Flirting With Fate

by Lexi Ryan

  Chrissie nodded. “I’ve been in Wiley’s memories,” she said. “Boy has some serious baggage.”

  Josie swirled the clear liquid in her martini glass. “We all have baggage.”

  “Did you know he was a foster child?”

  Josie looked up from her drink. “I didn’t know that.” But somehow it didn’t surprise her. Somehow she knew Tanner was an orphan like her.

  Chrissie shuddered. “If most foster parents are like his, it makes you want to sign on to take in a couple of brats, ya know?”

  “That bad?” Josie asked.

  Chrissie shook her head. “The memories are buried pretty deep, but what I’ve seen...yeah.”

  “So what was he doing in your office?” Paige asked, moving the conversation away from the circumstances of Tanner’s childhood. Though it rarely happened, using their abilities to gossip always made Paige uncomfortable.

  “Secret groomsman stuff,” Josie said. “I can’t tell you, or it would ruin the surprise.” Why was her capacity for telling the simplest lies diminished when she was near her girls?

  Inclining her chin slightly, Chrissie narrowed her eyes. She knew Josie was lying. She must have seen a piece of Josie’s memory. Already.

  Damn it.

  Josie ignored the look. She could figure out something to tell Chrissie later. At least if Paige picked up on the lie—which she likely would, given her empathic abilities—she’d not know the reason.

  Josie didn’t want either of her partners knowing. First and foremost, she was looking for answers to some very private questions about her past—questions about memories she’d kept secret from both of her friends, even the postcog Chrissie. Involving the girls would mean sharing a part of herself she’d locked away a long time ago.

  But second, and more importantly, if Josie found the answers she expected at the fertility clinics, the girls would never let her go through with her plan.

  Chrissie gave up on trying to glare the truth out of Josie and looked at her beer.

  Oblivious to the silent exchange, Paige leaned across the table with a grin. “Thanks so much for taking care of all the wedding details for me, Josie.”

  And thank you for changing the subject. “It’s not a problem. You know I love to plan.” It was true. And if her ability made planning a wedding a little easier for her than it was for most, so be it.

  Josie hadn’t even realized Chrissie’d turned toward the door when she heard her mumble, “If it isn’t the Three Stooges.”

  Tanner. Josie’s eyes darted to the door a little too quickly.

  Chrissie chuckled and patted Josie’s arm. “Well, look who’s suddenly interested in a few SIA boys.”

  Josie’s heart kicked up a beat at the sight of Tanner Wiley. Even in jeans and a soft green oxford that matched his eyes, he looked like he’d stepped off the cover of Every Woman’s Fantasy Weekly. His light brown hair was tucked behind his ears and was a little ragged where it brushed his collar. His grin was wicked as ever, and his sleeves were rolled to his elbows, exposing strong, bronzed forearms.

  The three men strode across the room to stand at the end of the girls’ booth.

  “You ladies must be on a budget to be in such a seedy place,” Tanner said, looking around at the scarred floors and undoubtedly taking in the stale beer smell.

  “We like it here,” Josie explained.

  “What’s your excuse?” Chrissie asked.

  Tanner shook his head and looked to Josie. “Is it just us or is she mean to everyone?”

  “She’s an equal opportunity bitch,” Josie said with a smile. “But seriously, if you’re here to ride our coattails on the Pentagon job,” she said, referring to a sensitive case they’d wrapped that afternoon, “it’s already taken care of.”

  He nodded and lowered his voice so only she could hear. “I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you we were here because we wanted to hang out with you?”

  Josie threw her head back and laughed. “No. I wouldn’t believe that.” More likely was they’d come keep an eye on them. But then, Darian was already pulling Paige from the booth to the dance floor, apparently intent on taking advantage of every opportunity to touch his wife-to-be.

  The way Darian looked at Paige made Josie turn all gushy inside.

  Tanner touched her arm and his expression turned sheepish. “Let me buy you a beer?”

