Malicious Intent by Lynn H. Blackburn

Author:Lynn H. Blackburn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romantic Suspense;Thrillers (Fiction);Romance fiction;Spy fiction;FIC042060;FIC042040;FIC027110
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2022-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

22

SIX HOURS AFTER LEAVING Ivy at her office, Gil stood with his back to a column at the far end of a long hotel corridor. He could hear what was going on in the ballroom, but he couldn’t see Ivy. There was comfort in knowing Tessa was in there, but he still wished he had eyes in that room.

He had seen her on her way in but had stayed out of her line of sight. She looked great. Calm. Confident. Focused. She looked like what she was. The CEO of Hedera, Inc., prepared to make a pitch for a grant and fully intent on getting it.

She did not look at all like she had this morning. Eyes wide and burning. Voice trembling with rage and a full octave higher than normal. A few times, two octaves higher. Face tight with her fury at him.

A fury he deserved.

He’d been treating her like she was fragile and it was his job to cocoon her in Bubble Wrap.

She might look delicate, but she was brilliant and capable. He should have known by the way she’d endured torture and then made a phenomenal shot that she wasn’t the kind of woman who needed to be handled. She needed to be included and consulted.

What had he done? The exact opposite. He’d made decisions on her behalf about issues that directly impacted her, and he’d done it without asking her.

The truth was, he didn’t feel as bad about it as maybe he should. If she’d tried to refuse the protection, he would have arranged for it anyway. There was a zero percent chance that she was going to be in this hotel today without her friends having her back. But he still should have talked to her, asked her, and given her the opportunity to express her concerns and make suggestions about how to handle it smoothly with minimal disruption to her routine and plans. As she’d forcefully expressed this morning, she wasn’t an idiot. She would have agreed to the protection.

He pressed into the column at his back. Why was this so hard? He didn’t want to alienate her. He wanted to date her. But after this morning, he wasn’t sure if she’d be receptive to being texting buddies, much less to spending time with him.

He refocused on the door to the ballroom. By the sounds of things, they were wrapping up.

“It was a pleasure to meet you as well.” Tessa’s soft alto came through the earwig. She’d walked into the ballroom at Ivy’s side, introduced herself as Ivy’s intern, and then chatted with them about prosthetics and some of the unique challenges faced by amputees in a way that left Gil stunned. Had she given herself a crash course in bioengineering over the past forty-eight hours?

After the introductions were made, Zane had muttered, “Killing it, Tess” in a low voice that indicated no surprise, only pride. And maybe something else. Yeah. When they sorted Ivy’s mess, Gil was going to have to sort out the Zane and Tessa situation.

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