Barefoot With a Stranger (Barefoot Bay Undercover Book 2) by Roxanne St. Claire

just the idea of it.
    “Look, I’ve been in prison for four years and—”
    She held up a hand with a dry, sarcastic laugh. “I’m going to stop you right there. Because if you say that’s why you hit on me—”
    “Of course it’s not why. I’m just explaining that I’m…that you’re…”
    She slipped her lower lip under her front teeth, regarding him from behind those glasses, which were somehow as sexy as if she stood in front of him buck naked. “Continue,” she urged. “’Cause this really ought to be good.”
    How could he tell her that for the first half of their encounter he’d thought she was a spy and he was playing and testing and generally being a dick? And then, when he’d realized she wasn’t, then he was just…
    “Human,” he muttered. “I’m only human.”
    “Oooh, human . Well, that’s…a lovely compliment.” She strode past him, a whiff of something spicy in her wake, and climbed into the passenger side of the golf cart. “Can’t wait to hear you tell Gabe. ‘Well, buddy, sorry I banged your sister, but extreme humanism made me do it.’”
    Irritation clanged every nerve as he got behind the wheel. “Extreme attraction , Chessie.” He got right in her face. “Which I’m pretty damn sure went both ways.”
    She paled enough to confirm that it did, but recovered in a second, giving his shoulder a shove. “Move it, human. I’m sure he won’t mess up your attractive face too much.”
    Chessie stayed pensive for a few moments as they drove, checking out the natural beauty as if she were drinking it in, but something told him she wasn’t.
    “You going to tell me why you think someone is following you?” she asked.
    “No.”
    She gave a caustic laugh. “You sure you’re not a spy, Mal? ’Cause you sure act like one.”
    He stayed silent, pulling the cart in front of McBain Security. “All that matters, Chessie, is that Gabe doesn’t lose his shit so much over this bug and how you found it in my room—”
    “Can’t we say you found it in your room?”
    He shook his head. “I’d have told him by now. I won’t lie to him. It’d compromise the mission. What we can’t do is let him try to go to Cuba himself.”
    She considered that, her frown deepening. “Why can’t he? I mean, I know he can’t say, but how do you know? Why are you…” Her voice trailed off, and her eyes cleared with comprehension. “Compromise the mission,” she echoed. “Now that is not something you hear your run-of-the-mill prison guard say.”
    She was way too smart not to figure it out sooner or later. He just looked ahead and confirmed her guess with a quick close of his eyes.
    “You’re a spy.”
    “Not anymore,” he said quietly.
    She didn’t move for a moment, except that her chest rose and fell with a tight breath as this new information took hold. “I didn’t get that from my research.” She actually sounded a little disgusted with her failure.
    “I think that’s kind of the point of the job.”
    “Is that why someone is following you? Do you have classified information or…access to something? Why is it such a big deal that your room was bugged? And how’d they get a bug planted so fast in a hotel room that you didn’t even reserve?”
    “They’re good. And that’s a lot of questions you know I’m not going to answer.”
    “But we’re on a mission together,” she shot back. “We shouldn’t be strangers.”
    “Didn’t hurt us in that hotel room. In fact…”
    She leaned closer when he didn’t finish the thought, narrowing blue eyes at him. “If you say that was a big turn-on for you, Mr. I’m Only Human, I’m going to hit you harder than Gabe ever could. Answer my question. Why is someone following you?”
    He exhaled, slowly. “I honestly don’t know for sure. Anything I tell you would just be a guess.”
    “I’ll take a guess.”
    He shook his head. “You know I can’t do that.”
    She dropped back on the seat with a grunt of frustration.