His Undercover Lover Page 2

Chapter Two

  The doorbell rang a half hour before she had to leave to reach the club in time for her shift. She knew instantly who it was, even before opening the door. When she did open the door, Simon Markham stood there, looking even better than she remembered. “Megan,” he said with a tip of his head.

  “Simon.” God, just looking at him made her panties wet and her whole body hum with desire. She licked her lips and stood to the side. “Come in, Si.” She had to think of this as a job because, otherwise, she could see herself falling hard for this man. Seriously hard. “We should likely talk about this, shouldn’t we?” she asked with a sigh. “I’m sorry that Brant roped you into this. I’m sure it’s the last thing you want to do with your spare time.”

  “Brant didn’t rope me into anything,” he said. Stepping into the house, he shut the door behind him and looked at her. “We definitely should talk, though. I have a feeling you’re less than happy about all of this. Something I figured out long before agreeing to do this.”

  “Yeah, we will go with that.” It wasn’t what she felt, but it was better him think that instead of what she was feeling. “So, if Brant didn’t rope you into this…” She stopped in the kitchen and pulled him out a drink, his favorite. Orange soda in a glass bottle. “Your favorite, right?”

  He shot her a look as he took the bottle from her. “It is,” he said quietly. “And no, Brant didn’t rope me into this. He likely thinks he did, but since I’d already figured out a lot before I met with him, it was fully my decision. Besides, I’m curious to find out how this all ends.”

  “Curious about how what all ends?” Megan asked, and opened her bottle of soda as well. She sat at the table and waited for him to join her. When he did, she smiled. “Talk. What are you curious about?”

  “Many things,” he said. He smiled slightly, and took a long drink from the bottle. “As to the answer to your question, you’ll just have to wait and see. I know, patience isn’t your big thing, but you’ll still have to wait. Besides, I still need to figure out a couple of details before I can properly give you an answer anyway.”

  “Good lord, you are as bad as Brant,” she said with a laugh. “Okay. Enough.” She watched him and took a deep breath. “I’m thinking that we should see if we will be able to fake being in a relationship, don’t you?”

  “All right,” he nodded. “What exactly did you have in mind to see if we can work in a relationship?” Simon took another long drink of his orange soda, his eyes locked on her as he took several deep swallows.

  “How we talk to each other, how we touch, how we look at each other, and how you kiss me,” she stated bluntly. “Just need to know that you will be able to handle it all. If not, then I suggest you get someone else out here now.” Dammit, she didn’t want anyone else. She wanted Simon, but she wanted him for more than one or two nights.

  “All right,” he said again. He set his empty bottle aside, and then he came toward her. Backed her right to the counter, and took her bottle from her hands. Setting it aside, he caged her in with his arms, his body pressing close to hers. Lowering his head, he met her eyes with his light blue ones and then smiled. “What all would you like to talk about, Megan?” he asked, his voice practically a purr of sound that ripped right through her body.

  She couldn’t think with him so close to her. She felt the heat of his body, and it was as if he was a furnace and she had been cold for so long. Megan found herself leaning into Simon, her hand on his chest, and shivering at the rock hard pecs that he had. God, she bet that he was beautiful under the jeans and t-shirts that he wore all the time.

  “What makes you think that we will be able to pull off being a couple?” she asked, and licked her lips, her eyes on his, and she was panting, literally. “Especially since we haven’t been seen in each other’s company very often? What makes you think that we will be able to pull this off well together?” Oh God, she wanted him to come closer, found herself fisting her hand in his shirt and pulling him closer. She rose up on her toes, moving in to him and all but purring in need. “It could be that you don’t like me at all. Not many people can stand me, you know.” Mostly because she hated the life she was leading, and she hated the busybody asshat bitches that seemed to rule the little town with an iron grip, the old battleaxes.

