Not quite, cowboy. Not quite. And he did remind her of a cowboy. Maybe it was that Texas drawl that slipped out every now and then. Maybe it was the hard edge that clung to him. The tough exterior.
But she was thinking of him as cowboy tough and he—he was thinking of her as the spoiled debutante. It grated, but as long as he didn’t realize exactly who she was, then his guard would stay lowered.
She’d had plenty of babysitters—um, bodyguards—over the past few years. She’d gotten pretty adept at handling them.
And dodging them.
Since Cale didn’t realize her true identity, that would make things even easier for her.
She smiled at him. A real smile.
He blinked. A furrow appeared between his dark brows.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot.” Cassidy even offered him her hand. Why not be friendly? That would help to make him feel even more at ease with her. “It looks like we’ll be...close...for the next few days, so maybe we should just start fresh.”
They’d be close until she could manage to ditch him and go after those gunmen on her own. They were in the city. Pinpointing their next attack area had been the tricky part. Now that she knew they were in the general area, she just had to track them.
Cale silently regarded her offered hand, the hand that was still hovering in the air between them. She wiggled her fingers.
His own hand lifted and finally closed around hers. Well, swallowed hers was probably a better description. Cale used his grip to pull her closer to him.
Caught off balance by that stronger-than-expected hold, she had to take a few quick steps forward.
She was suddenly way too conscious of her thin robe and of the fact that she had nothing on beneath that robe.
Had he noticed?
The gleam of awareness in his eyes said he had.
Oh, boy.
“Partners?” Cale murmured.
She nodded. He could believe that they’d be partners for a bit. A few precious hours remained before dawn and Mercer’s promised briefing. She could fool him until then, and surely she’d manage to slip away in that time.
“Partners don’t keep secrets from each other,” he continued.
He hadn’t let go of her hand.
Mere inches separated their bodies.
“Tell me about the case.”
His fingers slowly freed hers.
She took the breath that her starving lungs so desperately needed.
“I’m working on an abduction case.” Again, mostly true. And to think that Mercer believed she spent her days just spinning lies. There was some truth to her existence. Cassidy thought the best way to deceive was to use a mix of truth and lies. “Those men tonight, they took someone else a while back.”
More truth. A painful one, at that.
“Who?”
Before she did this “baring of the soul” bit, she’d really prefer putting on some clothes. If her soul was going to be exposed to him, then her flesh could at least be covered more. “Do you mind if I get dressed?” The question was supposed to be flippant.
Instead, her voice came out hoarse and soft and inviting.
She hadn’t meant it to be that way. Yes, Cale Lane was attractive—sexy and compelling in that dark and dangerous way of his—but she wasn’t interested in him. Was she?