A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [63]
She took a few moments to process what he’d said, then skewered him with a quizzical glare. “But there are hundreds if not thousands of graphic designers working in television in this city. Why’d you pick me?”
“I didn’t pick you, the Agency did.”
She drew a quivering hand to her stomach. “Why? How did I come to the attention of the government?”
He closed his eyes, then rattled off the name of the documentary that had aired on Animal Planet, the one the task force had intercepted.
“I designed the opening and closing credits.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Tell me there wasn’t a hidden message in there.”
He pressed his lips together tightly.
She jumped to her feet. “Oh, God! Roman, please, I swear, I didn’t put any message for anyone in my graphics. I would never—”
With no reason not to, Roman reached out and took her by the elbows of her outstretched arms. “We know, Rachel. Someone else imbedded the message after you turned in your work. We found your original files, untouched. But those that aired were a different story. We’re still checking into who had access to your work, but first we had to investigate you. It was the first logical step.”
Despite how soft her skin felt against his palms, when she tugged to be free, he let her go.
“So that’s why you were at the network. Ours wasn’t a chance meeting.”
“No.”
“Were you sent to seduce me? To find out the truth over pillow talk?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. The scenario sounded like something out of a spy flick or romantic suspense novel, but the truth wasn’t anything so dark and glamorous. He and all the other male operatives at the Agency only dreamed of such choice assignments.
“We don’t work that way, Rachel. I was only supposed to get to know you, check out your apartment, your friends, your computer. How I accomplished that task was entirely up to me.”
She jammed her fists on her hips. “You could have pretended to be anyone. A friend. A gay friend,” she offered, her voice lilting upward as if the idea sounded promising. “You didn’t have to sneak into my bed.”
Roman’s lips quirked into a grin. “Our first time wasn’t in a bed and, Rachel, I didn’t have to sneak.”
Yes, he’d been dishonest with her about who he was and why he’d sought her out—but he’d never uttered one mistruth about wanting her so much that his skin seared with need when she so much as glanced in his direction. The desire he’d felt for her had been instantaneous, incendiary and instinctive. The choices he’d made had been based on the primal part of him that had never been awakened—not to that degree—before Rachel.
He figured at first it was intense chemistry. Pheromones gone wild. But the more time he spent with her, the more times he heard her laughter pealing through her apartment or watched her chew her bottom lip as she furiously manipulated the graphic images on her computer screen, the deeper he fell. Every word out of his mouth had been a lie—except when he told her how much he wanted her—just as powerfully then as he wanted her right now.
And the sheepishly sexy grin on her face didn’t deter him one bit. “I guess I was pretty hot for you.”
He allowed a smile to lighten the mood even further, and he couldn’t help but tug at the insides of his pockets to lessen the tightening of material across his groin. “The feeling was mutual.”
“Is that why you stuck around, kept in touch with me, even after I left that job?”
He nodded. “I’ve been at two networks since then, investigating various design departments and independent contractors. My attention should have been one hundred percent on the case, but I couldn’t seem to get you out of my head.”
She stepped aside, clearly uncomfortable with the turn in their conversation.
“You checked out my friends?”
“Mario, Iris, your ever-absent roommate, your mother, your sisters and all the men they’ve dated, which is a rather impressive list.”
She smirked. “They’ll be thrilled to know you approve.”
“They can’t know anything, Rachel. Everything I’ve told you has to be in complete confidence. My job is already on the line because my cover has