The Art of You

Scarsdale, New York

I’d been dreading this assignment ever since my father made the request for help two days ago. I not only hated attending political events, but willingly bringing Bella into the lion’s den, armed with only a tie and fake-as-fuck smile, didn’t sit well with me.

What made it worse was that I had to watch Bella bite her tongue at every turn, knowing she could school every one of these political types who tried to educate her on matters of world affairs. As much as I wanted to let her unleash that gorgeous mouth and roast them like the pigs some of these men were, we were there for an operation. So, if she could nod, politely smile, and behave, then I’d find a way to do the same.

But if our target didn’t arrive soon, I had a feeling I was one conversation away from losing my self-control. If another asshole spoke to Bella like she was just my arm candy with a box of rocks for brains, he’d be eating his teeth instead of caviar.

Bella tugged on the sleeve of my suit jacket, and I lowered my gaze to my arm in mild amusement. “Yes?” A smile cut across my face, probably the first legitimate one of the evening.

“What if we dance? Maybe it’ll keep the piranhas away,” she offered softly, pointing her big brown eyes at me.

I glanced around the room, deliberating the benefits of putting ourselves out there as the third couple to get lost in the music. If dancing would keep me from decking a guy until our target arrived, it wasn’t such a bad idea.

Without waiting for my answer, Bella let go of my sleeve and began moving from side to side. Swaying her hips. Dragging her hand sexily along the line of her collarbone as she closed her eyes. I’d known her for a long time, and she’d dance to anything, never giving a damn what people thought, even if she didn’t have the best rhythm.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her, a woman who fit the phrase “born to stand out” to a T.

Putting my hands on her, especially in public, was the last thing I should’ve been doing, but it was also the only thing I wanted to do.

Selling myself on the idea that if I let her go it alone I’d look like an asshole, I stepped forward and hauled her into my arms. A bit too abruptly, because based on her eyes startling open and her hands flying to my chest, I’d caught her off guard.

Holding her hips, I rasped, “Is this what you wanted?”

She nodded as if in a trance. Made two of us.

My hands went to the small of her back in an entirely too possessive way, drawing her closer.

She leaned into me, lifting her chin to maintain eye contact. Neither of us were dancing, just coasting through the moment as if we were alone. Everyone and everything were now background noise.

The desire to drag my knuckles up the column of her throat and along her jawline, encourage her mouth to open for me, had me locking my hand into a fist at her back.

The seconds added up as we stayed in this position, and it was only when the band changed songs that she pointed out in a whisper, “We’re just standing here.”

Right, the dancing thing still needed to happen. Not the eye-fucking that was going on now. Behavior I’d worked so hard not to do in her bedroom earlier.

And shit, once Constantine hacked the security cameras, he’d have eyes on us. I didn’t need to catch hell from him tonight. Not that he’d lectured or warned me in her bedroom. He said nothing about his sister at all. Honestly, he and I both knew he didn’t need to. It was what he didn’t have to say that I still heard loud and fucking clear. His sister was off-limits.

I didn’t need Constantine to remind me I was bad for Bella. I was well aware of that.

“You’ve got this. Just step side to side. And maybe act like you don’t hate being this close to me.” She smiled.

“Not sure if I’m that great of an actor,” I teased back, finally moving with her.

Her hands were still on my chest, and she circled one around my tie and gave it a little tug. “You’re downright horrible.”

I dipped my chin, focusing on her eyes. “Oh, you can read me that well, can you?” That came out entirely too flirty. I was on a motherfucking roll tonight of what not to say to and do around my best friend’s sister.

She nodded in response, then licked her lips, continuing to test my patience. To test my willpower to abstain from driving my fingers into her thick hair and fisting it while dropping my mouth over hers.

She rotated her hips, keeping hold of my tie while knocking her pelvis into my crotch.

I shot her a stern look. Fucking naughty.

At some point, I deserved to be sainted. Or knighted. Or whatever the hell it was called when a man had temptation in his face 24/7, but still behaved himself.

“You know how many times Bianca and I watched Ghost?”

I had no idea where her question came from, but it was very much like Bella to pluck random topics from the air and turn them into conversation centerpieces. But then it clicked. The song playing was “Unchained Melody” from the Ghost soundtrack.

“Thought that movie was from my generation, not yours.” Unlike her, I grew up in the ’80s, and I needed to remember that ten-year age gap as yet another reason not to give in to whatever I’d been feeling lately.

“Pretty sure it belongs to all generations.” She finally let go of my tie, sighing. “Don’t worry. My sister waited until I was old enough to let me watch it.” Still dancing in place, bumping into my crotch again as some cruel form of punishment, she continued her story, “I’m also pretty sure ninety percent of the population had a crush on Patrick Swayze back in the day. I know I did.” Her soft, slightly nervous laugh managed to penetrate my suit jacket. It rolled right over my skin, and a strange feeling of some-fucking-thing flew up my spine. “You give off the same vibes as him.”

I had no idea what that meant, so I kept quiet.

“But can you dirty dance like him?” She lifted her brows a few times.

