Лиза Джонс - Beneath the Secrets

“Make sure you can handle what ‘more’ means before you ask for it, Kara.” His mouth came down on hers, his tongue parting her lips, delving deep, and she tasted more than desire on his lips. She tasted absolute need in him, and that need was for her. And for just a few moments, she wanted to block out the world and lose herself in Blake. But the world didn’t like that idea.

Jesse cleared his throat. “Hate to break up the back seat loving, you two,” he said. “But we have company.”

Chapter Four

It had taken them an hour to outsmart whoever was following them. Finally, Kara entered the elevator of the hotel they’d rented a room in earlier in the day. Blake followed her inside. Kara leaned against the wall, taking off her shoes, while Blake punched in their floor and leaned against the opposite wall. Their eyes locked and held, and suddenly, the elevator shrank, and the kiss in the car, the unspoken words and mixed emotions between them that they’d let simmer while running from the cartel, flamed back to life. But neither of them spoke, and she wondered if he was as afraid as she was that they’d end up fighting over the next step in the investigation. And they would. They both knew they would. Before that happened, she wanted to make sure he knew she regretted her reactions tonight.

The elevator dinged and they made their way to their room, and still they didn’t speak. Blake swiped the key and pushed open the door and Kara bit her bottom lip, hesitating with the sudden realization that Kyle was probably still here. They weren’t going to be alone at all, and a fight was definitely about to ensue. She glanced at Blake and he nodded. “Yes. He’s still here.”

She inhaled and let it out. Blake arched a brow when she still didn’t move. “Afraid to face the music?” he asked.

“That about sums it up.”

“Once it’s over, it’s over,” he reminded her.

“Right,” Kara said. “And getting it over with sounds good.” She headed into the room and dropped her shoes by the door. A few more steps inside and she just about swallowed her tongue at the sight of Royce sitting at the hotel desk, his big, burly body making it look like it was meant for a toddler. Luke lounged at a small round wooden table, his MacBook open on top. This was so not good. She needed to be her best to fight this much Walker-bred testosterone, and she wasn’t.

Kara stopped beside the nightstand, not sure what to say or do. Blake stepped to her side, shrugged out of his jacket, and tossed it on the bed. “Where’s Kyle?” he asked.

“Next door,” Royce said, abandoning a surveillance setup Kara assumed to be of the hotel, and rolled his chair around to face her, motioning to the open adjoining room.

Luke snorted. “He prefers privacy while heaving up his guts.”

Kara cringed. “I guess he’s pretty sick?”

Luke surprised her by looking amused rather than angry. “Let’s just say that he won’t live this down anytime soon, but he’ll live.”

“Interestingly enough,” Royce said, fixing a hard stare on Blake, “so did Alvarez.”

Blake leaned a shoulder against the wall, looking as cool as if they were talking about the weather, not the man who had his fiancée slaughtered. “Unfortunately, he not only survived, he thought Kara looked familiar.”

Royce narrowed his eyes on Kara. And man, what a stare that man had. “And why is that?” he asked, making her feel like a school kid reprimanded by the principle.

Kara opened her mouth to defend herself but Blake didn’t give her a chance. “She looks like her sister,” he said flatly, as if he knew for certain. Kara whirled on him, and anticipating her move, he pushed off the wall and faced off with her, and once again beat her to the punch. “He recognized you, Kara.”

“I told you I don’t look like my sister,” she rebutted, barely keeping her voice down, a sign she really didn’t have control right now. No. He did. He had the control. These men she didn’t even know were taking her life by storm.

“Alvarez sure thought you did, sweetheart.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know,” Blake ground out. “And so do you. Your cover’s blown.”

“If my cover’s blown, Blake, then by association, yours is, too.”

“I inherited you from Mendez as far as the cartel is concerned.”

Kara grimaced. “Oh, please. You’ve made sure they all know I’m in your bed.”

“Fucking you and caring about you are two different things.”

The crass words hit her like a blow and Kara stepped backwards. Clearly her romance fantasies were just that. Fantasies. “Right. Thanks for putting it into perspective.”

“Kara,” he said softly. “You took that wrong. I wasn’t talking about reality.”

“No? It seems pretty realistic to me.”

“You know—”

“Don’t,” she bit out. “Not now. Not here.”

Luke cleared his throat. “As much as I hate throwing myself into the obvious war zone, I’m with Blake, Kara. Your cover’s blown.”

Kara threw her hands in the air and turned to Luke. “Do all Walker men think they know it all? You just got here and you weren’t with us on the boat. How can you possibly say my cover is blown?”

Luke turned his computer screen around and Kara sucked in a breath at a large picture of her sister filling the screen. Her heart ached just seeing Myla’s face, and her fist balled over the ache. Blake grabbed her hand and pulled her hard against him, her hands settling on his chest. “You don’t look like her?” he demanded.

She glared at him, all too aware of the similarities between her and Myla. “It was a risk I had to take—and don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done it, too.”

“A risk you won’t be taking again.”

The command in his voice splintered along her nerve endings and she wasn’t letting an audience silence her tongue. “Like you said, Blake, sweetheart, fucking me is not caring about me. It also doesn’t give you ownership over me, no matter how much you seem to think it does. And for the last time, stop manhandling me and let me go—or I swear to you, Blake, I will give you a knee that will make sure you don’t fuck anyone anytime soon.”

Luke barked out laughter and Blake’s eyes sharpened on hers, burning hot with anger. “We’ll finish this when we’re alone.”

“No,” Kara snapped. “We’re just finished, Blake. The end.” She couldn’t fight for her sister while on this rollercoaster of emotions he kept her riding.

“We aren’t even close to finished.”

“Kara!”

Kara jerked around at the roar of her name to find Kyle slumped in the doorway, his blond hair standing on end, his skin a kind of bluish color. “What the hell did you do to me?” he demanded before he gagged and disappeared back into the other room.

Male laugher followed him, but Kara didn’t think it was funny at all. She’d done what she had to tonight, for both her sister, and for Blake—but Kyle had paid the price. She tried to push away from Blake and go after Kyle, but Blake captured her arms, forcing her to look at him. “He’s pretty furious right now, Kara,” he warned.

“I can handle furious, especially when it’s deserved. And if you’re afraid I’m going to run out of the other door, I’m not. I know you’d come after me.”

“Yes,” he said softly, his eyes simmering with heat and promise. “I would and I’d catch you. Don’t forget that.”

He let go of her and Kara all but ran away, needing out of this Walker-filled room to get a grip on herself, but Royce didn’t let her. He stood up and stepped in front of her. “You’re a good agent, Kara,” he said, towering over her by about a mile. “You know when it’s time to let go of a cover.”