Infiltrating Your Heart (4 page)

In other circumstances, that would
pique my interest.

“I’ll help you along the way,”
Patrick says. “But with such beauty and hotness as yours, I suppose seducing
any man is a walk in the park for you.”

I look at the floor. I’m still more
upset about having killed a man than I am at Patrick blackmailing me.

“So, do you accept the task?”

I glance up at Patrick, sighing.

“Okay. I’ll do it.” It should be easy
enough. I’m a natural at seducing men.

Patrick smiles, satisfied.

“Great,” he says, walking away. I
watch him go to his bedroom. He’s surely going to keep my gun safe.

Patrick returns, looking as calm as
if nothing had happened. He looks at me.

“Time to take you home, then.”

Gabriel

Once I’m in the privacy of my home
office, I sit down behind my desk. I stretch my muscles, feeling sore. As a
fitness trainer at Silver Crest, a local gym, my work is physically demanding—even
though I hold back a bit to avoid overtaxing my body. A nice bonus is that it allows
me to stay in top shape. Luckily, I don’t work on weekends.

It’s almost noon right now. I want to
grab something to eat. I could have an early lunch. While I wait, I turn on my
computer. There’s some work I need to do here.

A few moments later, I hear the
doorbell ring. I stand up and walk to the front door. I don’t have a maid.

“Hi, Gabriel!”

Evelyn is standing outside when I
open the door. She’s my girlfriend. I look at her, flashing the smile she
loves.

“Evelyn!” I say, opening my arms. She
walks up to me. We embrace each other.

“How’s work been so far?” Evelyn
asks.

“Pretty good. I’m going to have to
prepare for a spike in sign-ups for my classes,” I say. I teach swimming, too.
“You know, what with the summer coming soon.”

“Yeah.”

Evelyn walks forward. I close the
door behind her.

“How about you? Ready for work
tomorrow?”

Evelyn does the facial equivalent of
a shrug. She works as a secretary at her family’s company. The Carrolls are the
owners of a successful luxury cruise business. San Francisco is the location of
the main headquarters. They also have branches in Los Angeles, Miami, the
Carolinas, and Hawaii.

“I’m thinking I should sign up for
your classes. I could use some workouts. I mean, sure, I walk around a lot at
work, but mostly I’m just sitting down.”

“You know, I’ve always been trying to
persuade you to take my swimming class.”

Evelyn laughs, shaking her head. We
both sit on my sofa, close to each other.

“So you can see me in a bikini,
right?”

“I see you in one all the time.”

I lean down to kiss Evelyn. She
places her arms around me. That’s the way she is. A lovey-dovey girl. It’s one
of the things I like about her.

“I’ll consider it.”

I blink, staring at Evelyn in confusion.

“You do know how to swim, right?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I do. My
parents had me take a class when I was sixteen. A year later, I learned how to
drive.”

That I knew, of course. I’m just
teasing her.

“Oh. And the year after that, they
taught you how to pilot a plane.”

Evelyn slaps me on the shoulder.

“You’re funny.”

I give Evelyn a short kiss.

“I just like to make you laugh.”

Evelyn smiles. I look at her, taking
in her beautiful face. Whenever I look at my girlfriend, I see the future. I
see us together, married, living in our own house. One of my biggest dreams is
to have a family. To have children. Evelyn loves children. If she weren’t
destined to lead her family’s business, she could make a great schoolteacher.

My thoughts subside when Evelyn strokes
my hair. She seems to like doing that, but I don’t get much from it. It’s not a
pleasure, and it doesn’t bother me.

Suddenly, I get an idea.

“Sweetie, maybe we could go together
on one of your company’s cruises. We haven’t done that yet.”

“That sounds nice,” Evelyn agrees.
“I’ve always wanted to visit Rio.”

“We should do it when we have time.
Maybe this summer?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

I flash Evelyn a smile. My hand
strokes the side of her face. I love how soft women’s skin is. I lean forward
and meet my lips to hers. She puts her arms around me. I tug at her bottom lip,
and she groans in pleasure. Our tongues then dance against each other. We get
lost in our kiss.

My hands reach to grasp Evelyn’s
waist. I move them up inside her blouse, caressing her skin. At the same time,
my mouth moves down to plant kisses along her jaw. Evelyn’s eyes remain closed.
I suck on the skin on the side of her chin. Evelyn likes when I do this.

I keep moving down, nibbling on her
neck. Then my hands fumble with the buttons on Evelyn’s blouse. Once they’re
all undone, I expose her chest. She has a dark red bra on. My lips kiss between
her cleavage, and then I nip on the edge of one of her breasts. Evelyn’s head
tilts upward, her back arching to give me better access. I free one of her
breasts. It spills out of her bra. Holding it with one hand, I proceed to close
my mouth around her nipple. Evelyn moans.

 “I love you,” she tells me after I
move up to kiss her lips. Her eyes shine with a kind of happiness that lifts my
spirits.

“I love
you too,” I tell Evelyn. I caress her lips with my fingers. She closes her
eyes. I kiss her again.

~*~
Mercedes

Next Monday, I have classes. I attend
the Academy of Art University. No, I’m not an artist per se. I can draw and
paint fairly well, but that’s not my strength. My major is Advertising.

As I walk from my last class, I see
someone in front of me. She’s walking in my direction. I recognize her.