To be honest, just dancing like this with her was making me forget why we were at a fifteen-million-dollar home in Scarsdale. Forget lives were on the line if everything didn’t play out perfectly tonight. Of course, the two of us didn’t have to do much more than just exist at this time and in this space for the operation to unfold as planned.

And now I was tempted to sling her arms over my shoulders, slip my hand behind her back, and show her I could dance like Swayze. Not only would that make front-page headlines and give my father’s campaign manager a heart attack, but it’d also give Bella the wrong idea about us.

“You changed movies on me. Thought we were talking about Ghost,” I deflected before I also forgot we could only ever be friends and colleagues. Before I gave in to desire, creating heart attacks and heartbreak.

“Guess neither now, because the song changed.” A cute, lopsided smile stole over her lips. “But Elvis is playing, so if you’d like to move your hips like him, I’ll happily back up and give you the floor to do so.” She batted her lashes a few times, and the Bella I’d known for years was front and center, a stark contrast to the nervous woman I’d found on the other side of her bedroom door tonight.

She was sweet, funny, charming, and for the past several months, a motherfucking tease to my senses. Quite literally, all of them.

Sight: The woman was an Italian goddess, so that one was easy.

Smell: The medley of perfumes she rotated between each day of the week. Of course, she never stuck to one. But she always smelled so good I had to fight the temptation to sniff her wrist or kiss the side of her neck.

Hearing: As already established, her laugh.

Taste: She’d kissed me for “the sake of a mission” in Rome, and I’d been savoring that memory ever since.

Touch: Did now count? Having her in my arms.

Intuition: That unspoken sixth sense—knowing I’d only break her heart if I threw logic out the window—intervened and pulled me away from her, ending the dance.

“You okayyy?” She’d repackaged my question to her outside the Porsche by tacking on her typical dramatic flair.

Constantine popped over the comms in our ears as if on cue, letting us know he had eyes on us.

The moment fully broken, I immediately stepped back from her as she gently shoved away from my chest.

Our comms were currently muted, so I searched out the camera on the ceiling and gave him a nod, acknowledging him.

Eyes back on Bella, I answered her with a partial truth. “I’m fine. I just need a drink.” I leaned in and mouthed, “You know, for the sake of appearances.” I followed up my words with a wink, hoping she wouldn’t see right through me. To realize that ever since that kiss in Rome I’d been on the verge of losing control when she was near me.

“Okay.” She smiled, then requested, “Aperol spritz for me, please.”

We made our way to the cash bar that overlooked the lit-up courtyard outside, where a few men in suits were gathered, smoking cigars and probably discussing their stock portfolios.

After handling Bella’s order, I set my sights on the bottle of Macallan Scotch, hating myself for having the same taste as my father, but not enough to stop myself from asking for a double. Neat, just like the governor liked. Not that I planned to indulge, given I was working.

I paid the bartender, offering a generous tip, then turned to see Bella scanning the room while sipping her cocktail.

So much for our drinks only being props.

Once I had my scotch, I gave in and took a healthy swallow, nearly dropping the glass when I could’ve sworn I saw an old SEAL teammate.

No, not possible.

I focused on the crowded corner of the room, feeling like I’d seen a ghost even though he wasn’t dead.

“Are you sure you’re good? Did I say something while dancing to upset you? Like, do you have something against Patrick Swayze?” Her tone was more teasing than anything else, and she saved me from nearly falling into the past, to my last deployment in Afghanistan.

I shook my head. Not really an answer but it was the best I could do. I looked around the room again for a man whose name hadn’t been on the guest list, or I’d have sure as hell noticed.

Losing my mind. I focused back on the beautiful woman before me. “Nothing against Swayze, no.” I lifted my glass to my mouth, then hesitated, deciding drinking was a bad idea after my hallucination, and the glass should remain nothing more than a prop in my hand.

“Well, glad you don’t have anything against him. I might have to unfriend you on Facebook if you did,” she said softly.

“I don’t have Facebook,” I reminded her, taking two seconds too long to realize she’d been joking. I’m still strung-the-fuck-tight. Walks down memory lane could do that, though. Especially remembering anything from 2010.

Bella set her free hand on my forearm while angling her head. “I’m going to ask you again, so don’t get annoyed. But are you okay?”

“What? You think I’m lying the way you were to me by the Porsche?”

She rolled her lips inward as if worried her thoughts were conspiring against her, and she might slip and tell me the truth. Tell me the real reason she’d taken so long with the zipper in her bedroom.

“Exactly what I thought,” I admitted, then set aside my drink, too tempted to toss back the rest of the scotch in an attempt to help block out the memories from my past I couldn’t quite shake now.

Bella placed her drink on the bartop table next to mine and pushed up in her heels to whisper in my ear, “I need a distraction so I’m not so distracted by something else so I can focus on the mission. Does that make sense?”

Somehow? Perfectly. Losing both my mind and control, I banded my arm around her waist and slid my hand up to her bare back, allowing my palm to move higher beneath her hair and to the nape of her neck.

