In Deep with the FBI Agent (15 page)

“How long do you think you're going to want to hide us?” Sam asked seriously.

“I don't know. Until Nancy retires?” she asked hopefully.

“Casey, I don't want to hide us. At some point it's going to come out into the open. The school was in the wrong to hide the security breach, and you were in the right to go to the authorities. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You were
not
the hacker.”

“I know, and I'm not saying we hide forever, but maybe for tonight.” She pulled out her cell phone and held it up. “Nancy said she was only going to stop by our reunion before she heads over to the class of ninety-five's reunion. I'll call Annie and ask if the coast is clear.”

Annie answered on the first ring and confirmed that Nancy was in the cafeteria with the class of 1995. Casey smiled widely, and Sam got the message without saying a word. They grinned at each other and returned to the reunion hand in hand.

“This is like a scene from a John Hughes movie,” Sam murmured to her as they reentered the even more crowded gymnasium.

“Are you going to show up at my door in a red Porsche holding a boom box over your head?”

“You're confusing John Hughes with
Say Anything
. I'm clearly going to have to educate you in—”

But what she needed to be educated in, she didn't know, because they were barely ten feet into the reunion when they were bombarded with people coming over to say hi. It was like high school all over again.

Tania and Amanda had obviously made the rounds spreading the word that Casey and Sam had disappeared into the locker room. Together. Now they were out together, holding hands.

“Oh, my God. Casey, you didn't tell us you and Sam were dating,” Tania said in an almost squeal.

“You didn't ask,” Casey said, with a challenging look.

“We wouldn't have thought to ask,” Amanda said. “It wasn't as if we'd ever in a million years guess that you and Sam were a couple.”

“Why not?” Sam looked both women in the eye, daring them to say out loud that he'd been unpopular in high school.

Casey squeezed his hand and received a squeeze in return. Amanda and Tania proved they were both kinder and more honest than they'd been as teenagers.

“Because Casey ignored you in high school,” Tania said bluntly. “But that was all of our mistakes. Quick, who did I ignore in high school? Please tell me he became a super-hot FBI agent and that he's here tonight to confess his undying love.” She gave an exaggerated look around the reunion, making them all laugh.

Arianna and Valerie came over together, interrupting the laughter.

“Still glued at the hip,” Amanda said to them, but with an approving smile rather than the judgmental sneer Casey remembered from high school.

“Yep,” Ari said.

“Lance and Jason are both on duty tonight,” Valerie said, mostly to Sam. “Sorry your boys aren't here.”

“Valerie's husband is a firefighter, and Ari's fiancé is a Secret Service agent,” Casey explained to Amanda and Tania. “Sorry they had to miss tonight.” She gave a small commiserating frown to Sam, who had to be a little bummed his friends couldn't make it.

“Jason's not sorry,” Valerie said with a laugh. “He said he never wants to go back to high school, even for an evening.”

“Should we start the slide show?” Ari asked.

Casey glanced at her watch. “Yes. I'll go get it set up.” She left the crowd, surprised that Sam stayed close on her heels. “Hon, you could've stayed with Ari and Val. I'm working tonight.”

He gave her a wry look. “You're forgetting who was the head of the AV club. I'll help you turn on the show.”

“Thanks.” She had put on enough slide shows to feel confident about it, but it was good to have an expert at her side in case anything went wrong.

Sam stayed close by as she lowered the music pumping into the room and went to the microphone to invite everyone to take a seat. There were a few speeches from other members of their class and then Casey said a few words, ending with a request for people to include Montgomery Prep in their annual charitable donations, and then she hit Play on the slide show.

She and Sam watched it, leaning against one wall, her back against his chest, his hand on her hip. It was comfortable and nice, like they'd always meant to be here at the reunion together.

“It's funny,” he murmured in her ear. “We started this journey together, and now we're here together. Would you have ever guessed?”

“No,” she answered honestly. “Never.”

“Well, I hoped.”

