Her Hidden Truth

He desperately needed to walk off the tension she’d incited below his belt. Clearing his head with even a few seconds apart would help, as well.

The one bathroom offered by the old-fashioned, full-service gas station was on the right side of the building and all the way at the back. Vince checked out the four-by-four room before allowing Kat inside. It was cleaner than he’d expected. Apparently the old geezer who ran the fifties-style joint was a neatnik.

“Is the coast clear?” Kat teased. She leaned back against the wall next to the bathroom door. “I do have a gun, you know.” She cocked one finely arched auburn eyebrow. “And I haven’t forgotten how to use it.”

Vince resisted the impulse to tell her everything. To ask her what she really remembered, but it would be a mistake. The implant was in control, that was obvious. She would have taken his head off by now otherwise. His mission was to play this out to see if he could finger the guy in charge of WSA. As long as continuing didn’t endanger Kat’s life, completing the mission was essential.

“Just making sure the facilities were fit for a princess,” he returned just as playfully. They’d sparred like this all those years ago.

She pushed off the wall and sashayed into the bathroom. “I’ll only be a minute,” she said over her shoulder, her tone flirtatious, inviting.

Vince looked away as the door closed behind her. He had to regain his perspective here. It would be too easy to fall into the old routine of taking what she had to offer. What he desperately wanted.

Except it wouldn’t be fair to Kat. She was not herself. Had no control over the situation. He’d been a jerk with her once. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

The door abruptly opened halfway. “I’ve got a little problem in here, Vince.” She reached out and grabbed his sleeve. “You don’t mind helping a girl out, now do you?” She tugged, pulling him to the door.

“What kind of problem?”

She had him in the room and the door closed behind him before the hesitant words were fully out of his mouth. Anticipation spiked, as did his male equipment. This was not a good thing.

Kat shoved him against the closed door and immediately started unbuttoning his shirt. “Why do you do this to me, Vinny?” she demanded petulantly.

No one had ever called him Vinny, except Kat. It touched him…but now wasn’t the time. He manacled her hands and held them still. “We don’t have time for this right now,” he urged, his whole body hardening at the prospect she presented.

“You disappear for weeks, leaving me to my own devices.” She looked up at him, those green eyes hooded, that luscious mouth puckered in a little pout. “Could get a girl in all kinds of trouble.”

“Kat, you—”

“Shh,” she purred, then tugged loose from his grasp and whispered, “I just can’t be expected to wait a minute longer.” She stood on tiptoes and brushed her lips against his.

All thought processes ceased. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Damn sure couldn’t speak with her looking at him that way…touching him that way.

Her fingers tangled with his buttons once more. “All you have to do is let me have my way.” Her hungry mouth captured his in a demanding kiss.

He should have resisted. Should have pushed her away. But he simply didn’t possess the strength to do it. His fingers found their way into her hair. He jerked the pins away until those silky auburn tresses fell around his hands. Her cool fingers moved over his chest sending a fire raging through him. She teased his nipples, making them bud and burn. Traced the ridges of his abdomen. Then tugged at the closure to his jeans.

Her wicked tongue thrust in and out of his mouth in time with the undulating of her hips against his rigid pelvis. He was coming unglued one piece at a time. He was hard as a rock. His mind was reeling and he couldn’t touch her all the places he wanted to at once. Her hair…the curve of her spine…the swell of her bottom. He lifted her more firmly against him. She moaned, the sound fueling the desire already out of control inside him.

She kissed him harder, then pulled free, her lips following the new path of her hands. Along his throat, over one aching nipple and downward. She teased him, dipping her tongue beneath his waistband, all the while squeezing his buttocks. Vince closed his eyes and told himself he could be stronger than this. Commanded himself to pull it together.

He couldn’t do it.

He pulled her back into his arms, did a one-eighty turn and pressed her against the closed door. He kissed her the way he wanted to…the way he’d dreamed of kissing her for four long, lonely years. He hiked her skirt up to her waist and pushed hard between her welcoming thighs. Another throaty groan echoed in the room, whether from him or her, he couldn’t say.

He found the spot that was hot and wet for him. Touched her there. He trembled. She did the same. She pulled free of the kiss and cried out his name, her fingers fisting in his shirt, tugging it from his jeans. He trembled again at the needy sound of her voice. He dragged a finger along that ultrasensitive place and reveled in her response. She arched her spine, offering that slick warmth for his taking.

“Please don’t make me wait any longer,” she murmured. Her eyes opened and she looked directly at him. “Please,” she whimpered.

In those shimmering jade pools he saw his reflection. Saw the man who was prepared to hurt the only woman he’d ever cared about all over again.

He couldn’t do it.

Not even to maintain his cover.

Chapter Three

There was definitely something very wrong with her. Even Vince rejected her. He’d never done that before. They had always taken any opportunity available to make love. Hadn’t they? Uncertainty pulled in her stomach.

Kat went cold despite still being held firmly in his strong, warm embrace, her legs coiled around his lean waist.

“We should get going,” Vince said in that husky baritone that always affected her far more deeply than she wanted to admit.

As she dropped her feet to the floor and pushed him away, she held that smoky gaze, searched for any little flicker that might reveal what was going through that handsome head of his. Before he’d said a single word, she had felt his emotional withdrawal. Felt it and denied it, until he’d articulated with actual words. Her chest tightened, sending a flood of too familiar emptiness through her.

He didn’t want her.

Had he met someone else while he was away this time?

Or was it simply something he found lacking in her?

Maybe both.

Either way, it was a low blow.

Anger ignited inside her. “What’s wrong? Having a slow week, Vinny?” She shoved her fingers through her hair, shaking loose the rest of the pins, then glared up at him. “Or maybe you’re not yourself.”

His pupils flared ever so slightly, as if she’d hit the nail on the head. His beard-shadowed jaw hardened like granite right in front of her eyes. “I don’t want your new friend going ballistic because we’re not right behind him.”

She didn’t miss the hint of jealousy in his tone. Good. It was only fair that they were both miserable. “You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Kat spun around and reached for the doorknob. She wanted to scream. She trusted Vince. Cared deeply for him. Why would he reject her? Something long buried stirred inside her, filled her with dread. The sensation startled her…scared her a little. She tightened her fingers on the knob, gave it a ruthless twist and jerked the door open.

She was out of here.

At first, recognition of the face staring down at her from the other side of the threshold didn’t register. Kat instinctively reached for her weapon, but realization, a little slow in coming, stopped her.

Phil.

It was only Phil.

She swore. “You scared the hell out of me.” She spat the words, her glower every bit as fierce as the dark one focused her way.

Phil looked from Kat to Vince. “We don’t have time for this.” He said the last with vehemence. “No more stops.” He glared down at Kat once more. “Let’s go.”

She pushed past him. “Men,” she muttered. “Can’t live with ’em, can’t shoot ’em.”

Not waiting for Vince, she slid her skirt up to the tops of her thighs and straddled the Harley. She could drive just as well as he could. If he didn’t like it, he could just ride to Port Charlotte with Phil. That brought a smile to her lips. The time together would do them good.