Veronica closed her eyes. “No offense, Joe, but I seriously doubt you can imitate Tedric’s accent just from listening to a tape,” she said. “We have better things to do with your time.”
Joe stood and Veronica opened her eyes, gazing up at him.
“I’m getting you that coffee,” he said. “You’re slipping. You just called me ‘Joe.’”
“Forgive me, Your Highness,” she murmured.
But he didn’t smile. He just looked down at her, the expression in his eyes unreadable. “I like Joe better,” he finally said.
“This isn’t going to work, is it?” she asked quietly. She met his eyes steadily, ready to accept defeat.
Except he wasn’t defeated. Not by any means. He’d been watching videotapes and listening to audiotapes of Prince Tedric in all of his spare moments. It was true that he hadn’t had all that many spare moments, but he was well on his way to understanding the way Tedric moved and spoke.
“I can do this,” Joe said. “Hell, I look just like the guy. Every time I catch my reflection and see my hair this way, I see Ted looking back at me and it scares me to death. If it can fool me, it can fool everyone else. The tailor’s delivering the clothes he’s altered sometime tomorrow. It’ll be easier for me to pretend I’m Tedric if I’m dressed for the part.”
Veronica gave him a wan smile. Still, it was a smile. She was so tired, she could barely keep her eyes open. She’d changed out of her jeans and back into her professional clothes hours ago. Her hair was up off her shoulders once again. “We’ve got to work on Tedric’s walk. He’s got this rather peculiar, rolling gait that—”
“He walks like he’s got a fireplace poker in his pants,” Joe interrupted her.
Veronica’s musical laughter echoed throughout the quiet room. One of the FInCOM agents glanced up from his position guarding the balcony entrance.
“Yes,” she said to Joe. “You’re right. He does. Although I doubt anyone’s described it quite that way before.”
“I can walk that way,” Joe said. He stood, and as Veronica watched, he marched stiffly across the room. “See?” He turned back to look at her.
She had her face in her hands and her shoulders were shaking, and Joe was positive for one heart-stopping moment that she was crying. He started toward her, and knelt in front of her and—She was laughing. She was laughing so hard, tears were rolling down her face.
“Hey,” Joe said, faintly insulted. “It wasn’t that bad.”
She tried to answer, but could get no words out. Instead, she just waved her hand futilely at him and kept on laughing.
Her laughter was infectious, and before long, Joe started to chuckle and then laugh, too.
“Do it again,” she gasped, and he stood and walked, like Prince Tedric, across the room and back.
Veronica laughed even harder, doubling over on the couch.
The FInCOM agent was watching them both as if they were crazy or hysterical—which probably wasn’t that far from the truth.
Veronica wiped at her face, trying to catch her breath. “Oh, Lord,” she said. “Oh, God, I haven’t laughed this hard in years.” Her eyelashes were wet with her tears of laughter, and her eyes sparkled as, still giggling, she looked up at Joe. “I don’t suppose I can talk you into doing that again?”
“No way,” Joe said, grinning back at her. “I draw the line at being humiliated more than twice in a row.”
“I wasn’t laughing at you,” she said, but her giggles intensified. “Yes, I was,” she corrected herself. “I was laughing at you. I’m so sorry. You must think I’m frightfully rude.” She covered her mouth with her hand, but still couldn’t stop laughing—at least not entirely.
“I think I only looked funny because I’m not dressed like the prince,” Joe argued. “I think if I were wearing some sequined suit and walking that way, you wouldn’t be able to tell the two of us apart.”
“And I think,” Veronica said. “I think…I think it’s hopeless. I think it’s time to give up.” Her eyes suddenly welled with real tears, and all traces of her laughter vanished. “Oh, damn…” She turned away, but she could neither stop nor hide her sudden flow of tears.
She heard Joe’s voice, murmuring a command to the FInCOM agents, and then she felt him sit next to her on the sofa.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Hey, come on, Veronica. It’s not that bad.”