  His hands landed on her ass, and lifted her up onto the counter. He stepped between her legs and tugged until she was plastered against him. “I quite like you, Megan Jenkins. But you’ve been avoiding me, so it’s not like we’ve had a lot of opportunities to get closer. As friends, or more. As to how others might see this, they’ll think I wore you down finally. Made you give me a shot to prove I’m a good sort. With the friction we have between us naturally, I have a sense there won’t be much of a problem convincing anyone we’re a couple.” For the briefest of moments, his lips brushed over hers. “Do you see an issue I’m unaware of?”

  Oh, she saw many issues coming, but none seemed to matter in that moment in time. Not when all she wanted to do was get closer to him. “I think you should kiss me to make sure we can pull off being a couple, don't you?” Damn, she was being reckless and knew it, but she was dying to at least know what it was to be kissed by this man at least once. He was a man that set her world topsy-turvy and made her ache with desperation and need. He and he alone made her feel the things that she should never feel for a man. He made her ache with desire.

  “I suppose I should,” he said quietly. Tipping her chin up with a finger, he stared into her eyes for a long moment. Then he lowered his head, and his lips pressed to hers. Simon wasn’t a man to play around. Hell no, he went straight in for the kill and demanded she open for him so he could devour her. And devour her he did.

  Megan melted into the kiss that he gave her. Every single synapses in her brain stopped working when he kissed her. It was nearly destructive, and miraculous as well because it was as if every molecule in her being was split apart at the atomic level and reformed with him at the core of every single one of the star specks of her soul.

  When he eventually let her up for air, Megan swayed toward him. “I don’t think kissing will be a problem,” he told her. His voice was rougher, deeper than normal, and the things it did to her should have been illegal. “Unless we get carried away, and then we might end up being arrested.”

  “Been there and done that. Got my own jail cell.” Not for kissing, though, or being carried away. It had been her cover to pull her in for briefing, and one she had gotten into when the asshats at the club got too handsy with her. “Damn,” she whispered, her voice also a bit shifted. She licked her lips. They tingled with the remnants of his kiss. “I knew that kissing you would utterly destroy me.” For anyone, everyone, and for any man that might come in her future. Damn, she so shouldn’t have asked for that kiss. It was such a bad idea, in so many fabulous ways.

  “You don’t have to sound so put out by it,” he said. Stepping back, his expression was shuttered. “If you’d rather not kiss me then I’ll keep my lips to myself. I’m sure we can get by with a few casual touches and whispered words. Unless of course you were hoping for someone else to step in,” he suggested, and didn’t sound happy about it.

  Before she knew what she was doing, she reached out and pulled him back close to her once more. “No, I’m just thinking that I’m going to do nothing but think about that kiss until the day that I become lawn mulch in someone’s garden.” Which was the stark, God’s honest truth. “It affected me just like I knew it would.” She sighed and let his shirt go. Her foot that had snagged around his thigh, she released as well. “That’s my burden to bear, though.” God, she was never going to get through this, not when all she wanted to do was kiss him again, strip him naked, and lick every inch of his body.

  Simon narrowed his eyes on her, and braced his hands on the counter outside her thighs. “Care to dumb that down a little for the grunt, ma’am? You know, put it into nice, plain single syllable words I might have a hope of understanding.”

 
; She just looked at him. “What do you mean?” Was he pulling her leg? What did he mean, dumb it down for a grunt like him? What part of that did he not get? That kiss had ruined her for any man that might ever be in her future.

  “I mean, for once, speak like a man, and say what the fuck is on your mind. Spit it out so I’m on the same damn page as you are, Megan. I hate playing word games with people. I’d prefer they just say what they mean, and mean what they say. So tell me, straight up, what’s on your mind, woman.”

  She just looked at him. Jesus, she didn’t know how the hell to tell this man this. “Haven’t you wondered why I steer wide and clear from you? It’s because from the first second I met you, I’ve been attracted to you. I fucking go to sleep at night thinking of you, wondering which of the women that toss themselves at you are going home with you. I freaking obsess about you and I knew that asking for you to kiss me was a bad idea all around because to be perfectly honest, any kiss that I might take from another from this moment out will be judged against the one you just gave me. Each touch I might accept will be judged on the touches that you just gave me.” And the worst of it was that she was only a job to him, a favor for a friend.

