Sexy/Dangerous Read Free Page B

about them?”
    “Do you always take your pets on a job?”
    “They’re not pets. They’re part of my team.”
    “Oh, really?” he drawled, sounding unimpressed.
    “Yes, and their security clearance is probably higher than yours, Doc.” Max didn’t see any beakers or any other nerd gear she imagined scientist types would have around, so she asked, “Where do you do your real work?”
    That seemed to throw him for a moment, and it made her wonder if he’d thought her not smart enough to know this wasn’t his lab.
    He finally answered, “Through there.” He used his head to indicate the small door at the back of the room. “But it doesn’t matter because you won’t be staying.”
    She casually folded her arms and gave him a cool smile. “Oh really?”
    “Really.”
    Max knew from the file that he’d be a good-looking man, but it hadn’t prepared her for his arrogance. “They’re not going to replace me.”
    “Yeah right.” He pulled out his cell phone.
    Max shook her head at his obstinance and took a seat. Removing her Stetson, she finger-combed her short hair. While he waited for the call to go through, she went back to sizing him up. He was built. No Poindexter here. The way his razor-cut moustache flowed around the sexy mouth and down into the jaw-hugging beard gave him a dangerous outlaw sort of look. Had she met him at a club, she would have been subtly and sinuously all over him—until she realized he was a jerk. He looked tired, though. There were dark circles under his brown eyes and weariness in his face. Whatever he was working on must be kicking his butt, she decided, and she wondered when he’d last had a full night’s sleep. Probably the last time she’d had one, she noted as she yawned and stretched. She’d gone from Osaka to L.A. to Texas and here to Michigan in what seemed like a day. Tired didn’t begin to describe how she felt, but the fatigue took second place to knowing Mr. Wizard was going to have to eat his lab coat when he learned that she wasn’t going anywhere.
    Holding the phone to his ear, Adam waited for Myk Chandler to pick up. Adam was convinced he’d have no trouble getting rid of the woman watching him so silently from behind her shades. All he had to do was say the word and her butt would be outta here.
    Wrong.
    “What do you mean, you won’t replace her?” hesnapped into the phone. He watched her remove her sunglasses to reveal amused green eyes set in a face fine enough to stop a man in his tracks. Adam blinked. He turned away and forced himself to pay attention to what Myk was saying on the other end.
    “The Department of Defense approved her, so she stays.”
    “And I have no say?”
    “She’s a former Marine. She worked Homicide here in Detroit. She cut her security teeth in the Colombian jungles.”
    “I don’t care about her credentials,” he said evenly, “I want her and the damn dogs gone.”
    “Adam,” Myk said reasonably, “she’s there for security, that’s all. Let the lady do her job so that you can do yours. Okay?”
    For a second or so Adam was too angry to answer, but finally said, “Yeah.”
    “Good,” Myk replied, sounding weary. “Now, anything else?”
    “No.”
    “Talk to you later, then.”
    “Later.” Adam closed the phone and studied the woman seated across the room. This is a disaster waiting to happen, he told himself. A disaster. Determined not to be distracted by how good she looked, and not caring if she heard the annoyance in his voice, he said, “Kaitlin can show you where you’ll sleep. I have work to do.”
    Adam then walked to the door of his lab and without another word closed himself in.
    Max sat in the silence wondering how much jail time she’d get for cutting off the nose of a top-secretgovernment scientist. His attitude toward her didn’t really matter; she’d worked for bigger jerks. She just wished this one weren’t so seriously fine. Sighing at the injustice of it all, she stood up and