Page 54 of Broken Promise
She laughed even as she started to slide off my lap. Reflexively, I tried to hold on to her. Literally and figuratively. She was here, present with me, but in the past few days, I’d started to feel like she was pulling away. Like she was trying to run. Was she scared of me?
Can you blame her?
Diana kissed me softly on the lips. “You get it, get rid of whoever it is, and then come to bed.”
All my dick heard wasbed. But I couldn’t really blame the guy. “Fine, but get naked. I’m not feeling particularly patient.”
She only chuckled as she sashayed down the hall.
I was in no fucking mood, so if it was Matthias again just to fuck with me, I was going to kill the kid. I scowled when I checked the monitor. Shit. What the hell wasshedoing here?
I yanked the door open and scowled. “Emilie.”
“Rafe, glad I caught you at home,” Emilie said with a sunny smile in her barely discernible French accent. She leaned against the doorjamb with a stack of files in one arm and a case of beer in the other. “I figured we could talk. You know, unofficially. I could use your help. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
I frowned. “Emilie? What are you doing here?” No one ever came to my place. I wasn’t the kind of guy who invited company over for dinner parties. Hell, most of the guys from Blake Security, outside of Matthias and Noah, had never been here.Though, I should probably change that.
I’d learned that from my time in ORUS. Never bring anyone to a place you considered yours. If I wanted to talk to anyone from work, we did it in the office or we met somewhere. And there hadn’t been any women worth bringing back since I’d performed my little resurrection. I took whoever I met back to their place or to a hotel.
But Diana was the exception.
I’d never thought of that as a lonely existence until now. I did a quick sweep of the hallway and the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that allowed a view to the street.
Everything looked normal, but the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. Why was she here? And if this was official, why hadn’t Alan called me in to talk?
She held up the six-pack. “I brought beer. Isn’t that what you Americans bring over to someone’s house? Beer? I personally prefer a nice bottle of wine, but I’ll just assume that you have some.” She winked. “Call it wishful thinking. I can’t stand beer. But, nevertheless, I thought I would bring some over and we could go over these files. I have so many questions about the Vandergraffs.”
I didn’t budge from the door. I didn’t know how Emilie had known about my place, but I didn’t like her showing up here unannounced. “Again, what are you doinghere?”
She shrugged. “I had a friend dig deep through a pile of shell companies. I figured you’d buy under an alias. Very clever, but then you’ve always been clever.”
I growled.
There was a flicker of awareness in her green eyes. “Would you relax? I just feel like there’s something missing from the whole scenario. That’s how I am. Like a dog with a bone. I just can’t let it go when something doesn’t feel right. So I just wanted to go over everything with you again in case you missed anything.”
I scowled. If there was ever a bad decision to regret, it was Emilie. It was ever having anything to do with her. One night in Germany, after one too many, there’d been drunken almost-sex. But I’d gotten a call about a mission so I’d left… and never called. A year later, still pissed, she’d lied to an asset of mine. That asset had died on her watch.
“Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get me.”
She leaned against the doorjamb, tilting her head so that her auburn hair cascaded over one shoulder. “Come on, you going to let me in or what?” There was a shuffling behind me, and before I could turn, Emilie poked her head around, peeking into the living room.
Diana said, “Sorry to interrupt, but the hot water is off for some reason, Rafe.”
I frowned, then remembered the notice posted in the elevator about the pipe updates. “The water heater button is under the sink in the vanity. It’s a backup system.”
“Okay, thanks. Sorry again,” she murmured before scooting off.
“Oh gosh, I have interrupted something. It wasn’t something important, was it?”
For a long moment, I considered how to answer that. Yes, she was damn well interrupting. And yes, I also had a distinct feeling that she knew that. What was she playing at? What did she really want from me? “This isn’t the best time, Emilie.”
But Emilie wasn’t having any of that. She pushed past me and stepped into the living room as if she owned the place. At the very least as if she’d been there before, showing the confidence of a woman who was not used to being turned down, not used to people telling her no.
“I like your place, Rafe. Fancy.”
I ground my teeth. “Thank you. Why don’t you come right on in,” I muttered under my breath.
Emilie grinned. “I guess I will.” She set the files on the coffee table. I shut the door behind her and followed her into the living room. I wasn’t ready to make introductions, but it turned out I didn’t need to worry about that. Diana was already down the hall. I prayed she was in my room.
