Page 6 of Palace of Betrayal

“You need to kiss me and make it believable.”

Like being doused with cold water, the erotic pull he was feeling broke, and he remembered this was a game, a show for everyone else and not the start of a romantic liaison.

But, by God, he’d put on a show that would make her head spin.

Stroking his hand up her spine, he pushed his fingers through the thick strands of her hair before gently fisting the hair at her scalp. A hiss of breath had him looking into her eyes to see surprise and arousal competing for dominance. Angling her head slightly, he tightened the arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer.

His head bent and he took her mouth, slanting his lips over hers until she opened for him. A whimper slid up her throat as his tongue danced along her lips before flicking inside to taste her. In all his years and the many first kisses he’d had, León had never felt this way. Compelled, drugged, lost in sensation as desire pummelled his body and his dick strained against his pants. Bebe leaned in, her hands feathering the back of his neck and it was like she had a line directly to his cock. It was intense and terrifying just how affected he was by her.

Pulling away, he saw the same look of shock on her face before she covered it. Her eyes, though, were like a mirror of the desire raging inside him. The fact he wasn’t the only one affected was somehow comforting. “That good enough for you?”

Bebe licked her bottom lip, and hell, it took everything in him not to drag her from the room and finish what they started. But this was fake, and he’d do well to remember it.

Bebe turned to leave the dance floor, casting a flirtatious look over her shoulder. “It’ll do.”

Two

Stepping through the door of Prince León’s apartment, Bebe wanted nothing more than to kick off her heels and take a few minutes to get herself together. Following the man who’d kissed her so thoroughly on the dance floor and then preceded to enchant her with his wit and conversation, all the while playing up to the people around them and cementing the fact they were suddenly infatuated, had taken a toll on her equilibrium.

León threw his keys in a turquoise ceramic bowl by the door, his other hand moving to the grey tie around his neck to loosen the knot. In her line of work, Bebe had met countless handsome men, yet none had made her skin tingle and her pulse pound the way this man did. He was taller than she thought, over six feet two inches, she’d guess. His build was muscular, which she put down to his years in the military and his subsequent love of rock climbing, or as he’d gone on to explain, he preferred free climbing.

With most men, she’d have put his admission down to posturing or showing off, but León didn’t strike her as the type to need his ego stroked. He was confident and seemed to dominate the room as they moved around it, but never the conversation. He was a true alpha male, full of charisma and sex appeal. Which was why she could feel the daggers from almost every woman they’d passed tonight.

“Thank God, we can…”

Bebe grabbed his arm, spinning him to face her and putting a finger to her lips. Dragging him slightly, she pulled him toward the bathroom, while making moaning sounds as if they were kissing.

León caught on quick and slammed the bathroom door behind them, turning to turn on the shower. When the sound of flowing water filled the room, he turned to her, hands on his hips as he put distance between them. His eyes dipped to her breasts, and she knew he’d enjoyed their kiss as much as she had, and that was bad. This was a job, and she needed a clear head. She’d never, not once allowed a target or contact to become anything more and she couldn’t start now with the most important job of her life at stake.

“You think my apartment is bugged?”

Bebe dug around in her bag for the scanner she always carried. “I don’t know but until I clear it, I don’t want to assume it isn’t.”

“What the hell is that?”

Bebe grinned as she waved the small dildo shaped scanner in the air. Shaped like a magic bullet, she knew anyone searching her bag would never give it a second look because of its shape, and that spoke to her warped sense of humour.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Leo, this is a scanner. Although….”

She gave him a wicked grin and he rolled his eyes and took it from her hand.

“Hey, you don’t know how to use it.”

León quirked a dark eyebrow at her, his expression devilish, and Bebe fought the shiver as he leaned in closer. “I can assure you I do.”

Bebe let her smart mouth get the better of her as she flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Need the help, Leo?”

His deep, gruff chuckle worked its way over her skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

“A real man learns every way to please his woman and then some. A real man isn’t afraid of toys.”

Bebe fought the gulp at the visual of this man between her thighs using the bullet on her as his wickedly seductive eyes wandered over her body.

Before she could respond, León left the bathroom with her trailing after him as he scanned the room. His face lost its confident smirk when the scanner alerted him to a device in the lamp beside the bed. He glanced at her, and she shook her head, indicating he should leave it for now. His countenance darkened further as he found five more bugs planted throughout the apartment.

Beckoning him back to the bathroom, Bebe closed the door behind them.

“Fucking bastards bugged my personal space.”