“I vill be ready this time.”
“I hope so, Andre, because you folded like an accordion last night.” Pink hung up and set the phone on the table, smiling.
“How was that?”
Maddox stopped pacing and Justin wiped the perspiration from his brow. “You gave me a dozen gray hairs over that, Miss Fuentes.” He grinned. “But it was the perfect setup.”
Flynn shook his head, proud of her chutzpah, but dreading her going back to the club.
Hours later, after Justin and Maddox had left, Izzy luxuriated in the spa-sized tub. It had taken forever to fill, but settling back into the silky smoothness of the bubbles was worth the wait. She and Flynn had gone for a quick run late in the afternoon. This time when she passed her childhood home, Izzy kept her eyes forward and for the first time since she was kicked out, didn’t feel the emotional sting of not being welcome in her father’s house.
His loss. Frankly, she didn’t want a man like him in her life.
Life since she’d met Flynn had changed irrevocably for her. She wasn’t the scared little girl looking for love or trying to prove herself to a family that didn’t want her. The drive to surpass their academic honors and social standing no longer held sway over her. With that, Izzy wondered what she was going to do. Because it occurred to her, now, that she didn’t want to be a lawyer. She’d only gone for it to prove to her father that she could.
“What’s going through that complicated head of yours?” Flynn asked from the doorway.
Looking up she smiled. He was soaking wet, clad only in his gym shorts and tennis shoes. He was un-taping his hands. She’d left him in his gym punching the crap out of a heavy bag.
“I don’t think I’m going to go to law school.”
He tossed the tape into the trashcan and came over to the tub and sat on the edge. “Why not?”
“I never really wanted to be a lawyer. I’ve secretly always wanted to do something more artsy. Hence my art and legal studies double major.”
“Then do it. Do whatever makes you happy, baby. “
“Hmm, what if that art was interpretative dance?”
He shrugged and stripped off his shorts. “Go for it. I could watch you dance for hours.” She couldn’t help the slow burn that flared between her thighs when his fine ass flexed.
“Naked interpretive dance.”
He turned so fast, Izzy cracked up.
He stepped into the big tub. “The only naked dancing you’ll do is for me. In private.” He pulled her into his arms and smeared his sweaty forehead across hers.
“I’m serious!” she cried as he slid his nose along her throat and nibbled her skin.
“Fine, I’ll quit my job and dance naked with you.”
“Oh, now there’s an idea.”
Settling into his arms, Izzy looked up at him and smiled. “If you couldn’t be an FBI agent, what would you do?”
Exhaling, he lay back against the tub. “I never thought about it. I love what I do.”
“What do you like the most?”
“The rush of the hunt. The final stand against the bad guy. The victory.”
“The infatuation of peril. Great, my boyfriend is an adrenaline junkie.”
He laughed. “I love pushing it, Isa.” He kissed her shoulder, then lifted her up and turned her around so that she faced him. “I love your body more.”
Keeping his straining lips from her eager nipple, Izzy held him at bay. “What happens when I’m no longer a challenge to you?”
He blinked like she had just asked him to cut his head off. “You? Never be a challenge to me?” He smiled slowly. “I highly doubt that day will ever come to pass, but if it did?” He slid his fingers along her collarbone. “I’d have to cut you loose.”
She smacked him and he burst out laughing, hugging her to him. “Isa, there are going to be days in our future where we very well may want to kill each other.” He brushed his lips across hers. “But I’m not letting you get away from me, even if you want to run. We’ll figure things out as we go. And we’re going to have fun doing it.”
Stilling at his words and the sincerity of his tone, Izzy searched his dark blue eyes for any hint of a lie. All she found was determination, and—her heart melted— love.
“What happens if you get fired because of me?”
He kissed her forehead and sat back. “I’m not going to get fired. Reassigned to a boring desk job in Anchorage, perhaps, but fired, no. I’m too valuable to fire. “
“Anchorage?”
“Yup, we’ve got a field office up there.”
“Aren’t there polar bears in Alaska?”
“Yup.”
She shivered. “How long would we be there?”
He grinned. “As long as it took to get back into the Bureau’s good graces.”
Izzy slid her aroused breasts along his slick chest. “Hmm, then I guess we should start practicing our generating-body-heat methods now.”
Flynn’s hands slid around her waist, lifting her so that when she moved back against him, his thick heat filled her.
“Good God, Flynn,” she moaned. “I will never not love the way you feel sliding into me.”
Cupping the back of her head with his hand, he brought her lips to his and said, “I will never not love sliding balls-deep into you.”
Chapter Thirty-eight
At seven o’clock sharp, they pulled up in front of the MacArthur BART station in Flynn’s SUV. It was decided that Izzy should go through the motions of her regular routine. Boris was a free criminal for a reason. He was smart. With the meeting set, it was assumed he was alerted as to what Izzy possessed, and with that knowledge, she’d be on his radar. When she surfaced across the bay at the Powell Street BART station, the guys had no doubt there would be eyes all over her.
“You ready?” Flynn asked.
Izzy nodded. She didn’t tell him she was so nervous she could barely swallow or that she was terrified of going into the club without him beside her. It would only upset him and knowing Flynn, he’d pull the plug despite it being the exact opposite of what she wanted.
The drive was tucked securely in her bra and the belly button ring Maddox had given her to switch out with the little crystal one she wore was her “wire.” They would be able to hear everything going on around her. If she ran into trouble? Her code word was vodka.
“It’s undetectable if they sweep you, and because you’re known to wear a belly button ring, this shouldn’t raise suspicion,” Maddox had told her when he gave it to her.
“There are two dozen undercover personnel inside the club, and we’ll be in the next building, at the Red Door, with our ears on,” Justin assured her.
“How can you hear in there? ” she asked. It was another strip club.
Justin grinned. “OSHA shut them down for violations this morning.”
“How coincidental,” Flynn said dryly.
“The long arm of the law reaches far,” Justin said.
Izzy looked between all three men. “You can do that? Just shut down a business for investigative purposes?”
“They were in violation of several building and safety codes. The building has been ‘condemned’ until further notice,” Maddox said. “All of it legit.”
Izzy pursed her lips, amazed at what they were able to accomplish. It gave her the boost of confidence she needed. If she ran into trouble, the cavalry was next door, and two dozen more cops and agents would be inside.
Flynn leaned across the console pulling her toward him. “You got this, baby.” He kissed her hard. Not a lingering I-may-never-see-you-again kiss. It was a hurry-the-hell-up-so-we-can-get-on-with-our-lives kiss.