control.”
Jammer swore under his breath, and Reggie’s attention went to him. “You have something to say, wanker?”
Before Callie could even breathe, Jammer had his semiautomatic handgun out of his shoulder holster and pointed directly in Reggie’s face. “Don’t jerk us around, Reggie,” he said, in that tone that sent shivers down Callie’s spine.
Very gently, she put her hand on his wrist. His eyes were focused on Reggie with murderous intent. She curled her fingers around him and said softly, “We both know what this is about, and it doesn’t have anything to do with delayed weapons. Maybe you should wait downstairs.”
Reggie never batted an eyelash; in fact he looked bored. “Yeah, run along, bodyguard. I can take care of Gina’s body for you.”
“Reggie, you’re not helping here,” Callie said between clenched teeth.
“Ah, love, where is your sense of adventure?”
“I lost it when Jammer got peeved, and Jammer is who I care about. Get me, Reggie?”
“Yeah, I get you.”
“So can we stop this pissing contest and move along?”
She waited a few tense moments. Jammer dropped his arm and stepped back. “Get on with it, Gina.”
She released a sigh of relief, but Reggie just gave her a quick grin. “Tell me where you want the weapons transported and I’ll do it for no extra charge.”
“Deal.” She passed over the payment and smiled at him. “Keep out of trouble.”
He winked at her. “Can’t promise that, love. Where would the fun be in that?”
Yup, a few sessions of hot sex with Reggie and she would have been on her way, with no strings attached. But it was Jammer she’d gotten entangled with, and there wasn’t going to be anything easy about that.
Back in the cab and on the way to the Dorchester, where they were staying for a night, Callie turned to Jammer. “Are we going to have to talk about what just happened up there?”
He didn’t look at her. “Probably,” he said as the cab pulled up to the front of the hotel. Callie’s phone rang-one of her contacts telling her he couldn’t provide the surface-to-air-missiles or the planes Jammer needed. He’d been her last hope; they would have to deal with Joost.
By the time Callie hung up they were at the registration desk, and it took only a couple of minutes for them to check in and get into their suite.
Once inside, Callie settled herself on one of the plush sofas. Jammer stood by the window and looked out at the busy London traffic below. His face was pensive. Callie didn’t relish any of the coming conversation. It was imperative that he follow her lead with her contacts. His jealousy could have been disastrous for both the mission she was on and his deal with Fuentes.
She was greedy. She wanted both the Ghost and Fuentes.
She rose from the sofa and walked over to where he stood. Still he didn’t turn toward her. Was he chastising himself? Was he wishing he had taken Reggie out? Her emotions tumbled around inside her. She had known this mission would be hard. But now, standing here beside Jammer after being intimate with him on almost every level, it had gotten so damn complicated.
But her anger was mostly at herself for the position she’d put herself in. She should have told Gillian that she was compromised. That she couldn’t separate herself from her emotions and stay focused on what she had to do. Now it was too late; Callie was in too deep.
“What you did was just plain stupid.” She watched him carefully for his reaction. “And, Jammer, I know for a fact you’re not stupid.”
He looked at her, expressionless. “I’m not going to apologize for how I feel, Gina.”
“Not apologize…are you crazy? I don’t want your apology. I want you to make better choices. Reggie is an integral part of my business. I can’t afford to alienate any of my contacts.”
Jammer didn’t respond right away, but went back to gazing out the window.
“Maybe you think I’m small potatoes compared to your boss, the Ghost,” she told him. “Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but it matters to me.”
He spun to face her, his expression still unreadable. He was so good at that, but she could recognize when his emotions were seething below the surface-Jammer became calm, much too calm. “It matters to me. Anything that concerns you matters to me. That’s the fucking problem.”
“Oh, great. Now I’m the problem. I’m not the one who shoved a gun in Reggie’s face!”
He exploded away from the window and came up to her, his eyes blazing. “Yes, Gina. You are the problem. When we were separated, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Even now that we’re together I know that as soon as this deal is done, we have to part. It messes me up. All right! Is that fine by you if I care? This situation is unbearable. If only I could let you go…”
She wanted to step back-so wanted to have the strength to step back and tell him she didn’t care, that this was nothing but good sex and business. But she couldn’t get the words past her lips.
“I shouldn’t have shoved the gun in his face,” he continued. “The way he looked at you…just pissed me off. It was irrational. Okay, is that what you wanted to hear?”
“He’s a pain in the ass, Jammer. But what you showed me up there in that hotel room was that you didn’t trust me. That pisses
“No, you haven’t,” he said sincerely.
But it didn’t assuage her anger. “Do you trust me?”
“It’s not that. I said it was irrational. I’m not proud of it, but I’ve got to tell you that I would rather have taken that guy apart with my hands instead of using something as impersonal as a handgun.”
“What am I supposed to do with that, Jammer? It’s certainly not a way I can close this deal. We can either move forward with my contacts-and do it my way-or dissolve this right now and go our separate ways. Your choice.”
She held her breath as he stood there. Without warning, he grabbed her upper arms and dragged her to him. “I want to. Part of me wants to. Then I can stop this madness. I can just get done what I need to get done. But a stronger part of me can’t be without you.”
Her heart twisted at his words and at the anguish in his voice. How deep did his feelings for her run? The agent in her rejoiced that he was so fully under her spell, but the woman in her melted. She totally understood words like madness and
She also understood the word
8
JAMMER STOOD WITH GINA’S soft flesh in his hands and cursed his inability to let this woman go. The promise of her was enough to make him want to just disappear. Just merge into the world’s mass of human population and live the rest of their lives in peace.
But he couldn’t. The dead souls that he had on his conscience wouldn’t ever let him rest until he avenged those deaths, until Fuentes was brought to justice and the world made just a bit safer.
“I need you, Gina.”
“For my contacts?”
“No,” he said huskily.
He took her mouth. Right then. No preamble, no slow lowering of his lips to hers, no choice given. Just a choice made.
The surprise of it kept her motionless, but only for a second. He mentally braced himself for her to shove at him. He’d have expected that. He would have backed away, though it would have cost him. He knew then how well and truly entangled he’d become.
It had never been like this for him. He relied on instinct, on rational thought. Not on emotion and his hard-on. Or his heart. Life wasn’t set up to be fair about those things, and he’d had enough of the unfair part of life.
