The Savvy Sistahs by Brenda Jackson Page A

used as part of his job, equipment that had been easily detected with a security scanner at the airport. To save time as well as red tape, he had made arrangements for his luggage to be picked up by another special agent and delivered to the hotel later. Grey had contacted the local Bureau before arriving in Orlando and someone posing as an airline employee would be delivering his bags to him within the hour.
    Again, a ray of interest shone in the hotel clerk’s eyes. “Yes, sir. I’ll make sure that’s taken care of.” The woman caught a movement out of corner of her eye and her smile widened. “Oh, here’s Ms. Bennett now.”
    Grey turned slightly and met the gaze of the woman crossing the lobby. Although the two of them had never officially met, he remembered her well. He doubted that he would forget the beautiful dark eyes that had collided with his that day a few weeks ago at his nieces’ and nephews’ birthday party. That was one of the reasons he had hesitated when Alexia had asked him to handle things. Brandy Bennett had been the first woman who had piqued his interest, intrigued him, since Gloria’s death. Even now his stomach knotted at the recollection. Days after that encounter he’d been unable to shake her image. She had flitted across his mind like some beautiful, fragile butterfly.
    As he continued to watch her, it was easy to see she was as intelligent as she was beautiful, and by all accounts Brandy Bennett appeared to be a woman with not a worry in the world, one filled with self-assurance and confidence. Only someone with a trained eye such as his, who was skilled in reading people, could detect, even from a distance, the cautiousness, wariness, and troubled glint in her gaze.
    He inhaled deeply as he struggled with all the things he was feeling. The attraction for her was still there, but he knew to get involved with any woman right now would be wrong. He was still trying to come to terms with what Gloria had done, what she had planned which had ultimately resulted in her death. He had shared it with no one, not even Quinn, the brother he was closer to than any of his other siblings. He wondered what the Masters family’s reaction would be to know that at the time of her death, his wife had betrayed him. In fact, she had been on her way to meet her lover, the man she had planned to divorce Grey for. She had spelled out everything in the letter she had left for him to find when he returned home from his assignment. He had returned less than a day after she had written it when he’d received word she had lost her life after losing control of her automobile during a thunderstorm.
    His thoughts shifted back to Brandy as he continued to watch her cross the lobby toward him. At that moment he wanted more than anything to do whatever he could to bring back calmness to her world, to get rid of whatever anxiety besieged her. He fought down that urge when he remembered that one woman, the one he’d thought he could trust above all others, had betrayed him, and the last thing he wanted was to get involved with another woman any time soon. Protecting Brandy Bennett would be a job and nothing more.
    He wondered if Alexia had contacted her and scoped her on the role the two of them would be playing. She had been told that he was coming, but he wasn’t sure if she knew he was going to pretend to be an ex-boyfriend. He shrugged; if she didn’t, she would soon enough. It would be important to establish what their relationship was up front and in plain view.
    When she finally reached him and was about to open her mouth and address him formally, he decided to work fast. “Hi, there, sweetheart,” he murmured in a rough, low tone just seconds before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
    He captured her startled surprise in his kiss, going beyond what was reasonably necessary by sweeping his tongue inside her mouth for a quick taste. Damn but she tasted good, he thought, releasing her mouth. He