Eyes on mine, she breathily said my name as I continued to caress her skin like we were two lost souls searching to be found and completely alone in space. She shuddered beneath my touch, arching into me. Responding to the connection, the same as I was.

“Oh, I see what you’re doing,” she murmured. “I asked you for a distraction, and you’re giving me one.”

That wasn’t what I’d meant to do, but she was right. Consider us both distracted.

“You two okay?” With those three words in our ears, Constantine splintered us apart, breaking a moment we couldn’t have.

I cleared my throat, backed away from her, and discreetly tapped the device well-hidden in my left ear to unmute it. “She’s nervous about the op. Calming her down.”

“Yeah, well, the target is here. Not in the room yet, but on the property,” he let us know, unable to hide the suspicious bite to his tone.

“Roger that.” Muting our conversation again, I set my hand on the bartop table, waiting for our target to make an appearance. When my eyes fell back to hers, and I found her staring off into the distance with a lost look, I couldn’t help but press. “Tell me why you needed the distraction.”

“I thought we established I⁠—”

“We established nothing.” I heaved out a deep breath, worried about her secrets, remembering what happened when the last female Costa kept a secret from me.

Now Bianca was dead, and if she had opened up to me fourteen years ago, maybe I could have helped her. Maybe she’d be alive and happily married, living her best life.

When she continued staring everywhere but at me, I asked, “What’s wrong?” My words were gruff. Like two harsh sounds poking through the stuffy, political air.

Her shoulders sagged from the weight of whatever lie she was no doubt about to offer. “Just felt like I was being watched earlier when we got into the Porsche.”

There was a hole the size of Texas in that one sentence. “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said.”

“You do know what I used to do for a living, right?” But I didn’t need to have trained at Quantico and been an FBI agent to detect her lie. “Don’t forget what we do now.” No rules or red tape when questioning people in this new line of work with her family at our security company.

She locked her arms in a defensive position across her breasts. “We shouldn’t be discussing this now. Tonight isn’t the time for this conversation, especially not here.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but, from my peripheral vision, realized we had incoming. The ambush happened quickly, catching both of us off guard. A woman neither Bella, nor I, would want to swap words with, stopped before us.

Dealing with businessmen and politicians and keeping my mouth shut was one thing. Talking to a reporter and behaving? Not happening.

Concern for Bella had me taking a protective step around her, hoping to block this vicious woman from bothering her.

“Do my eyes deceive me? Is the Hudson Ashford stepping into the limelight and attending one of his father’s events? Been a year, at least, since you’ve shown your face at one of these parties.” Kit offered her hand, knowing damn well I wouldn’t shake it.

Ignoring the journalist, I checked my watch as Constantine popped into my ear. “She’s now inside with her three security detail, and they’re a match to the names on the guest list we already cleared. But if we have eyes on her . . .”

Then so do the bad guys. They would definitely have tapped into the surveillance cameras the same as Constantine.

I discreetly touched the device hidden in my ear, unmuting it so Constantine would be able to hear me as well.

“Hold position for now,” he directed.

The last thing I wanted to do was hold this position and talk to a reporter.

“Isabella Costa. Wow, I almost didn’t recognize you all dressed up like that.” Kit’s words knocked me back to the new problem at hand. “Feels like yesterday you found your sister murdered. What’s it been? Fourteen years now?”

Before I had a chance to determine the best way to handle this thorn in our sides, Bella sidestepped me, facing off with the reporter.

“Did you know I’d be here tonight?” Bella asked, a visible tremble moving through her. “Was it you earlier? Did you do that?”

“Do what?” I shot out in alarm.

“I don’t know what sick game you’re playing, but crawl back into the hole where you came from and leave my family alone.” Bella abruptly turned, lifted the skirt of her dress, and started to walk away.

I zeroed in on Kit, pulled in two directions, knowing damn well this one didn’t deserve more from me than a quick question. “What in the hell did you do?”

Kit shrugged, watching Bella as she cut farther away from us heading to the opposite side of the room.

I was about to lose the ability to remain a gentleman and keep my mouth closed, creating a situation that’d require “cleaning up” by my father’s campaign manager. To say Kit and I had gone head-to-head a time or two in the past was an understatement. Unable to stop myself despite the fact we were drawing attention, I ordered, “Leave her alone, or so help me.”

She casually reached for my scotch, clearly knowing it’d been mine. Exactly how long had she been watching us?

“Maybe you need a drink to calm down. Take the edge off so you can give me an exclusive on your relationship with Isabella Costa.” Her eyes narrowed on mine. “Tell me, is she sleeping with you to gain favors for her family with the governor? Were you sleeping with her sister back in the day, too?”

My head nearly exploded before Constantine’s words pounded into my ears. “Walk away before we both lose it.” He followed the order with another directive. “It’s time to move in on the target.”

I would’ve told off this woman if it weren’t for the voice of reason in my ear.

Without giving Kit another second of my time, I forged a path through the crowded room. Quick, determined strides carried me Bella’s way.

It was go time.

We had a life to save.

The sooner we got the hell out of the party, the better for all of us.