Corbin left, and I let out a big breath. I turned to Ned with a businesslike smile, doing my best acting job of holding it together.

“What the hell was that?” Ned asked me from behind his desk.

“What the hell was what? We finished the interview like you wanted.” My head pounded. There was no denying I was currently stressed.

“No, I mean what the hell was going on there between you two? You added a question, ‘are you in love with anyone?’ That wasn’t on the list of mandatory questions.”

Damn. He caught my sly little plan to put that in there. I thought I’d at least mess with Corbin a little. Had to.

“It wasn’t? I thought I saw it somewhere,” I looked through the list of questions, knowing it was in vain. My mind raced. Sleeping with patients was definitely unethical. An investigative psychologist in the DEA who had slept with a known criminal?

Let’s just say it was good to keep that under wraps.

“Jesus H, Eva. I mean the entire interview. The way you interacted with Corbin. It was simply…” Ned gazed off and out the window, as if searching for some elusive word.

This is it. Ned knows and he’s going to fire me.

What utter bullshit. If I were a man who had slept with a sexy female criminal, Ned and I would be cracking jokes about her, about how good the sex was, how good we were at bedding women—it would be male bonding. But because I was a female, I was going to lose my job.

I had reached my boiling point. “Stop Ned. I have something I need to say. This isn’t fair.”

He turned back from the window smiling.

“Fair? It was so simply…brilliant!”

I gulped. “Brilliant?” Was he serious?

“Yes, yes. I suppose that’s the word I’m looking for.” Ned stood and began pacing right in front of me. “I forget, sometimes, why I fell for you in the first place. But seeing you in action reminded me why I…I mean why we…had such a spark together when we were going out.”

“Ned, please stop. I thought we’d put our feelings to rest after the breakup. I’ve spent a lot of time moving on, and you should too.” Was he really getting into this right now? I’d had enough of going down this road. It always led me to a night of feeling guilty for how we ended.

Ned sat down on the couch in front of me, precisely where Corbin had been sitting. “You were incredible, though! I swear, I thought I noticed that you and Corbin had a certain chemistry. You put him right back in his place, didn’t take any shit from him. That’s exactly what headquarters is looking for in Corbin’s partner.”

I clear my throat. “Corbin’s…partner?”

“Yes,” Ned said, folding his hands. “A directive has come down from on high—and they want me to choose an undercover field partner for Corbin. I felt bad for you after what happened between us, so naturally I put your name in the hat. And after seeing how you interacted with him, I want to give you the position...Eva, are you okay?”

I was so lightheaded I had to close my eyes. This time, it wasn’t the hangover that was affecting me. Ned’s words, the way he emphasized them. I felt bad for you, so…

“Eva, you’ve been wanting to go into the field. I get that. I thought about our conversation this morning. And as hard as it is for me to put you in harm’s way, I know it’s important to you.” Ned leaned forward and put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ve spoken with headquarters—they called me earlier this afternoon—and they’d like to give you the opportunity to go into the field on Operation D.”

Ned left his hand on my shoulder just a bit too long. His next words made everything worse.

“It’s just, sometimes, when I get close to you, I feel that attraction that we had coming back. Don’t you feel it?”

“Enough,” I stood. Ned jerked back his hand, startled.

“Sorry,” Ned said.

The reality was that I didn’t feel it for the last year of our relationship. And that’s why I did the thing I swore I’d never do to someone.

“Ned, I’m sorry, I have to go. I’ll let you know about the field.” I stood up and walked toward the door. Ned stood up and moved to follow me out. Right before reaching the doorframe, I turned around. “Ned, answer me this. Did you recommend me to go into the field because you think I’d be good at it, or because you feel bad for me?”

I looked Ned in the face, and he lowered his eyes to the ground. I didn’t need a lie detector to sense his bullshit. I sighed. Ned didn’t think I would be a good field operative. He probably didn’t even think I did a ‘brilliant’ job in dealing with Corbin. This was all just a ploy to get me back. He felt bad for me. Sure, it was my fault that Ned and I had ended our relationship, but he didn’t see me the way I wanted to be seen. I was his little office pet, and he didn’t think I could handle myself in the field.

His silence held the answer I was looking for.

“That’s what I thought,” I said. He took hold of my arm before I walked all the way out.

