Twice as Hot (9 page)

Again,
she remained silent. To be cruel? I was in her face a heartbeat later, scared,
angry again, coughing even harder, frost and fire battling for supremacy inside
me. Wind whipped between us as I hooked my foot around her ankle and shoved.
Down, down she fell. On the mat, she used her elbows to crab-walk backward,
away from me.

“What
the hell do you see?” The cold began to leave me, my fury eating away at it and
leaving a burning trail. Jealousy was there, images of Rome and Lexis living
happily ever after with Sunny flashing through my mind. A muddy fireball formed
in my palm. “Tell me!”

The
agents finally doused the flames in front of them and moved around us in a
circle, probably meaning to close in until they rendered us completely
immobile. Instead, their positions aided my cause. Lexis hit a pair of boots
and stopped.

Gasping,
she rolled to the side just as I tossed my bounty. It barely missed her,
yellow-orange flickers crackling where she’d been, smoke billowing from the
foam. The men jumped back with a collective gasp as another muddy fireball
formed. I threw it, too. Again, Lexis rolled, escaping harm, causing more of
the mat to hiss and the men to step farther away, widening the circle rather
than closing it.

“You
really want to know?” she shouted. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But you’ll wish I’d
kept quiet. You’re going to continue to plan your wedding, but he’ll want
nothing to do with it. Another man will court you, but Rome won’t care. Do you
hear me? He won’t care! You’re going to date this other man. It’s
him
you’ll marry. Him. Not Rome. Him.”

She
was lying. She had to be lying. Anything to shred my confidence, my hope.
Anything to give herself an edge. I wouldn’t, couldn’t believe otherwise. No
way I’d marry any man but Rome. No way I’d love any man but Rome. “Too bad you
won’t live long enough to find out if your predictions are true.” I advanced
toward her, stalking my prey with every intention of destroying it. I hadn’t
lied to her earlier; I no longer cared about consequences.

But
then, panting as I was, the black plumes still wafting from the mat enveloped
me, soaked into me and filled me up, and I started coughing again. My steps
slowed, then stopped altogether. As the seconds dragged by, those coughs became
gut racking, shaking my entire body. Damn it! Not now. Any time but now.

While
I gasped for breath, someone tackled me, tossing me to the ground and pinning
me. What the—three male bodies weighed me down. I struggled and kicked and
screamed.

Lexis,
who was being patted on the back and asked if she were harmed, sprang for me.
Through wide eyes I watched as she closed the distance, fist drawn back. One of
the men dove for her, knocking her down just before she reached me. She
scrambled to her knees just as I worked my way free of my own captors.
Determination like ours couldn’t be contained.

Even
as I coughed, a raging fireball formed in my hand. Attack me while I was unable
to defend myself, would she? Try and steal my man, would she? Hurt my friend,
would she? Not without paying a very dear price. I pulled my elbow back, wrist
relaxing…preparing…

“Stop!”
a masculine voice shouted.

Rome.

I
twisted, my heart pounding, nearly cracking my ribs. He was clearly angry but
all the more magnificent for it. Too bad I didn’t have time to drink him in.
Lexis’s foot connected with my back and sent me flying forward. Forever I
seemed to trip, the fireball falling from my hand and catching a corner of the
mat in a blazing inferno.

As
I righted myself, someone rushed over and saturated the flames with liquid
nitrogen.

With
a quick glance, I rasped, “Low blow, Lexis.” I wouldn’t be foolish enough to
give her my back again. But damn it.
Well played, Miss Know-It-All. Well
played.
I should have been smart enough to do something similar to her.

She
was standing, shoulders squared, expression once again smug. “There’s more
where that came from.”

How
could I ever have trusted this woman? Even a little?

At
least I’d gotten in a few good blows. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, and a
bruise had already begun to form under one of her eyes. No telling what I
looked like, though. Without the rush of adrenaline, without the glacial blast
of fear and the conflagration of rage, my knuckles throbbed and my facial
muscles ached.

