Code Name Desire (9 page)

In the text box, a message appeared. “Your
deadline is moved up. You must meet your objective tomorrow.”

Tomorrow!
“Why?” she typed.

Teague stepped inside. “I rolled over and you
were gone. Couldn’t sleep?”

Lifting her fingertips from the keyboard, she
cocked her head to the side in what she hoped looked like charming
playfulness. “I must have passed out on you earlier,” she hedged.
“I’m sorry about that.”

He came closer, a glance at the falling snow
out the window blessedly slowing his progress. “Don’t worry about
it. I can’t believe they didn’t predict this snow. So, what are you
doing back there?”

“Just checking the weather.” Where was the
response?
Come on, already
, she screamed in her mind.

The response popped into the box. “Do not
leave. Danger is imminent. Watch your back and don’t let the target
out of your sight.”

Chapter Eleven

The email page disintegrated into black and
gray boxes. On the keyboard, Jaeda hit Alt-Tab and toggled to the
weather website in time for Teague to turn the corner of the
desk.

“I see,” he said, pointing to the monitor at
a cold front overtaking the system dropping precipitation. “It was
supposed to be rain, but this line dropped the temperatures too
soon. No wonder. Looks like it will pass tomorrow.”

She nodded.
Tomorrow!
“Probably around
mid-morning.” The pressure was on.

He placed his hand on the mouse and shut the
website page. “You’d better plan on staying through the
weekend.”

She widened her eyes innocently and pouted.
“But I don’t have any clothes.”

“Indeed. And it wouldn’t do for you to wear
that stunning dress of yours the entire time. I won’t be able to
put two sentences together during your entire visit.” He thought
for a moment then said, “Why don’t we go back to bed and sleep on
it? I’m sure we’ll come up with some idea in the morning after
we’ve had a good rest.”

“
Rest
? Is that really what you have in
mind?”
Careful. Don’t push too hard.

A mischievous grin revealed clean, straight
teeth as a glimmer lit his eyes. “Well, I suppose it’s true, we can
sleep late in the morning.”

Danger is imminent
. She got to her
feet and ignored the chill the cold floorboards sent through her
soles. Hurrying to the oriental carpet, she said, “Sleeping in on a
Saturday morning? I guess it wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows.”

He laughed and pulled her close. Wrapping her
arms around his neck, she stood on tiptoe and used the excuse of
hugging him to search the snowy view outside. She couldn’t see far,
but the lack of movement reassured her.

Don’t let your target out of your
sight.
Heck, she’d be reluctant to let him out of her
arms
. She pressed a kiss to his earlobe.

“Mmm. I’ll give you an hour to stop that,” he
said.

In the same ear, she whispered, “Maybe we
should find someplace more comfortable.”
Away from all these
windows
. When he took a step back, she put up a hand. “But no
carrying. You’ve carried me enough for one day. You’re going to
give me a complex.”

Teague waggled his brows and grasped her
hand. “Very well. Come with me. I have the perfect comfortable
place in mind.” He half dragged her running from the room, and she
had to fight the urge to giggle.

In his room, he turned a knob on the wall to
make the gas fireplace produce larger flames. The heat felt
wonderful. As she stood, staring into the fire, he approached from
behind and slipped her robe from her shoulders while placing a kiss
where her neck curved.

Watch your back.
She spun in his arms
and let the robe drop to the carpet. Letting her head fall backward
while he worshipped her throat with his mouth, Jaeda tried to get
her mind to stop racing. It wouldn’t.

Who was in danger? Her? What sort of danger?
Did the agency suspect Teague would try to kill her?

He removed his own cover-up and drew her
against his hard body. Sighing, she fleetingly decided that if this
was his method for meting out death, she would go willingly and
with a smile. She shook her head.
Get serious.

No, her instincts told her he would not hurt
her, and she trusted those instincts. They had saved her life and
gotten her out of sticky situations many times.

So who? One of his employees? Perhaps Sutton
or Mrs. Wilson?

His hands roamed everywhere, leaving her
weak-kneed and panting. She let her hands do some exploring of
their own, enjoying the textures and contours of his body even
though her brain wouldn’t cease its analysis.