“Dammit, Eva, this is what you wanted, isn’t it? You’ve been asking me for months to get into the field! Now I give you a golden opportunity, and all of a sudden you have cold feet? Well, I have some news for you: whether it was because I felt bad, or because I think you’ll do a good job doesn’t matter. I put my neck on the line for you with headquarters. And you walking out on this opportunity is not going to make me look good.”

“Let go of me,” I said, glancing down at my elbow where Ned was still holding onto me.

He released me. “Fine. I’ll give you twenty-four hours to decide if you’re in or out. Tell me by this time tomorrow, or else we’re going to have to start looking for someone else for this golden opportunity. Tick tock, Eva. Tick tock.”

I stormed down the hall, adrenaline and anger surging through my veins.

Outside, I opened the door to my car and pulled my phone out of my purse to answer it.

“Hi, Dr. Napleton.”

Speaking of assholes.

“Corbin. How did you get my number?” The way he’d pushed my buttons had me furious. Didn’t he know the code for ‘we had a one-night stand and that’s behind us?’

“Oldest trick in the book, Alexa. I made friends with the secretary. What a secure operation you guys are running in the San Diego DEA. All it took was a flirty smile and she basically let me go behind her desk and use her computer. No wonder you haven’t caught Luis Reyes yet. Bunch of clowns running the Agency.”

I rolled my eyes, but my body shuddered a bit at the name he’d called me.

It was like there was a piece of me only he knew about.

An extremely sexual, badass piece of me.

“I’m surprised you called, and didn’t text,” I fired back. “Calls are so 2006. It’s all about your text game now. Not sure if you kept up your game in prison, or…?”

I could see Corbin’s cocky expression through the phone. “Your voice is so hot though, Dr. Napleton. Of course I would call. Besides, I’m an old fashioned kind of guy. 2006 was a great year. I honor the classics.”

Silence hung in the air for a moment. “So what do you want, Corbin?”

“What are you doing tonight?”

Is he actually trying to hang out?

“Oh man, I’m really booked up tonight.”

“Oh yeah? What are you up to? Spin class? Dying your hair a new color?”

I rolled my eyes. “A whole lot of none-of-your-goddamn-business.”

“Ouch! Classic comeback. Well, I’m living at my brother’s place on the beach for now. Do you like bonfires?”

I could hear the wind passing by Corbin’s voice receiver. He was not getting the message.

“What are you even trying to do? I think I made it clear that our night several weeks ago was a one-night stand. We are not getting together again.”

“Okay, I hear you loud and clear. No more one-night stand stuff. Hooking up is off the table. Roger that. So, how about just dinner tonight?”

Relentlessly cocky. As much as a part of me would enjoy another night with Corbin, this could not happen again.

“You’re not getting me again. This isn’t even an option, Corbin.”

“Oh come on. Isn’t that the order of modern dating these days anyway? First have sex, then eventually have dinner together after we get to know each other, and then after we’ve hooked up for a few weeks I go ghost and stop replying to your texts and calls. Don’t you want that? It’s the great American relationship dream.”

I exhaled and stifled a chuckle.

If he was an asshole, he was a funny asshole.

I felt a warm tingle come over my body as I remembered our night in Tijuana. How he pressed me up against the wall. Gently cupped my cheek before he made me come multiple times.

Still, I resisted. This could not happen again.

“Seems like you are adapting pretty well to modern dating for having been in prison for so long.”

“C’mon. No expectations...I just want to get dinner and learn more about Luis Reyes’ psychological profile. No one knows him--they only know his cousin Marco. Honestly, I don’t feel comfortable talking in front of Ned. But for some reason, I trust you. So I’m inviting you over. We should be friends.”

“Really? Friends. You can do friends with me?”

“Being honest, I’ll want to rip your clothes off as soon as I see you. But if being friends is all you’ll give me, fine. I can do that. I’ll stay on the other side of the room and we’ll talk…just strategize about Reyes. We’re colleagues now, so I’ll fill you in. I’ll text you the time and my address.”

A fire lit inside me.

“Fine.”

I pressed the red button on my cell and hung up angry. But also turned on. Then angry because I was turned on. Even over the phone, Corbin got me all riled up. This wasn’t fair.

In my mind’s eye, his washboard abs pressed into me, his muscled arms wrapped me up, and I could almost feel myself getting turned on, just at the thought of being with him.

I turned the key in my ignition and ignored the warm tingle that spread through my limbs, and centered in my core.