“What
the hell is going on?” Rome demanded.

I
strode to Lexis’s side, though I remained out of striking distance, and
returned my focus to him. This time, I
was
able to drink him in—but oh,
I was sorry for it. Quite simply, he scrambled my brain. He was tall, dark,
dangerous. Exotic, sensual. Mine. He was the fantasy I’d always craved, the
reality I thought I’d never achieve, but had. Only to lose it.

This
isn’t over.

His
eyes strayed from Lexis to me, from me to Lexis. I wasn’t sure which one of us
caused his pupils to dilate, his nostrils to flare. Sure signs of arousal. At
one time, I would have known who that arousal was for. It would have been me,
no question. He would have stalked to me, grabbed my hand and jerked me into
the hallway—coworkers be damned—where he would have pinned me against the wall,
unable to exist a second more without my taste in his mouth. One of his hands
would have cupped my breast, and the other would have worked at my jeans.

“Out,”
he snapped.

Both
Lexis and I jolted in response, though neither of us obeyed. We knew he wasn’t
speaking to us.

“Out!”
he repeated, harsher this time.

There
were scampering footsteps behind us as our fellow agents fled.

When
there was silence, Rome crossed his arms over his chest. “There will be no more
fighting between the two of you. Understand?”

“Yes,”
Lexis said, clearly wanting to please him. “But I was only defending myself.
She attacked me.”

Perhaps
I should have followed her lead, should have tried to placate him. That had
never been my style, though, and I wouldn’t change now. “Fuck you,” I told him.
“I’ll do what I want, when I want, and there’s not a thing you can do about it.
You lost the chance to order me around. And besides that, she’s a heartless
bitch who deserved every punch I landed. Next time I’m not going to stop until
she’s unconscious.”

Lexis
gasped.

Rome
blinked over at me, shock forming in those electric blues.

Someone
whooped behind me. I turned—and it was one of the hardest things I’d ever done,
looking away from Rome. But I had to. Any longer and I would have run to him
and jumped into his arms. He was just so familiar to me, so…necessary. More
than that, shock was a look I received from him quite often. Every time I said
something he didn’t expect but liked, he would blink, grab me and kiss the
breath right out of me. Yes, he kissed me for a lot of different reasons.

“Hello,
everyone.” Grinning, Cody leaned a muscled shoulder against the door frame, so
beautiful he could have been a painting come to life. Hell, in this supernatural
world of ours, I wouldn’t doubt if that were the case. “Hello, gorgeous,” he
added, gaze on me.

My
brow puckered in confusion. Was he talking to me? Surely not. He’d never spoken
to me like that before. The only women Cody wouldn’t seduce were those that
belonged to his friends or those who were looking to get married. I was both,
so I was definitely off-limits.

Or
had been, I thought sadly. This sucked.

“I
need a moment with the women,” Rome said stiffly.

“Well,
I need a moment with Belle.”

“No.”

Cody
laughed now. “So you’re saying you’re her man? If that’s the case, I’ll leave.”

Rome’s
jaw clenched. He remained silent.

“Fine,
then. You’re no longer her man,” Cody said, “so you can’t speak for her
anymore. Not that you could have before,” he added with another laugh.

“Get
lost,” Rome retorted.

“I
believe the little lady told you to fuck yourself. Rather than tell you the
same, I’ll just ask Belle what she’d prefer to do. Stay here and receive a
lecture about giving naughty girls the spankings they deserve, or come with me
and have fun.”

My
head lashed back and forth between them as they spoke. Rome bared his
extra-sharp teeth in a scowl, but Cody never lost his grin. These two men were
friends, colleagues, yet here they were, locked in some sort of tug-of-war. Not
over me, but over power. Surely. Why?

“Miss
Jamison…Belle,” Rome said, and hearing my name on his lips was heaven. Nearly
my undoing. “Tell Cody you want to stay. We need to talk.”

