Faking It Read Free Page B

Miller isn’t interested in my college mistakes.” Derek gave Aaron a hard look, then glanced at his watch. “I thought you had a flight to catch.”
    Stephanie looked at Aaron. “You’re leaving? You just got back.”
    “National security never sleeps. I, on the other hand, have been told I snore on international flights.” Aaron nudged his sister’s arm. “It just came up today. I’m shipping out in a few hours, but I didn’t want to miss our date.”
    “It’s chicken tenders on my lunch break, not a posh night on the town.”
    “Speaking of posh nights…”
    Here it came. Derek closed his eyes and braced himself.
    “Listen, Derek, I’m sorry to skip out on you, but since you’re in town maybe Stephanie can fill in and show you around.”
    Aaron wasn’t even trying to be subtle, was he?
    When Derek opened his eyes, Stephanie was staring down into her drink, her laughter gone. She really was lovely when she blushed, that pale skin lighting up with a luminous underglow. Aaron had put them both on the spot, and she was clearly mortified and waiting for him to make up some sort of excuse.
    At the moment, with her dark lashes lowered so demurely and her lower lip creeping between her teeth, he couldn’t really think of one.
    “I’d be delighted,” he said. “If it’s not too much of an imposition.”
    “What?” Stephanie choked on her drink, then snapped up a napkin and dabbed at her lips. “Um. Right. No, not an imposition. I mean, I suck at being a tour guide, but I can try. There’s…um…stuff. In Miami.”
    Derek fought back a smile. Barely. “Stuff. Sounds like a fascinating experience.”
    Stephanie stuck her tongue out at him, and he shook his head with barely repressed amusement. She grumbled, snagged her brother’s suit coat, and slid to her feet. “A word, if you don’t mind, brother dearest?”
    As he watched her drag Aaron away, Derek lingered on the sway of her hips.
    Charming little brat. Distracting, in a rather baffling way. He wondered what Aaron was up to, maneuvering them into spending time together. It didn’t seem like a date; that wasn’t really Derek’s style, and Aaron would know that. He must have something else planned, but as Derek’s gaze roved the length of Stephanie’s body, he found he didn’t mind.
    He was in Miami for business, but he might have to take a little time out for pleasure after all.
    …
    “I’m going to kill you,” Stephanie said, and dragged her brother to a halt near the salad bar.
    Aaron just smiled. “I have to work. You try telling the Chief of Staff no. Not my fault.”
    “Bull. You love playing chess-master, and you’re doing it right now. Some kind of knight takes queen endgame or something—”
    “Do you even know how to play chess?”
    “Not the point!” She threw her hands up. Why did her brothers always have to meddle? “You are not dumping your desperate, lonely friend off on me.”
    “Does he look desperate or lonely?” Aaron sighed. “Seriously, Steph, just show him some of the tourist spots, give him a few brochures, maybe take him out to a club or two. He’s here on business. He won’t be in your hair the whole time. I’m just asking you to do me a favor. That’s all.”
    She eyed him. She didn’t trust him one bit. “That’s all?”
    “Promise.”
    “I’d believe you more if I didn’t know you could cheat a lie detector test drunk.”
    “All part of field training.”
    “For all this classified information, you like to brag a lot.”
    “Half of it’s lies anyway.” He looked over his shoulder with a lopsided smile. “He’s watching you.”
    Stephanie’s stomach dropped out. She peeked past Aaron and immediately met Derek’s eyes, scintillating and dark and hot under sharply defined black brows. Damn it. Why did she feel like the one who’d been caught staring? The tips of her ears burned, and she jerked back, shifting until her brother was a shield between herself and those intense blue