Lethal Seduction: A CIA Romantic Suspense (CIA Agents Book 1)

by Roxy Sinclaire

  Alice

  “Wait,” I said as Shawn pulled me toward the bed. “We’re covered in sand and lake water. I don’t want that to be in the bed where we sleep.”

  “It’s fine. We can change the sheets later,” he said impatiently.

  “I have a better idea.”

  I went into the bathroom and turned the shower on. As it warmed up, steam started billowing from the glass door.

  “Let’s rinse off,” I said, beckoning him toward me. He practically ran into the bathroom.

  We kissed, even more passionately than before, his mouth enveloping mine. He pushed his body into me, our hip bones nearly touching. I slid my hand below his waist, gently touching him. He followed suit, slowly fondling me. I tightened my grip around him, playing with him. He pushed me up against the wall, bracing himself on the side of the shower.

  I’d been with guys before, but nothing like this. My sex life was pretty unexciting, and I’d only ever been with Chris. This was new and exciting. Something about him pressing up against me in the shower, with the lights on, was incredibly thrilling. I could see every inch of his toned body. It made me want to do things that I’d never done before.

  His fingers slipped inside me, prompting me to rub him faster in appreciation. He got so excited, one of his feet slipped on the shower floor.

  “Are we clean enough yet?” he breathed into my neck.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  We hastily dried ourselves and crawled into the bed. We continued where we left off in the shower.

  “Do you have . . .?” I started.

  “Oh, shit,” he exclaimed, running out of the room. He returned a minute later with a roll of condoms.

  “Thought I’d run out. I mean—”

  “Don’t act all innocent,” I said. “I don’t mind. It’s not like you’re my first either.”

  With that, he rolled one of the condoms on and slowly entered me. It had been so long since I’d felt pleasure like this from a man. I lay back and let him get to work. He grabbed onto my hips for leverage, and I buried my hands in his thick hair. I could hardly mind his reputation at this point. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  Suddenly, it happened. I wrapped my legs around his torso, doing anything I could to rub up on him harder. I dug my short fingernails into his muscular back and let out a breathy moan.

  We both fell back on the pillows, silently smiling. I didn’t know what was going through his head, but I knew what I was thinking. I wanted more. Maybe not tonight, but I’d strongly reconsider everything I stood for and make a nighttime visit to the fraternity house for this.

  Shawn fell asleep almost instantly. I was tired, but still too buzzed from the events that just transpired to sleep. Instead, I traced the silhouette of his face in the moonlight with my eyes. His pronounced brow ridge gave way to his angular nose. His soft lips gaped open ever so slightly as he slept, resting above his square jaw line.

  This weekend was only making it harder to choose between Shawn and Chris. I still loved Chris, and those feelings were hard to shake. On the other hand, I could see myself falling for Shawn. I knew that Chris would have me back if I wanted, and I had no idea what Shawn’s intentions were. For all I knew, he could disappear from my life the second he dropped me back off at the dorm.

  Before I came here, I was really longing to be with Chris again. I knew he was sorry about everything, and I was starting to believe that we could make it work again. He was just too good to me to give up. He made me feel special and loved. What more could I want from a boyfriend?

  I must have fallen asleep weighing the pros and cons of each guy because the next think I knew, I was waking up to the smell of burned toast and bacon. I pulled the soft white duvet over my head, not wanting to come out until my mind was made up. Shawn or Chris.

  It was the loud growling of my stomach that caused me to surrender. I’d figure this out later.

  Shawn

  “Dude,” Jack said to me with a mouth full of spaghetti. “You missed out on a wild weekend here.”

  “What happened?” I asked, grabbing a plate from the kitchen in the fraternity house and piling it with food.

  “Oh, just your typical bye week football party. We went to Mike’s house, that really big old house, and just demolished it. They’re going to be cleaning that place up for weeks to come.”

  “That packed?”

  “You wouldn’t believe it. It started as an all-team gathering. Then the cheerleaders showed up with their friends. Next thing you know, we’re packed in there so tight that it took a good five minutes to get from room to room.”

  “Anything interesting happen?” I asked.

  “We discovered that the redshirt freshman punter is a virgin. Well, was a virgin, anyway. We found him a nice, willing participant in his de-flowering.”

  “I bet he had a great night.” I chuckled.

  “Yeah, the poor kid had no idea that we were listening through the door of the bedroom they were in. I don’t think he lasted longer than twenty seconds.”

  “Brutal,” I said. “I bet everyone had a good laugh.”

  “Oh, we did. I wish you were there to see it.”

  “Did you pull?” I asked.

  “No,” Jack grumbled. “I’m a man of our word, so I’m still playing our stupid game. It’s getting dangerous, though. I locked in on a girl with a boyfriend on the lacrosse team who was away at a game that night. I almost had her, but she ended up leaving with her friends while I was in the bathroom. Now I’m a little worried that this guy’s going to come after me for trying to hook up with his chick.”

  “If he’s on the lacrosse team, I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said to his relief.

  “Speaking of the game,” he said, “how was your weekend with your girl?”

