Read Online Her Spy to Hold (Spy Games Book 2) by Paula Altenburg - Free Book Online

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    So much for that plausible excuse he was lacking. He was going to kiss her without one.
    They were alone in her house though, right outside her bedroom, and she didn’t know him very well. He was a lot bigger than she was and he hadn’t forgotten how nervous of him she’d been, or that alcohol played a significant part in her bravery tonight. It might be best if he kept his hands to himself.
    But she made it so hard.
    “You have a bit of mustard on your chin,” he lied. She lifted her fingers to her face, trying to feel where it might be. “Not there. Here.”
    He bent his head and pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth, offering a soft, gentle caress. A breath of a sigh—a tiny exhalation of air—brushed his cheek in response. She shifted ever so slightly, whether by accident or design he couldn’t be sure, but either way, her mouth glided beneath his until full contact was made. She tugged on his lower lip, the tip of her tongue stroking against it.
    Fireworks exploded inside his brain. He’d meant to come across as nonthreatening. To let her set the pace. Dr. Glasov, however, could kiss.
    She was as attracted to him as he was to her. Of that much he was certain. While the timing wasn’t the best, and he’d never coax her into doing anything she might regret in the morning, he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity he might regret missing either. But they each needed to be clear on what they were willing to offer. There had to be boundaries.
    He planted his palms on the wall behind her, backing her up against it, not in order to pin her in place, but to keep his hands off her. He teased her lips farther open, dipping his tongue between them. Her fingers found his hips, her thumbs cuddling too close to his pelvis for comfort. In an instant, an erection strained at the fly of his jeans, begging for freedom. All his good intentions drifted away on the wave of heat flooding his groin.
    He broke off the kiss. Wow. Things were moving a lot faster than he’d expected. His lungs bellowed like he’d just run ten kilometers. He couldn’t quite catch his breath. His ability to form complete sentences also seemed somewhat impaired.
    He flicked one thumb across the corner of her mouth, swiping at the imaginary mustard stain. “Think I got it.”
    “Thank you. I can’t imagine how it got there.”
    His mouth crooked into a grin at her prim, thinly-veiled sarcasm. She was an open book. Not a simple one, granted. More a thick Russian literature translation complete with footnotes and an annotated bibliography. He liked that about her. He liked it a lot. “You’re the brains in the room. Try making an educated guess.”
    She tilted her head to one side, casting him a quizzical look. “My guess is that there never was any mustard.”
    “Really? Why would I lie about something like that?”
    “You tell me. You’re the one who lies for a living.”
    She ducked under his arm and into the bedroom, shutting the door in his face before he had a chance to respond.
    He had not seen that coming.
    He stared at the closed door for a long, incredulous moment, listening to her light steps as she moved around the room. Another door closed. A tap opened wide in the ensuite bathroom inside. He had no difficulty imagining her bedtime routine—the glide of a damp cloth over her skin, a brush stroking those long, silky tresses of hair.
    He rapped his forehead against the door frame a few times, summoning his brain back from its southern migration.
    She didn’t suck at this game quite as much as he’d thought.

Chapter Five

    Irina awoke with a mouth that tasted like garbage and a brain attempting to drill its way free through her eyeballs.
    It took a few seconds of staring at the bedroom ceiling fan above the bed for her to figure out the cause of the overwhelming mortification she felt. He was clanging pots in the kitchen, singing a truly horrible rendition of a popular song favored by pre-teenage girls. She’d find