Page 2 of The Agent

Marley smothered a laugh. Rolling her eyes, she snapped a pair of rubber gloves onto her hands and climbed the first rung of the ladder.

“ This maiden needs no man to take care of her,” she murmured to herself with a grin.

* * *

C ALEB F ORD LEANED BACK in the plush swivel chair and wondered when exactly he’d become a voyeur. His job had forced him to sit through many a stakeout but somehow this one seemed…wrong.

Arousing as hell…but damn it, wrong .

He’d been a DEA agent for ten years, had put dozens of criminals behind bars, gotten shot twice in his career—and yet this one little stakeout was killing him.

It should’ve been easy, a wait-and-grab he could’ve done in his sleep.

The location was perfect, the electronic equipment was sweet, and his target, despite the irregular hours she worked, didn’t leave the house much.

Yep, in theory, this stakeout should’ve been a piece of cake.

But none of his theories had taken into consideration the powerful allure of Marley Kincaid.

Caleb shifted in the chair, hoping to ease the ache in his groin. A sip of the cold soda sitting on the desk in front of him helped cool his throat, but did nothing to snuff out the fire in his lower body.

A quick glance at the screens displaying Marley’s front and back doors showed no movement.

Not that he had to be so vigilant; the motion detectors they’d set up caused the monitors to release a loud buzz every time anyone walked by them.

There was plenty of movement at the side of the house, however.

Marley was up on a ladder, wearing faded cut-off shorts, a red tank top and yellow rubber gloves, and she was cleaning out the eaves using a long brush. Wet leaves and mud went sailing down to the grass ten feet below, remnants of last night’s thunderstorm.

Damn, she was cute up there on the ladder, her blond ponytail swishing back and forth as she worked.

When he’d taken the case, he’d seen pictures of Marley, sure, but seeing her in person was a different story altogether.

It had been a week since he’d hunkered down next door to her, and already he’d memorized every detail of her face—her golden-brown eyes set over a pair of unbelievably high cheekbones, her cute upturned nose, her full sensual lips.

God, those lips. She had a mouth made for sin.

Not to mention a body that could cause a man to forget his own name.

For seven days now he’d wondered what she looked like naked. But they only had clearance to install cameras outside the house. And she always closed her drapes when she undressed, forcing his imagination to run wild as he stared at her enticing silhouette removing various undergarments.

His cell phone began to ring, a much-needed distraction from the woman next door.

Sighing, he snatched the phone from its perch near the computer keyboard and pressed the talk button. “Ford,” he said. His voice came out hoarse, and he had to clear his throat before speaking again.

“I’m at the Starbucks around the corner,” came AJ Callaghan’s southern drawl. “Want some coffee?”

Caleb tore his gaze away from the monitor. “Hell, yes,” he told his partner.

“Huh. You sound cranky. Ms. Kincaid doing yoga again?”

“Nope, cleaning the rain gutters.”

“Darn. I won’t hurry then. But call me if she starts up with the yoga.

” AJ’s tone revealed the man was no doubt sporting a huge grin.

“You know,” AJ added, “I can’t see Grier staying away from her for much longer.

We already know he was infatuated with Nurse Hottie, and seriously, with that bod, who could blame the guy? ”

Oh, Caleb couldn’t blame Patrick Grier for craving Marley’s extremely delectable body, either.

Thanks to all the cameras Caleb and AJ had set up around the perimeter of Marley’s house providing visuals of the kitchen, living room and bedroom, Caleb had firsthand experience with Kincaid’s assets.

And he was doing a little bit of craving himself.

Fortunately, all it took was one swift glance at the picture taped to the side of his computer monitor, and the need for vengeance replaced his desire.

As Caleb hung up the phone, he stared at Patrick Grier’s grainy features. What pissed him off the most was how normal Grier looked. Brown hair, brown eyes, handsome in a preppy sort of way. That was drug-dealing murderers for you—they rarely ever looked like the scum they were.

If it were any other scumbag dealer, Caleb might have handed the case over to a junior agent and focused on the bigger fish swimming around in the drug pond. But this particular scumbag had murdered Caleb’s best friend, and he wasn’t going to rest until Patrick Grier was behind bars.

He looked back at the monitor and grinned when he noticed Marley leaning to the side, one slender arm stretched out as she attempted to tackle a clump of leaves that refused to dislodge.

The grin faded, however, when something caught his eye.

One of the rungs on the ladder looked…wrong.

He leaned closer, squinting at the screen.

“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath.

Sure enough, the rung he’d noticed was sagging on one side. He couldn’t see much more than that, but he suspected it was cracked. The thing would probably break the second she stepped on it.

Fortunately Marley’s feet were on the rung below the broken one, but the way she was reaching her arms out, it wouldn’t be long before she needed some more height to connect with her target.

Crap. What should he do in this situation? Sit around and wait for her to fall?

Caleb gritted his teeth. He couldn’t go over there and warn her.

Making contact with the person you were watching defeated the entire point of a stakeout.

And he wouldn’t risk the possibility of losing Grier.

