Page 13

Doubling back a few times, I check for a tail. Half an hour later, I’m standing on a busy, neon-flickering curb. A ball cap, glasses, and a high collar on my changed coat should be enough to keep anyone from recognizing me.

The rev of an engine announces the car right before it turns the corner, slowing to a halt.

“Get in,” Circe’s voice says from the mouth of a stranger. The woman’s face is shadowed in a scarf, straight black hair framing her pale face.

Bending down, I peer into the car. “Are you my Uber driver?”

“When did you get a sense of humor? I don’t like it. At all.”

“And I don’t like waiting in a skeezy part of town for twenty minutes.”

“Had to shake a tail and change. You look like you got a little action too.” She nods, glancing at my cheek.

I shrug, checking for blood again. Stings like hell.

“Yeah. This whole mission was sloppy as hell.”

“A full-on shit show, you mean. Someone saw me covered in brains and called the cops.”

“That might explain how someone knew where I was perched,” I grimace, sighing.

“Oh, no. That was me. Our target’s bodyguards caught up to him, or found his body anyway. I shouted that there was a shooter on the roof of that building from the street before I ran.”

“You’re the worst teammate ever.” If only my glare could set her on fire.

“Why do you keep staring at my face like that?” Circe snaps after several seconds and a few streets away.

“Because you’re still wearing a mustache, dipshit.”

I’ve never seen her blush like that before. With a flare of her nostrils, she tears the mustache off and throws it out the window.

The rest of the drive back to our base of operations is quiet. It’s not until we’re safely inside the garage that she starts in on me, slamming the door viciously.

“What’s your problem?”

“You. You’re my problem. You forced me into this arrangement, dragged me along on your crusade for the madwoman in the mask. Then at every turn, you cut me off at the knees. Make it impossible for us to… function !”

My temper simmers, rising. But I don’t get mad. I stay in control.

Minus the twitching in my eyelid.

“Maybe it’s because you’re so dysfunction?—”

“No, no, no. I told you what my problem is. What’s yours ?”

“You!” she yells.

“Right. Put this all on?—”

“I will!”

“Oh my God! Will you quit interrupting me all the time!”

“Well, I wouldn’t have to interrupt you, if you would just communicate and listen to my orders. I’m supposed to be the one in charge.”

“In charge? You’re out of your damn mind.”

“Says the guy talking to his dead brother like no one notices.”

“Because you never have conversations with your dead partner? I can read lips, even if you don’t say the words out loud!”

“Don’t turn this around on me.”

“I’d love to turn you around and?—”

“You always have to deflect , don’t you?” She takes a step closer.

“And you always snore in your sleep.” I take a step closer.

“Better than the way you drool .” Our bodies are nearly touching.

“You just can’t fucking stand that I’m better at this than you.” My voice drops to a whispering growl.

“At what?”

“ Everything .”

Circe flips her hair in my face, slamming the door open into the house and letting out something halfway between a scream and a roar. Hot on her heels, I can’t help watching her as she tosses the remnants of her costume aside, tussling her mane of wavy tresses with her fingertips.

Instantly, my heart is pounding.

Probably just the fight. Or it could be the way she swings those hips when she walks.

“Will you just chill the fuck out for a minute?” I finally offer, trying my best to diffuse the situation.

“I’d love to, but you keep pushing my buttons.”

“I keep trying to.” I level her with a suggestive stare.

“That was a one-time thing,” she says softly, tossing a crackling glare my way.

“Sure. But we only have one bed. And we have to spend every night together, regardless.”

“Are you saying you want to…spend the night with me?” Her expression changes, her eyebrow arching.

“Maybe I do.” I shrug. She might drive me nuts, but the other night was…“About as much as you want to punch some sense into me.”

“You’re right. I do,” she spits out.

The twitch of her shoulder muscles is the only warning I get.

Her lunging strike brushes my cheek as I dodge it, barely slapping her hand out of the way, spinning her and launching her across the room.

She twirls with the motion, graceful as a fucking ballerina, launching herself back at me from another angle.

It’s a devious leap, both of her knees bending back, her fist raised to strike.

The kick firing off from her left foot almost takes me by surprise.

Fortunately, the couch catches me as I fling myself to the side, bouncing up in her wake and snatching her around the waist, body-slamming her down on the cushions.

That should be the end of it, but my breath explodes from my chest as both of her feet lift me off mine. How the hell did she move like that?

No time to think, I try to roll back into a flip, catch my heel on the coffee table and tumble. As soon as my back hits the ground, Circe lands with her boots planted at my sides.

So, I promptly shove them out from under her, landing her on top of me.

Chests heave in union, pressed together. Our entire bodies line up, her legs straddling me, her fingers unintentionally laced through mine.

A split second freezes, our eyes locked.

Then she claims my lips, tightening her grip on my hands, squeezing her thighs together around me. That’s when I realize that I’ve been rock-hard since the fight started. That I’m fevered and raging and out of my mind with desire.

It’s an afterthought to the maelstrom of hands fumbling at clothing, ripping my shirt open, tearing her T-shirt completely in half.

Her lips are searing, branding my skin as she unleashes herself on me, the two of us grunting, gasping, writhing. Circe rises over me, casting off the remnants of her bra, stretching her arms high and giving me an eyeful.

Her breasts are full, large for her frame, perky and perfectly shaped, complementing her well-toned and muscled body. Seeing them in the light for the first time, seeing her in all of her glory…

I lift us off the floor with barely an effort, locking my arms around her. Her legs loop around my hips as I slam her into the wall, clattering whatever was on the entry table, shattering a flowerpot, knocking a painting off the wall.

Then we proceed to tear the whole fucking place apart.