She felt his arms go around her and she stiffened only slightly before giving in. She let him pull her back against his chest, let him tuck her head in to his shoulder. He was so warm, so solid. And he smelled so wonderfully good…
He just held her, rocking slightly, and let her cry. He didn’t try to stop her. He just held her.
Veronica was getting his shirt wet, but she couldn’t seem to stop, and he didn’t seem to mind. She could feel his hand in her hair, gently stroking, calming, soothing.
When he spoke, his voice was quiet. She could hear it rumble slightly in his chest.
“You know, this guy we’re after?” Joe said. “The terrorist? His name’s Diosdado. One name. Kind of like Cher or Madonna, but not so much fun. Still, I bet he’s as much of a celebrity in Peru, where he’s from. He’s the leader of an organization with a name that roughly translates as ‘The Cloud of Death.’ He and a friend of his—a man named Salustiano Vargas—have claimed responsibility for more than twelve hundred deaths. Diosdado’s signature was on the bomb that blew up that passenger flight from London to New York three years ago. Two hundred and fifty-four people died. Remember that one?”
Veronica nodded. She most certainly did. The plane had gone down halfway across the Atlantic. There were no survivors. Her tears slowed as she listened to him talk.
“Diosdado and his pal Vargas took out an entire busload of U.S. sailors that same year,” Joe said. “Thirty-two kids—the oldest was twenty-one years old.” He was quiet for a moment. “Mac Forrest’s son was on that bus.”
Veronica closed her eyes. “Oh, God…”
“Johnny Forrest. He was a good kid. Smart, too. He looked like Mac. Same smile, same easygoing attitude, same tenacity. I met him when he was eight. He was the little brother I never had.” Joe’s voice was husky with emotion. He cleared his throat. “He was nineteen when Diosdado blew him to pieces.”
Joe fell silent, just stroking Veronica’s hair. He cleared his throat again, but when he spoke, his voice was still tight. “Those two bombings put Diosdado and The Cloud of Death onto the Most Wanted list. Intel dug deep and came up with a number of interesting facts. Diosdado had a last name, and it was Perez. He was born in 1951, the youngest son in a wealthy family. His name means, literally, ‘God’s gift.’” Joe laughed a short burst of disgusted air. “He wasn’t God’s gift to Mac Forrest, or any of the other families of those dead sailors. Intel also found out that the sonuvabitch had a faction of his group right here in D.C. But when the CIA went to investigate, something went wrong. It turned into a firefight, and when it was over, three agents and ten members of The Cloud of Death were dead. Seven more terrorists were taken prisoner, but Diosdado and Salustiano Vargas were gone. The two men we’d wanted the most got away. They went deep underground. Rumor was Diosdado had been shot and badly hurt. He was quiet for years—no sign of him at all—until a few days ago, when apparently Vargas took a shot at Prince Tedric.”
Joe was quiet again for another moment. “So there it is,” he said. “The reason we can’t just quit. The reason this operation is going to work. We’re going to stop those bastards for good, one way or another.”
Veronica wiped her face with the back of her hand. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried like this. It must have been the stress getting to her. The stress and the fatigue. Still, to burst into tears like that and…
She sat up, pulling away from Joe and glancing around the room, alarmed, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. She’d lost it. She’d absolutely lost it—and right in front of Joe and all those FInCOM agents. But the FInCOM agents were gone
.
“They’re outside the door,” Joe said, correctly reading her thoughts. “I figured you’d appreciate the privacy.”
“Thank you,” Veronica murmured.
She was blushing, and the tip of her nose was pink from crying. She looked exhausted and fragile. Joe wanted to wrap her back in his arms and hold her close. He wanted to hold her as she closed her eyes and fell asleep. He wanted to keep her warm and safe from harm, and to convince her that everything was going to be all right.
She glanced at him, embarrassment lighting her crystal blue eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to—”
“You’re tired.” He gave her an easy excuse and a gentle smile.
They were alone. They were alone in the room. As Joe held her gaze, he knew she was aware of that, too.
Her hair was starting to come free from its restraints, and strands curled around her face.
He couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and lightly brushing the last of her tears from her cheek. Her skin was so soft and warm. She didn’t flinch, didn’t pull away, didn’t even move. She just gazed at him, her eyes blue and wide and so damned innocent.
Joe couldn’t remember ever wanting to kiss a woman more in his entire life. Slowly, so slowly, he leaned forward, searching her eyes for any protest, alert for any sign that he was taking this moment of truce too far.
Her eyes flickered and he saw her desire. She wanted him to kiss her, too. But he also saw doubt and a flash of fear. She was afraid.
Afraid of what? Of him? Of herself? Or maybe she was afraid that the overwhelming attraction they both felt would ignite in a violent, nearly unstoppable explosion of need.
Joe almost pulled back.
But then her lips parted slightly, and he couldn’t resist. He wanted a taste—just a taste—of her sweetness.
So he kissed her. Slowly, gently pressing his lips to hers.
A rush of desire hit him low in the gut and it took every ounce of control to keep from giving in to his need and pulling her hard into his arms, kissing her savagely, and running his hands along the curves of her body. Instead, he made himself slow down.
Gently, so gently, he ran his tongue across her lips, slowly gaining passage to the softness of her mouth. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to move still more slowly, even slower now. She tasted of strawberries and coffee—an enticing combination of flavors. He caressed her tongue with his own and when she responded, when she opened her mouth to him, granting him access and deepening their kiss, he felt dizzy with pleasure.
This was, absolutely, the sweetest kiss he’d ever shared.
Slowly, still slowly, he explored the warmth of her mouth, the softness of her lips. He touched only her mouth with his, and the side of her face with the tips of his fingers. She wasn’t locked in his arms, their bodies weren’t pressed tightly together. Still, with this gentle, purest of kisses, she had the power to make his blood surge through his veins, to make his heart pound in a wild, frantic rhythm.
He wanted her desperately. His body was straining to become joined with hers. And yet…
This kiss was enough. It was exhilarating, and it made him feel incredibly happy. Happy in a way he’d never been even while making love to the other women he’d had relationships with—women he’d been attracted to and slept with, but hadn’t particularly cared for.
He felt a tightness in his chest, a weight of emotion he’d never felt before as, beneath his fingers, Veronica trembled.
He pulled back then, and she looked away, unable to meet his eyes.
“Well,” she said. “My word.”
“Yeah,” Joe agreed. He hadn’t intended to whisper, but he couldn’t seem to speak any louder.
“That was…unexpected.”
He couldn’t entirely agree. He’d been expecting to kiss her ever since their eyes first met and the raw attraction sparked between them. What was unexpected was this odd sense of caring, this emotional noose that had somehow curled itself around his chest. It was faintly uncomfortable, and it hadn’t disappeared even when he’d ended their kiss.
She glanced at him. “Maybe we should get back to work.”
Joe shook his head. “No,” he said. “I need a break, and you do, too.” He stood, holding out his hand to her. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your room. You can take a nap. I’ll meet you back here in a few hours.”
Veronica didn’t take his hand. She simply gazed up at him.
“Come on,” he said again. “Cut yourself some slack.”
But she shook her head. “There’s no time.”
He gently touched her hair. “Yes, there is. There’s definitely time for an hour of shut-eye,” he said. “Trust me, Ronnie, you’re gonna need it to concentrate.”
Joe could see indecision on her face. “How about forty minutes?” he added. “Forty winks. You can crash right here on the couch. I’ll order some coffee and wake you up at—” he glanced at his watch “—oh-six-twenty.”
Slowly she nodded. “All right.”
He bent down and briefly brushed her lips with his. “Sleep tight,” he said.
She stopped him, touching the side of his face. “You’re so sweet,” she said, surprise in her voice.
He had to laugh. He’d been called a lot of things in his life, and “sweet” wasn’t one of them. “Oh, no, I’m not.”
Veronica’s lips curved into a smile. “I didn’t mean that to be an insult.” Her smile faded and she looked away, suddenly awkward. “Joe, I have to be honest with you,” she said quietly. “I think that kiss…was a mistake. I’m so tired, and I wasn’t thinking clearly and, well, I hope you don’t think that I…Well, right now it’s not…We’re not…It’s a mistake. Don’t you think?”
