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As he walked, the lavender scent thickened.
Trace ignored it.
No doubt it was connected to his chips being disabled. He’d write a complete report for Ryker once he was able to detect a pattern, but not a second sooner. He didn’t want to be ordered to visit Foxfire’s resident shrink, forced to dredge up his past for possible signs of emotional vulnerability.
He knew he was fit for action. His memories of Afghanistan were fading along with his scars, and no shrink would dredge up anything important. The lavender smell had to be a sensory reflex.
His heart pounded. He had a sudden urge to cross the street, coupled with a sense that something important was about to happen.
Neither made any sense. Pedestrians rushed past all around him, but they were all strangers.
There was no reason for him to cut back across Kearny.
He muttered in irritation, staring at a bakery truck double-parked near a fire hydrant. Probably he was dehydrated. Maybe it was the time change and the late-night flight from New Mexico. But he wasn’t a man who was unsettled often, so he watched the street, watched the passing cars, watched the way clouds brushed Nob Hill beyond the tall buildings.
And then Trace saw her—tall and slim, wreathed in a bar of sunlight. Light played through her short, spiky hair, cut in layers that framed huge eyes.
A stranger.
No need to stare. No need to feel as if someone had jerked the cement out from under him and kicked him in the stomach.
Something seemed to wrap around his chest, driving the air from his lungs. It made no sense. She was just another woman racing through the afternoon sunlight. Probably going to meet a husband—or a lover, judging by the eagerness in her expression. She wasn’t even beautiful, he thought wryly. Most people wouldn’t have called her remarkable in any way, yet her long, quick stride and the swing of her hair were doing strange things to his pulse.
Somewhere a clock chimed, but he couldn’t move.
He had less than twenty minutes to reach the penthouse somewhere above him. He would have preferred to spend the time pressed against that long, slim body, memorizing the secrets of her warm skin.
Crazy.
Through long months of training Ryker’s first rule had been burned into the minds of every man on the Foxfire team. No personal life or distractions were permitted. Even sexual contacts were arranged by Ryker’s staff, and the contact was carefully controlled. There was no gentle laughter and slow kisses on a moonlit night. It was physical release and nothing more.
Trace tried to remember the last time he’d laughed with a woman or simply held her hand. Nothing came to mind. The thought left him empty.
Suck it up, sailor. You knew what you were signing on for when you accepted your transfer to Foxfire. You knew all you were giving up.
And you couldn’t wait to be part of the team.
As Wolfe Houston always said, there were only three things you could trust in life—yourself, your team and the probability of getting fungus where you least wanted it.
Then Wolfe had defied the rules by falling in love and asking approval to marry Trace’s sister.
Despite that, all of them were Foxfire property, pure and simple. They were the job, 24/7. Trace had liked that just fine.
Until he’d stood in the afternoon sunlight watching keen eyes and vibrant cinnamon hair.
Around him the noise of the city faded. Even the sunlight seemed strange, wrapping itself around the woman across the street, playing in her hair and brushing the clean lines of her face.
No, she wasn’t a beauty, Trace thought. So why was it impossible for him to look away as she cut through the crowd?
A fire truck screamed past. Shouts mingled with car horns and motorcycles. Then in one of the weather changes San Francisco was famous for, a bank of marine clouds poured in over the hills. In seconds the street blurred beneath a shifting veil of fog.
Traffic snarled. Horns screamed. Up the street Trace saw a construction truck back up, its ladder poised above the rear bed.
The woman had stopped. She bent low as she took something from a young man climbing out of a taxi. Both of them cradled big, white boxes, laughing.
Her laugh made the hairs rise along Trace’s neck. The sound was full and rich and subtly sensual.
She was a stranger, but he knew just how her voice would sound up close, warm and husky.
A wave of sexual attraction hit him, as thick and sudden as the fog.
Hell. Maybe Ryker was right. Maybe this was about stress, not sex, and he hadn’t put Afghanistan behind him.
As the woman headed down the street, she didn’t look in his direction once. Trace took a deep breath. It was time to go. He glanced toward his destination, checking the address through pale, trailing fingers of fog.
Down the street he saw the truck turn, ladder creaking. One of the metal restraints twisted and broke free, the metal frame shuddering violently.
The woman and her friend hadn’t noticed.
He moved by pure instinct, his heart pounding as he sprinted through a gap in traffic. Neither the woman nor her companion heard his shout as they turned toward the nearby hotel, their boxes held tightly at their chests.
Trace jumped the curb, shoved the woman sideways against a wall, and pushed her companion after her just before the ladder swung horizontal across the sidewalk. Its broken edge was a death blade cutting directly over the place the two had stood laughing a second before.
“Hey, watch it.” The woman slammed him hard with her shoulder, muttering angrily. Then she slipped, hit her companion and both of them lost their balance.
Trace saw the two white boxes fly into the air. He stepped back, twisted neatly and caught one in each hand.
A bicycle messenger shot past, making a string of obscene gestures, and the woman with the cinnamon hair shoved at his chest.
“Drop those and you’re dead. Big, clumsy ox.” She tried to grab one of the boxes. “Give me that now or I’m calling the cops.”
Trace frowned at her. Why didn’t people say thanks when you’d just saved them from death by sudden impalement?
He turned, pushing her back against the building and out of the way of the still-swaying ladder, while the truck bounced back down the curb. A man in a gray uniform jumped out and tugged at the broken hinges, trying to pull the metal sections back into place.
The woman turned, looking over Trace’s shoulder. Her face paled, her body going still. “Shit.” She swayed a little, not struggling against him now.