  “Well then, let’s make it simple, shall we?” he said. He stepped back in, close enough, fast enough that she leaned back a bit to look up at him. “You don’t touch, kiss, or even contemplate anything else with anyone else. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll realize I’ve only been interested in getting closer to you, Megan. From minute one that I met you, if you want to be exact. No other woman’s been in my bed, not when I’ve only wanted you there. When I’ve imagined you there, dreamed of you there, longed to have you there each and every moment of every day.”

  “Jesus,” she whimpered. Her hands moved up to cup his head with her hands and pulled him closer. “Then I say that you take me to bed now.” She wanted to have him there with her. She was desperate for him, and that wasn’t even a lie. “Then there is no one else. For either of us. I need you in my bed too badly for anyone else to be there.” No, scratch that, she just plain needed him in her life. Period. End of discussion.

  “Only one small problem with that, Megan,” he told her. Lifting his wrist, he showed her his watch. “You need to be at work in fifteen minutes.” A grin curled his lips. “But just think, you can contemplate all I’ll do to you when you are eventually finished shaking your too perky ass and we get back here.”

  “Shit,” she grumbled but then grinned. “So you will be coming home with me?” She had taken to staying on her family farm. All who were on it were the hands that ran it since her twin moved in with Brant, but she loved her family home. Always had and she always would. “Come home and stay with me?” She wanted him to stay for a very long time, but added, “For as long as you want?” That way he had an out. “But for now, you are right, time to go and shake my ass for these perverts that have known me since I was born, and for the schmucks that I’m hoping will give me what I need so I can quit this job. Please.”

  “I will be coming home with you,” he said. “I have a bag in my truck. Full of all sorts of things I’ll need.” He helped her down off the counter and brushed a finger to her cheek. “I’ll stay only as long as you want, Megan. I’d hate to wear out any welcome I might have gained with you.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I have a mighty hard want for you to stay.” For good. She barely bit back those two words. “Let’s scoot. Hopefully, you will help me finally freaking recall what it is that I lost when that bastard drugged me.” Forced her to take drugs. She had to spend six weeks in the hospital after that lovely night. Not a good time. At all. To the world at large, she had been in jail for that long, but in truth, she had spent six weeks in the local Army hospital to keep her off the grid and safe.

  She felt him stiffen. “Brant didn’t tell me that part, and it also appears to have been conveniently left out of everything he gave me. I can see we have some more items to add to our list of discussions this evening.” Stepping back, he shook his head. “I may need to go beat up Brant for this.”

  “Six weeks,” she told him as she snagged her beaten up old knapsack she’d had since she was a kid. “That’s how long I was hidden away in the Army hospital in Louisiana. I nearly died from that little—what was it that the asshole called it? Ah yes, loyalty test. I nearly walked then, but I knew that there was something just out of reach. I wish like hell I could recall it, though, because whatever it is, well, it’s huge and it’s what we need to put these dirtballs under the jail for many lifetimes.”

  “The same guy you’ve been gathering information on?” he asked. At her nod, he cracked his neck and sighed. “It was probably a very bad idea for Brant to show me a picture of this guy. I’m going to be hard pressed not to beat the shit out of him.”

  “Yeah, well, please don’t. I’m trying to get the connection between him and the asshole mayor locked up so that I can figure out just what the fuck is going on.” Yes, she cussed like a sailor, mostly to get into the role that she had to play. “However, once it’s all found out, I wouldn’t be at all upset if you rearranged his face. I might even help you.”

  Simon snorted at that. “Somehow, I think you’ll want first dibs. Given the rumors I’ve heard about you, I doubt there would be much left for me to rearrange once you started to wail on him.” He walked with her out the door, and waited while she locked up. “One vehicle or two?” he asked.