  At his smile, hundreds of butterflies burst from their cocoons in her belly. “Another martini would be okay.” Another martini would be more foolish than okay, but she didn’t have the willpower to turn down his company.

  He signaled the waitress and ordered the drinks, and Chrissie said, “What about me?”

  “Fernandez can buy your drink,” Tanner said, nudging his partner.

  Chrissie rolled her eyes.

  Fernandez watched Chrissie with his usual combination of skepticism and fascination.

  “Fine,” Chrissie said, “but don’t get any ideas. This isn’t a double date.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Fernandez said, lifting her hand by her fingertips and gazing at her through his thick, dark lashes. “Do you wanna go make out in the corner?”

  Chrissie punched him in the arm, but then slid over to make room for him.

  Josie did the same for Tanner. Bad idea, her brain warned, but she ignored it.

  After what she’d found in her mother’s old journal this weekend, she needed to unwind like she needed air.

  Tanner slid into the booth and his body heat warmed the space around him. He smelled a little like leather and gunpowder—two smells Josie wasn’t entirely sure she’d find so damn appealing on anyone else.

  The waitress returned with their drinks, and Tanner held one out to Josie. “For the lady.”

  As she took it, her fingers brushed his. The touch sent a jolt of electricity straight to the sweet spot between her legs and a vision to her mind.

  He slid his hand into her hair and lowered his lips to hers. Waves crashed and soft Caribbean sand grazed her bare back. He slipped his tongue into her mouth. She arched into him and her nipples grazed his chest hair…

  Josie withdrew from his touch slowly, her cheeks warming. The beach this time. Every time she had a vision of the two of them together, the locale was different, but the temperature was always the same—scorching.

  She’d begun having intimate visions of Tanner Wiley six months ago when Stilettos, Inc. had worked with him and his two Specials Intelligence Agency partners, Darian and Fernandez. After six months of prophetic foreplay, she ached for him so much it was embarrassing. In her dreams, her fantasies, her visions of his future and her own—he was always there. Always touching her. As a result, she walked around a state of perpetual arousal.

  “You okay?” Tanner asked. He turned in toward her and brushed a lock of hair from her face.

  He slid his hand between their bodies and explored her breasts, her torso, the sensitive skin at each hip bone, before returning to her breasts. His thumb toyed with each nipple as he dipped his tongue into her mouth. Instinctively, her thighs spread, welcoming the strength and weight of his narrow hips as he settled onto her.

  Between their bodies, he explored. His fingertips lightly grazed her stomach and circled her navel. Her hips rose off the sand, desperate to have his fingers slip inside her.

  Josie licked her lips and concentrated on keeping her breathing steady. Every time she touched Tanner, she saw this. Heat. Passion. Sex.

  What puzzled her, though, was that although she’d chosen not to act on her attraction, the visions hadn’t changed. As someone who regularly saw snippets of the future, she understood how easily it could change, and how the smallest decision could make a person headed to point A alter course to point X.

  Six months after her first vision she hadn’t so much as kissed the man, so why was she still seeing herself going at it hot and heavy with Tanner?

  Tanner smiled, cocking his head. “What? Did you see something?”

 
She sighed, wishing he didn’t know about her ability and that he weren’t a Special too. Dealing with men who were too attractive for their own good was hard enough. Throw in the complications of a secret society of people with special powers and add the mess of tension between the SIA and Stilettos, Inc. and suddenly entering into the relationship became foolish.

  For six months, she had kept her distance from Wiley because she wasn’t foolish. But after what she’d found in her mother’s journal, foolish didn’t begin to describe what a mistake it would be to start anything with Tanner.

  She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

  His grin was crooked. And wicked. “Only a precog would call seeing something from the future nothing. It’s fascinating, and I’m curious. Give me a hint?”

  Chrissie snorted. “Don’t waste your breath. Josie doesn’t share her visions of the future. She thinks it manipulates free will to put that information out there.” She waved her hand. “Or something like that.”

