Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter Page B

she’s so sated she can’t even speak. It’s been a while since I had
that kind of experience.” Low blow—and untrue—but he deserved it.
    If
Cody was listening, he was probably patting himself on the back and smiling
smugly.
    Rome’s
nostrils did that flare thing again.
    Was
he…could he be jealous at the thought of me with another man? Even though he
didn’t remember me? Please, please, please.
    “Do
it,” he said, his voice low, gravelly. “Go to him.”
    O-kay.
Maybe not. I tried not to wallow in crushing disappointment. “I will,” I lied.
Damn him. “You’ll see.”
    He
leaned back in his seat and rubbed two fingers over his jaw. “Answer a few
questions for me first.”
    “Sure.
Unlike you, some agents are actually happy to help a coworker in need.” My
heart skipped a beat. What did he want to know?
    “I
brought you into PSI, correct?”
    “Yes.”
He’d done a whole lot more to me, but whatever.
    “Because
you ingested some sort of chemical, you now control the four elements. Earth,
wind, fire and water.”
    I
shrugged. “Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.”
    “What
does that mean?” He glanced again at the mud-caked wall behind him. “That
sometimes they control you?”
    A
nod. “You call me Four Elements Girl. Or Homicidal Tendencies Wench.” What I
would have given to hear either of those stupid monikers again. Spoken with
affection, that is. He’d made “Weather Wench” sound like “Heartless Bitch.”
“Sometimes you even call me Wonder Girl because, well, I’m wonderful. And in
return I call you Cat Man, and you like it.”
    His
teeth ground together. In irritation? “I would never allow a woman to call me
Cat Man and I would damn well never like it. You’re lying.”
    Oh,
yes. He was irritated. Why? “Why would I lie about something like that? What
would I have to gain? What would anyone have to gain?”
    “My
secrets.”
    I
rolled my eyes. “I already know your secrets.” He cried during romantic
comedies when the couple had their black moment (if only he’d cry during this
one! I only prayed it wasn’t a tragedy). He was a cheap drunk. And he’d once
told me that he couldn’t sleep when I wasn’t in the bed with him. “Besides,
we’re on the same team.”
    “Are
we? The others, yes. I know them, know they wouldn’t hurt me. You? Not so much.
You’re a blank canvas in my mind. You could have all of them fooled. You could
be a mind manipulator and have tricked them all.”
    “Do
you seriously think anyone could do that to so many people at once?
Especially when the people in question are trained government agents?”
    A
pause. He ran his tongue over his teeth. “No.”
    “Okay,
then. It’s safe to say I’m not a mind manipulator.”
    In
the blink of an eye, his arm snapped out and he latched onto my wrist. I gasped
in shock. In delight. His skin was warm and callused and abraded mine
deliciously. He turned my palm over, inspecting every inch of dirt that smudged
the crevices. My engagement band gleamed in the light.
    He
was quick to look away from it, I noticed.
    “What
are you doing?” Did I sound as breathless to him as I did to myself?
    “If
we were lovers, I would know this hand. I would recall having it on my body.”
    The
words had been growled, as if he wanted desperately to remember and hated that
he couldn’t. I chewed on my bottom lip, not knowing what to say or what to do
to turn this situation around. Recall something. Please.
    “But
there’s nothing.” Disgusted, he dropped my hand. “Not even a glimmer.”
    Slowly
I drew my arm back and placed it in my lap. My normally olive skin appeared
washed out, completely devoid of color as it rested against the blue of my
jeans. “We were more than lovers,” I said softly. “We were engaged, as you were
already told. I’ve been planning our wedding.”
    He
laughed, but it was an ugly sound and made me cringe. “You can just un-plan
it,” he said. “Maybe even sell the ring, ’cause I