Mrs. Wilson made sense. Jaeda had left her
coat unguarded twice. Once while she showered and again since
entering Teague’s suite. The housekeeper could have found her gun,
or the business card. Instinct told her she was way off on that
one, too.

Teague cupped her mound. He wet a finger in
her flowing juices and teased the nerve bundle so eager to come out
of hiding. “You drive me crazy,” she drawled, leaning against his
strength.

“You do the same to me, my love. You’re so
beautiful. Perhaps if you weren’t so bloody brilliant, I’d stand a
chance.” He dipped at the knees and scooped her off her feet. “I
know you asked me not to, but I can’t help it.”

Her thoughts careened out of control. He had
called her 'my love'. Did he mean it or were they words a man says
in the heat of the moment? She smiled despite her worries. When he
tossed her on the bed, she laughed in surprise. Then he flung
himself next to her and hauled her on top.

They made love in a lighthearted spirit,
laughing and playful to the end. She couldn’t remember having so
much fun in the bedroom. Nor could she recall such physical
repletion. The man was an artist at lovemaking.

Collapsing on her pillows, she drew the
covers to her chest and sighed. He scooted off and padded to the
bathroom. With water running in the next room, she came alert and
bolted to the bedroom door. She checked the hallway to make sure
the area remained secure, then sprinted the four steps to her room
and grabbed her coat from the bed.

In Teague’s suite, she locked his door,
shoved the coat under one of her pillows, and assumed her previous
position.

“Are you as tired as I am?” he asked, turning
off the bathroom light.

“Exhausted.” She draped the back of one wrist
over her forehead for affect.

“Wore you out, did I?” He slid under the
covers and put a possessive arm around her waist.

“You sound awfully pleased with
yourself.”

“Inordinately. And you should be, too. You
rocked my world.”

Wow. Now
there
was a compliment. Maybe
she was cut out as an undercover lover, after all. “You sent mine
into a wild tilt, too.” She wanted to ask him about the 'my love'
comment but decided to play it out. She had to capture his heart.
Pushing the issue or making something out of nothing would only
sabotage her progress.

Danger is imminent
.

She shifted onto her side. Placing one hand
onto the lump of her gun, she draped the other on his arm at her
waist.

* * * *

With mint smarting on her tongue from a
brushing, Jaeda stood at a part in the dark draperies covering a
large window. The sky turned from sooty black to smoky gray. The
dawn broke in deadly silence.

Below, snow blanketed the earth in
perfection, not a single flaw marring its pristine beauty. Flakes
continued to spiral down, adding to it. Yet she sensed a
disturbance in the sleepy peace.

She crossed arms over her middle and scowled.
Despite her instinct that said Teague held no threat, to her at
least, she had performed a thorough search of his room. He had no
weapons, no documents, no communication devices other than a
telephone in the bathroom, of all places, and not a single item
related to his financial work. Was his job a cover?

Nothing in his wallet or the pockets of his
pants and jackets hanging in his closet indicated he did anything
other than make money and look good doing it. He hid no safe or
compartment in the room. The carpet didn’t conceal any secret
cubbies. His dresser and chest of drawers contained only clothing.
And his closet, though impressive, offered no surprises.

She would have worried if the place had
appeared too clean, which might indicate he’d purged the room of
incriminating items before her arrival, but dust bunnies under the
bed and a few wads of crumpled paper on his closet floor between
some shoes proved otherwise.

From the woods, two thick, brown horses
emerged pulling a large yellow sleigh. Caster sat at the front and
held the reins in a single gloved hand while grasping the neck of
his coat closed with the other. Bundled with a patchwork quilt in
the back sat a tall blonde woman with an enormous nose and a
shorter boy with the same hair color and clearly juvenile features.
They cut across the large rear lawn, heading toward a place at the
back of the manor. The sleigh sliced through the snow and left a
long, straight track behind it.

A stirring in the bed made her turn. “Good
morning,” she said in a hushed voice, reluctant to break the
quiet.