Joe straightened. The noose around his chest was so damn tight he could hardly breathe. A mistake. Veronica thought kissing him had been a mistake. He shook his head slowly, hiding his disappointment behind a tight smile. “No, and I’m sorry you think that,” he replied. “I thought maybe we had something there.”
“Something?” Veronica echoed, glancing up at him.
This time it was Joe who looked away. He sat down next to her on the couch, suddenly tired. How could he explain what he meant, when he didn’t even know himself? Damn, he’d already said too much. What if she thought by “something” he meant he was falling in love with her?
He pushed his hair back with one hand and glanced at Veronica.
Yeah, she wanted him to fall in love with her about as much as she wanted a hole in the head. In the space of a heartbeat, he could picture her dismay, picture her imagining the restraining order she’d have to get to keep him away from her. He was rough and uncultured, blue-collar through and through. She hung out with royalty. It would be embarrassing and inconvenient for her to have some crazy, rough-edged, lovesick sailor following her around.
Gazing into her eyes, he could see her trepidation.
So he gave her a cocky smile and prayed that she couldn’t somehow sense the tightness in his chest. “I thought we had something great between us,” he said, leaning forward and putting his hand on her thigh.
Veronica moved back on the couch, away from him. His hand fell aside.
“Ah, yes,” she said. “Sex. Exactly what I thought you meant.”
Joe stood. “Too bad.”
She glanced at him but didn’t meet his gaze for more than a fraction of a second. “Yes, it is.”
He turned away, heading for the bedroom and his bed. Maybe some sleep would make this pressure in his chest lighten up or—please, God—even make it go away.
“Please, don’t forget to wake me,” Veronica called.
“Right,” he said shortly and closed the door behind him.
The knock on the door came quickly, no less than five minutes after Joe had called room service for coffee. Man, he thought, people really hopped to it when they thought a guy had blue blood.
West and the other FInCOM agent, Freeman, both drew their guns, motionin
g for Joe to move away from the door. It was an odd sensation. He was the one who usually did the protecting.
The door opened, and it was the room-service waiter. West and Freeman handed Joe two steaming mugs of fragrant coffee. Joe carried them to the coffee table and set them down.
Veronica was still asleep. She’d slid down on the couch so that her head was resting on the seat cushion. She clutched a legal pad to her chest.
She looked incredibly beautiful. Her skin was so smooth and soft looking, it was all he could do not to reach out with one knuckle to touch her cheek.
Veronica St. John.
Who would have guessed he would have a thing for a prim-and-proper society girl named Veronica St. John? “Sinjin,” for Pete’s sake.
But she wasn’t interested in him. That incredible, perfect kiss they’d shared had been “a mistake.”
Like hell it had.
Joe had had to force himself to fall asleep. Only his extensive training had kept him from lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling and expending his energy by playing their kiss over and over and over again in his mind. He’d spent enough time doing that while he was in the shower, after he woke up. Each time he played that kiss over in his head, he tried to figure out what he’d done wrong, and each time, he came up blank. Finally he’d had to admit it—he’d done nothing wrong. That kiss had been perfect, not a mistake.
Now all he had to do was convince Veronica of that fact.
Yeah, right. She was stubborn as hell. He’d have a better chance of convincing the Mississippi River to flow north.
The hell of it was, Joe found himself actually liking the girl, trying to make her smile. He wanted to get another look behind her so-very-proper British facade. Except he wasn’t sure exactly where the facade ended and the real girl began. So far, he’d seen two very conflicting images—Veronica in her prim-and-proper work clothes, and Veronica dressed down to dance. He was willing to bet that the real woman was hidden somewhere in the middle. He was also willing to bet that she would never willingly reveal her true self. Especially not to him.
Joe had more than just a suspicion that Veronica considered him substandard. He was the son of a servant, while she was a daughter of the ruling class. If she had a relationship with him, it would be a lark, a kick. She’d be slumming.
Alpha Squad Page 9
