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She was still as perceptive as always. He frowned thoughtfully at her. She’d asked a hell of a good question. Why hadn’t they interrogated her? He’d leaped to the obvious conclusion before—that she was in on the scam.

But if that was the case, why would she point it out like this?

Was she making a feint within a feint to throw him off her trail?

Was she actually that subtle? Was he a gullible fool to have taken her at face value all this time?

Was she a great deal more than a civilian nurse who loved him and was willing to lay her heart on the line for him openly and honestly?

God, he didn’t know who to believe any more. The maelstrom whirled around him more violently than ever. His mother. Katie. The CIA. André Fortinay. His father. Cold Intent. Who else wanted a piece of his soul?

An urge to scream rose in his throat. Appalled, he bit it back. Focus, for crying out loud. Follow Katie’s line of reasoning and see where she’s trying to lead you .

There had been plenty of time for John Doe, his interrogator, to get instructions from Washington. John Doe couldn’t possibly have had the rank or authority to decide to dope a U.S. intelligence operative for grins and giggles. The decision to drug him had to have come from Langley.

Why had the CIA been out to mess with him and not with Katie? Particularly since it seemed that someone within Langley pretty seriously wanted to see her dead.

His suspicions from before roared to the fore once more. Was this all an elaborate head game designed to throw him violently off balance and off guard? But to what end? What did they want from him?

He looked up sharply as the computer lifted off his lap. Katie tossed a leg across his hips and straddled his lap.

“What the hell are you doing?” he blurted.

“Getting your undivided attention.” She pulled at his belt buckle, and it gave way under her fingers.

Mother of God. She was really raising the stakes, now.

What was her gambit? He braced to resist her sexual advances.

He’d been trained in how to handle situations like this, but the hookers in his training hadn’t been Katie.

She was the one and only woman who’d ever managed to get inside his head when she got inside his pants.

He swore at himself. This was his fault. He’d let her past his guard. He’d set himself up for this. Was this what his mother had done to his father? No wonder Roman had fallen prey to her.

Christ. He was lucky his old man even spoke to him, let alone raised him, after this mind fuck.

Katie wiggled suggestively, demanding his attention. He yanked his thoughts back to the woman stripping while she sat on his crotch.

“So,” he commented coldly. “You’re a sparrow after all. I have to compliment you on your extraordinary acting talent.”

She replied tartly, “I’m not a sparrow, and you, of all people, know it. You know how little sexual experience I had before I met you. No sparrow would be sent out in the field to use sex as a weapon with barely any knowledge of it.”

He examined her logic as calmly as he could with her hands on his zipper. Reluctantly, he had to admit she had a point. Unless, of course, she’d been acting every single time he’d ever slept with her. He thought back to the dozens of times they’d made passionate love since he’d met her.

Surely, he would’ve caught something off, some tiny hint that she wasn’t exactly as she seemed, wasn’t genuinely enjoying herself, didn’t have deep and real feelings for him?—

He asked desperately, “Why is the CIA trying to kill you, but not the slightest bit interested in questioning you? Do you know something they don’t want revealed?”

She sat back on his thighs, staring at him thoughtfully. “I do know you better than anyone else.”

“Why would that alarm the CIA?” he asked reflexively.

“Is somebody trying to hide your real motives for joining Doctors Unlimited?” she asked slowly.

“Or is this internal CIA politics? I’ve heard Charlie gripe about the games people play at Langley.

Is someone engaging in a slam campaign against you that you’re not aware of?

Maybe someone’s spreading lies about you and doesn’t want me to tell the truth? ”

“The CIA is not a high school lunch room.”

“No, but it is made up of human beings subject to human flaws and weaknesses,” she retorted.

He knew he had become a source of controversy in the agency after his training had finished. Some people saw him as a threat, and others saw him as an exciting weapon. Was all of this the two factions infighting over him?

He mumbled under his breath, “How in hell am I supposed to know who’s my friend and who’s my enemy?”

“I am not the enemy, Alex.” His zipper slid down and his fly opened under her clever fingers.

He ought to stop her.

“I’m not out to hurt you in any way,” she murmured. “I only want to help you. I’m loyal to you. Only you.”