Her eyes locked on the truck bed. “Holy, holy hell,” she whispered. “The ladder would have hit us. I didn’t see.” She took a deep breath, one hand shaking against the wall. She brushed a layer of cinnamon hair from her face while her hands shook harder than ever. “You aren’t crazy.” Her voice hitched. “You saved our lives.”
“Are you okay?” He balanced the boxes, feeling her thighs press against him. The subtle friction made his mouth go dry.
“I’m fine.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I was rude. I didn’t realize what was happening.” She studied his face. “We see a lot of Navy guys in San Francisco. I thought you were just being a jerk.”
Her voice was breathy, smokey like a good chipotle sauce.
Trace felt her hand on his sleeve. He didn’t know her, would never know her, but the husky catch in her voice was as tempting as the slim, strong legs he felt brushing his.
Strangers or not, he wanted her bad.
Angry, he bit back a curse and moved away, banking the heat. Trying to bank the heat.
She looked at her friend. “Andreas, why don’t you go check out the room? No surprises, please.”
“Sure thing, boss. I’ll take this with me.” The man deftly removed one of the packages from Trace’s hands and left.
“I’ll take the other box now.”
Trace looked down, feeling stupid as he gripped the white cardboard. “Must be something pretty important in here.”
Her smile felt like pure, distilled summer pouring over his skin. The force of it made him forget the cars racing past and the appointment creeping closer.
“You bet it is. You’re holding a little piece of my heart in that box.”
“Maybe I should keep it then.” His voice was gravelly. Hell, what had made him say something lame like that?
“News flash—men want sex, not women’s hearts.” She straightened her big, colorful sweater and shoved more cinnamon hair out of her eyes, then stared across the street. “Oops. My defensive, bitchy side is showing.”
Trace heard old wounds and bad memories rather than bitchiness. “What’s so important in here?” He raised the box, rattled it slightly.
She lunged, panic sweeping her face. “No. If you drop that, I’m dead.”
Trace simply smiled. He handled high explosives and deadly biotoxins regularly with complete confidence. Steady hands and split-second reaction times were part of his skill set. “Relax, your box isn’t going anywhere. You still haven’t told me why it’s so important.”
“I need to go. I can’t be late.”
Before she could answer, his cell phone vibrated against his belt with unavoidable force, yanking Trace back to earth. He muffled a curse as he realized the pocket was out of reach.
He started to hand over the box, but she leaned down and slid a hand into his pocket. His gaze never left her face as she pulled out the phone.
“Least I can do,” she murmured, opening the phone. Frowning, she stared at the complex screen of Trace’s new government prototype. “How do you—”
“Top left. I’ll take it.”
Instead of giving him the phone, she pressed the button he’d indicated and held the phone up to this ear.
Trace had seen the caller’s number. Wolfe was probably upstairs waiting for him. Still, he didn’t like anyone listening in to the call. “Look, I need to—”
“Take the call. I can see that your shoulder hurts, so as soon as you’re done, I’ll get going.”
Shoulder?
How the hell had she known that?
Another twinge of suspicion made him study her warily.
But the phone was already at his ear, and he heard Wolfe’s voice.
“O’Halloran, are you at the hotel?”
“Right outside, sir.”
“I got held up on a conference call. I’m at least ten minutes away. Go in and press some flesh until I get there.”
“Will do.”
The line went dead and she closed the phone, returning it to his pocket.
Their skin brushed. He smelled her perfume, a faint mix of oranges and lilac. As gentle as a memory, it slid over his senses, leaving him restless for things he didn’t have a name for.
She turned and lifted the white box. “It’s a cake, by the way. I’m giving a class upstairs in thirty minutes.”
“A cake?”
“Don’t look so surprised. I worked five hours on that thing.”
“On a cake?” Trace repeated.
“It’s special. Ganache icing, spun-sugar flowers.” She glanced at his dress uniform and the row of medals. “Impressive jewelry you’ve got there.”
Trace was still trying to get his mind around the idea of a cake that took five hours to finish. In his world you ate whatever appeared on your plate, as long as it didn’t move, and even that rule got broken sometimes.
He shrugged off her compliment. “No big deal. Just doing the job.”
“That kind of hardware doesn’t come easy. Something tells me there’s a story behind each one.” She tensed and nearly dropped her box as another skateboarder shot past close enough to bump her leg. “Damn.”
Trace caught her with one arm and steadied the cake with his other hand. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
A delicate wash of color filled her face. She didn’t pull away, only tilted her head, looking up at him over the box. “You’re fast with your hands.”
“Fast enough. What did you mean about my shoulder?” He kept the question casual, watching her face for any sign of calculation.
She shrugged. “You favor your right side. When our boxes went flying, you caught them on the left. So what happened? Gunshot wound? Training accident?”
The explanation was plausible. “Nothing very interesting.” He’d died, that’s all. He sure as hell wasn’t going to discuss that with her.
He crossed his arms. “Are you doing anything later?” At least they could have a drink before he left. Trace didn’t have to be at the cruise dock until the following morning.
She cradled her cake, and then her fingers tightened. “No.” There was an edge in her voice that hadn’t been there before. “I’m sorry, but there’s really no point.” She gave a shaky laugh. “Believe me.”
Trace watched her shift her box, then move off into the flow of messengers, workers and tourists.
Great legs. Strange encounter. She’d probably forgotten him already.
He shrugged off a sense of regret. He had a cocktail party to attend and lobbyists to charm.
DAMN.
Abso-freaking—damn.
