The Double

And saw him abruptly stop circling and just look at me. What? What did I do?

Whatever it was, it ended his suspicion. He marched across the room to me. Closer and closer. Okay, he’s going to stop now. Closer. Closer—

He came to a stop with his calf pressed against mine. Leaned forward—

I held my breath.

He plucked the phone from the desk behind me and straightened up, leaving me red-cheeked and flustered. What did you think he was going to do?!

But he didn’t back away as he made the phone call. He stayed right there, his leg touching mine, the heat of him throbbing into me. I listened as he explained to reception what had happened. She’s locked out of her room. 503. I stood there drinking him in, seeing all the little details I’d always been too far away to make out. I’d known that he wore a ring on his right hand, for example, but now I could see it was old and worn, the engraved silver dark with age. The style of it didn’t go with his crisp, modern clothes at all.

The receptionist must have asked him a question because Konstantin put his hand over the phone and said, “Name?”

And without thinking, I said, “Hailey Akers.” I was almost embarrassed by it. It was as dull, as normal as Konstantin Gulyev was exotic and exciting.

And then it clicked that I’d just told him my real name. My stomach lurched and my skin flashed hot with panic. I’d make the worst undercover agent ever.

Konstantin hung up the phone, which involved leaning in towards me again and reaching around behind, his forearm gliding across my lower back. “A few minutes,” he told me.

From across the suite, I heard a very faint click. The sound of the door to the hallway being very quietly closed. Calahan was out. I tried not to let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you,” I told him. “I’ll go wait outside my door.”

Konstantin hadn’t yet straightened up from replacing the phone. So when his head snapped up in surprise, he was suddenly looking into my eyes from less than a foot away. That frown that was becoming familiar, that scorching gaze: that is not the right answer.

He wanted me to stay. Even though he had a girlfriend. The idea rippled down through my body. But you have Christina! She’s beautiful and sexy and— I was shocked and outraged and confused... and flattered.

And then he seemed to catch himself and he straightened up, tugging his shirt straight and gesturing towards the door. Leaving me to walk past him and show myself out, as if he didn’t want to tempt himself by getting too close to me again. My heart was crashing against my ribs. Me? I’d never tempted anyone before. And I was weirdly relieved to find out he wasn’t a cheater... as if that could possibly matter, given who and what he was.

I was so distracted that when he suddenly said, wait, I didn’t pick up on the abrupt change in tone. I turned around and I think I actually smiled.

Then I saw the expression on his face. Something had just occurred to him, something awful. Something he didn’t want to be true.

“What were you going to carry the ice in?” he asked.

I blinked stupidly. “What?”

He started walking towards me. I must have been imagining the blue in his eyes because all I could see now was merciless gray. “You were going to get ice from the machine when you got locked out. So where is the ice bucket?”

Shit. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My brain was scrambling for an explanation and finding none. “I—”

And that did it. Not the lack of an answer but the guilt that was clear in my eyes. He stormed across the room, closing the distance between us in huge strides. I twisted around and grabbed for the door handle—

His hand captured my wrist and I let out a scream as I was yanked backwards, right off my feet. Then he flung me against the wall and a second later his body was crushed against mine, pinning me there, each pant of anger pressing his pecs into my breasts. Those frozen gray eyes bored right into my soul.

“Who are you, Hailey Akers?”

4

Hailey

THE FEAR. Oh, God, the fear. I’d blown everything. I shook my head, trying to deny everything, but that only made him angrier. He snarled and grabbed both wrists in one huge hand, trapping them against the wall high above my head. “What was the plan? Kill me? You have a knife under there, a needle?” He hooked his fingers under the belt of the robe and tugged and the knot came apart, the whole thing going loose around me. I struggled, flushing. “Or were you just here to open the door for a hitman?” He glared at me. “It wouldn’t be the first time a pretty woman’s tried to do that.”