“Well, you sure got my attention, I’ll give you that.” He crossed his legs to hide his erection. If the kiss had scared her that much, he didn’t want her to run and lock herself in the back cabin.
“I can be sexy,” she declared, crossing her arms over her chest and slinging one jeans-clad leg over the other.
Cameron nodded. “Yes, you can. I’m convinced.”
“Don’t you patronize me! I hate it when men patronize me,” she snapped.
Damn. “Okay, make me some ground rules here. I’m just a guy, and we pretty much take things at face value unless we’re told otherwise. So, you can kiss me, but I can’t kiss you back?”
“Exactly,” she said with a firm nod, still keeping her eyes averted. Then she shook her head. “No. There won’t be any more kissing. Understand? No kissing. At all.”
“Okay, got it. Then I’m guessing sex is out of the question?”
“This is not funny!”
He shook his head. “And I’m not laughing. Not one giggle. Any more rules I should know about?” He thought he heard her laugh, looked over and saw that she was shaking with laughter, biting her lips shut and shaking. “Oh, so you can laugh, but I can’t. Okay, I’ll write that down.”
“Shut up!” she said, letting go and laughing out loud. “This is so absurd. I honestly don’t know why I kissed you. I apologize.”
“As well you should,” he said, straight-faced. “I hate being harassed, and you should know better.”
Her laugh calmed to a smile, an apologetic one. “I shouldn’t have reacted to your merely pointing out the obvious. I’m just a little sensitive about my shortcomings. From now on, I promise to take whatever advice you have for me.”
“Shortcomings?” he asked, seeing that, despite the smile, she was dead serious about how she saw herself. “Not being a sexpot is no shortcoming, Tess. Mind if I call you Tess?”
“No, but I thought…”
“None of what I said was intended as criticism. You have a natural appeal that’s fantastic.”
She blushed again. “Thanks for saying that, but—”
“But we need blatant, in-your-face sexy, though, to hook this guy, because that’s the type he goes for.”
She looked thoughtful. “And if I can manage that?”
Good. She was on board, being reasonable. “As I said, I want you to find out where he’s based so we can retrieve his computers for evidence later. Flatter him. Get him to show you where he lives. Or maybe just tell you where he lives. In either case, do whatever you need to do to have him go with you on the boat.”
“Whatever I need to do? I’m not having sex with him,” she declared. “That’s out of the question.”
“No,” he agreed, “but you can sort of promise it if that’s what it takes.” Cameron watched her frown. “Can’t you?”
She nodded but shifted uncomfortably in her seat, arms crossed over her breasts, an attitude of self-protection. “I guess so.”
“Nobody expects the ultimate sacrifice, Tess,” he assured her. “I’ll be close by. If he gets too frisky for comfort, you can always deck him and we’ll go to Plan B.”
She granted him a sidewise glare. “But it would be better if I simply wriggled away and played it coy.”
“Exactly. Undercover work requires acting ability. Just consider this a role,” he suggested.
She shook her head. “If this is what it takes, why on earth didn’t Mercier send one of the others? Look at me!” She gave herself an impatient wave and sighed.
Cameron knew instinctively that flattery wouldn’t work with Tess. She would see right through that, so he opted for honesty. “I’m sure he sent you because you’re a solid, no-nonsense agent with good credentials and he figured you’d get the job done.”
She scoffed. “Little did he know…”
Cameron smiled. “Hey, you got me on board, so he was right about that. The next part is to catch the guy, and we’ll do that, too. However, the method of apprehending him is all my idea, not Mercier’s. I do believe it will work, Tess. I know you can do it.”
“Wish I had your confidence,” she replied, but he could see she was a little more willing, considering it possible. She lifted her hands in a small gesture of resignation. “Okay, so I’ll give it my best shot, whatever that’s worth.” She relaxed a little, uncrossed her arms and turned sideways in her seat to face him. “So, fake promise, push-up bra, flashier clothes. What else?”
“Killer heels. A little bling. Clingy dress. Heavy on the makeup. We’ll practice your expressions after the makeover.”
“Sleepy eyes, pouty lips, shoulders back, chest out,” she mused, deepening her voice to a throaty growl.
Cameron grinned when she made an exaggerated pout. “By jove, I think she’s got it!”
“Henry Higgins, you ain’t,” she said with a roll of her eyes and a snort.
Good. She was loosening up at last, giving him a little trust, acknowledging that he had experience in adopting a fake persona to get a job done. Maybe he was underestimating her ability to adapt. “You’ll be great,” he promised.
“And just what will you be doing during my great performance?”
“Bodyguarding. No beautiful, wealthy woman in her right mind would go trolling in Saint-Tropez without protection. You’ll convince him I’m only a hireling. Soon as you get him on board, I’ll hop on to captain your little yacht while you two party. You keep him busy drinking, gambling or whatever while I take us well down the coast. Then we pounce, get the info we need and that’s that.”
“Then what do we do with him?” she asked as she got up and went forward to the small fridge. “And don’t say ‘Toss him over the side.’” She returned with two sodas and handed him one.
“I’ll arrange with your boss to have someone meet us at sea and transport him back to the States. You and I will return to Saint-Tropez, or wherever he’s based, and collect his computer and whatever other evidence we find.” He popped the top on his can and offered her a toast. “Here’s to a faultless bust.”
She clinked his can with hers. “Without incident.”
They fell silent then, each lost in thought. Cameron felt they had a pretty good shot at nabbing this guy and at least delaying the threatened blackout. But what about the stateside conspirator, undoubtedly the brains of the enterprise? If the pip-squeak didn’t give him up, they’d still have the problem, probably sooner than later.
He cast a look over at Tess and saw her worried expression. Was she thinking the same thing, or were her concerns still centered on her ability to seduce? He remembered the kiss and smiled. She had it in her, all right.
Cameron stood and looked down at her. “Hey, you’re not beating yourself up over kissing me, are you?”
She glanced up and shrugged. “Yes, well, I am sorry about that. Really.”
He leaned down and caught her lips with his, his hand clasping her neck as he deepened the kiss. Then, reluctantly, he released her. “There. Now we’re even.”
Tess kept stealing looks at him that next hour. After blowing her mind with that kiss, he had calmly walked up front and rifled through the cabinet for something to eat. Obviously it hadn’t meant anything. To him, anyway.
To her, it meant she was in serious danger of risking the entire mission. How the devil was she supposed to concentrate on what she was hired to do? The man was a walking