“No? You travel with a team twenty deep.”
“And how many secret agents are in King’s corner?”
“Touché.” He took a long sip of his coffee and turned away, leaving that unanswered, which told me what I needed to know. That there were more members than the ones I’d met, and he wouldn’t be divulging their names. Were some of them on the flash drive? Or were those strictly clients? I hadn’t questioned Benoit when I thought he was just a dancer, but now I found myself wanting to know more.
How the tides had turned.
Fuck.
“How did you get recruited? Dancer turned spy? Your parents were spies?”
Benoit slowly turned around, arched a brow, and smirked. “Oh, I’m sorry, are we asking personal questions now?”
I rolled my eyes, wishing I hadn’t said a damn thing and got to my feet. “Never mind. I don’t know why I bothered.”
It was going to be alongtwo weeks.
THE NEXT TWO days were much the same, a precarious back-and-forth dance that had us moving in and out of each other’s space with caution. I didn’t trust him and he sure as shit didn’t trust me—not that I’d given him any reason to.
I’d pointed a gun at his head.Threatened his life.Then bartered with his leader to put that very same life in my hands for the last two weeks of our agreement.
I didn’t feel guilty, though. Benoit deserved every bit of my disdain. His lies had left an acrid taste in my mouth, one that was difficult to be rid of.
He was the perfect illusion. Beautiful. Fun. Flirty. I should’ve known it was too good to be true. There was no way someone like him would ever be interested in?—
“Are you going to join me for a swim today,mon monstre? Or are you still afraid I might try to drown you?”
—a monster.
I glanced out the sliding doors to the glistening pool that beckoned. Benoit had invited me to join him on several different occasions since our arrival, and each time I’d refused. I knew myself well enough to know that being around him wet and nearly naked would only end one way, and it wasn’t with either of us drowning.
“I’m working.” That seemed the easiest way to be rid of him. Ever since King had shown his hand, Benoit had been about as interested in my business as I imagined he would be in a seminar on accounting.
I could just imagine his opinion on that—I don’t care how I make the money, darling. Just how much of it I can spend.
“You’re always working.” The pout was evident in his voice even without my seeing him. But the next thing I knew, Benoit came around the side of my lounger and took the laptop from me. “I think it’s time you loosen up.”
“AndIthink you’re going to want to give that back.”
Benoit looked at the weapons catalogue I had open, frowned, then shut the computer. “Nope.”
I got to my feet and went to reach for my laptop, but he quickly sidestepped me.
“It’s a beautiful day, your pool is heated, and you and I are going to go and get wet.”
“No,weare not. Give it back.”
Benoit’s lips curved into a smirk full of wicked promise. Once upon a time I would’ve taken that as a come-on, but I was now well aware that that promise was full of devious intentions, and there was no way I would fall for it again.
“If you don’t give that back, I’m going to?—”
“What? Kidnap me? Done that. Handcuff me? That was fun. Threaten my life? Guess what? You’ve done that too. I mean, really,mon monstre,you’re going to have to come up with something far more creative than threats if you want this back.”
He dangled my computer in front of himself, and as I snatched for it, he laughed and turned, running off through the house.
Fucking Benoit.He was insane. No one talked to me the way he did. I’d thought that the first time we met, and I was thinking it now as I went after him. He headed straight toward the slidingdoors that led out to the terrace, and my heart skipped a couple of beats. Who knew what he’d do next? I wouldn’t put it past him to throw it in the damn pool.
“Benoit, give me back my fucking computer.”
