Sex could sell anything. Letting her body sway and roll with the music, she began to scout the club. Her target was there, but the challenge lay in finding him amongst the pleasure-seeking masses. Twenty minutes of wandering hands and dances later, she located Coyle at a corner table with a voluptuous redhead. Half-drunk, he was laughing and playing with the woman.
The best way to approach a target was organically. If that meant dancing and waiting, she would dance and wait. Cobalt paced her progress, and like other personal security present in the club, no one took any notice of him. In a black suit coat over a black t-shirt and jeans, the man defined hiding in plain sight.
When the voluptuous redhead went to the restroom, Copper followed. Touching up her lipstick, she let her gaze wander over the redhead. The girl grinned and laughed. By the time they walked out of the bathroom, they were arm in arm, giggling like two of the oldest friends. She let the redhead tug her over to Coyle’s table. When he gave her a suspicious look, the redhead suggested some fun and planted one on Copper.
Kissing a woman wasn’t the worst thing she’d ever done. Thirty minutes of making out with her later, and Copper sat in Coyle’s lap, her back to his chest. They all had a great time. A nod from Cobalt told her they’d gotten what they wanted. With Coyle’s card tucked between her breasts, she bid farewell to her would-be lovers and strolled out again.
Once she returned to the van, she stripped out of her gear and released her hair.
“Need any help?” Cobalt’s playful, leering offer amused her.
“I’ve got ten fingers. I’m good.”
His laughter grounded her. Copper had work to do. “Let’s head to Tahoe tonight, so we can check on Gerald Barrow.” The budding congressman would need a slightly different approach, but she could slide herself onto his schedule as an appointment with a phone call and some tech work from home base.
Obligingly, Cobalt drove while she changed. They stopped for food on the way. Somewhere in the darkness, Plat and Merc had their backs. She studied the cloned information from Coyle’s phone. She had access to his email, his phone contacts, call log, calendar, and a couple of proprietary apps for accessing his company’s firewall.
Bless smartphones.They make my work so much easier…
Chapter 2
With eighty students piled into their seats, it would be hard for most professors to keep track of who was who. The sign-in sheet always began a rotation in a different part of the hall. Everyone signed in, and if their name wasn’t on the sheet—depending on when he passed it around—they didn’t get credit for attending International Relations in Business.
Unfortunately for his students, Gabriel Danvers never forgot a face. He knew which students had their friends sit in, or when one of the guys switched his jacket and moved surreptitiously to the other side of the room to sign in for a missing classmate. He damn well noticed when a woman entered the class who didn’t belong.
Three rows back from the front, her feet propped on the back of another chair, hair in a ponytail, and looking about twenty with her cosmetic free face, his lecture hall had an invader. Phone in hand, she typed swiftly with her thumbs while he lectured on the pros and cons of the environmental restrictions on European Union business contracts, prosperity, and how those factors influenced American businesses in the region.
Though he let his gaze wander over the class, making eye contact with the students as he paced back and forth, his awareness ofhernever diminished. Keeping track of her from the corner of his eye whenever he glanced away told him three things.
She wasn’t one of his usual students or shills—she’d not even bothered to sign the sheet.
She took copious notes, but she also snapped pictures.
She wanted something from him.
Call it instinct or a sixth sense, but he’d always had a way of looking at scattered facts and identifying a pattern. Her attention was on him, not the material, and her focus belied her casual attitude. She watched without looking, and the weight of her attention proved a provocative allure to his senses.
He looked forward to discovering whatever she wanted. His body stirred, and he ignored the bolt of lust.No idea who she is. Besides, fucking students is not on the syllabus.The thought came out of nowhere, and he coughed once to clear his throat. The corner of her pale pink decorated mouth curved upward. Amusement gleamed in her pale, pale green eyes.
The little vixen knew exactly what she was doing to him. Pausing at the desk, he leaned against it and stretched his legs. Two could play that game, he kept the lecture going as he braced his legs. The urge to ease his stiffening cock to one side grew more profound, but he focused on her. Memorizing her face.
He was damn good with faces.
The deep tan of her skin reminded him of a sweet, creamy coffee. Enticing image aside, she had a perfectly balanced and asymmetrical face, but he couldn’t place her origins. Not easily. A faint tilt to her eyes, high cheekbones, and a deliciously sensuous mouth…
“So, here’s your assignment,” he said, finishing his lecture and dragging his attention away from the siren summoning him in the third row. Ignoring the groans, he used his thumb to point at the board behind him. “Six companies are listed there. Three are European Union based, three are U.S. based. Using the lecture and your materials, not only do you need to identify which is which, I also want you to identify who is in violation of those restrictions, and what are possible ramifications for the upcoming Conference on International Commerce.”
The groans increased in volume, and he smiled. They really should learn he didn’t mention items, places, or events if they weren’t important.
“Any questions?” Oddly, no hands went up. His gaze collided with the goddess in the third row, and she made no attempt to disguise her continued amusement. Another minute dragged on, and the class didn’t ask any questions, so he clapped his hands together. “I’ll see you next week. Don’t forget my office hours if you have questions.”
Would she stay? Or would she go?
Swinging around the desk, he gathered his notes and the papers the class handed in at the beginning. He knew he annoyed them by requiring print copies rather than digital submissions. The horror of figuring out how to use control-P on their computers must have been a challenge.
Warm vanilla sugar teased his nose.She stayed.Glancing up from the papers, he found her standing just three feet away, directly across the desk. How sturdy was the construction of the desk? It wouldn’t take him any time at all to clear it.
Student. Red. Fucking. Light.Intellect versus instinct. She looked young, almost fresh-scrubbed innocence, but her eyes weren’t innocent. They harbored far too much hidden emotion, as though she’d seen hell and survived. Locking gazes, he considered all the things he wanted to say.