Chapter 3
Any thought of Damien had slipped from Samantha’s mind when a notice from the higher seat was posted on the main board.
“Did you see?” Samantha waved excitedly at Finn. “There’s going to be a promotion in our department!”
“Yes, I heard. Which of these dunderheads do you think is going to get it?” Finn asked, surveying the office.
“Finn!” Samantha gave him a pointed stare.
“OH! Are you hoping it’s you?”
“Kind of. Yes. Yes actually. I think I am due a promotion, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course.” Finn’s eyebrows creased into a frown and his shoulders dropped slightly.
Samantha stared at him in puzzlement. “But…?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way or anything. You totally deserve the promotion. It’s just… I was getting comfortable and if you get promoted then I will have to get another partner…” he trailed off, looking away from her.
A grin spread on Samantha’s face. The man was entirely too sweet. It pleased her to know he valued their partnership. Truth be told, she herself liked the pairing. They worked very well together and it was indeed comfortable. Agents in the agency were constantly being rotated, there being no stability among most partners. Finn and she on the other hand, had it easy.
“Don’t worry, partner,” Samantha clapped him on the shoulder. “Maybe that promotion is not due me just yet.”
“Don’t say that on my account. I’ll be fine when you get promoted. I’ll keep the wolves at bay,” Finn said lightly, making her laugh softly. “Haley has something for us, by the way.”
“Haley?” Samantha called out hesitantly as they stepped inside the tech room and found it looking like someone had ransacked it.
A hand waved from behind a stack of boxes and a muffled voice carried over, “Come in!”
“Are you redecorating?” Finn jokingly questioned, stepping over a tipped over box.
“Kind of,” Haley’s rainbow colored head popped up as she pulled herself upright from behind the mess. “I’m missing a file, actually. And if I don’t find it by tonight…” She made a slashing motion across her throat.
“Whose file did you lose?” Samantha asked, frowning. It was not like Haley to lose something.
“Misplaced,” Haley corrected. “Agent Marks’.”
The two agents winced in unison. Agent Marks was one the older agents who had quite a reputation. No one could afford to be on the wrong side of him.
“You’ll find it, Haley,” Samantha reassured her. “Has to be around here somewhere.”
“You better. Or you’ll be searching for another job,” Finn said, not holding back the punch and cursed when Samantha pinched him. “Ouch. Sorry.”
“You had something for us?”
“Hmm? Yes! Those photos you gave me… with the strange symbols being left at each scene? They’re like code. At least that’s what I think they are. And I think there will be more of them.”
“You mean more bodies are going to drop?” Finn asked, with a frown.
“I don’t know but this elusive gang is trying to send a message and it’s incomplete. So something is bound to come up soon. Keep a look out.”
“It’s been silent for a while. Have you figured out the part of the code you have?” Samantha inquired.
“Not exactly. That’s why I need your help.” Bending over, Haley lifted a box and pushed it into Finn’s arms. “I need you to go through all these files and look for something that stands out.”
“What are they?” Samantha peered inside the box as Finn made a show of grunting.
“Old cases. I searched through the whole database and these are the ones which hint at such an elusive gang. I’m hoping there is something in them that would help me decipher the message… at least the part we have so far.”
“Isn’t that normally your job?” Finn said, pointedly.
“Yes,” Haley groaned. “But look at the state of my shrine. I’m neck deep in workload. I would do it myself, but your case would be on a standstill until I find the time.”
“It’s alright, we can do it,” Samantha smiled sympathetically at the other woman. As soon as they left, Haley threw herself back to the ground, searching for the job saver.
Between themselves, they divided the files equally and immediately went to work. Samantha took her lot and went down to the coffee place. Seating herself in a quiet corner, she took a sip of her warm coffee, rubbed her hands and was about to open the first case file when a shadow fell across the table.
“You again?” she exclaimed indignantly as a familiar pair of grey eyes twinkled down at her.
“Hello, Peaches. You look well.”
“I thought I told you to leave me alone.”
“That you did. But I am a stubborn man. I don’t give up easily.” Seeming unfazed by her indignation, Damien reached over and pulled a chair for himself opposite her. “You’re an FBI agent,” he observed, staring down at the file.
Sliding the file under her arm, Samantha cocked an eyebrow at him, “Then you know I am wearing a gun… stalker.”
He made a sound that could have been a laugh. “The evidence of your career is staring at my face. Don’t get me wrong. I have the resources to find out anything I want to about you but where’s the fun in that, eh?”
She growled at him, making his amusement at her behavior more apparent. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”
“Do you really want me to?”
“Yes!”
He tutted. “That lacks conviction, Peaches.”
“This isn’t a game!” she snapped at him. “I can have a restraining order against you if you keep this up. And stop calling me that!”
More lip twitching ensued. “I like restraints. Very erotic,” Damien commented, like he was talking about the weather.
“Damien!” Samantha hissed, a blush stealing across her cheeks. Great. Now she was acting like a shy school girl.
