The Cinderella Mission (Family Secrets #1)(24)
Author: Catherine Mann

“Oh.” The power of that single kiss tingled back over her like a near-miss with an electrical socket.

“Yeah, oh. But your objection is duly noted. No more jealousy.” He dropped her hair. “Good luck chasing Matt around the White House when this is over if that’s what you want.” He started to stand.

She dropped her hand to his knee, halting him. “It’s not. Not what I want, I mean.”

Ethan sat down again without speaking.

“Just ask the whole office. I told them all how I feel, didn’t I?”

His pupils dilated until the black nearly pushed past the deep blue, like storm clouds chasing through a clear sky. The electric tingle spread into something more like an unharnessed lightning bolt.

Samantha’s words came back to haunt her. Not because she harbored any thoughts of settling down with this guy. But because he seemed so far out of her league at the moment she wondered if an encounter with him would leave her fried to a crisp.

She needed to think, and she couldn’t with him so close. So gorgeous.

So wanting her, too.

Kelly sat up. “I told the office this is about business. In spite of your…” she paused to let her eyes rake him in a bold maneuver she would have never managed a couple weeks’ prior, “…charms, I will do my job.”

She shot to her feet and made tracks away from him before all her bravado abandoned her in favor of returning for another round of Ethan’s kisses.

The house echoed like an abandoned tomb from one of Aunt Eugenie’s sightseeing jaunts. Sure the place usually reminded him of a crypt with all its ghosts, but he’d been willing to wade through them to find Kelly. No luck. Ethan took the stairs two at a time back into his apartment.

Where had Kelly gone after she’d run out an hour ago? He still wanted to punt Jake’s fiancée on her liposuctioned butt for being condescending to Kelly.

Although Kelly seemed to have held her own damned well.

A newfound respect for her swelled within him. He’d thought she was insecure. What the hell had he known? Kelly didn’t need to flaunt her importance to make herself feel good. She’d let Tara condescend without ever once setting her straight or putting her down.

So, if she wasn’t upset about Tara, what the hell had gone wrong to make Kelly run away? Whatever it was, he had to fix it and ease the tension between them.

If only he could find her.

Unease threatened the edges of his reason. He wanted to believe nothing could happen to her behind the walls of his home. But he knew he couldn’t count on that.

Part of him shouted to run the grounds. Find her. Now. But logic argued he could search faster with his surveillance system.

Ethan jabbed the code into his lock and swung into the main room. Five steps in, he realized he hadn’t taken time for any of his usual precautions.

Hell. He’d get them both killed this way.

He wasted twenty-three heart-pounding seconds checking his apartment before he leaned over the computer desk. Forget sitting. He punched codes, clicked through locations…

The empty industrial-sized kitchen.

The library. Aunt Eugenie and her cat curled up and napping in a wingback by the fireplace.

The camera made a slow sweep of the front grounds before he swapped to the rear-grounds angle.

“Come on, Kelly. Where the hell are you?” She wouldn’t leave without telling him. She might not be experienced in the field, but she knew better than that.

A flicker sliding off the screen snagged his attention.

Ethan reversed the camera. Adjusted the angle. Narrowed. Closer, until he locked in a close-up of the greenhouse.

A light shone through the thick panes.

His heart rate regulated back down to only time-and-a-half. He clicked through keys, searching for the camera inside the greenhouse.

Nothing?

He hacked into regular security…and still nothing.

Why the hell hadn’t any of them thought to install cameras inside the greenhouse? Ethan swiped his 9mm off the desk and sprinted down the stairs. Damn it, Kelly was inside. He knew it.

And heaven help anyone responsible if she’d had another one of her “accidents.”

Chapter 7

Kelly reached to brace a hand on the glass pane beside the spidering ferns. Sleet pinged the greenhouse roof with hypnotizing regularity. She secured her headphones and let the CD sounds of Ocean Serenade soothe her.

She straightened into the delicious stretch until her spine reached perfect alignment, and then she began the series of controlled movements. She didn’t have the equipment for her Pilates stretches and exercises available, a price she would have to pay as she didn’t want to risk interruption in the gym. So she improvised, the solitude and scenery being more important to her. Her feet never tangled when she was alone.

Inhale. Stretch. Exhale. Inhale. The fragrant bouquet of hothouse roses, gardenias, lilacs and lush fertility swirled through her with every breath and conditioning exercise. If only she could capture this scent and setting to take home with her, so much more deeply transporting, sensually exotic than her window garden.

Tension melted from her a layer at a time as she directed energy to one area at a time, while relaxing the rest of her body. She put all worries of investigations and deadlines and criminals out of her mind.

Excising thoughts of a certain agent tempting her to bare more than her tattoo proved a little tougher. What had happened to getting over him? Their whole evening together as a couple had felt real. Too real.

Too right.

Inhale. Stretch. Exhale. Focus on the rushing waves flowing through the earphones.

Her connection crackled. Wobbled. Kelly secured the cord on the headset. She should have just bought a new one. It wasn’t like the things were even expensive, but frugality became second nature in her quest for travel.

The soothing sounds steadied. Kelly nodded and pulled herself straight again. On a whim, she reached to snap an orchid off the plant. Eugenie had issued an open invitation to help herself to anything in the greenhouse, and right now she couldn’t resist treating herself to at least one sensual indulgence.

Kelly savored the heady scent before tucking it behind her ear. A frivolous gesture, but who would know here in the shadowed darkness?

Moving shadows.

Outside the window.

Apprehension stung her like the sleet sheeting the panes. Ethan had never uncovered who had followed them. She might be behind secured walls, but that didn’t mean she should let down her guard for a minute. She dropped into a crouch, cursing that her new SIG-Sauer lay locked and useless inside a secret compartment in her suitcase.