  “Just the one, unless you have other plans?” He had said he wanted to stay, but hell, this was such new territory for her. “Because if we are dating and a thing now, they would likely assume that you would bring me, right? You can always leave during the shift if you had to.” She just hoped he didn’t.

  Catching her hand, he tugged her with him toward his truck. Opening the passenger door, he lifted her up so she could enter with ease. “I have no other plans, and I don’t intend to leave at any time you are in that hellhole. I just wasn’t sure if it would go against your entire independent nature to actually accept a ride from a guy or not.” He shut the door and proceeded to mutter all the way around the vehicle. At least that was her guess given his lips were moving the entire time.

  When he got in, Megan leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes. It wasn’t until they were already off and moving before she whispered, “You would be surprised at just what I would accept from you, Si. I’m not as independent as you might think.” She wanted to be able to lean on someone, to have someone that could be the front for a time so she could sink in and learn who she was, something she hadn’t been able to figure out because of the deep cover she had been in for the last many years. She was tired of being an operative and simply wanted to be a woman. She wanted to learn who Megan really was.

  She felt his fingers brushing to her cheek. “Come over here,” he said. His hand landed on hers and tugged a little. “You look fucking exhausted, Megan. I didn’t realize until right now how tired you really looked. I’m usually so distracted by those eyes of yours that I tend to miss pretty much everything else.”

  Megan shrugged and moved in closer to him. She was grateful that his truck had a bench seat so she could lean against him. “I’ve spent most of my adult life tracking down these buttholes. I’ve been living a lie for so long that I have forgotten who I am, and it’s exhausting not being able to sleep for fear of someone coming in and taking you. The fear of every single noise in the house. I can’t tell you how many nights, or rather days, I’ve sat up with my gun in hand and rifle on the bed beside me, wide awake and terrified of dropping my guard. It blows, gosh blessed it.” The real Megan peeked out in her slump against him, her lack of cussing a signal as to who she really might be.

  His arm wrapped around her shoulders and held her to his side. “Well, tonight, you can sleep,” he told her. “I’m a light sleeper, and will watch over you as you get a full night’s sleep. Trust me, sweetheart, no one will be getting near you while I’m around.”

  “I trust you.�
� And what was bad, she did. Fully and without reservations. “I just hope you will be able to rest as well.” She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder where she was resting and yawned. “I hope that tonight’s the night that something breaks, that this case can finally freaking be done. I’ve worked it for far too darn long.” Six long, unbearable, lonely years where her sister thought she was a screw up.

  “It will be done when it’s done. Don’t rush it,” he said. “It wouldn’t do to miss something important. Especially if it’s something that ensures you nail every one of these bastards to the floorboards like they deserve. Do what you do, and leave the watching to me for tonight. It’s amazing what people will say when they don’t realize I’m lurking about.”

  “Good. You keep an ear open and eye watchful and I will dance and shake my rump for those pervs.” She snickered and added, “I nearly fell off the stage when my fifth grade phys ed teacher came in. Lord love a duck. That man is ancient as the day is long.” She paused and then looked up at him. “And if the mayor comes in, keep a special eye on him. He’s seriously into this crap up to his proverbial eyeballs.”

  “Brant did mention that, though I think he hates the mayor for a number of other reasons,” he said. He shot her a look and gave her a squeeze. “Don’t worry, Megan. I’ll be watching, and taking note of everything going on in there. You do your thing, and I’ll do what I do best. Well, one of the things I do best anyway.”

  “Yeah?” She looked up at him and grinned. “What else is it that you do so well? Will you show me soon? I hope?” she asked with heat in her gaze. “And yeah, Brant has a serious hate on for the mayor for what he did to Mercy. He deserves everything he gets because of hurting my sister.”

  “I’ll definitely be showing at least one thing I do best tonight. Whether you get to see the other is another matter. You might very well pass out from the sheer bliss of what I plan to do to you when I get you home. Wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve had others do the same, even Rhys a time or two.”