Cody looked…wounded and that had her feeling pretty much like a jerk.
“You agree.” His dark chocolate gaze narrowed as Cody flatly repeated, “You…agree?”
The tension that her accusation had caused hung in the air between them. Taut and uncomfortable. Since his question was clearly rhetorical, J.J. turned to focus on the final sputterings from the coffeepot instead of the heat of his gaze fixed on her back. She had no idea why she felt like a Judas. Like Cody, she was a public servant. If her boss said jump, she jumped. And darn it, it wasn’t as though there wasn’t clear evidence that one of his team members was in bed with the bad guys. She was just doing her job. He should be grateful she’d given him a heads-up.
The click of the wall clock marking time echoed in her ears. She sucked in deep breaths, trying to find her center.
After pouring coffee into matching mugs, she went to the table and placed his in front of him, then sat down. His eyes tracked her every movement. It was irritating.
“Stop glaring at me and say something.”
“Like what?” he asked, his voice tight.
J.J. raked her fingers through her hair. “Like, ‘Gee, Barnes, you may have a point.’”
He brought the mug to his mouth, his expression strained. Allowing the cup to hover just shy of his lips, he said, “Gee, Barnes, you may have a point.”
“Your sincerity is lacking.”
He swallowed, then sighed deeply. “You’re asking me to believe that people I’ve worked with for years are responsible for at least three deaths.”
She leaned forward, touching her fingertips to the back of his hand. His skin was warm. His look was not. “I’m only asking you to consider the possibility.”
“That’s a lot to ask.”
There was something in his tone. Not sadness, exactly, but definitely an indication that what she’d said struck a chord. Good. “Cody, this is my assignment. It was a breach for me to bring you into the loop. A breach that could get me fired. I’m supposed to be undercover. Sharing my true purpose for being here breaks about a zillion bureau regulations, but I did it. This is huge for me.”
“I get that.” He was still annoyed.
With her? With the assignment? Frustrated, she rose, took the mug to the sink, dumped the coffee and started for the door.
“Wait!” Cody called as he caught up to J.J. Her muscles stiffened beneath his touch. He tried to think of something to say. The truth was out of the question. Stepping around her and planting his palms on her shoulders, he met and held her gaze.
An entire vocabulary of unspoken, angry words glistened in her beautiful eyes. The woman would probably like nothing more than to toss him on his back again. Conflicting emotions churned in his gut. “Okay, okay,” he relented. “I brought you here so you could access the Marshal Service database and get this out of your system. I can—”
“Don’t patronize me, Landry.” She slapped his hands off of her.
“I’m not,” he insisted. “Bad choice of words. Can I try again?” He smiled down at her. Lord, Cody thought, relieved when he saw a small decrease in her hostility level, weren’t they a fine pair? Both feeling the sting of their convictions, both defensive when what they really wanted to do was—
Keep your mind on the job, Landry, Cody cautioned himself. Not paying attention in his line of work could get people killed. The Visnopov case had a high enough body count as it was. “Let’s go into Sam’s office so we can explore your theory. Better?”
“Marginally.”
He heard her expel a loud breath and felt the rush of it against his throat. “Cut me some slack, please? I’m trying here.”
Slowly resentment seemed to fade from her expression. “Yeah, you’re trying all right.” She didn’t exactly exude gratitude, but she no longer looked as if she’d like to whip out her gun and shoot him in the…ba—foot. A grin curved the corners of her pretty mouth.
That simple action and the fact that she’d confided in him when it could cost her her job—her life—had his brain detouring back into the danger zone.
Dammit!
Hostility he could deal with just fine. But when she looked at him with total, unadulterated faith, every instinct begged for another taste of her. For another chance to feel that incredible mouth against his. How did she do that? How did she manage to get him from anger, to guilt, to wanting her more than his next breath—all in the blink of an eye? How?
Because she had the softest skin he’d ever felt. He confirmed his thought by drawing his finger slowly along her jawline. He watched, fixated, as her pupils constricted and her lips parted ever so slightly. She swallowed as the pad of his fingertip glided down her neck, finally resting atop her pulse point, feeling the erratic rhythm.
She made a little sound, something deep and sexy, as her palms flattened against his chest.
J.J. felt the tight, corded muscle and heat of Cody’s body beneath her hands. The urgency she felt speeding through her made her head swim, and her thoughts jumble.