The persistent man just shrugged infuriatingly and gave her a seemingly innocent smile. The sight of the smile made her heartbeat go wild. Suddenly her irritation was replaced by an entirely different emotion and she found herself leaning towards him. Then something clanged in the kitchen, jerking her out of the haze and making her remember the chaotic environment they were in and what she wanted him to understand.
“Look, you’re great. The sex was extremely good. But that’s it. That’s all there was to it. You’re probably not used to being told no but I can’t go out with you, okay? Accept defeat on this one…please.”
“The sex was not extremely good.”
“Excuse me?”
His lips twitched slightly and there was a sparkle in his eyes. “It was fucking fantastic.”
Samantha stared at him incredulously and then felt her own lips take form of a wide smile. “Yes, it was,” she said almost reminiscently.
They both remained silent, minds far away relishing the moments of wonderful heat they had created together.
“Are you going to use work as an excuse?”
She remained mute for a few seconds and then shook her head. She reached up to rub her suddenly throbbing temples. The man was too persistent for her. He was using all his resources against her and her defenses were crumbling. She was trying to put them back as fast as possible but he was still getting through them. A tiny voice in the back her mind chided her for her stubbornness. He was just asking for a date – nothing more. What could possibly go wrong?
Chapter 4
“Yes.”
Samantha’s heart beat frantically against her chest as she looked Damien directly in the eyes. Confusion clouded his features as he asked, “Yes, you’re going to use work as an excuse?”
“No. Not that. I meant…” She took a deep breath and said it so fast that he almost did not hear her. “Yes, alright. I’ll go on one date with you.”
“Great.”
&nb
sp; She stared him and suddenly had an urge to throw her cup of coffee in his face. He sounded and looked like he could be less enthused with the idea.
“Wow. Don’t get all excited on my account now.”
He did the cough-laugh thing again. “I’m afraid, that’s all.”
“What?”
“I’m afraid that I’m dreaming and am suddenly going to wake up to find you saying no to me, again. Or that you’re playing a mean trick on me. So you see, I don’t want to get too excited in case either of the scenarios occur.”
Silence followed his reply and then a giggle burst forth from between her lips taking her own self by surprise. This was easy going. Nothing awkward about it. She could survive a date with him.
“No second thoughts, right?” he asked almost worriedly.
Waving her hand, she laughingly assured him. They talked for a while about nothing in particular and then a phone call from Finn made her gather her things, regretfully.
“Sorry, duty calls.” She slipped the unread file back into the plastic cover with the others and stood up.
“I understand.” Damien stood up too. His eyes shone in approval as they traveled from her shoes to the curve of her hips to the plain white shirt that clung to her and finally rested on her face. The blatant way he checked her out made her feel conscious but at the same time something inside her relished the power. “See you Saturday, then.”
He walked her out, even holding the door open for her, making her smile. As she started to walk away, he suddenly grabbed her arm gently, pulling her against him and planting a hard kiss on her lips. Her eyes widened and her body turned hyperaware as hormones started their surge. Almost immediately he released her lips from captivity and said gruffly, “See you, Peaches.”
Dazed, she wobbled backwards and then on unsteady legs made her way to the office. With every step she took, she could feel his stare on her. Her eyes shone brightly, her lips were plumped red and there was a wide grin on her face. For the first time in a long while, she felt like she had not a care in the world.
When Samantha called Gina for the date night wardrobe emergency, she nearly had her eardrums blown. Gina dropped everything she was involved in and practically ran to her place, demanding that Samantha tell her everything.
“Would you relax? I haven’t even been on the date yet.” Samantha shook her head at her friend’s enthusiasm.
“How can I relax? My dream has come true. You’re going on a date!” Gina said dramatically. “You know what this entitles? A toast!”
“You’re just looking for excuses to drink my alcohol. And I’ve been on dates before,” Samantha grumbled.
Gina thrust a glass into her hand and popped the cork off the wine bottle. “Yeah, sure.” She did not seem to recall any dates that Samantha had gone on during the course of their friendship, which was a long time, but she decided not to pursue that line of subject now. “But this date is with McHottie – best sex ever!”
“Don’t you think we sometimes over share?”
“Nope,” Gina said popping the ‘p’ and then turned thoughtful. “Okay, maybe just a little.”
“Yeah.”
“We’re going shopping,” Gina declared, making Samantha moan.
“Do we have to?”
“Have you seen the state of your wardrobe?” Her friend said in all seriousness. “Of course, we need to go shopping. You need get out of the FBI agent persona and into sexy mode, sweetie. Now tell me, where is he taking you?”
Samantha gave in and allowed herself to be dragged off to various stores across the city. After going through what may have been like a hundred outfits, and being forced to model each one, she voiced her frustration.
“Can we just go now? I have something in the back of my closet that will do.”
“No, no, no!” Gina dragged her away from the door. “We’ll find something. We’re just not looking in the right places. Also, if we knew where he was taking you, it would’ve been easier.” Sighing, she turned away from the set of dresses the saleswoman was showing her. “Call him. Ask him how you should dress.” Rolling her eyes at the hovering woman behind her, she added, “Can you believe her? She didn’t even ask the man how she should dress.”
