spent all of his time tapping away on a computer keyboard. The work Antony did for Dex wasn’t just about tech, Jacob would bet on it.
“I don’t want Antony’s cover blown.” Grim. Hard. “He may lose focus because of your cousin. Forget what’s important. If his cover is wrecked, then he is no good to me. Step in when necessary. Make sure he doesn’t go too far beyond the edge.”
“So I’m the dude’s babysitter? Fun.” Not.
“You’re the man who will make sure that Antony doesn’t go off the rails. That he doesn’t forget he has an image to maintain to the world.” A pause. “You’re the man who is going to make sure he doesn’t throw everything he has away because he loses his control.”
“Why would he lose his control?” But Jacob had a sinking suspicion, and she was five-foot-four, with strawberry blonde hair.
“Why, indeed…?” Dex asked. “Don’t worry. Something tells me that you’ll figure it out.”
Yeah. I already have.
Chapter Fourteen
“You want to talk about it?” Antony asked as his hands slid around the edge of the steering wheel. He tapped out a quick rhythm with his fingertips.
Ella exhaled. “You mean do I want to talk about the statistical improbability of having two men I care about lie to me—wait, specifically lie to me about being a spy? Do I want to talk about how utterly insane and impossible that should be?”
He shot her a quick glance. “Did you just admit you care about me?”
Her head whipped away from him. “You’re missing the big picture, Antony.”
“I think I’m focused one hundred and ten percent on the picture that matters to me.”
She swallowed. Buildings were passing her in a blur as he drove. “You already know I care. No need for the false surprise.”
“I thought I’d burned that bridge.”
Her head turned slowly toward him. Tension seemed to roll from his body as he sat stiffly in the driver’s seat. His fingers had stopped their quick tapping on the wheel.
“If I didn’t care,” Ella noted softly, “do you think I’d be here? Do you think I would’ve had sex with you last night?” Just what exactly did he believe she’d been doing?
“I’ve never been able to figure you out.” Low. Gritted. “I try. I’m really pretty good at figuring out most puzzles. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. Give me a problem, and I’ll solve it in record time.” His gaze cut to her before dipping back to the road. “But I can’t figure you out. I can’t solve you.”
“I’m not the one with secrets.” But, apparently, there were lots of secrets swirling around her. Secrets she’d missed. “I feel like a fool. Bet you don’t ever feel that way, do you? Not you and that big, genius IQ of yours. You do not know what it’s like to feel like—”
He’d stopped the SUV. They were at a red light, and his hot gaze was back on her. “You should never feel like a fool.”
But she did feel that way. “I didn’t know about you. Didn’t know about Jacob. What’s going to happen next? Am I gonna find out that my mom has been secretly working undercover for years?” She rubbed her forehead. “Everything that I thought I knew is getting ripped apart. The people I thought I knew—”
The light changed. They didn’t move.
The car behind them honked.
“You’re supposed to go forward,” she whispered. “You’re making the people behind us become impatient.”
“That’s just your cousin being an asshole and honking. He can wait. You’re more important.” His stare was so hot that Ella was surprised her skin wasn’t burning. “In case you don’t fully understand, you are the most important. The most important person in my world. The one I will do anything to protect.”
Her heart rate sped up.
“You think I’ve never felt like a fool? I assure you, Ella, I have.”
Another honk. Antony lowered his window and shoved his hand—and one raised finger—out of the window.
Then Antony kept right on talking as he revealed, “I felt like a fool any time that I thought I might have a chance with you. I thought I was a fool to dream of being with you. To want you as much as I did. Because I knew—I knew you would hate the lies, but I was caught up in them before I met you. I couldn’t stop. Not then. Hell, not even after I met you. For reasons I can’t tell you because those reasons aren’t just my own. And I’m sorry.