“Joanna M. Morgan.” His gaze lingered a moment on her badge before returning to her face. “I assume the M stands for Marie?”
She nodded. He’d looked marvelous clad in jeans and a shirt. He’d looked sinfully sexy naked against crisp white sheets, but at the moment he looked arrogant and commanding in his pristine, wrinkle-free uniform.
“So, should I call you Joanna or Marie?” His slate eyes glittered brightly. “Or is Marie the name you use only when you’re picking up men in bars?”
She gasped. “I did not pick you up,” she exclaimed indignantly before abruptly changing the subject. She fumbled with her purse and withdrew her car keys. “I understand I’m to take you to where you will be staying. Shall we go?”
She marched ahead of him, mortified by the entire situation. She’d allowed herself to be seduced, had indulged in some seduction of her own that night. But when she’d awakened early the next morning, she’d been appalled by what she’d done.
Even worse was discovering that Kyle Ramsey was in the military. She’d crept out of the room, consoling herself with the knowledge that she would never see him again.
She didn’t look at him now until they were alone in the elevator. Then it was impossible to avoid doing so.
He filled the entire cubicle with his presence, with the spicy scent of his cologne and a subtle underlying fragrance of clean male. His eyes, with their sinful, long dark lashes and wicked gleam, swept her from head to toe, evoking tiny heat bursts wherever his gaze lingered.
His lips curved into a lazy smile that she remembered far too vividly from their night together. “Don’t you know it’s the height of bad manners to sneak away from a lover while he’s sleeping?”
“We weren’t lovers and I think it’s most unchivalrous of you to even mention that night.”
He took a step closer to her. With the high beam of his bedroom eyes on her and the nearly blinding charm of his smile, she suddenly remembered how easy it had been to succumb to his seduction.
“We were lovers for that night, and why shouldn’t I mention it? It’s definitely a fond memory for me.”
The elevator doors slid open, and Joanna nearly leaped out in an effort to escape the close proximity.
“Lieutenant Commander—”
“Kyle,” he interjected as he fell into step beside her. “I figure any woman who has seen me naked should be able to call me by my first name.”
Joanna refused to rise to his obvious baiting, but her cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Okay, fine,” she continued as they left the embassy building and walked toward the nearby parking area. “Kyle, we have a job to do…an important job. And it would be best if we could just pretend that we met for the first time right now.”
She stopped walking as they reached her small sports car. She unlocked the passenger door, then turned to face him, swallowing a gasp as she realized just how close he stood to her.
“Don’t tell me you’re married,” he said.
“Of course not,” she replied indignantly.
“Why didn’t you tell me you worked at the embassy?” he asked, and took another step closer, effectively trapping her between her car and his hard, muscled body.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a hotshot top gun?” she countered.
She’d realized he was a military man early the next morning, when she’d awakened and gotten up to go to the bathroom. She’d spied his wallet on the bathroom counter. The wallet was open, displaying military identification. It was that that had prompted her to leave him, sneaking out like a thief just as the dawn had began to creep across the sky.
A slow, seductive smile curved his lips. “I didn’t tell you I was a pilot because I wanted you to like me for who I was, not what I did for a living.” He reached up and tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.
The simple touch galvanized her. She slid sideways, freeing herself from contact with the car and with him. “Like I said, it would be best if we’d just forget we had any dealings with each other before now.”
She didn’t wait for him to reply, but instead walked around the car and unlocked the driver’s door. She slid behind the wheel at the same time he got in on the passenger side. She started to put the key in the ignition, but was stopped by his hand grabbing hers.
His long fingers curled around her wrist, warm and strong, and for just a second she remembered what those fingers had felt like touching her intimately. She felt a renewed burst of heat flame in her cheeks.
“Okay, we’ll pretend that night never happened…on one condition,” he said.
“What condition?” She eyed him suspiciously.
There was no humor in his eyes, no flirtatious light whatsoever. “Tell me why you left that morning. Tell me why you left without saying a word to me.”
She pulled her hand from his, her mind racing for an explanation that would effectively douse any attraction he might still entertain for her.
“To be perfectly honest, Kyle,” she began, wondering if perhaps what she was about to say was too over the top, verging on cruel. She quickly decided to forge ahead.
Better he hate her and stay out of her life than find out that their night of passion hadn’t been without consequence. Better he hate her than find out she was pregnant with his child. “As lovers go, you weren’t that great. In fact, you were terrible.”
Chapter 2
Kyle stared at her for a long moment, then, unable to help himself, he threw back his head and laughed. “Darling, there are only two things in this world I’ve been told I do really well. One of them is flying planes…” he paused a moment, then continued “…and the other is making love.”
He watched her cheeks burn with color as she jabbed the key into the ignition and started the engine. “You certainly weren’t doing much complaining that night,” he added softly. “And don’t try to tell me you were pretending. I know the difference between reality and a good acting stint. I still remember the way your heart raced with mine, the sweet sound of your moans…”
“Okay,” she snapped. “Forget I said anything.” She threw the car into gear and backed out of the parking space. “Where am I taking you?”
“You know where Ramsey Enterprises is?”
Those sooty eyes of hers shot him a sharp glance. “You’re one of those Ramseys?”
“Firstborn son.” He was pleased his voice held none of his ambiguous feelings concerning his family, more specifically, his father. “There’s a small apartment complex on the grounds of the business. My family has an apartment there, and that’s where I’ll be staying for the duration of this mission.”
For a few minutes they rode in silence. Her scent, that mysterious, spicy fragrance that had haunted him, filled the confines of the small car and evoked heated memories of that night they’d spent together.
She could lie all she wanted about him being a lousy lover, but he had intimate knowledge of just how intensely she had responded to him.
They had made love as if all the time in eternity was theirs, and he had made certain that she was completely, almost exhaustively sated before he’d allowed himself the ultimate release.
He gazed at her as she maneuvered the car through the midmorning traffic. She was as lovely—lovelier—than he remembered. Her dark hair had the sheen of satin, and her skin