in a hopeful smile, something vulnerable in her eyes. “You really believe that?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“Patty always said that men are intimidated by brainy women.”
“Only if they’re idiots.” He leaned in, kissed a rosy nipple. “Intelligence is sexy.”
A burst of static.
“Jones to Isaksen.”
For helvede. Damn it.
He reached for his radio, which sat on Samantha’s desk beside his pistol. “Jones, this is Isaksen. What do you need?”
“Uh, well, we’re waiting for you.”
Fuck. Right.
He’d lost track of time. He was supposed to meet Jones and Segal to remove Patty’s journal from the vacant room. Rather than spending tonight with Samantha, he was going to spend it reading the private thoughts of her murdered best friend.
“I’m on my way.” He sat up, caught Samantha’s chin. “I don’t want to go, but I must. Will you be okay alone here tonight?”
Her room had been broken into today. He wouldn’t blame her if she felt nervous about being alone in here.
“I’ll be fine. If I get freaked out, I have a few more Xanax.”
“Set that security camera after I leave and keep your radio handy. If you need me, call.” He got dressed, tucked his pistol and concealed holster inside his jeans, and grabbed his radio. “Sov godt, skat. Sleep well.”
It was almost painful to walk away.
Samantha washed her face, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair, her thoughts fixed on Thor. My God, the man was incredible. Not only was he the best sex she’d ever had, but he also seemed to care about her work, listening while she babbled about stars and galaxies.
Intelligence is sexy.
He certainly made her feel sexy—the intensity in his gaze when he looked at her naked body, the heat in his kisses, the way he said her name when he was fucking her.
Oh, Samantha. You’re… too… much.
She’d spent most of her life feeling inadequate when it came to men. Sex had always come with anxiety. Would she come fast enough or at all? Would the guy find her disappointing in bed? Would she say something nerdy and turn him off?
With Thor, she forgot to worry. It all just seemed to come together—the emotional side of sex and the physical side. Was he even real?
She finished combing her hair and walked from the restroom back to her room, hesitating at her door, chills skittering down her spine as if she were being watched.
“Samantha?”
She gasped, whirled, found Vasily standing behind her.
He hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Sorry. I frightened you. I came to see if you are okay. I heard a man broke into your room.”
“Y-yes.” Samantha had left her radio in her room, so she couldn’t call Thor. “He was trying to steal Patty’s private journal, her diary.”
“I brought for you something.” He held out what looked like a pocket knife—except there was no blade that she could see. “This is the safety switch. Slide back, push this button.”
In a millisecond, a stiletto knife appeared.
“A switchblade.”
Vasily folded the knife down, clicked the safety button back into place. “I sleep better tonight knowing you have a weapon.”
“I… I can’t take that.” She started to tell him she had a radio and a motion-activated security camera in her room but stopped herself.
He thrust it into her palm. “Please take it. I show you. You slide the safety back.”
She tested the weight in her hand, slid the safety button back. “I don’t know. I—”
“Push the button.”
She did as he said.
Snap.
The blade appeared, fast and lethal.
But Samantha had never owned a weapon of any kind. She handed it back to him. “I appreciate your concern for me, but I can’t keep this.”
He tried to get her to take it. “You should keep it. I want to help you.”
“What if a bad guy gets it away from me?”
His brown eyes looked straight into hers. “Do not let that happen.”
“No, thank you, Vasily. I just can’t.”
Looking disappointed, he turned and walked away, leaving her to stare after him.
Unnerved, she stepped into her room and locked the door. The remaining Xanax were there, too, still in their blister pack. But she didn’t take one. If something happened tonight, she wanted to be alert, not drugged and out of it.
Nothing is going to happen tonight.
She crawled into bed, turned off her light, and stared at the ceiling, but sleep wouldn’t come, random images chasing each other through her mind. Malik and Lev pinning down a furious Lance. The reflection of Thor sliding in and out of her. Vasily holding the switchblade. Patty’s body lying on the bed in the