They stayed close for the rest of the evening except when Sam went off to refill her wineglass and she was busy chatting up her former classmates. She hoped she was doing a good job of balancing catching up with everyone and putting in the reminder that loyal alumni donate to their alma mater.

Finally, at the end of the night, it was Casey, Sam, Annie, and the school custodian closing down the event. “Can you leave?” Sam asked.

She smiled tiredly at him. “Thank you for waiting with me. Yeah, I think I'm done here.” All in all, it had been a successful event. The members in her class weren't raking in big bucks yet to be big donors, but getting them to make small donations now was a good start to forming habits so that later, when their careers took off and they could afford to make bigger gifts, they would.

“How'd it go?” Sam asked. “Any six-figure donations?”

“Not unless you're planning on writing a check.”

He laughed. “I could write a check, but I wouldn't advise cashing it.”

Her laughter joined his, and it was the most natural thing in the world for their hands to clasp, and for her to lean into his taller body as they exited the gym and headed toward the parking lot.

“Do you think we'll always be poor?” she asked.

He slung an arm around her shoulders. “Uh, Case. Look around. We're not poor.”

“Sam, I work in education and you work for the government. We'll never be flying in private jets to our own private islands.” And when had she started thinking of them as a
we
?

“Is that what you want, one-percent money?”

“It'd be nice, right?”

“For a little while. But I've learned that everyone, rich and poor alike, has problems. Sometimes they just look a little different.”

No one knew that better than her. Her mom had been having a rough week, and she'd had to turn down dinner with Sam twice to bring a meal to her. Sooner or later, she'd have to introduce Sam to her mom, but the honeymoon phase was so fun right now. Nothing was guaranteed to kill a fun relationship more than the reality of caring for ill parents. “True, but sometimes I lose perspective working where I do. These kids drive to school in their brand-new fancy cars while I'm worrying about payments on my used car. And when the latest cool phone came out, they all got one.”

“So?” he asked.

She stopped walking and turned to look up at him. “So?” she echoed. “I want a new phone.”

“And in one year it'll be the old phone. Don't buy into the marketing hype.” They walked on and within a minute, they were outside at the now nearly empty parking lot. Sam paused and raised his brow as he looked at her, obviously wondering where the night would end. She returned the gesture, wanting to be wooed and not looked upon as a sure thing.

“Did I mention you look gorgeous tonight?” he asked. His finger trailed along her bare shoulder.

“Thank you.” She grabbed hold of his tie and tugged him forward. “Did I mention that every woman in the room could not stop talking about how hot Sam Cooper had gotten?”

Even in the shadowy light of the parking lot safety light, she could see his cheeks redden. “It's true, you know,” she said. “You grew up well.”

“You're making me blush,” he said, then his mouth was on hers and they heated the air around them in the parking lot. Casey wasn't quite sure how they had gotten there, but she found her back against the driver's side window of her car with Sam's bigger body caging her in.

His tongue found hers and the kiss she'd been craving all night was now hers. Her hands roamed across the taut muscles of his back, untucking his dress shirt to find the warm skin underneath. She arched against him, her hips cradling the erection now pressing at her core.

Sam had the ability to make her forget where she was whenever he got his hands on her. She'd never been big into PDA, but apparently her past history was moot when it came to Sam. First at their date at the bocce court and now here in her place of work, she was putting on quite a show for any onlooker. Luckily, at this time of night, the parking lot was deserted, but finally she gained enough wherewithal to pull her lips away from Sam's.

“We need to get out of here,” she said.

“Your place or mine?” he asked against her neck, tickling her.

She thought for a second. “Mine.” Sam had walked her to her apartment door, but he'd never spent the night.

“All right.” He pulled back, and she gained satisfaction seeing his flushed cheeks and mussed hair. “I'll follow you over in my car.”

“All right.”

Fifteen minutes later they were in the elevator in her building, when she realized Sam was humming.

“Are you humming ‘Love in an Elevator'?”