Step back, she told herself firmly. Just step back. All she had to do was move. One foot, then the other and she’d be out of his force field. Simple. Easy.
Sure, if reason wasn’t such a distant second to desire. “I—I think we should go into the office.”
The reluctant smile he offered was thrilling. His hands cupped her face and he placed the gentlest of kisses against her forehead. His lips lingered against her skin as he whispered, “You’re making me nuts, Barnes. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.” She felt powerful and giddy all at once. It was a pretty heady combination.
“So what are we gonna do about it?”
“Run up to the first bedroom and—ouch!” He’d spun her around and swatted her fanny. “It was just a suggestion,” she offered innocently as he pushed her along the hallway.
“It’s cruel the way you’re toying with me, Barnes.”
“No toying about it,” she said, brave because he was behind her and couldn’t see her face. There was no way she could speak so openly if they were eye to eye. “I like you, Landry, and…I want you.”
He pulled her up short, just shy of a paneled office. His laugh was tinged with what she guessed was a fair amount of frustration. “You really shouldn’t admit something like that to a guy who’s already hanging by a thread.”
Not trusting herself, she rested against the cool wall, trapping her hands behind her body just in case she was overcome by the strong urge to touch him. Again. Peeking up at him through her lashes, she read the frustration carved into his handsome, angled features. “The liking part, or the wanting part?”
“Either. Both.”
She shrugged. “Why?”
Rolling his eyes, he balled his hands into fists and shoved them into the front pockets of his jeans. “Because it makes my life really difficult.”
She couldn’t stop herself from grinning like a giddy teenager. “Too bad.” She poked him in the stomach. “Toughen up, Landry.”
“We’ll see how tough you are once you no longer have the shield of a doctor’s note to hide behind.”
She spun away from him and ducked into the office. “I’m not hiding from anything.”
“You should be,” he insisted. “Any…involvement could cost both of us our jobs.”
“Could be worth the risk.” Despite her resolve to tamp down her urges, she felt possessed by the dangerous need to flex her female power as she watched him round the desk and boot the computer.
“Might very well be,” he admitted easily, using two fingers to tap on the keyboard.
Might? Might?
“But we’re adults, Barnes. We should both understand and appreciate boundaries.”
Boundaries, eh? I’ll show you boundaries. J.J., pretending complete interest in the computer screen, leaned close. “You have complete access to personnel files?”
He squirmed in the seat as her every word was delivered as a warm breath against his ear. “No. Just my team members.” She smiled at the slight crack in his voice. “Who do you want to start with?”
“Hmm…” She practically moaned as she took her sweet time deciding which of the three marshals to pick first. She leaned closer to the computer screen, the action causing her breasts to brush, ever so lightly, against Cody’s shoulder. She kept it up until she heard his breathing become slightly more rapid. “Lara. Let’s review Lara’s file.”
Cody tapped a key and then shifted back, allowing her easier access to the monitor.
Keeping her eyes fixed on the screen, J.J. placed her palm on his thigh and peered more closely at the information. “Nothing out of the ordinary,” she remarked, glancing at him so that she’d have an excuse for moving her fingers slightly higher on his leg. “Just hard facts.”
“Very hard facts.”
“I’d like to explore this,” she said, pointing toward a page referencing Lara’s personal history.
“Explore anything you’d like.”
She grinned, liking the fact that his voice was turning into a croak. Getting to you, eh, Landry? Applying just a little more pressure against his leg, she leaned over to position the mouse and clicked the link. The computer screen changed and a few paragraphs popped up. “There’s not a lot here, is there?”
Suddenly she felt the warmth of his fingers splayed across her rear end. She almost let out a yelp but managed to swallow it in time.
“There’s a lot here, J.J.,” he countered, slowly exploring the curves of her body. “You’re just not processing it because you’re too busy trying to seduce me.”
Her smugness drained as she turned and found him smirking at her, his dark eyes smoldering as he watched her stumble awkwardly into the desk.
“I wasn’t trying. I was succeeding.”
He shot her a wry smile. “I hate to burst your bubble, but that isn’t much of an accomplishment.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you really going to try that lame excuse about how any man can be seduced by any woman at any time simply because they’re men?”
“No. I’m telling you that it would be easy for you to seduce me because I already want you.”