  “I wouldn’t call her ‘my girl’, but it was fun. She’s cooler than a lot of the other girls I hang around. She actually wanted to fish and hike and not just lay out and tan all day.”

  “Well, I suppose she doesn’t really need to.”

  I punched him playfully on the arm.

  “But what about the bet?” he asked. “Did you win it? Please tell me you won. I’m really tired of going home alone.”

  I was about to brag about sleeping with Alice, like I would have about any girl, but something stopped me.

  “I don’t kiss and tell,” I said, deflecting the question.

  “Bullshit,” he fired back. “That’s literally all we do. We hook up with girls and then rub it in each other’s face. If you banged her, you have to tell me. We have a deal.”

  I don’t know why, but I felt like I had the responsibility to protect her. I didn’t want Jack to think of her as another conquest for me. It made me feel gross to categorize her in that way. I also felt guilty that I ever involved her in a stupid bet with Jack in the first place. If she ever found out, I knew that I’d never see her again.

  I had a habit of hanging out with the same types of girls again and again. They always fell into two categories—pretty girls or one of the guys.

  Pretty girls were attractive and they knew it. They were the type that would spend hours before a football game getting ready, just so they could impress the guys. For the average college student, they were intimidating, but if you had money or status at school, they were yours for the taking. These girls were trained by their mothers to always spot the worthiest man and get your use from him. These girls came and left my bedroom hoping that I’d give them a little extra prestige.

  On the other side, I spent a good amount of time with the one of the guys types at parties. These were pretty girls who overcompensated for their good looks by acting like they were different. In fact, there were so many who thought they were different that they ironically became their own stereotype. These girls chugged beer, belched loudly, and talked in ways that might even make me blush. They tried way too hard to be cool and edgy, which often backfired. I still hooked up with a fair number of them, but I never want
ed to keep them around. It was hard enough to keep up with manly competitions with my friends. I didn’t want to have to do the same with a girl.

  Alice was not too prissy to the point where she couldn’t go hiking or canoeing because she was afraid of getting dirty, but not crass enough that she would challenging me to arm wrestle at a party or moon a group of guys. She mostly kept to herself and wasn’t the type to draw a lot of attention to herself. I liked that about her. We could hang out because we genuinely enjoyed spending time together and not because we had something more to gain from it.

  “No, we didn’t have sex,” I lied to Jack.

  He scowled at me. “Don’t lie to me, Shawn. I’m going to be pissed if you did her and I carry on with the game.”

  “I’m not lying,” I lied again. “We made out and stuff, but it just didn’t happen.”

  He sighed. “Then I guess we’re back at square one. If you couldn’t bag her at the lake house, then you never will. Gotta give up on that one.”

  “We’ll see,” I said.

  “Don’t tell me that you’re, like, dating her,” he said with disgust.

  “No, we’re not,” I said defensively. “You know me. I don’t get serious with anyone.”

  “Good. Remember what the seniors told us during freshman year. Don’t get serious with a girl until junior or senior year. The first two years of college are for fun, and once they’re gone, you can never have them back.”

  “I know,” I said. “Don’t worry about me. I haven’t changed one bit.”

  “Good. I don’t know what I would do if you stopped going to parties in exchange for nights in with a girlfriend,” Jack said, getting up from the table. “You’d better hurry and finish eating, Shawn. We have to watch film in thirty minutes.”

  I shoveled noodles into my mouth, feeling a little guilty for lying to my best friend. It wouldn’t hurt him, though. He’d never find out how I really felt about Alice.

  The truth was that I was starting to think that I’d like to see her a little more exclusively. I knew that might not happen, though. She still had feelings for that douche bag who cheated on her. I didn’t even know the guy, and I could tell that he was a major dick. Still, I couldn’t help but feel like I still had a chance with Alice. I was a starting football player—we weren’t rejected often. I figured that I could just see how things played out with her. I hoped we could hang out more, but if she didn’t want to, it’s not like I wouldn’t find other girls to help comfort me.

  Against my better judgment, I went looking for Alice on Monday morning. I didn’t want to seem weird or overeager, but I just wanted to see her. Everything had gone so well between us at the lake house, and I just needed to see that she hadn’t changed her mind about me overnight.

  I spotted her entering the psychology building, the red silk scarf tied around her hair bobbing up and down in the crowd. I jogged to catch up with her.

  “Alice,” I called before the doors closed behind her. She looked around like she didn’t know where her name was coming from. Eventually, she saw me and came back outside.

  “Shawn,” she said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

  “I just wanted to say hi. How’s your morning going?”

  “Okay,” she said. “I have a lecture in about four minutes. Can we talk later?”

  This was the kind of response I was looking for.

  “Yeah, that’s cool,” I said. “What time is your class over?”

  “Ten thirty.”

  “Want to meet for lunch at eleven?”

  “I can’t,” she said. “I have to go to a lunch with the other people working on the study. I’ll be done around two. How about we meet up after that?”

  “Football practice,” I said. “And after that, I have to go to a fraternity meeting.”

  “Okay,” she said, looking a little disappointed. “We can make plans later. I’m going to be late.”