In his gut, he knew the other man was bound to show up here.

When they’d raided the office Grier had been using for his web design company, they’d found more than a dozen pictures of Marley taped on the walls.

Grier was obsessed with her, and Caleb knew he’d come for her.

He felt it deep in his gut, a certainty his supervisor, unfortunately, didn’t quite agree with.

But at least Agent Stevens had green-lighted this stakeout.

How long he’d let it go on, Caleb wasn’t sure, but for now, he could sit tight and see if his hunch played out.

The local cops were already watching Marley at the hospital, but Caleb knew Grier wouldn’t make a move there.

Too many witnesses around. Here, though…

Marley lived alone, didn’t have many visitors and her house sat at the end of a cul-de-sac with a large park right behind it.

This was the perfect place for Grier to make an appearance.

On the screen, Marley was looking up at the roof in dismay. An ominous feeling crept along Caleb’s spine. He watched as she lifted one foot. His chest tightened with sickly anticipation.

“Don’t do it,” he mumbled at her, though of course she couldn’t hear him. “Look down first.”

But she didn’t, and it was like seeing the chain of events that led up to a disaster, in slow motion, unable to do a damn thing about it.

She climbed up onto the next rung of the ladder, and he could practically hear the wood splintering beneath her feet.

He couldn’t see her face, but he could imagine the look of terror filling her pretty features as the rung gave way.

She lost her footing, and the ladder swiftly toppled onto the grass down below.

Caleb shot to his feet, adrenaline pumping through his veins. A faint flicker of admiration lit his chest as he saw her arms whip up like an acrobat’s, grabbing at the white-painted eave.

Relief flooded through him. She hadn’t fallen.

Instead, she dangled ten feet off the ground like a really crappy cat burglar attempting to scale a building.

Caleb couldn’t help but grin at the thought, but his mouth hardened when Marley twisted her neck, glancing down at the grass as if contemplating whether she could land the jump.

Sure you can, sweetheart, except you’ll probably break your ankle. Or your neck.

Letting out a sigh, Caleb took one last look at the screen, then tore out of the room.

He ran out the front door of the house the agency had rented from a pair of retired teachers who were traveling for the summer. The afternoon sun nearly blinded him, making him realize he hadn’t been outside in a week. It felt weird after being cooped up indoors for so long.

He crossed the perfectly kept lawn toward the side of the house. Only a couple of yards separated the two homes, and when he approached, Marley still hung from the eaves, cursing to herself under her breath.

He cleared his throat. “Need some help?”

She yelped in surprise and nearly lost her grip. Her legs swung wildly, making his heartbeat quicken. “Don’t let go,” he ordered.

“Who are you?” Her voice sounded tinny as it floated down from above.

“Your next-door neighbor,” he replied. “And possibly the guy who saves your life.”

She peered down at him, her light-brown eyes narrowed with suspicion. “I know my next-door neighbors, mister, and you aren’t them.”

“The Strathorns are in Europe. I’m renting their house for the summer,” he called back, annoyance tightening his lips. “Now, do you think we can discuss this after we get you down from there?”

There was a long pause. Then she was scrutinizing the ground again. “I think I can make the jump,” she said. “I once saw a documentary on stunt doubles.”

He suppressed a laugh. “That’s terrific. But no, you cannot make the jump.” He swallowed. “I’ll catch you.”

She let out a squeaky protest. “What? No way. What if you miss? Or what if I crush you—”

“With the hundred pounds you’re packing?” he interrupted in amusement. “You won’t crush me, and I won’t miss.”

Caleb stepped closer, assessing the height and angle from which she was hanging. If he raised his arms, he could almost touch her sneakers. “I’ll catch you,” he said with confidence. “I need you to take a deep breath, and let go. Okay?”

“No, thanks.”

He closed his eyes briefly, fighting back irritation. “What do you mean, no thanks?” He scowled up at her. “Are you always so difficult?”

“No, I’m scared,” she retorted. “I’m only twenty-seven. I don’t want to die today.”

This time he couldn’t stop a laugh from rumbling out of his throat. “You won’t die. Trust me. Deep breath, then let go. On the count of three, okay?”

She hesitated for what seemed like an eternity. “Okay.”

He rubbed his hands together, widening his stance. “One,” he called. “Two—”

“Wait—on three, or one, two, three, let go?”

Caleb sighed. “On three.”

“Fine.”

He started again. “One…two… three .”

A second later, her body came flying down and he suddenly found himself with an armful of warm, soft woman. One hand had instinctively reached out to cup her bottom, and his palm now cradled a firm, perfectly round backside, as Marley Kincaid’s arms wound tightly around his neck.

She was breathing heavily, her body trembling a little. “You all right?” he asked. His voice sounded rough even to his own ears.

She nodded, tilting her head to look up at him. Her brown eyes widened slightly, her lips parting in surprise as she examined his face. She checked him out for so long he felt a pang of discomfort. “You should really let someone else clean those gutters for you,” he grumbled.

Marley just stared at him, and then, to his extreme confusion, she started to laugh.