CHAPTER 7
Carly sat in the passenger seat of a rental car as Trey drove them to some private jet at the airport.
The charade had already begun apparently. They drove in a separate car in case anyone was watching so she and Trey wouldn’t be seen piling out of the black van that carried his teammates and all their equipment.
She drew some small satisfaction that her suspicions had been dead on. There was no doubt in her mind now that they were black ops, right down to the color of their vehicle.
“I’m scheduled to be off tonight, but I have to call the bar and leave a message so they don’t worry about me when I’m not there to open tomorrow.”
He handed her a cell phone. “No details.”
“I know. I’m not stupid.” She added the last part under her breath but he turned to look at her as if he’d heard.
“Do you have your story ready?” he asked.
“Yes.” Not really, but now that he’d said it she thought of an excuse for her unexplained absence pretty quickly.
After dialing the bar’s main phone number, she waited for the voicemail prompt.
“Hey, guys. Something came up and I have to be out of town for a few days. I’m going to need you to juggle the schedule a bit and cover my shifts. Also, you have to place an order for liquor and beer today or we’ll be in big trouble by the weekend. Just ask the distributor to help you put together the order and don’t let him talk you into anything you don’t think we need. I do not want that orange-flavored creamy tequila crap he keeps pushing on me and if I come home and find it there, I’m going to make whichever one of you ordered it drink every last ounce. I guess that’s it. You won’t be able to get in touch with me, but I’ll call when I’m back.”
With nothing else to say, she disconnected the call and handed the cell back to him.
Trey glanced at her. “Boy. I had no idea it was so complicated owning a bar. Then again, I had no idea you owned the bar until today or that you used to be in the service.”
Carly sniffed. “One thing the military does well is pry into people’s personal business.”
So they knew about her time in the Army. She hoped they also knew she spent the entire duration of it behind a desk stateside.
Sure, she went through basic training and yeah she could fire a weapon if she had one, which she didn’t so she wasn’t at all convinced that skill was going to help in this situation. She could file papers for Trey if the need arose though.
He laid a hand on her knee. “I know you’re pissed about being dragged into this, but get it all out now. Yell at me, curse me out if you need to but remember that once we’re off that plane you’re no longer Carly McAfee and we can’t discuss any of this, no matter what you’re feeling.”
Like she needed reminding he’d put his life into her hands. She decided as long as she had his permission to vent now and only now she might as well get it all out. “What the hell was with that kiss?”
He glanced at her and then focused on the road ahead. Did his brown eyes show guilt? Embarrassment? “You know as well as I that the commander was testing both of us.”
“Testing what? How long it took for you to get your tongue down my throat?” She was angry, but more at herself than at him. She’d reacted to his kiss. She hated that thought.
She would like to think it was because of her self-imposed sexual dry spell. Last night she’d let Jack kiss her and almost gave in to his invitation for dinner, though he probably wouldn’t remember. Today she’d been ready to crawl into Trey’s pants.
Not only was she breaking all her own rules, it seemed to be getting progressively worse. As nice and sweet as Jack’s kiss had been the night before, her body hadn’t reacted as fiercely as it had to Trey’s mind-blowing lip lock today.
Dammit. She didn’t want to be attracted to either of them. Not Jack or Trey.
No, it was more than that. She could not allow herself to be attracted. Not since the love of her life had come home from his tour of duty overseas, married and with a baby.
Surprise.
Now here she was pretending to be married to one of the few guys she’d been attracted to since then. A guy who, against all common sense, she was having trouble resisting and of course, he was eyeball deep in the military.
Trey glanced in her direction again. “I’m sorry, but the reality is you and I are either convincingly happily married or dead. Under normal circumstances, my behavior in the commander’s office would have been totally inappropriate, but there’s nothing normal about this situation. You cannot react to anything I do once we’re off that plane or—”
“I know. I know. I know.” Her voice rose each time she said it, sounding shriller with each repetition.
“No, Carly. I’m afraid you don’t know. We might be under twenty-four-hour audio and visual surveillance even in our hotel room. We have to act married, day and night. No breaks. No downtime.”
She whipped her head around to stare at his profile as he drove. “Are you saying I’m supposed to have sex with you?”
His throat worked as he swallowed. “It shouldn’t come to that. Hopefully we’ll be in and out quick . . . out of the mission I mean. One, two nights maximum.”
“What if we’re there longer?” she asked.
“We won’t be.”
“What if we are?”
“We’ll figure something out.”
Not liking the sound of that, nor the fact her insides had done a total flip at the thought of having sex with Trey, Carly crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the side window.
“Carly.”
“What?”
“We may have to get pretty intimate. I have to know you won’t react like this during the op if I have to touch you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Look at me.”
Finally, she turned away from the window to face him.
“Are you going to be okay with all of this?” he asked, his focus on her rather than the road.
“Why don’t you have any faith in me?”
“I do have faith in you or I wouldn’t have said yes when the commander asked my opinion on your coming.”
“Then stop questioning me.”
“It’s a lot to deal with. You’re not trained for this. I need to know that if things get serious you’ll be okay.”
“Yes, dammit. Once we’re off that plane, I’ll be the perfect little obedient wife. Okay? But right now, can you please stop talking about this and leave me alone?”
Trey’s raised eyebrows were his only reaction to her hissy fit as he finally turned his complete concentration to the road ahead.
She drew in a deep steadying breath. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. This is a lot to deal with all of a sudden.” His voice was kinder, gentler than it had been the entire car ride. He was probably afraid she’d totally break down and start to cry.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the well-built muscles flex in his arm as he spun the steering wheel and guided the car into the airport entrance.
Those arms could very well be wrapped around her as they pretended to be married. She pictured them together as they tried to convince the cameras and microphones they were a couple. Need coiled within her and she became very aware of the lower parts of her body.
Trey had no idea how much she was trying to deal with right now.