Forbidden Fantasies Bundle(83)

Moving to the window, she gazed out at the quad. The slant of the morning sun sent long shadows across the lush green grass. The two times she’d actually done what she’d wanted and strayed from her parents’ expectations of her, she’d messed up. After her experiment with life on the wild side her freshman year in college, they’d insisted she go into therapy. They’d refused even to talk to her during the two months she’d worked at the CIA. Poor judgment and a sinful waste of her talents, they’d called it.

Taking the job at the CIA had been her last little rebellion against their plans for her. She’d thought that her work there would bring her the kind of adventure she’d always secretly dreamed about. She’d even studied karate in the hopes of eventually becoming a field agent.

But the only real excitement that she’d experienced in her work as a CIA data analyst had been of a vicarious nature, reading and analyzing the reports of one particular field agent whose code name was Lucifer.

Her job had been to analyze the probability that he’d carried out a hit on a fellow agent. Of course, he hadn’t, but in the course of gathering intelligence on Lucifer, she’d become insatiably curious about the man.

His reputation was mythic. He was such a master of disguise that no one even knew what he looked like. His track record for getting the job done was flawless. There was even a theory that he didn’t really exist, that Lucifer was merely a code name for a group of agents who performed dangerous and secret missions.

But Zoë didn’t believe that. She’d read all of his reports, and there was something very distinctive about Lucifer’s writing style, a kind of dry humor that appealed to her. And she admired the careful planning that was a hallmark of any mission he worked on. But the thing she’d admired most about Lucifer was the integrity that lay beneath all of his work. Lucifer was a man who could be trusted.

Was it any wonder that he’d become so firmly rooted in her imagination? He was living the life of adventure that she’d always secretly dreamed about. She’d even created a picture of him in her mind. He resembled his dark angel namesake—with longish dark hair and brilliant blue eyes. As she’d continued to gather and analyze information on him, Lucifer had begun to play a very active role in her fantasy life. She supposed that she’d even fallen a bit in love with him just as Shakespeare’s Desdemona had fallen in love with the amazing stories that Othello had told her.

Zoë frowned. Desdemona clearly hadn’t seen the real Othello. And her boss at the CIA, Hadley Richards, had told her that she hadn’t “seen” the real Lucifer. He’d been very displeased with her final report on the superagent.

Zoë turned from the window to glance back at the notebook on her desk. Come to think of it, Jed Calhoun reminded her a bit of Lucifer. Not that he was a superspy. Her lips curved at the absurdity of that idea. But Jed did have a similar air of mystery about him. There had to be a reason why he was staying with his friend Ryder Kane, but not even her boss, Sierra, who was Ryder’s fiancée, seemed to know the particulars. And Jed was living on the houseboat that Ryder kept on the Chesapeake Bay, not in Ryder’s apartment in D.C. It was almost as if Jed Calhoun was in hiding. Why?

The sharp knock at her door had her jumping.

“Zoë, are you in there?”

Zoë recognized Sierra’s voice immediately, but she’d barely turned around when Dr. Sierra Gibbs, her arms full of packages, breezed into the room. A month ago, Zoë mused, her boss would have asked permission before entering her office. But a lot of things had changed about Sierra since she’d met Ryder Kane, her new fiancé.

Before Ryder, Sierra and she had been mirror images of each other—once you subtracted the fact that Sierra was a tall blonde and Zoë was a short brunette. They’d both worn glasses, and they’d both worn their hair pulled back into a ponytail or a braid. They’d even worn the same kind of loose-fitting skirts and sweaters. During the time they’d worked together, she’d not only come to admire Sierra’s work but she’d begun to look on her as a friend.

So she’d been happy to see how Sierra had blossomed since she’d met Ryder Kane. Her boss was currently dressed in a well-tailored suit in a shade Zoë would call pomegranate and high-heeled slingbacks that Zoë immediately envied. Sierra’s hair fell in loose waves to her shoulders, and Zoë couldn’t help admiring the style as her boss turned to glance at her.

It was only then that she saw that Sierra had pulled champagne, two glasses and a bag of imported chocolates out of the packages she’d been carrying.