Samantha frowned. “Why does it matter? I can wear anything pretty and it would do.”
A loud groan came from the both Gina and the saleswoman. “You really are dense on date matters, aren’t you? Okay, imagine this. You dress in a dress worthy of a high end restaurant and he takes you to a carnival. Not appropriate. Or you don your leather jacket and black denim jeans and he takes you to Le Noir. Boy, the people there will have something to talk about for sure then.”
“Okay I get your point.” Samantha suddenly felt stupid for not thinking about that herself. It seriously had been a long time since she had socialized and apparently she had forgotten the etiquettes of such matters. Digging her phone from the pocket of her jacket, she scrolled down till she came to his name and then hesitated. At the encouraging nod from her friend, she pressed ‘Call’.
He picked up on the second ring. “Hello, Peaches.” His voice sounded beautiful even over the phone. Swallowing hard, she quickly tried to find her voice.
“Hi Damien. Hope I am not calling at a bad time.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gina leaning forward as though trying to listen in and threw her a frown before stepping away.
“No time is bad when it’s you.” Okay, that was cheesy but she would let it pass since it was him. “To what to do I owe this call? No second thoughts, I hope?”
“No, no second thoughts. I was just wondering about… where are we going?”
There was evident relief in his voice as he said, “Good. I’m afraid I can’t go into the specifics of the place. Is the query to solve a dress code issue or something else?”
“Dress code.”
“Dress comfortably.” That was a bit vague. Did that mean casual?
“Uh, just a moment.” Covering the phone with one hand, she beckoned Gina over. “He says dress comfortably, does that help?” she whispered. Gina gave her a thumbs up.
“Yeah, sorry. Okay, thanks. That’s all I wanted to ask.”
“Don’t worry about it. Anything you wear will be fine.” She heard some papers being ruffled in the background and low voices and wondered if he was at his workplace.
“So, if I turn up wearing peacock feathers, you wouldn’t mind?” she could not resist the tease.
He did the cough-laugh thing and asked in a deeper voice, “Now are the feathers covering all of you or just some parts?”
The man was incorrigible. “I’ll leave all that to your imagination,” she said smoothly.
Damien groaned, “I’m not sure if you just made my night or prolonged the suffering, woman.”
Samantha laughed and bid him a good night before turning towards her friend. Her eyes were shining brightly and her cheeks were tinted a lovely shade of pink, giving her a kind of a glow. “He seems to have some outdoor plans. So warm and casual, right? That’s easy to find.” She found Gina staring at her with a strange expression. “What?”
“What? Oh… nothing. Yeah, that’s better. Let’s see the other set again, please,” Gina said abruptly.
It took them a lot less time to find the right outfit and when Samantha presented herself in it, Gina pretended to wipe away happy tears. “Beautiful. Damien is not going to know what hit him,” she said happily, before hugging the surprised Samantha.
Chapter 5
Saturday evening came by quickly and Samantha found herself wound up in excitement and nerves. She went into the office for a few hours to get her mind off the date and then Finn shooed her away.
“Don’t you have to get ready or something, instead of sulking around the office?” he asked her finally when she started nibbling at her nails.
“The date isn’t for another few hours. Moreover, I can read through some more of these case files. We
’re on a clock.”
Removing the box from her desk, Finn ignored the protest as he also tugged the file from her hands. “Go home. I’ve no plans, I will cover your portion of reading. It’s not like the perps are going anywhere while you’re on a date. Now go!”
“But…”
“No, don’t want to hear it, Sam.” Finn removed her physically from the building while she grumbled and made sure she drove away before returning inside.
Samantha took a nice long bath, enjoying the work of the aromatic salts and oil on her body and then wrapped a robe around herself. Two more hours before Damien arrived. She wished she had snuck some files home. Not knowing what to do with her free self, she wandered around a bit, pondering a drink to soothe her nerves and then decided against it. She wanted to go on the date alcohol free. Besides, she seemed to consume too much of that stuff anyway.
Finally she found herself on the couch, doing her nails while reruns of some TV show ran on in the background. One hour down, one more to go. She got to work on her makeup and hair and then pulled on her outfit. Just as she was lacing up her ankle boots, the phone rang.
“Hey Gina.”
“Hey girl! Ready?”
“Yep. With still time to spare.” Samantha glanced at the clock and sighed. Fifteen more minutes. That was of course, if Damien was right on time, something she had an instinctual feeling that he was particular about.
“Always good. Send me a photo.”
Standing in front of the full length mirror, she clicked a selfie and sent it to Gina, who immediately made appreciative noises. It was the connection between friends that alerted Gina to the nerves bothering Samantha so she steered the conversation in the other direction. Minutes ticked by and just before it struck the hour, the doorbell rang making Samantha jump slightly.
Promised Box Set Page 81