Giving
in to him now would have undermined my take-no-crap stance. Besides, as Cody
predicted, he probably wanted to yell at me for hurting his previous and future
wife. Ugh. No way. I’d seriously vomit. Then I’d burn something. That didn’t
mean I wanted him to spend time alone with Little Miss Know-It-All, though.

Hating
myself, I faced Rome. “I think we’ve said all we need to say to each other.
Unless you’ve remembered something?”

He
gave an abrupt shake of his head.

Not
one to miss an opportunity, Lexis rushed to his side before I could latch onto
her arm and petted his shoulder. “Let her go. She’s caused enough trouble
today.” Next she whispered something in his ear.

A
muscle began ticking under his eye, his gaze never leaving me.

My
insides twisted in disgust. What the hell was she telling him? That I was the
devil and I’d attacked her for no reason? That she’d begged for mercy but I
didn’t possess any?

“Belle,”
Cody prompted.

Do
it. Spin.
I spun. Each step measured, I walked to Cody, knowing the distance between me
and Rome was growing. I was shaking, my eyes a bit watery. Any minute now,
raindrops would pour from the ceiling.
You are such a baby. Hold your head
high.
My chin lifted.

When
I reached Cody, he wrapped one of his arms around my waist and tugged me into
the hard length of his body. I would have gasped, but he smothered the sound by
pressing my mouth into his chest.

Then
he
whispered to
me,
“I’d be willing to bet Rome’s eaten up with
jealousy right now and it’s killing him.”

Looking
up at Cody, not daring to hope, I freed my mouth enough to say, “Really?”

“I’d
place my substantial savings on it.”

“I
thought you wanted to speak with her, not eat her whole,” Rome sniped.

Dear
God. Cat Man was indeed in a snit. I grinned up at Cody, happier than I’d been
in days. “He can do both,” I said without looking over my shoulder. “I’ve
always loved a man who could multitask.”

“My
kind of woman,” Cody said, grin widening. “And why do you care, anyway,
Masters? You’re done with her.” To me, but just as loudly, he said, “I was
listening to your earlier convo with Kitty over there and wanted you to know
you were right. I leave my women so sated they can’t even speak. I’m willing to
let you find out for yourself.”

I
had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

“I
told you. I need to speak with her. About the Desert Gal case,” Rome added
tersely, “and how it connects with our last mission.”

“Don’t
worry,” Cody said. “I’ve already talked to her about that.”

“Rome,”
Lexis said. “Take me home. Please. My head is throbbing and I need to get
cleaned up. You heard Cody. He’s got things under control.”

I
pictured the two of them alone. Perhaps showering together, as Rome and I liked
to do. My stomach clenched painfully, amusement forgotten. “Cody, will you take
me to the nearest clinic? I need someone to dig the knife out of my back. Lexis
might need it again. And the good doctor might want to give me a tetanus shot.
I think she bled on me.”

Stunned
silence.

I
often had that effect.

“Rome,”
Lexis said, and this time her tone was pure
I’m-pissed
.

Not
wanting to hear his response, I whirled on them and said, “Actually, it doesn’t
matter if Cody has things under control or not. I’ve been placed in charge of
this case, which makes me your boss.
Both
of your bosses. And I expect
both of you to begin interviewing Desert Gal’s victims in the morning. Then I
expect you to report to John’s office at noon. We’ll compare notes and decide
what to do next. Oh, and a word of warning. Fail to show, and I’ll introduce
you to Mean Belle.”

No
longer appearing stunned, but rather braced for whatever slipped out of my
mouth next, Rome snorted. “You mean we haven’t met her yet?”

“Not
even close.”

Cody
drove me home ,
 though
we didn’t speak. We sat in silence, the radio switched off. I wasn’t ready to
talk or listen—to anything—and he probably sensed it. What were Rome and Lexis
doing? Not knowing was killing me. It was like having a knife in my chest, the
blade slowly inching deeper while the hilt was twisted round and round.