Page 21 of Dark Rebel's Fortune

Max held her gaze for a long moment, thennodded. "We'll do it your way." He glanced to Yamanu for confirmation, and when the head Guardian nodded, Max turned to the others. "Kyra will make first contact while we maintain positions nearby, ready to move in if needed."

8

MAX

Max stood in the doorway of their bedroom, watching as Kyra laid the abaya, the niqab, the fat suit, and loose pants and shirt on the bed, but he wasn't looking at the black fabric or the nude-color padded suit. He was looking at the woman who had captured his heart and was now standing in a pair of modest panties and a tank top, looking sexier than any lingerie model on the cover of a fancy magazine.

"I wish this was a vacation, and we didn't need to leave." He closed the door behind him and walked over to her. "Seeing you like this gives me all kinds of ideas." He pulled her into his arms.

Her body was rigid with tension, but when he started kissing her, she melted against him, getting lost in the kiss and the intimacy of the moment.

When they had to come up for air, she leanedaway, placing her hands on his chest. "I need to get ready."

He nodded, reluctantly letting go of her.

She picked up the suit. "It's truly ingenious, now that I've had the time and space to properly inspect it." She strapped it around her waist and thighs, and Max stepped forward to help with the adjustments.

He tried to be professional as he helped her hide several items inside the enormous fake breasts, but he couldn't help brushing his fingers against her own flesh through the thin fabric of her tank top.

Talk about a trigger. For both of them.

It was a reminder that despite the night they had spent in each other's arms, nothing had happened, and now they were going to share a bedroom for the duration of this mission, and Max couldn't help hoping that there would be more.

"Can you fit my backup piece in there?" Kyra asked, breaking the sudden tension between them.

Max snorted. "I could fit two handguns and a couple of grenades in each."

Kyra looked down at herself and burst out laughing. "Not exactly how I imagined the first contact between your hands and my breasts."

And…the tension was back in full force.

"I assure you that in my fantasies, there's considerably less padding involved." He sounded husky.

Their eyes met, and for a moment, it seemed like Kyra was ready to drop the suit and tackle him down to the bed, but then a knock sounded on the door.

"Are you about ready?" Yamanu asked.

"Almost there," Max called back. He cleared his throat and took a step back. "You probably want to finish this by yourself."

Kyra nodded and quickly finished adjusting the padding before reaching for the pants and shirt that went over the suit and under the abaya. "This makes me swear that I will never gain this much weight," she said as she struggled to bend down to put the pants on.

"You're immortal. Unless you force yourself to eat cheesecakes all day long, your body is not going to change significantly even if you overeat."

She looked at him with an unreadable expression on her face. "If I ever get pregnant again, it will be just as difficult, but it would be worth it."

Max swallowed and nodded, not knowing how else to react. Did she mean that she wanted to have a child with him, or just in general?

"How do I look?" she asked after pulling on the abaya and niqab.

"Like a perfectly unremarkable matron," Max said. "No one would suspect you're carrying enough firepower to take down a small army."

He couldn't see her smiling, but he could practically feel it.

"Remember, we'll be listening the entire time," he said. "If anything goes wrong, we'll be there in seconds. Did you figure out what you are going to do?"

Kyra shrugged. "I'll knock on the door. If the guard answers, I'll tell him that I'm an old friend from Soraya's high school, and if she answers, I'll tell her that I have news of her daughters." She took a breath. "After that, I'll have to improvise based on her reaction."

"What if she doesn't let you in?" Max asked.

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