  Tanner turned back to Josie. Was it just her or had he moved a little closer? “Is that true? You never share your visions?”

  Josie shrugged. “Not never, but rarely.”

  He took her left hand in both of his. “But you can’t blame me for being curious. You’re seeing something?”

  “Nothing I haven’t been seeing for months now,” she said, studying him, and consciously blocking the visions pressing at the back of her mind. She’d only have to open the slightest bit and they’d be there. He’d be there.

  The visions and her knowledge of what he could do to her—and how well he could do it—would make her want him. On her, over her...inside her. A girl could only have so much willpower.

  His eyes locked with hers and the air sizzled between them. Even without precognitive images of tangled limbs and moans of pleasure, her pulsed kicked up.

  Did he know his smooth shave was threatening to turn to stubble? She wanted to run her fingers over it, feel it against her neck as he nuzzled her, wanted to feel it leave its mark on her as he explored her breasts. Then his lips would make a path over her belly and to her thighs until she trembled.

  Would he open her legs, placing his fingers on her inner thighs and opening her with gentle pressure? Or would he slip his fingers between thighs and over her clit, opening her with persuasion?

  Her visions made two things clear: first, she and Tanner had more than a simple love affair waiting for them. Paige had been right on that account.

  Second, what was bound to be complicated would also be a damn good time.

  “See, you’re smiling.” His thumbs drew circles on the tender inside of her palms. “It can’t be that bad. Can you give me even a hint?”

  Didn’t she deserve a good time? Maybe it was the martinis or maybe it was the thrill of knowing they’d just successfully brought another case to a close, but she was ready to indulge. Knowing she shouldn’t only heightened the temptation.

  Josie relaxed the wall she’d erected. There was a vision there. Waiting. Pressing against it. What would she see this time? His hands on her? His mouth? And where would they be? Outside this very bar?

  She dropped the wall but the vision she saw of his future wasn’t the one she expected.

  Tanner walked across Josie’s apartment, heading straight to the rolltop desk in the corner of her living area.

  “What do you know that you’re not telling me?” he muttered, flipping through the papers there.

  He picked up the leather-bound journal and flipped through the pages.

  An engine cut off outside and a door slammed.

  “Crap.” He faded until he was invisible, then Josie opened the door, stepping into her apartment and peeling off her clothes as she headed toward the bedroom.

  Josie dropped her hand and backed away as much as the booth would allow.

  “What do you see?” Tanner asked.

  She sighed. She’d brought this on herself by getting him involved in her private investigation, but when would these SIA guys learn to mind their own business? “Nothing I haven’t seen before,” she muttered, suddenly feeling a lot less uninhibited than she had moments before.

  She should never have brought him in on this. He would press her for the truth until she gave it or he found it on his own.

  “Any time you want to tell me about it,” he said, “you know where to find me.”

  Yes, she did. He’d be helping her with a case closer to her heart than any. She’d chosen him because he couldn’t get into her head but he could get into secure areas of high tech laboratories.

  Had it been a mistake?

  Chapter Two

  Josie watched her own spitting image squeeze through the crowd and thought, That’s what my sister would look like.

  Her second thought was that she was a nutcase who needed to see her shrink again.

  Under the table, she nudged Chrissie with her foot. “Do you see her?” The question didn’t do much to make her sound any saner than she felt, but she had to know.

  They’d stayed hours longer than they’d intended. The bar had begun its Monday night half-price margarita special, and the crowd had thickened. At nearly ten, the bar was more packed than they’d ever seen it. This was their after-work drinks destination. If they were making a night of it, they chose a very different kind of scene. The kind with more dance floor than bar and lots of bodies writhing to a sensual beat.

  “Holy Christ,” Chrissie said, pointing to the space between the pool tables where Paige and Darian were dancing. “Why don’t they just get a room?”

  Josie tore her gaze away from her could-be twin at the bar to look for Paige, the bachelorette who, in two weeks, would marry her perfect match. “They’re in love,” Josie explained, and Chrissie cocked a brow as if to say Josie’s explanation didn’t follow.