He grinned. “Guilty.”

She rolled her eyes as they stopped and the door slid open. “Not going to happen.”

He followed her out and down the hall, glancing back at the elevator. “Wouldn't want to. Looks uncomfortable, and we don't have a great track record at sex. We already broke a countertop.”

She shoved at his shoulder. “We've had sex twice, Sam. That's not a track record.”

“Three times, but who's counting?”

“Not me, apparently.” She opened the door to her apartment and they entered. She'd chosen this building for its location and proximity to restaurants and shopping. It was an easy drive to work. If she lived in a newer building farther out of the city, she might get more space, but she was a single woman living alone. Who needed space? She had a decent living room–dining room combo and a small bedroom. The kitchen was one tiny wall of cabinets and an oven, but she wasn't big on cooking. She used her table for eating takeout way more than she cooked.

“This is nice,” Sam commented, looking around. He walked over to the window and peered out. “Does it get loud at night? You're right over all the shops.”

“Sometimes,” she admitted, “but it doesn't bother me.”

Now that they were here alone, she suddenly felt shy. Fifteen minutes ago in the parking lot, she'd been ready to strip and get dirty in the back of her car. Now the engines had cooled, and she needed a warm-up.

“Did you eat?” Sam asked abruptly. “'Cause I'm starving. Don't take this the wrong way, Casey, but the caterer sucked.”

Her eyes widened. “He did? Oh, no. He's a parent at the school.”

Sam wandered over to her fridge and made himself at home, searching through it. “Had you never done a tasting before?”

“I'm not always the best judge of taste,” she said. “To me, food can be a necessary evil to make sure my body keeps running.”

“Well, his food tastes like crap.”

“Oh, my God, Sam,” she wailed. “You're joking, right? Are you honestly telling me I served bad food to one hundred potential donors?”

He turned from the fridge at the genuine distress in her tone. “People weren't there for the food. They were there to see each other. Mission accomplished.”

She collapsed onto her sofa, still able to see Sam in her open kitchen. “Two moms came in the other week wanting to change caterers for the upcoming auction. I totally blew them off. I thought they were being picky.”

“They were. Picky about not eating garbage.”

“Stop teasing, Sam. You're going to make me cry.”

“Casey Cooper doesn't cry over shit like this. She calls the caterer, gets her money back, and hires a new caterer for the auction.”

She sat straighter. “You're right. But it's a parent of the school, and he's a donor. It's not going to be fun.”

“Nope,” he agreed. “You know what is going to be fun?” He was now standing in front of the closed fridge door holding something behind his back. “Eating these apple slices off your naked body.”

“Sam!”

“I'm serious. Get naked.”

She blinked at him. “Work crisis here, Sam. This isn't the time to joke.”

“Does it look like I'm joking? My dick is in crisis here, Casey. Now strip.”

Her belly gave a happy flutter at the command in his voice. It was something she'd figured out about herself when she'd first lost her virginity and discovered sex. She spent her whole waking life in control and ordering the world around her. Sometimes it was nice to give up control in bed, especially to someone she trusted. Slowly, she strolled toward Sam and presented her back. “Unzip?”

She heard his inhalation as the long zipper moved from her top vertebra down to the small of her back. His finger trailed down the line of her exposed skin, making her draw in a breath.

“I call bullshit,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the base of her neck. “You got the dress on all by yourself, which means you can take it off.”

She turned, let the dress fall off her shoulders, enjoyed his admiration for a minute, then said, “I feel safer knowing the FBI has such capable detectives.”

He grinned. “Nice bra.”

Her lashes fluttered down, eyeing her red strapless push-up bra. She'd worn it with Sam in mind. “Thank you. The panties are pretty nice too, don't you think?” She spun slightly, giving him an eyeful of her ass, which was mostly bare in the minuscule panties.

Sam's voice was hoarse when he said, “Go to your bedroom. Lie flat on the bed. I'll be there in a second.”