Overnight Male by Elizabeth Bevarly

olive-drab T-shirt. That was as far as he’d needed to alter his appearance—not that that altered his appearance in any way—since his face wasn’t one that was recognized outside OPUS. His long dark hair was swept back from his forehead the same way it had been that first night Lila met him, and his dark eyes, though hidden at the moment by sunglasses, still reminded her of bittersweet chocolate.

    “What difference does it make when we start?” she asked, pushing memories of that first night out of her head, because thinking about it made her want to think of little else. “As long as we finish as soon as we can?”

    “Several of Sorcerer’s e-mails went to sorority houses,” he told her. Behind the sunglasses, Lila knew, he was surreptitiously scanning the parking lot as he spoke. She was, too, but she was good enough at doing it that she didn’t need sunglasses to hide what she was doing. “There’s one in particular we’d like to check out,” he added. “There’s a fraternity we’re interested in, too, but I think you’d have better luck infiltrating the former.”

    She chuckled at that. Not the part about her being unable to infiltrate a fraternity—for her that would actually be easier—but she could definitely see Sorcerer targeting a sorority. Mostly for the scantily-clad-pillow-fighting-coeds potential.

    “It’s just as well,” she told Joel. “My talents as an actress only go so far, and sorority girl isn’t a role I could pull off.” She grinned as she added, “Even if it would have, like, totally filled the empty place I’ve always had inside me because I, like, totally missed out on Greek life in college. I could have, like, totally used a bunch of friends named Muffy and Bitsy and Pepper.”

    He pulled down his sunglasses far enough to meet her gaze eye to eye. “You’re right,” he said. “You suck. I never met any sorority girls who talked like that.”

    “Hey!” she objected. Even though she had, like, totally asked for it.

    “Don’t knock Greek life till you’ve tried it,” Joel said, returning his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose. “Some of us have very fond memories.”

    Lila told herself she shouldn’t be surprised by his revelation, but she was. He didn’t seem like the wild fraternity animal. Unless…

    She smiled. Still adopting her best Muffy/Bitsy/Pepper voice, she said, “Shut up. You were, like, a frat boy? A smart guy like you? You must have been, like, one of the geek Greeks, weren’t you? Ohmigod, that is, like, so stinkin’ cute. ”

    He said nothing in response at first, but even in the windshield-tinted sunlight filtering through the windows, Lila could see his cheeks turn ruddy. Good God, he could blush. She didn’t think she’d ever met a man who even had the capacity to do that, never mind the propensity. Then she realized it was because she’d embarrassed him with what she’d said.

    “Eta Kappa Nu,” he said in a voice that revealed nothing of what he might be thinking or feeling. “Alpha iota chapter. Georgetown.”

    Oh, not embarrassed, she realized then. Angry. He thought she was making fun of him. Which, she supposed, she was. But OPUS agents always did that to each other. Teasing and making fun were one of the best ways to alleviate the tension that went along with undercover work. Of course, having never worked undercover, Joel wouldn’t know that, she reminded herself. Nor would he be used to it.

    Before she had a chance to apologize, however, he continued, “It was the fraternity for electrical and computer engineering students, the most intelligent guys on campus. They never would have rushed you, even if you did have the balls you seem to think you have.”

    Oh, so the archivist could give as good as he got, could he? Lila thought, surprised. Fine. She just wished she could tell if he’d been joking or serious with the balls comment. Deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt and go for joking, she