  “Sorry,” Chrissie said, “see who?”

  “The girl at the—” Josie returned her attention to the question of her sanity. She searched the crowd for her face. “The one who—” She scanned the bar. The woman was gone. Frantically, Josie searched the growing throngs of people milling around the pool table and karaoke area. She took in face after face, but the bar was too busy, and even if she had seen what she thought, she’d never find her again in this crowd.

  She dropped her gaze to study her drink. Let it go. But it wasn’t easy. She hadn’t thought about that particular childhood delusion in years.

  Josie excused herself, and Chrissie followed her. Once they were in the bathroom, Chrissie threw the bolt to lock the door. “When were you going to tell me about the fertility clinics?”

  So much for keeping this from people who could get in her head. Josie ran the water, watching it hit the porcelain as she waited for it to warm. “What about them?”

  “Why are you investigating them with Tanner? What do you know? And why are you keeping us in the dark?” Chrissie’s tone made it clear she wasn’t playing games.

  Josie closed her eyes.

  Chrissie put her hand on her shoulder. “Listen, it worries me when you keep shit from us. What’s going on?”

  She slid her hands under the water. It was too hot, and she scrubbed at her skin, watching it redden, scrubbing all the way up to the S-shaped scar on the inside of her wrist.

  “You’re going to burn yourself.” Chrissie shut off the water. “What did you read in that old book? What is it, a journal? What does it have to do with fertility clinics?”

  “Dear Santa,” Josie muttered, “all I want for Christmas is some friends who won’t poke into my private thoughts.”

  Chrissie folded her arms and set her jaw. Okay, so no apology coming anytime soon.

  Josie exhaled slowly. “I have a friend, a Special, who works at a mental health center. She noticed a growing number of visits from Specials who have recently discovered their powers.” Specials got their powers after losing their virginity. Depending on the power, sometimes it manifested right away, and other times the Special wouldn’t know she was different
until months down the road. Either way, if you didn’t know it was coming, it was disconcerting, and her friend met a lot of young people who thought they were crazy.

  “Go on,” Chrissie prompted, arms folded.

  Josie shook her head. “My friend is suspicious about the growing numbers and suspicious about why there seem to be so many more in this area than in others.” Josie would have looked into the case regardless, but as it turned out, it was the perfect cover to get Tanner to help with her personal mission.

  Chrissie narrowed her eyes. “You think fertility clinics are making Specials?”

  Josie lifted her palms. “I don’t know where else to start.” She’d distorted some data to have an excuse to get Tanner to go into the clinics with her, but in truth she wasn’t too worried about growing numbers of Specials. Like Tanner, she thought the numbers could be chalked up to increased awareness, outreach through the Internet and any number of other plausible factors. She just needed some answers about her past and an explanation of what she’d found in her mother’s diary.

  Chrissie still looked pissed. “So?”

  “So, what?”

  “Jesus, Josie, if that’s all there is to it, why the hell didn’t you ask me and Paige? Why involve the fucking SIA?” When Chrissie said it, SIA sounded like a dirty word.

  She couldn’t answer that. Not without telling Chrissie about memories of the sister she didn’t have. Not without telling Chrissie about what she’d found in the journal.

  “I just need you to let me do this on my own,” she said. “I promise I’ll tell you more when I can.”

  Chrissie wasn’t satisfied, but she said, “And the journal you’ve been studying?”

  Josie’s heart clenched. If Chrissie knew how private this was, she wouldn’t be doing this. “I’ve had my mother’s journal ever since...”

  “Since your family was murdered,” Chrissie supplied softly.

  “Yeah, and I read it this weekend.” A distortion of the truth. This weekend, she’d read the journal for what had to be the twentieth time, but it was the first time she’d recognized the pattern in the nonstandard capitalization. This weekend was the first time she’d found a secret message from the mother she’d lost ten years ago.