four weeks of growth by her guess. A straight nose. Expressive eyes and brows that helped her read his emotions. She gauged his thoughts as she peered into those light green eyes, the color of the exotic water she’d only dreamed of swimming in.
The man was handsome. Cowboy-handsome. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t a thing. But then again, guys in cowboy hats without a shirt on, showing off a six-pack, a lasso slung over a shoulder, sounded awfully sexy to her.
If she were a judge in a competition, she’d be waving a 10 up in the air, hiding a giddy smile.
And Ana didn’t get giddy.
She read people. Found their flaws. Discovered reasons not to like or trust them.
So far, Adriana Bennett had yet to disappoint her. No deal-breaker traits. Ana also felt at ease with her co-worker Halle. She was classy, sophisticated, and brilliant. Even Dean, with his quirky nicknames, wasn’t all that bad.
When moving to D.C., she’d had high expectations that she’d dislike most people she worked with. Ultimately, they always let you down. People, in general, had a way of doing that.
She’d let herself down, too. Marrying Kyle. Breaking his heart.
“Were you saying something?” She stole her focus from his body and looked up to see his gaze fixed on her, the slight wrinkles at the corners of his eyes enhanced by what she guessed was concern.
“You were saying you panic-clean,” he reminded her, “and I got too distracted by you to respond.” His hand went flat on the counter as she put aside the spray bottle. Strong hands. Strong forearms, too.
This was not a lip-biting moment, well, not for Ana, at least. She never bit her lip, but damn it, she had to pin her tongue to the roof of her mouth to prevent herself from doing it. She had to do something to rally, to focus, to get her head out of the A.J. zone. To concentrate on the plan. To think through the problem.
The safe was empty, the USB file with classified case evidence gone. But she’d have to keep moving forward. Focus on what she could do and not the SGW list.
She’d finish what she’d set out to do no matter what.
“My mother bakes and cleans when she’s stressed,” A.J. said, drawing her eyes to his once again. “When I was deployed, she single-handedly supplied every bake sale in the state of Alabama.”
“She must still worry about you since you’re clearly in a dangerous line of work.”
“Nah, she thinks I just bodyguard famous people and such. She doesn’t know the truth.” He pulled that sexy, strong hand of his from the counter and stroked his jaw.
“And what kind of truth would that be?” She crossed her arms over her chest as she examined the man that had her disoriented when she should’ve been focusing on how she was going to get to Georgia without her colleagues discovering the plan.
When A.J. leaned in a touch closer, his hand going back to the counter as if bracing for impact, from trying not to fall straight into her, she peered up at him from her height of barely five-five and almost gasped.
What the hell?
She didn’t bite her lip or gasp. Not over a man, at least.
The excitement of catching a criminal, knowing she was close to taking down someone, deserved a nibble on the lip. A deep inhalation of breath.
There’d never been a man who’d elicited that kind of response from her. And yet, A.J. had her flirting and teasing since the moment she’d met him last year. This man almost had her lip wedging between her teeth, too.
“I’m really an Avenger,” he said close to her ear, her stomach tightening at his warm breath. “A bona fide caped crusader who saves people.”
“Like tonight?” she murmured when he backed up to find her eyes again. “You heard the distress and you came flying in, huh?” She needed to be serious, but Mr. Cowboy Handsome was standing in her tiny kitchen, which hadn’t been purposefully distressed like on an episode of HGTV, but was actually distressed, in a state of extreme sorrow. And there she was, ready to fan herself like some Southern belle on an episode of Hart of Dixie, the show fresh on her mind since she’d caught a rerun on Netflix a few months back, and of course, her first thought had been about A.J. because the show took place in Alabama. And now the man even had her inner thoughts a rambling mess.