Her eyes widened. “Then how come you were so blasé when I told you I wanted you?”
“Because I’m trying to do the right thing here, Barnes.” He reached for her, capturing her hips in his strong grasp. “You’re not exactly helping, either. One of us has to be strong, and apparently that person is me.”
“I take back what I said before.” She crossed her arms in a huff. “I really don’t like you at all.”
He laughed at her. Tossed back his head and belly-laughed at her. And for the first time in more years than she cared to remember, she felt her cheeks burn with a blush.
Indignation and a pretty fair amount of embarrassment replaced every other thought in her head and stiffened her spine. “Can we get back to work now?”
He dropped his hands but his arrogant expression didn’t slip an inch. “Absolutely.”
J.J. was the picture of professionalism as they spent the better part of two hours on the computer. She read and reread every bit of information on Martin, Cody, Denise and Lara. Nothing jumped out at her. That annoyed her almost as much as Cody’s close proximity.
“Anything else before we go back to the cabin?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t learn anything new. Unless you count the names of Martin’s wife and Denise’s husband.”
“I could have told you that,” he offered as he led her back through the house. “I was the best man at Martin’s wedding. Sally is a lovely lady. Very traditional. Very good for Martin.”
“Meaning?” she asked as she slipped on her coat and watched as Cody did the same.
“He needs roots.”
She remembered the dossier. “Lost his family in a car accident when he was seventeen. So why’d he wait so long to marry?”
“Because he lost his family,” Cody explained as he did a visual scan of the area in front of the house. “Clear. Let’s go.” He escorted her back to the Hummer. “I think he was afraid of what might happen to a wife and kids if he was killed in the line,” Cody said, slamming her door.
J.J. saw the logic in that. “What changed his mind?” she asked moments later as he buckled up and started the engine.
“Sally is traditional, but she’s also independent. I think Martin knew that if anything happened to him, Sally could go it alone.”
“He’s retiring.”
“Yeah. It’s time. He’s earned it. And he wants it. But he’ll leave some big shoes to fill. He’s a good man.”
“Denise’s husband, Greg—know him?”
She had to wait until Cody negotiated a difficult patch of terrain for an answer. “Not well. Denise is pretty closemouthed about her personal life. I know he’s really smart. He can bore you into a stupor explaining stock options.”
J.J. smiled. “That would do it for me. Investing isn’t one of my strong suits.” She quietly admired Cody’s profile as he drove the several miles back to the cabin. And she couldn’t help but think that this was possibly the last opportunity they’d have to be alone for a while. “I’d have thought someone like you would know all about making money work for you.”
“That would be Sam,” he insisted. “My oldest brother is a world-class bean counter.”
J.J. had seen a photograph of Sam back at the Lucky 7. “He doesn’t look like a bean counter.”
“Trust me,” Cody said with genuine affection in his tone. “I think he wore his first pocket protector to kindergarten. He’s a geek through and through.”
“So how’d a geek get a stunning wife and two beautiful children?”
“Four,” he corrected, telling her about the twins.
“Twins would be scary.” She looked up to find him glancing in her direction. “Don’t do that, Landry. I’m not going to freak out at the mere mention of babies.”
“You did a nice impersonation when you saw the nursery.”
She shrugged. “Minor setback. So.” She paused when the cabin came into sight, glad that the bumpy ride was about to end. “Tell me about the wedding.”
He groaned. “It’s in two days—not enough time to recap the festivities.”
“Give me the Cliff’s Notes.”
“Service at the church in town. Reception at the Mountainview Inn.”
“See?” She slipped down from the truck and followed Cody up the snowy steps to the cabin. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? How many guests?”
“Six hundred.”
“People?”
Cody grinned. “Most of them.”
He opened the front door and motioned her inside where it was only marginally warmer than outside. His smile dissolved into a frown at the silence that greeted them. “Hang on a sec,” he told J.J., reaching for his weapon. “Denise?”
He called out for the other agent again. “Stay here.” He moved through the house, weapon raised. But there wasn’t anyone inside. He reholstered the gun and walked back into the living room. Denise should have been back by now. Hell, Martin should be back, as well.
“Nobody’s here.”
J.J. slowly removed her coat. Keeping eye contact with Cody, she let the garment drop to the floor. “Well, darn.” Her lips curved into a sexy smile. “Guess we’re alone. What will we do?”