Page 67 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold (The Blonde Identity #2)

Two Days Later

Paris, France

King

King had made a mistake. A bad one. He never should have suggested Paris, and he never should have let Alex pick out the dress.

And when she turned and pulled her hair over her shoulder and said, “A little help?” he never should have pressed his lips

to the back of her neck before he reached for the zipper.

He should have thrown her over his shoulder like a caveman and started implementing Plan B because he could read her mind

and he didn’t at all like what she was thinking—

“So it turns out...”

“Don’t say it.”

“That spies do go on missions that require tuxedos and ball gowns!”

He knew it. He just knew it. She was never going to let him live it down, and King grimaced, knowing it was already too late.

“This is a highly unusual situation.”

“So, in other words, I was right —”

“That remains to be—”

“And you were wrong .”

“I don’t think we can really go with”—he made quote marks around the word with his fingers—“ wrong . It’s more like the exception that proves the rule.”

But an hour later, as he watched her walk down the sidewalk, long leg peeking out from the very long slit in the very expensive dress, King had to think that maybe James Bond had been onto something after all.

King felt powerful and suave and a little like his whole life had been building to that moment—and that woman. But when she

stopped on the sidewalk, he could see the tension in her eyes. Her hand was a little too tight in the crook of his elbow.

“You sure about this?” He pressed her up against a lamppost and away from the flow of people who filled the sidewalk. The

streetlights were getting brighter, and the sky was getting darker, and it felt like the easiest thing in the world to tell

her, “We can still run. Disappear. Hide?”

He wasn’t ready for the look on her face when she turned to him—the feeling in his soul when she squeezed his tuxedo lapels

tight and whispered, “I’m through loving you in secret.”

Then they both turned and looked at the opera house. A minute later, they disappeared like smoke on the wind.