Page 35 of A Lion's Heart
“Yes. Really,” Decan replied when she pushed his hands away from her.
The hem of the dress was so high up her thigh, it rode a fine line between immediate arousal and should be prohibited for fear of producing a cardiac event. Thick straps wound behind her neck, leaving her shoulders bare. The same material hugged her generous breasts, but left the stretch of skin between her breasts and almost to her navel bare.
“You’re practically falling out of it,” he snapped.
“Good,” she replied and cupped her breasts, moving them in a motion as if to lift them higher. “That’s the intention.”
That wasn’t necessary, Decan thought. Not at all. They looked high and plump and tasty without any effort. She offered him a brilliant smile and Decan’s teeth clenched tightly.
“We need to go over the ground rules.”
Because he’d be damned if he was going to walk into a room full of human males who would no doubt be gaping at her. Until they found out she was a shifter and then they would be pulling their guns and aiming to kill her. Decan was prepared to kill in either instance.
Nisa surprised him by backing up and leaning against the desk across the room. She folded her arms over her chest and crossed her legs at the ankles. The action drew his attention to the strappy sandals she wore with her neatly painted toes peeking from the black leather. She’d done something different with her hair too. It was twisted back on one side leaving fluffy curls to lay neatly on her forehead and in the back. Her lipstick was a dark burgundy color, and her eyes looked bigger, sexier with the make-up she’d applied there. In short, she was breathtaking and Decan was struggling to keep it together long enough to say what needed to be said to keep her safe.
“Go,” she prodded with a nod when he was still standing there quietly.
She smelled of pure confidence and sex. Yes, she was aroused. No matter how cool and collected she appeared, her body would always give her away, especially to him. There was some consolation in knowing that this nagging urge wasn’t one-sided. However, it didn’t make it any easier to accept.
“We’ll arrive at the party separately. It’s better if nobody gets their first glimpse of you with me,” he said.
He’d come up with that on his own. Jace had insisted Nisa stay with Decan, but that wasn’t going to happen. No way was he putting her in the type of danger that would fall upon her if any of the humans found out who he was.
“Gold will stay with you. You think whoever accessed those records is a shifter, so you’ll be checking for any other shifters in the room. Use your comlink to snap a picture of them if you can and run it through the database. Keep a mental list of each one you spot and we’ll do deeper research on them when we return.”
“What are you going to be doing?” she asked.
“I have a meeting with Jace’s contact,” he told her.
She nodded.
“So, no matter what I bring to the table, you’re still determined to keep me out of what you’re really doing.”
Decan was wearing slacks, a black button front shirt and black jacket. Together they looked as if they were in mourning. Or they were a couple working an undercover case for some covert agency in a blockbuster movie. Both scenarios had him frowning.
“You have your assignment and I have mine,” he told her. “That’s how it’s been since the beginning.”
“Oh right, you and my father decided you would come along with me as a sort of bodyguard, when really, you were coming here to what? Help them find Cole? Is that what you are? Some type of shifter investigator? Is that why there’s no record of you beyond articles of birth and contact information for the members of your tribe?”
He’d slipped one hand into his front pant pocket as she was talking, but at those last words he stilled once more. He told himself she couldn’t help it. She had an inquisitive mind. The records on her—the ones marked private and kept in one of those classified docks on the holodeck which he had access to as a Senior Enforcer—said she’d been that way since she was a little girl. She’d done everything early, walked, spoke, even shifted. Always in a hurry and always looking for the answers. He wanted to admire that about her, to revel in the fact that he was inquisitive as well. But he couldn’t because in Nisa’s instance, her natural persona might be what got her killed.
“I am not at liberty to discuss my job with you.”
“Then what about the rest? Are you not at liberty to tell me anything about yourself other than your name?”
“You know something else about me,” he said.
One elegantly arched eyebrow lifted as she asked, “I do? What’s that?”
“You know that I like the taste of you and that I spent all last night dreaming of when I could put my mouth on you again.”
She’d been prepared for a quick retort. Something snappy. Another question maybe. A criticism of him and his assignment. Something. Anything, other than what Decan had said. That caused her lips to snap closed tightly, her arms sliding slowly down to her side. She didn’t speak when she pushed away from the desk, but walked slowly, taking deadly sexy steps to the bed where she picked up a small purse. She continued until she was face-to-face with him.
“That was fun,” she spoke when she looked up at him. “But I’m guessing you’ve done better.”
She lifted a finger then, running it over his bottom lip before dropping her hand once more and walking around him. He wanted to curse. No, he wanted to grab her and toss her hot little ass on that bed. If she felt like being sassy then he’d spank her until she thought better of doing so again. Or maybe he’d give her smart mouth something to wrap around so that no more stinging words came forth. Either, or, would suffice, because the basic truth was that Decan wanted to spend his night inside of her, deep and long, hard and wet. Then she’d know better than to push him.
“Are you coming?” she asked from behind where he still stood.
She’d opened the door and was walking through when Decan finally turned around. He closed his eyes and took a deep, steadying breath before following her out.
This job was turning out to be a big mistake. One, Decan wasn’t sure he’d rebound from, no matter how many times he’d done so before.