  She gave me a small wave and hurried off to class. I decided I’d wander around campus for a few minutes. I usually didn’t leave this early for my class at nine thirty, but I wanted to try to catch Alice. I decided to take the long way to my math class and went on a stroll around campus.

  A bright yellow flyer taped onto a bulletin board caught my eye.

  The Psychology Department Presents Dr. Jim McIver from The University of Washington. Dr. McIver will be giving a seminar on Sports Psychology and its Effects on Youths. Doors open at 6:30 for the 7:00 lecture on Thursday evening in Lackland Hall.

  I whipped my phone from my pocket. This wasn’t the type of thing I’d ever attend on my own, but I knew that Alice would enjoy it. Who knows? Maybe I’d even learn something. This would show her that I was actually interested in her, and not just for one reason. I sent her a quick text.

  Want to hang out with me on Thursday night? Sometime around 6:30? I’ll give you more details later.

  She was going to be so surprised when she discovered that instead of some stupid frat party, I was taking her to a psychology seminar. I couldn’t wait to see her reaction.

  Sounds great! I’ll talk details with you later.

  This was going to be the perfect date. I patted myself on the back for thinking of such a great idea. Maybe she’d even be so impressed with me that she’d come back to my place afterward. I’d been daydreaming about when I’d get to touch her again.

  I turned around and walked toward my next class. I had to take a quiz that I’d hardly studied for, but at this moment, I felt like I was on top of the world.

  Alice

  Seeing Shawn on Monday morning added a little excitement to my day. I was a little worried after he dropped me off at the dorms that I’d never hear from him again. I’d heard that the student athletes were players, so you couldn’t expect for them to call after a date. Instead, here was Shawn, bright and early, by my classroom. I was pretty certain he had no reason to be there other than to find me. It made my stomach flutter to know that he was still interested in me.

  Today was a big day. I was meeting with Chris and a few other students who were working on his project. Since our breakup, I hadn’t seen Chris for more than a few minutes at a time. Now, we’d be having lunch together and talking about psychology for a few hours. I was excited and a little nervous. I didn’t know how I would handle working so closely with him.

  My lecture got out a little late, so I ran up the stairs to the fifth floor where the offices were located. When I got to the room, there were two sandwiches and two cups of soup on the table.

  “Am I early?” I asked Chris, looking at my watch. “Where are the others?”

  “I was going to text you to reschedule, but it was already too late,” he said, sitting down. “The other two couldn’t make it, and I already ordered lunch, so I figured we could just go over the outline and you could fill them in later.”

  “Okay,” I said, finding my seat.

  “You look amazing today, by the way. I hope you don’t mind me saying so.”

  I blushed. “Thanks,” I said softly. He had a knack for making me feel beautiful.

  “Since you’re the only one to show up for the meeting,” he said, unwrapping his sandwich, “I’m making you the head assistant. That means you work directly under me and you give the assignments to the other students. It’s a big job, but I wouldn’t give it to you unless I knew you could do it. What do you say?”

  I was shocked that he’d give me such a big responsibility. I figured that I’d just be running errands for him and doing other simple tasks. I didn’t expect to be doing anything substantial.

  “Are you sure I can do it?”

  “Aren’t you taking a research methods class this semester?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then you’ve already got the basics. If you need any help, you can report directly to me. You’ll have no problems.”

  “If you’re sure, then I’d love to. Thank you so much.”

  He smiled. “I’m glad that you’re happy. Okay, did you r
ead through the email I sent this weekend?”

  “Most of it,” I said sheepishly. Between all the time I spent at the lake and my rush to get homework done yesterday, I didn’t have time to do much more than skim it.

  He shook his head and laughed. “That’s okay, but now you’ll have to work a little harder. Can you do that?”

  “Yes, I promise.”

  He went through his outline and plans for the study. It was pretty interesting. His hypothesis was that college students had trouble staying monogamous because of changes happening in their brains at this age. Our task was to collect as much data as possible through interviews, then Chris would work with a brain specialist to get scans from a few participants.

  I wondered if this study was a way for him to redeem himself. Here we were, together again after he cheated on me, and we were about to find out if he was at fault for his infidelity or if it was just unreasonable for me to think that cheating was avoidable.

  Except that would be crazy for him to go to such great lengths to do something like that. No, I knew that Chris still cared about me, and he just wanted to help me get a good start for my college career. I was thankful for it too. No one else would have ever thought to involve me in such an important position. It was really unheard of for underclassmen to get to do this kind of work.

  It was great to talk and laugh with Chris just like old times. I’d forgotten that we had a lot of similar interests. We weren’t much into sports, but we liked reading and watching foreign films. I’d never traveled, but I always wanted to see the world outside my small town. Chris had been an exchange student in high school and did a summer abroad, so I couldn’t get enough of his travel stories. At one point, we even talked about going on a little adventure ourselves. Part of me still hoped we would someday.

  Maybe if all went well, we could rekindle our romance and make a trip happen during the winter break. I’d always dreamed about going to Southeast Asia.