Barefoot With a Stranger (Barefoot Bay Undercover Book 2) Read Free Page A

apron.” And nothing else.
    She pointed to him, giving a throaty laugh. “You’re good, you know that?”
    And so was she. Because, damn, this was some real electricity, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d be fried. He leaned back and assessed her, wondering what they gave her as a backstory. “So who was this bonehead who made you feel like you weren’t pretty? I might have to make him eat my fist.”
    “Wow. You really do take this knight-in-shining-armor thing seriously. His name was Matt.”
    “Like in ‘door’?”
    She gave a genuine laugh, tilting her head back with gusto. “Exactly. He was my boyfriend for the past year. And two months. And ten days.” She gave a self-deprecating eye roll. “Oh, I’m pathetic, right?”
    He scanned her face for a tell, but couldn’t find one. No color rising, no averted glance, and her hand was utterly still under his. Okay, he’d jumped the gun assuming she was a rookie.
    “He’s the one who’s pathetic,” he said, dying to hear the tale she’d spin. There might even be some truth in it, as he recalled from his training. “What happened?”
    She took a drink and squinted back across the concourse at their gate, then lowered her glasses back to her nose as if they weren’t a disguise at all and she really was nearsighted. “Oh crap. We have trouble.”
    He followed her gaze, wondering if her buddy had blown their cover. But as he watched the flock of people milling about and caught a glimpse of the departure board, he knew exactly what trouble they had.
    “The flight’s canceled,” she said, standing up. “Son of a…”
    He threw money on the table and grabbed his bag, following her out to the gate. “Come on, let’s go see what the deal is.”
    Except he knew the deal. They’d canceled the flight to give this woman time to worm her way into his head. Yes, damn it, they had that much power.
    “There are no more flights tonight,” a man informed them, sounding disgusted as he walked by.
    “I have to find an airport hotel,” another woman said into her phone. “I am not sleeping in the terminal.”
    Chessie looked up at him, her eyes wide, as if this news actually surprised her.
    He put his hand on her shoulder. “A hotel might be a good idea, Francesca.”
    He felt her shudder under his touch. A shudder that felt damn real, and damn…interested.
    Just how far would this talented little spy take her mission tonight?

Chapter Two

    There was a low-grade panic humming through the tight squeeze of humanity packed into the Marriott hotel’s airport shuttle. Or maybe that was just Chessie’s fried nerve endings vibrating with a bad case of now what?
    As if she didn’t know what .
    The other dozen or so stranded travelers were griping about inconvenience, worried about room availability, questioning where they’d get a toothbrush or clean underwear. Chessie, with nothing but a handbag, laptop, wallet, cell phone, and an e-reader, was in the same boat.
    But she could handle the possibility of wearing the same clothes for twenty-four hours. Her tension was caused by a whole different unexpected problem—namely, taking off those clothes with a perfect stranger.
    Damn near perfect, and getting to be less of a stranger with each passing minute. Right this second, he was the intense, sexy, attentive, and oh so ridiculously hot guy who made her laugh and whose muscles tensed against her every time the van hit a bump.
    By unspoken agreement, they’d stuck close to each other in the airport, getting information on possible solutions, the shared travel glitch intensifying, and justifying, the connection. They’d finally walked with a small group of weary travelers to the transportation area and stayed close while waiting for the shuttle to an airport hotel reported to have vacancies.
    He hadn’t texted or called anyone, she noticed, and he didn’t seem overly put out by the delay. She’d sent a text to Gabe that she’d be on the first flight to Fort Myers,