Deeper (The Deep Duet 2)

Her breathing increased slightly before her eyes shuttered. "Let me just clean up." She walked into the bathroom and shut the door. A few seconds later, he heard the water come on.

Rafe had taken two steps after her before he caught himself. How pathetic that it made him nervous to have her out of his sight even for the few minutes it would take her to rinse off. There was no window in the bathroom, so she couldn’t escape. And even if there was, they were too high up for that to be an issue.

By the time she’d finished showering, Rafe had his clothes back on and was sitting on the bed, gun at the ready. He wasn’t accepting lies from her. And while his dick couldn’t stay away from her, his mind was in control now. He didn’t want to give her time to think up lies.

She stopped short when she saw the gun.

“Who sent you?”

The question—and the gun—took her off guard, he could tell. What had she expected? Did she really think that she could walk back in here and he wouldn’t have any questions for her? If she did, she clearly hadn’t done that much research on him. Anyone who’d come into contact with him in the past knew that he was relentless when it came to getting the information he wanted. He’d killed for it before.

“None of that matters anymore. All you need to know is that I came here to find a rare diamond called the Jewel of—”

“Of the Sea. That blue diamond,” Rafe finished, his jaw tight. This whole thing was about that stupid diamond? He’d brushed it off when Alan had mentioned it before, but now he wished he’d paid closer attention. He’d just been annoyed at the implication that he’d stolen it, but apparently his superiors at the FBI weren’t the only ones who suspected it had been taken. If others believed it enough to send a female spy to honey trap him into revealing the location, that was bad.

Really fucking bad.

Diana’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. As soon as I found out that you were the one who stole it years ago, I knew I had to try to get it back. But I failed, so… end of story.”

Rafe’s mouth fell open. Of all the things he’d expected to hear, that was at the bottom of the list. Of all the many things that he’d done, he’d never been a thief. But if he had taken it, it would take an army to get it away from him. Not one lone woman who looked like she’d scream if she saw a spider.

Diana had actually thought she could come here and steal the diamond back?

He gave a low harsh chuckle. He’d assumed she’d just been sent in to find the location and report back to someone else. Not that she’d ever try t

o actually take it herself.

“Stop laughing at me, you asshole!”

His laughter cut off when she hurled herself at him. But she didn’t come at him with flapping hands and an uncoordinated attack, she came at him with elbows and fists and… rage.

What the fuck? What happened to the damsel in distress? She landed a sweeping elbow across his cheek, and he cursed low. She quickly followed it up with a punch aimed right for his nose. That one he deflected.

Someone had taught his delicate flower how to fight. And how to fight well. He mostly deflected her blows, refusing to land any of his own. But he quickly realized all that was getting him was beat to shit.

With a growl, Rafe flipped them over and grabbed her hands between one of his. Controlling her easily, he waited until her thrashing calmed down. Then his heart clutched when he saw the tears on her cheeks.

“Fuck, Di. Why are you crying?”

The nickname only seemed to enrage her. She screeched and tried to buck him off, but he was too heavy. “Because I know you know where it is, you asshole. None of this was supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to feel like this. When I left, I knew you didn’t have it, but now you obviously know all about it. You have to know where it is.”

“I don’t know anything about it.”

She scoffed. “Yeah right. All sources indicate it was there before you paid Dieter Vandergraff a visit. Yeah, I know about that too. Your flash drive was very informative. Although I already knew about what you do. Who you are.”

Rafe tried to cover his shock. How was that possible? Then he thought about his little visit to Ian. While the reins of power had shifted at ORUS recently, prior to that, there was no doubt that Orion would have loved to see his downfall. Even though Rafe DeMarco was officially dead, there was always the possibility that Orion had sold information about him, hoping to smoke him out of hiding. Faking his death had worked on everyone else, but it would be completely within character for the former Orion to have had doubts.

“So you betrayed me for money? Was it worth it, sweetheart?”

Diana’s eyes went white hot. “I betrayed you? Hah! And it wasn’t about the money.”

She tried to buck him again, and he firmly planted his hips on hers to keep her from moving. But shit, that sent his blood pressure soaring. “What was it about then?”

She seemed to be considering her answer. Then she shook her head, and he knew he’d lost her. She wasn’t ready to trust him yet. “Nothing. This is just a job to me. No more, no less.”

Rafe didn’t believe that for a second. But until she decided to trust him, he had to accept it.

“Whoever sent you on a job like this should be shot. This isn’t safe. You shouldn’t be approaching dangerous men on your own. What if it had been someone other than me? Anyone else would have hurt you, Diana.”