind manipulator and have tricked them all."

"Do you seriously think anyone could do that to so many people at once? Especially when the people in question are trained government agents?"

A pause. He ran his tongue over his teeth. "No."

"Okay, then. It’s safe to say I’m not a mind manipulator."

In the blink of an eye, his arm snapped out and he latched onto my wrist. I gasped in shock. In delight.

His skin was warm and callused and abraded mine deliciously. He turned my palm over, inspecting every inch of dirt that smudged the crevices. My engagement band gleamed in the light.

He was quick to look away from it, I noticed.

"What are you doing?" Did I sound as breathless to him as I did to myself?

"If we were lovers, I would know this hand. I would recall having it on my body." The words had been growled, as if he wanted desperately to remember and hated that he couldn’t. I chewed on my bottom lip, not knowing what to say or what to do to turn this situation around. Recall something. Please.

"But there’s nothing." Disgusted, he dropped my hand. "Not even a glimmer." Slowly I drew my arm back and placed it in my lap. My normally olive skin appeared washed out, completely devoid of color as it rested against the blue of my jeans. "We were more than lovers," I said softly. "We were engaged, as you were already told. I’ve been planning our wedding." He laughed, but it was an ugly sound and made me cringe. "You can just un-plan it," he said. "Maybe even sell the ring, ’cause I don’t want it back. Like I said, I’ll soon be marrying someone else."

Chapter Four

"Bitch ! Traitor ! Liar!" I slammed my fist into Lexis’s cheekbone. Usually my first instinct was not to fight but to say something bitchy and run. However, these past few days my anger levels had been so spiked it was almost a relief to let go like this. At least physically. I felt I’d been waiting for this moment forever.

Her head snapped to the side and she stumbled backward a few steps, righted herself and glared over at me. Her gaze never falling from me, she used the back of her hand to wipe at the soot my blazing skin had left and the blood trickling from the cut my engagement ring had caused. Rome might not remember me, but Lexis wouldn’t be forgetting who I was to him anytime soon. I wasn’t taking the ring off, and I damn sure wasn’t selling it. Hell, no.

"Nothing to say?" I was panting, barely able to contain the flames working through me. Any moment they might burst free, charring everything and everyone around me.

Good, I thought. Let them.

"Get out of my face, Belle. I’m better at this game than you are. Trust me, you don’t want to mess with me."

"Oh, but I do. And I don’t care if you grind me into powder, I’m not letting you get away with this." Lexis and I were standing inches apart inside the workout room John kept for his agents. After leaving Rome, I’d searched the entire building and had found her in here, running on the treadmill. She’d taken one look at me and had jumped down, clearly prepared to deal with nothing more than a heated conversation.