Page 52 of Ricochet

“Nothingthat would be worth complaining about.”

A cute smile turned up on the corner of his lips. “Good. I take complaints seriously.”

“Does Delta have jobs in the US? I sometimes travel for work.”

“What do you do?” he asked.

Ugh. She’d walked into that one. What could she say? There were times that she met up with human traffickers because she was a regular. But she released everyone without callingthe cops. Few understood that her law-enforcement-less plan helped more people that way. “Mayhem stuff, mostly.”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“Nothing bad!” But all kinds of illegal—and she hated lying to Colin. She didn’t even feel bad for lying to Tex about what she did. But Colin wouldn’t get it. What she did was good—no, it was great!Illegal, oh yeah. Definitely.But maybe there was a gray lineof right and wrong for him. “What do you do at work?”

“Bit of this and that.”

At least he was evasive as she was. “Very interesting.”

His lips quirked. “I’m trying for a promotion.”

“Oh… I bet the ass-ripping you mentioned earlier doesn’t help.”

He kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry about it. I almost have it.”

She arched her eyebrow. “How does someone almost have a promotion and they’renot worried?”

“It has a contingency, but today, I’m not concerned.”

“Why aren’t you concerned?”

“Some things are worth the risk or punishment, beautiful.”

God, what was this between them? They had a connection she couldn’t explain. It wasn’t the insta-love she rolled her eyes at in made-for-TV movies, but she couldn’t get enough of him. No question about that. But now what. “Are we friends?”

“Sure.” He shrugged.

That was anti-climactic.

His shrug quickly faded, and Adelia realized she’d shown more on her face than she meant to as she watched him backtrack. “Oh, you mean, this? Us?”

“Not necessarily.” She bit her lip.

“I thought you were going to say something else. Of course, we’re friends.” He shifted onto his elbow, leaning over her on the couch.

“That was weird to ask,” shedownplayed. “I don’t do whatever this was. Sorry to put you in an awkward position.”

“Whatever this is,” he corrected, still watching her intently.

“Is.” She liked how quiet and contemplative he was, how Colin was masculine and tough but didn’t shy away from conversations that mattered.

Then again, he hadn’t said anything besides she wasn’t yesterday’s news. Her nerves switched on, and shefidgeted. He brushed hair back from her forehead, and his intense study of her didn’t back away.

“We don’t have to call us anything other than friends.” Adelia bit the inside of her cheeks. That sounded even stranger. “This doesn’t need an explanation. Can we forget I brought it up?”

He chuckled. “You know that we stare at each other too long to be just friends, right? Like at the bachelorparty.”

He saw her checking him out? Her skin heated. “I didn’t mean to…” Except she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

“You realize that, right?”

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