Seduced by the Storm by Sydney Croft Page B

jobs
done. But lying to Sean…it was such a betrayal, even though he’d gone over to
the dark side a long time ago. At times like this, she truly believed he could
turn himself around.
    "There’s
something to be said about being your own boss," she said as she pulled
away from him, too distracted by what was going on around them and in the water
to fully concentrate on Sean. Which, she knew, could be a fatal mistake.
"But it’s also nice to have backup."
    "We’ve
always backed each other up." He grinned. "Remember the time our
calculus professor accused me of cheating?"
    She
smiled at the memory, of how she’d come to his rescue by making the man’s lips
swell so he couldn’t talk. "He was such a tosser."
    Sean’s
gaze darkened into something she couldn’t read. Startled, she tried to shake
off the feeling of dread that rippled down her spine. She’d always been able to
read him, but before she could ponder the new development too much, he
murmured, "Remember how I paid you back? How I came to your room that
night and used my tongue to make you beg? Now that we’re together again, I’ll
do that every night. I’ll make you beg."
    "I
don’t beg anymore," she said, even though she’d begged Wyatt last night.
God, she hoped he was okay. Biting her lip, she looked out at the boiling ocean
and wondered how much worse it was going to get. She’d thought she’d gotten
past her fear of storms—or had at least gotten a grip on her fear—but with
Wyatt in danger, bad memories had started to surface. Surface…something Wyatt hadn’t
done yet. How long had he been down there anyway? Too long, dammit.
    "So
stubborn. And beautiful. You’ve always been so beautiful, Faith…Faith?"
    She
blinked, shook her head, unable to believe the mistake she’d just made. If she
wanted to survive this mission, she had to make Sean believe he was her sole
focus. She couldn’t make an error like that again, for her own sake, and
Liberty’s.
    "Yes,
sorry. I was thinking about how nice it is to be on the same side again."
    "As
it was always meant to be. We should never have gone our separate ways."
    She
hadn’t wanted to, but he’d grown increasingly jaded with Britain’s Secret
Intelligence Service, the patrons of the school they’d attended and the agency
he’d joined after graduation. She had struck out on her own and watched
helplessly as he degenerated into something cold and hateful. Three years ago,
he turned his back on the British government and defected to Itor. Still, even
as enemies they couldn’t deny their fierce physical attraction or the
sentimentality of their past, and their encounters always ended in sex, when
they should have ended in the death of one of them.
    This
time, one of them would probably die, and even if they both escaped unscathed,
Sean would never forgive her for the betrayal she was about to commit.
    "If
all this is going to happen," she said, "we’d better discuss what
Itor expects of me."
    "We
will. But first, I want to show you what my weather machine can do. Come
on."
    She
didn’t budge. "This storm over us…it’s yours?"
    "Absolutely.
We’ll turn it up a few notches. Spawn a waterspout in honor of your
arrival."
    As
though the storm agreed, lightning flashed overhead, followed by a deafening
clap of thunder, and she couldn’t hide her flinch.
    She
shouted over the noise, alarm sharpening her voice. "Sean, you’ve got to
shut it down! There are divers in the water."
    "So?
They’re deep. No worries."
    "They’re
coming up. They’ll have to decompress shallow. The waves could crush them
against the supports."
    Sean
gave her an indulgent smile. "It’s just a couple of divers. Let’s
go."
    She
stared in disbelief, water splashing her bare legs and filling her boots.
"You’d let them die? What is wrong with you?"
    "You
need to toughen up if you’re going to work for Itor, babes."
    "Yes,
fine, I’ll work on that." She gripped his arm hard enough to make him
wince. "Just, please, turn