Tell Me No Spies Read Online Free PDF Page B

lifted a wry
eyebrow, and I gave him a bitter smile in return.
    “I know. But we need
to do damage control. That’s twice in two days I’ve had problems. I
don’t know what to do.”
    “What exactly
happened?”
    I explained both
encounters to him in detail, and he sat back in his chair,
frowning. “Let me think about it for a while. Just lie low in the
mean time.”
    I suddenly recalled
the reason for his visit, and jumped to my feet. “How urgent is the
decryption? Do I have time for a shower, or should we go right
now?”
    He rose, too. “There’s
no decryption. This time I really was stalking you.” He smiled at
my expression. “Don’t worry, the stalking was in a professional
capacity. After last night, I had a feeling you might have problems
with Rossburn. I told the analysts to call me if they saw him on
the surveillance cameras.”
    “Oh.” I looked up at
him, wondering how much of his attention was duty and how much was
personal, disguised as duty.
    As if reading my mind,
he blew out a long breath. “I thought it would be best if I looked
jealous. We may have to pretend to be involved as a cover, though
I’d like to avoid it if at all possible. It causes too many
complications down the line.”
    “Okay.” I followed him
to the door, and found myself standing too close for comfort when
he turned.
    “Don’t worry,” he
said. “We’ll figure it out.”
    “Thanks. See you.” I
tried to control my face while I ogled him from close range. Those
damn riding chaps did it to me every time. A faint whiff of gun oil
and leather reached me as I jerked my gaze up from his well-endowed
crotch, and I swallowed hard. I could almost taste his skin again,
feel that hard-muscled shoulder under my teeth. Could almost feel
that magnificent…
    “Call me if you need
me,” I added. My voice came out sounding husky, and I realized I’d
licked my lips unconsciously.
    I lost what little
breath I had left when Kane’s eyes darkened. His hand moved as
though he would reach for me, but he gripped the doorknob instead,
his knuckles whitening. He stepped quickly out the door and closed
it behind him without a backward glance.
    He revved the bike,
and I watched him spray gravel and disappear down the lane before I
collapsed into my chair again, knees trembling. Goddamn, he was
hot. And if I didn’t keep my hands off him, Sirius Dynamics would
take him down right along with me when the time came.
    Life just wasn’t
fair.

Chapter 5
    I trailed into Sirius
Dynamics on Monday morning with a significant lack of enthusiasm.
When I realized my office was already crowded, I jerked to a halt
in the doorway, surveying the occupants.
    Kane and Spider were
present, as expected. I kept my expression neutral at the sight of
Charles Stemp, Sirius’s civilian director of clandestine
operations.
    Stemp looked up as I
entered, his reptilian features unreadable as always. “Ms. Kelly,
you have a new team member, effective immediately.” He indicated
the fourth man in the room. “He will be joining your team in an
attempt to analyze the unique interaction of your brain with the
network key’s circuitry.”
    My cynical inside
voice finished the unspoken sentence: “…so we can figure out how to
decrypt things for ourselves and kill you as soon as possible.” I
shrugged off the thought. Same old, same old.
    Stemp continued as I
reached to shake hands with the newcomer, “This is Dr. Sam
Kraus.”
    A shock of recognition
paralyzed me with hand outstretched, mouth gaping. My stunned gaze
took in the short, roly-poly white-haired man smiling at me. The
red shirt and full, curly white beard. The twinkling, vividly blue
eyes and rosy cheeks.
    My voice emerged as a
feeble croak. “…Santa Claus?”
    He laughed, and his
belly shook like… a bowl full of jelly…
    “Hello, Aydan. Have
you been a good girl lately?”
    “No way ! You’re
kidding me!” I stared at him some more. “Talk about a
self-fulfilling prophecy.”
    He glanced