He sat and rubbed his lids then peered at
her, blinking sleepily. “If I hadn’t seen you sleep with my own
eyes, I might wonder if you did.”

“I slept,” she said, smiling and going to the
bed. She perched on the edge of the mattress. “You were great last
night.”

“You were magnificent.” He took her wrist and
pulled her across his lap. “You
are
magnificent.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks. Jaeda slid a hand
behind his neck and brought him close for a kiss so he wouldn’t see
her blush. Well…and because she liked kissing the man. He added two
extra pecks before straightening.

“Thank you for letting me stay.”

He extracted his legs from under her and
swung them off the bed. Heading for the bathroom, he said, “Right.
Like you had any other choice. Though I’m glad you did. Last night
was a dream.”

She flipped onto her belly then adjusted the
belt on her robe to get more comfortable. Propping her chin in her
hands, she considered last night better than any dream she’d ever
had.

Teague poked his head around the bathroom
doorway. “You’re awfully quiet.”

“I’m not a morning person.” She didn’t need
to tell him her quiet came from a tremendous sense of contentment.
“I saw a sleigh. Caster was driving,” she called over the sound of
running water.

He came into the bedroom, rubbing a hand
towel over his face. “We don’t have much occasion to use it, but
with ice under the snow, I imagine it moves along quite nicely this
morning.”

“There was a woman and boy in the back.”

“Mrs. Chesley, my cook, and her son, one of
the stable hands.” He turned on the television and switched
channels to the weather.

“She didn’t look happy.”

Pointing at the screen, he flipped the towel
over his shoulder. “I imagine not. Look at that. Eighteen
degrees.”

She shivered at the idea of riding in an open
sleigh in such a temperature. The fact that the manor’s population
had increased by two made her uneasy.

He laughed, drawing her out of her thoughts.
“It will be forty-four tomorrow. How’s that for a fluctuation?”
Shaking his head, he strode to the bathroom. “That’s England for
you.”

Laying her cheek on her palm, she stared at
the mess of pillows attesting to their busy night. She adored how
he walked about in the nude without a care, and how he talked of
everyday matters as if she had been part of his life for years
rather than hours.

A loud bang reverberated through the house.
Her heart in her throat, Jaeda snatched her coat from under its
pillow, retrieved her gun from the pocket, and ran for the
door.

Chapter Twelve

“What was that? Jaeda?” Teague asked, still
in his bedroom as she sprinted down the hallway. Jaeda didn’t slow.
Taking the stairs two at a time, she followed the sound of a
woman’s scream and a man shouting. Teague’s footfalls echoed on the
steps as she raced toward the back of the manor.

Gun in hand, she burst through a closed
swinging door and found the kitchen. The woman from the sleigh
stood in the center of the huge room with water dripping from her
hair and clothes. On the floor, a man knelt with most of his body
concealed inside a tiny closet, his rear end and the soles of his
shoes the only parts in view.

“I think I’ve got it,” he yelled, his voice
hollow, like he spoke into a tin can.

Teague slapped Jaeda on the back with the
door as he came through, and she tucked her gun into the pocket of
her robe. Glad to see he had taken a moment to cover himself, she
stepped aside and willed her pulse to slow.

A spout of water shot from the closet and
barely missed the cook. She screamed anyway.

“No need to pierce my eardrums, Polly. It
didn’t even get you that time,” said the man. He sat on his heels
and glanced over his shoulder, the fountain of water knocking off
his hat in the process.

“Good morning, Sutton. Mrs. Chesley,” said
Teague with a nod of greeting to the shivering woman, his cheerful
tone out of place.

“That’s a matter of opinion,” the butler
muttered. He grabbed a wrench from a toolbox and disappeared once
again.

“I’m drenched!” cried the cook. She darted an
accusatory glance at her employer.

“I’ll be right back,” Teague whispered in
Jaeda’s ear. His bare feet slapped pooling water as he went to help
Sutton. “Let me give you a hand.”

Ice-cold touched Jaeda’s big toe. Backing a
step, she held out a hand. “Mrs. Chesley, isn’t it?”