The Phoenix Agency: Bare Deception (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Tracy Tappan

Author:Tracy Tappan [Tappan, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kindle Worlds
Published: 2017-10-28T18:30:00+00:00

* * *

Ronnie came to stand in the doorway of Antonio’s bedroom and silently watched him.

He was stalking around his room, collecting items off his dresser and from his private bathroom. His expression was stony, his eyes hard, and tension visibly throbbed along the muscles in his shoulders.

She twined her fingers together. “I heard about what happened on your enforcer job in La Castellana earlier,” she said quietly, her heart a sick lump. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t respond. He tossed the items he’d gathered onto his bed, then strode over to his dresser, yanked a suitcase out from beside it, and flopped it open on the bed next to his stuff.

She studied the suitcase for a long, disbelieving moment. “You’re leaving?”

He returned to his dresser and grabbed some clothes. “You wanted me to leave.”

Yes. But not now. Not since she’d spent all last night tossing and turning, unable to sleep because she kept thinking about him. As if her mind was a scratched vinyl album, she replayed certain scenes over and over—like what they’d done in the den. God, yes, that notorious scene. But this time, free from the distractions of fear and anxiety, she saw the subtleties in Antonio’s expression she’d missed in real time: his regret over her throwing herself at him, his hesitancy, his raw confusion about what screwing her meant.

Then there was the way he’d looked in the alley behind La Caleta. I’m not the one being cavalier here, chica, and everything else he’d said, about his soul being ripped apart. A warm, slippery sensation settled in the middle of her chest, and she pressed her fingers there. No wonder she was drawn to him. The “real” Antonio who lurked underneath the pretend enforcer had a lot of heart.

He was such a refreshing change from the men she usually dated, none of whom—not a one—had ever been up front about his perceived failings. The men she disastrously got involved with were a lot of polish on the outside and not much substance on the inside.

And, no, it didn’t make sense that a woman with her special skills should be fooled by a lot of flash. After all, she had the ability to Extract the truth about a man, and then, knowing what was coming her way, possibly avoid the bad stuff. But experience had taught her that acquiring knowledge about a man by dredging the secret waters of his mind was, to put it mildly, not the best way to begin a romantic relationship. Antonio’s heated reaction in the alley to the idea of her having read his personal thoughts was pretty standard. The fuck you do! No one liked having his privacy breached.

So she tried not to make a habit of willy-nilly using her special skills on people. She mostly functioned like a regular mortal in her personal relationships, tripping over all the requisite mistakes that were good for learning life’s lessons and self-growth, but also led to a lot of heartbreak.

And heartbreak sucked for her as much as it did for anyone else.

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