“Hi, Mercedes!” the girl says,
walking up to me. She’s Nadine Holloway, my best friend. I’m a year above her.
This is my last semester at the university.

“Nice to see you again, friend! I
missed you over the weekend.”

“Me, too. I went to your place
yesterday so we could hang out, but you weren’t there.”

My eyebrows furrow.

“I was home.”

“You were? It was almost eleven in
the morning when I went. Only your dad was there.”

“Oh, yesterday morning. Yeah, I was
away.”

Nadine looks at me curiously.

“Where were you that you don’t
remember? Your secret hideout?”

I roll my eyes. Nadine is the only
one who knows that I keep a secret apartment. I don’t want to tell Dad about it
because, for one, he’ll wonder how I can afford it.

“No. It’s an interesting story. I’ll
tell you later.”

“I’ll hold you to it, friend.”

I laugh.

“Okay, I’ve got to go.”

“See you,” I tell her. I watch Nadine
walk away. She still has one class left before leaving. I’m glad she didn’t
notice the bruises on my neck. I wore a scarf of the kind meant for decoration
rather than to keep you warm.

When I get to my car, my smartphone
rings. I pull it from my purse and answer it.

“Hi. This is Mercedes Roberts.”

“Hello, Mercedes. I’m Patrick.”

I bite my lip.

“How are you doing?” I ask the first
thing that comes to my mind. I’m not too happy with him. I may owe Patrick a
lot, but it doesn’t give him the right to give me to his brother, or to anyone.
I’m not a Playmate in a gift box.

“I’m fine. Are you still in class?”

“Yeah,” I lie to give me some time.

“I see. Can you meet me at my place
after? I want to discuss something with you.”

“Um…sure, I guess.”

I hear Patrick laugh.

“You’re not too fond of me, are you?”

I don’t reply, waiting for him to
continue.

“Come on, it’s not like I asked you
to sign your soul over to me. This is the sort of behavior I’d have expected if
I had asked you to have sex with me.”

“Funny,” I say. I’m not going to
admit that that’s just what I thought he would ask from me.

“If that’s the kind of man you think
I am, then I want the chance for a second first impression.”

“I don’t think badly of you, Patrick.
It’s just…I’m not exactly happy with you.”

Patrick scoffs.

“You wait until you meet my brother.
Most women wish they were handed to him on a silver platter.”

“Lucky for both of you, I’m not the
‘what-you-see-is-what-you-get’ type of woman.”

Patrick lets out a chuckle.

“That much I could tell since I met
you.”

I can’t help but smile at the
comment.

“See you later, then.”

Patrick is confident, I’ll give him
that. I hope this Gabriel O’Hara doesn’t disappoint me.

“Okay. I’ll stop by.”

“Good. Take care.”

I hang up without saying bye. Patrick
needs to put in a bit more effort if he wants to thaw me.

First, I drive back to my apartment.
If Patrick intends to introduce me to his brother today, I need to make sure
that I look attractive.

The whole situation’s funny. I’m
preoccupied about dazzling a guy I haven’t even met. Normally, I wouldn’t care
too much.  I can’t say I’m not curious, though. The way that Patrick talks
about his brother suggests I’m going to seduce Bruce Wayne or something. I
don’t expect that much. I never aspired to date a prince. Unlike some people, I
don’t have insanely high goals.

After dressing up (making sure I
don’t dress the way I do when I go on an assignment), I apply some makeup. I
decide to leave my glasses on—I’m nearsighted. Plus, they help me look
different from Scarlet. The glasses are one thing that separates me from her.

When I’m ready, I grab my purse and
head out. As soon as I get to my Jetta, I struggle to remember how to get to
Patrick’s apartment. I don’t even have his address to input into my GPS. Growling,
I search the Web on my phone. At least I more or less remember the name of the
apartment where Patrick lives.

It takes me a short time to get to
Patrick’s. I manage to find it and pull into the parking lot. I must say it
looks a lot different in the day. That’s one reason I had trouble finding it.

After checking myself in the rearview
mirror, I get out of my car. Then I walk toward the building.

Minutes later, I’m standing outside
Patrick’s door. I had to text him to remember the room number. He didn’t seem
to mind I forgot.

Patrick lets me into his apartment.

“Nice to see you again, Mercedes,” he
tells me, closing the door. “You look a whole lot better than you did last
Saturday.”

“A good amount of rest and some
makeup will do wonders to a girl.”

Patrick smiles. I look at the T-shirt
he’s wearing. It’s black, with a gold-and-white eagle graphic.

“What did you want to discuss with
me?”

“Straight to the point,” Patrick
says. “Would you like something to eat? Or drink?”

“No,” I say quickly. I reconsider.
“On second thought, I could use a cup of coffee.”

Patrick walks to his kitchen. I sit
on the sofa to wait. While I’m there, I take a better look at the room. I think
it won’t impress a girl, but it won’t disappoint either.

The living room is all but devoid of
personalization. There are no photos, except one of Patrick’s university
graduating class. I examine it, wondering if Gabriel is in there. Then I go
back to the sofa. On top of the coffee table are a couple of remotes, a few
magazines on cars and women, and a mystery novel. That’s the only stuff in the
room that gives me an insight into Patrick’s personality. My conclusions: he’s
a private person, or he hasn’t got much to share.