If only. At least she was a known enemy. He could deal with that.

Her hand dipped inside the waistband of his underwear, and she grasped his member in a warm fist. Blood rushed to the site and his hips flexed of their own volition. Dammit.

“Do you hear me?” she demanded. “I’m on your side.”

He had to keep his head clear. He couldn’t afford to get lost in her body or sucked into the emotional vortex she always managed to create around him when they had sex.

“They gave you drugs to make you suspicious of me. But you know, in your heart of hearts, that I would never hurt you.”

Her fingers tightened around his rapidly hardening erection, and a groan escaped his throat before he could pull it back. His mental swearing grew more violent as her fist slid up and down his shaft. Damn, that felt good.

“Say it, Alex. Tell me you know I would never hurt you.”

He surged up beneath her, capturing her around the waist with his arm while he used his free hand to yank her hand off him. He ground out, “You think you can use sex as a weapon against me ?”

“Go ahead, Alex. Show me how you really feel.”

God, she was courageous to taunt him like that. With a growl, he sprawled on his back, carrying her with him, and rolling over in the direction that would keep her weight off her injured shoulder, until she splayed beneath him.

He pinned her to the mattress with his bigger, stronger body, and she didn’t struggle.

He shoved the t-shirt up her naked body, not stopping until the cotton completely covered her face.

She wouldn’t have any trouble breathing through it, but he had to shut her up.

She was pushing him beyond his ability to control himself.

He ought to kill her. Any spy worth his salt would eliminate the threat she posed without a second thought.

He kicked partially free of his jeans before he rammed into her.

She bucked against him, driving him deeper inside her.

He groaned in spite of himself, and just like that, her body softened and opened, welcoming him home.

Dammit, she made it impossible to use sex as a weapon against her when she surrendered unconditionally to him like this!

Swearing violently inside his head, he withdrew from her to strip off his clothes. And then he sank into her again. As always, her complete welcome and acceptance undid him, unraveling his rage as easily as a piece of knitting with a loose end that she tugged on.

The probability that this was the last time he would ever have sex with her slammed into his awareness and he involuntarily slowed down to savor the moment and imprint it upon his memory forever.

He couldn’t look her in the face. It would be too painful for him to see the deceit there. This one last time, lost in the depths of his desperation, he needed to pretend she really loved him.

He planted his hands on either side of the t-shirt fabric, pinning it lightly in place in hopes that it would help distance her from him, but it didn’t.

Everything he loved about her—her generosity, honesty, innocence, and joy in life wrapped around him—embracing his heart and bathing him in love until he couldn’t fight it off any more.

She was better at her job than he could have ever imagined any sparrow being. Was it possible she was telling the truth?—

--No. Impossible. She was in on the conspiracy. She had to be.

As an orgasm built fast inside him, a mirroring explosion of emotion built in his chest. She arched up into him, her body sucking him down effortlessly into the whirlpool of everything he’d tried so hard to avoid.

Feelings broke over him, drowning him in gratitude and regret, affection and reluctant acceptance. Of being lovable and loved by this woman.

For just an instant, no more than a breath of time, he didn’t care if she was working against him or not. She owned his heart.

He could not believe he was going to have to turn his back on this. On her. It was going to feel like ripping his heart out of his chest to leave her behind, forever.

Their lovemaking reached an exquisite peak and his body clenched around his release. He couldn’t hold back a muffled shout as the orgasm tore free of his control and exploded from the depth of his being.

Stunned at the power of it, he stared down at the contours of Katie’s covered face. As he watched, a small circle of wetness appeared in the center of Katie’s forehead, darkening the gray cotton.

Dammit. That came from him, not her.

Swearing, he pushed away from her and rolled out of bed, swiping at his eyes. He did not cry. Not for her. Not for himself. Not ever.

He stormed into the bathroom and ran himself a steaming hot shower. It pounded his flesh into gelatin but did nothing to soothe the fury tearing apart his heart. Nothing could soothe it.

When he came out of the bathroom, Katie was dressed and curled up in a chair, going through the motions of reading a book on her cell phone.